Need laptop for college, are notebooks any use?

[KehreeDelaney]

Starting college in a few days so need to get a laptop as i live between houses and will be spending a lot of time on trains and busses so its the handiest thing for my assignments etc.
I need to get it cheap enough and have been browsing catalogues etc.

My qeustion is.. Does any body know if a notebook would be good for this? The size isnt a problem however i need things like word, internet and some memory.. would a notebook be any use for this or will i just have to fork out the extra few bob for a laptop?

 

[flingebunt]

You have a lot of choices for laptops.

Remember at college most notes are online, you need a laptop with you in class now, in the library and pretty much everywhere.

Netbooks are cheap, run linux or XP and older versions of word. They are very light and some are reliable (some are not). You won't believe how much difference it makes having a light computer (I have been travelling for fun and work with my large old heavy laptop which I bought for the processor power and big screen...before I knew i needed portability)

If you do programming, accounting or design you really benifit from a bigger screen. You can spend more on a more expensive laptop, but some of the big screen laptops are cheaper (because they are bigger all the internal components are bigger and hence cheaper).

On the other hand there are small fast laptops, usually very expensive. Some are small screen, others follow the apple model and are light and thin (and not very powerful).

A standard laptop these days is thin, light (if you get one without an internal DVD drive, even lighter) and reasonably priced.

Most have 13inch screens, which for the work I do, I find a little small, but most people buy 12-13inch screens.

If in doubt, buy a really cheap netbook (half the price of a standard laptop) and use it for a year.

Keep using it whenever you need portability (travel, weekends, etc) and also because they are cheap you won't worry about it being stolen.

Then in a years time you can get a real notebook if you want one.