Can you give me advice on buying a laptop?

I really don't know how to shop for one but it is needed for my kids' documents for school and research. They also have presentations to do. There are 4 kids, ranging from 10 to 16 years old. Please give me a suggestion and price range, on a budget!Can you give me advice on buying a laptop?
For school any brand name laptop should be more than enough





Most of the college students I see are using HP, Vaio, and Dells Can you give me advice on buying a laptop?
First off stay away from mac's most school things do NOT work with mac's to make prestations and stuff. There very over priced as well. Id also suggest you stay away from HP,Compaq,Gateway%26amp;Acer. The laptop companys i would go with are either Dell Or Toshiba toshiba is definatly much better then dell but some time's more pricey but they make good laptops that last a long time!


there also good for music and media, and everyday work.


i personaly have a toshiba and love it!


so id go with toshiba
Get a MacBook. I love everything about it. I'm not a mother, or a female for that matter, but I think you'll find a Mac to be very user friendly.
Macs are more durable, but expensive because of their quality.


Dells are, in my opinion, very nice and cheap


I have a dell, and I really like it.


I'm 16 years old, if it helps XD.



I would imagine that you will get many different answers due to people's brand preferences and negative experiences with certain brands. I personally prefer to stay away from Dell but others love them. I initially loved hewlett packard but after recommending it to my girlfriend and having it fail twice I'm wary of their laptops in spite of the quality of their desktops.





As one of the users above me stated, Macs are much more expensive than other machines, although whether or not this is due to build quality is debatable. Also, unless the kids are going to be using it for some kind of school newspaper or video editing it's probably better to stay away from the Mac OS because relatively few programs are compatible with it compared to Windows.





On a price to performance basis, it's hard to beat Gateway laptops. I'm using a high performance gaming laptop from them that is hundreds of dollars cheaper that a similarly spec'd one from another company. The cheap price comes at a cost though; their quality control is skimpy and a seemingly high proportion of people (myself included) had to return their first laptop due to defects. Also, their customer service isn't too great. If one of your kids is a gamer (or just prefers to use a fast computer capable of anything you throw at it like me), Gateway could be a good choice if you're looking for a budget computer.





From what I've seen, one of the best all-around laptops is the Toshiba Satellite series. It's very customizable on their web site so you can choose what features you need and how much you pay for it. Alternatively, you can check the local best buy or circuit city for their retail models, which I believe are a bit cheaper than their online counterparts. It's pretty durable and I haven't heard anything negative about their customer service. The people I've seen using it are very satisfied with it. Good luck with your search!