The Laptop Buying Guide For 2009

If you have tried to buy a laptop recently I am sure you know how difficult it is these days to choose the right one. There are dozens of popular brands to choose from. And to make matters worse pretty much every manufacturer now offers plenty of different setups.

So what do you choose? The best looking one? The fastest? The most durable? … Which one?

Laptop Buying Guide 2009

To make it a bit easier MakeUseOf teamed up with Laptopical.com to give you a Laptop Buying Guide for 2009. It’s a quick 20 page guide with an abundance of screenshots and links to video reviews. This guide is intended to help buyers make an informed choice regardless of previous computer knowledge.

 

The buying guide includes everything from an overview of key laptop performance indicators to most popular laptops in early 2009.

Part 2: Introduction: Essential Parts & Choosing The Right Size
Part 3: Most Popular Laptops [Early 2009]

Tagged: • • • •

Aibek Esengulov

The guy behind MakeUseOf.com. Follow him and MakeUseOf on Twitter @MakeUseOf. For more details check out MakeUseOf about page.

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  • Callum

    1. Ask if the hardware has Linux drivers.
    2. If answer is yes, buy laptop. Otherwise go to step 1.
    3. If reality is no, return laptop, with the hard drive separated into 1000 partitions each of which is a few megabytes in size. State you were lied to and go to step 1, choosing a different laptop.
    4. ???
    5. Profit!

    • Christopher Poole

      Callum is a pretty cool guy. Eh partitions hard drives and doesn’t afraid of anything.

  • Louie

    How could you not incude ACER in the guide. I recently got an ACER 5920g laptop and is one of the best value laptops you can buy:
    Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz
    4GB RAM DDR2
    1536MB ATI Mobility Radeon (HD 3470)
    250GB Hard Drive
    Blu-Ray Drive, DVD burner
    HDMI

    • philhuber

      Thanks Louie, as I was reading down their list I was looking for ACER also. I bought ACER’s (aspire5515) at good old wallys for $259.00 and have continuously been thrilled with it. Its low cost has made me a lot freer with handling. It’s been dropped a couple of times and generally neglected. I have yet to have any problems. It gets frequently packed in my camping gear, fishing, hunting, etc. When I wanted to buy another I got best buys to match 259 price even though same model number included a web cam mine didnt have. This Aspire has 2 gigs of ram, I think only about 60 or 70 gigs of hard drive. An AMD 64 processor. My friend is still thrilling over that second one I bought her. The OS is of course Vista but only their ‘home basic’ version. No problems at all and both computers are in use about at least 6 to 10 hours on the internet every day.

    • Carlos

      Mine’s bigger ‘n yours, LoL -> Aspire 8920G

  • Louie

    Oh yeah and I forgot to say that it was only £500. And DELL are the only company that can match ACERs build quality!

    • Simon Slangen

      Acer isn’t exactly famed for its build quality (the prices are kept low during production, not distribution), especially compared to Asus or Lenovo.

    • Womble

      I always thought Dell Lappies were quite good.

      • Roy

        I’m on my second Dell laptop (Inspiron 1525, running an OS that shall remain nameless, though its codename is inspired by a large cat that runs very fast…)

        Both of them have been solid and problem-free. The first one is still running strong and working like new, even though it’s now about 7 years old!

      • http://www.shopcorn.in Shefali Roy

        Dear Womble, u are right, Dell laptops are always good in use and

    • sergiu

      Acers isnt rly good with build quality. the best laptops regarding build quality are Vaio’s and Alien Ware

  • http://www.finestlaptops.com Grry

    Good information. I couldn’t be happier with my Acer laptop which is now 3 years old. Good price, durable, and reliable.

  • Michael

    I have been using my Toshiba Satellite for some time now and I’ve had nothing but problems with it. I cant seem to figure out why my usb ports went out it in about 6 months ago and them the speakers went out mysteriously, started making some loud crackling noise. these things are pretty much junk for the price and you can definately find better out there

  • Dels

    Is the pdf ready for download? I really love the pdf guide for build pc and idiot to photoshop. hope this will finished soon :D

  • deon cute

    i suggest u all buy a compaq lappy.it is good and powerfull.it is never ending products..:P

  • http://tv-dvd.net/lenovo-notebook/ doomble

    i want lenovo laptops because have good models

  • http://kuzmin.ca/blog Michael Kuzmin

    this guide is an attempt to fit a whole universe into a couple of sentences. about battery life on small laptops you’re totally wrong. i’ve got Asus W7J, a brilliant small business-class laptop. very expensive (i bought it a couple of years ago for $2’000). battery life is very poor. and the same goes for many other laptops. why would a small laptop consume less power if it’s just as powerful or much more powerful than 15′ and 17′ ones.

    regarding some comments here:why acer is bad? cause it’s low-budget low-quality stuff. period.

    and finally, PC vs Mac. yes, hardware is compatible. so you can run Man OS X on PC almost just as easily as doing it the other way around. and what OS to chose is a completely different issue.

    2Callum, oh my god, linux is the best OS ever, we get it. jeez, you’re such a show-off))

  • Carlos

    Those are all mere toys…ACER Aspire 8920 at a minimum! I get over two hours surfing time running uBuntu Studio. Who cares if it weighs in at over 4kg – you pack it into a rucksack.

    :o )

  • http://www.4insure.net 4insure

    I recommend Asus + Acer… Taiwanese companies. I couldn’t be happier with my Asus laptop which is now 3 years old. Good price, durable, and reliable.

  • Chris

    @Michael Kuzmin
    In regards to battery life, smaller screens means less to display, means less calculations done means longer battery life. Yes, more powerful and you lose that gain, but same power and you _should_ see an increase in battery life, same specs with different screens.

    Yes, hardware is compatible BUT. Mac OSX includes a few security measures in it to make sure it can only be installed on Macs. Also, EULA says they can (and this is Apple, will) sue you for it. It’s illegal to install Mac OS of any kind on any platform other than Apple hardware.

    I just can’t wait till Apple are big business with a market share like MSFT. The amount of potential law suits will make for some fun reading. =P

    Also, Linux is an UMBRELLA TERM FOR OS’S BUILT USING THE LINUX KERNEL. Really.. How many of you are going to misuse that term? It’s pathetic.. There is no Linux OS. There are Linux OS’s. So “Linux is the best kernel ever” would be an acceptable, if flame worthy, statement. But “Linux is the best OS ever” is just wrong.

    Back on topic, Acer are actually pretty good. I had a laptop by them, worked fine, had OSS compatible hardware inc wifi which was extremely good. If you want a powerful computer, then can’t go wrong with a HP. If you want a fashion statement, then Apple. Although.. A quote I saw once..

    “If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that “says something” about your personality, don’t bother. You don’t have a personality. A mental illness, maybe – but not a personality.” – Charlie Brooker

    Same goes for laptops. =P

  • Tsu

    I bought an HP dv5, and so far the monitor’s flickering, it gets so hot I can use it as a hot-compress, and lags when editing images. Tsk.

    It’s barely one year old. Should have gotten a Dell or an Acer.

  • ravi

    Looking for some recommendations. I live at school and I need to take my laptop home on the weekends and take it occasionally to class. I don’t mind it being a little heavy, but I don’t want to lug around a desktop either.

    I download a lot of music, some programs/games, do a lot of web browsing (videos, sometimes games, etc.). I need a reliable computer that will last 4+ yrs. My budget is around $5-600. I don’t need a fancy graphics card.

    Any suggestions? I was thinking about ACER. My g/f bought one for $489 w/ a lot of free stuff. It’s an Aspire 6530.

    Acer seems pretty good, but I don’t know anything bout comps.

    Can you recommend some specific models? Thanks.

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      I’d recommend going with Acer or Asus, thse two can give you pretty goood deals for your budget.

    • http://www.finestlaptops.com $200 Laptops

      I don’t think you can go wrong with Acer. I have an aging Acer aspire 3610 and it has served me well. For my next purchase I will look at a refurbished laptop. There are great buys on refurbished laptops that are less than a year old and many of which are still new or open box returns with excellent warranties. You can buy a lot for under $500.

  • John

    Wow I am very surprised that Toshiba was not even mentioned. I work in a computer repair shop and we recommend Toshiba laptops to all of our business clients. We have had few issues.

  • http://www.pinnaclelists.com Grant

    Wow! Lots of great comments. I think it is the luck of the draw…kind of like avoiding a car that was built on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon……I have been using Toshibas for over 5 years now, and have had mixed experiences with them. My DVD/CD burner doesn’t burn anymore. That is probably the main hardware issue. My son’s hand me down’s fan doesn’t want to mellow out. I think that is a BIOS issue. I have used DELL in the past, and they are good products. I have heard good things about ACER and HP too. Lots of choice out there………

  • http://www.mgingerhack.blogspot.com satyendra

    well i m using Hp laptop and its really good..i may buy lenovo or vaio..the next time..

  • http://trickpedia.com Sid

    when is the 2010 version coming ?