As you know, I'm a recent mac convert. Before this I had an HP desktop. The computer did quite well for me, lasting me 5 1/2 years before I got a replacement for it. However, that's a long time ago, and I don't know how reliable their laptops are.
HP tech support is abominable. Don't ever spend money to talk to their tech support people. They don't know what they're talking about, and they barely speak English. The two are not related, non-English speakers can be very intelligent. These people are not. And they charged me like $75 to get bad advice from one of them.
I haven't heard much from Gateway for a while. So I don't really know.
If possible, try to get a computer that doesn't come with a huge amount of trial software and adware on it. Unfortunately, HP seems to do that quite a bit these days. Maybe there's an option to avoid that.
What do you want to use your laptop for? That's a key thing here. If you want to play games, that will require a more powerful laptop than just for web, email and word processing. I haven't been looking too much lately, so I'm a bit behind. I'd imagine you'd want to get 4 GB of ram, or get 2 GB ram with the ability to upgrade to 4 GB in a year or two. Things like processor speed aren't as important, but they don't hurt. Look at what the battery life would be, and, of course, take it with a grain of salt, they are trying to sell you something.
Lastly, if possible, see if you can get some kind of discount through your employer or through an educational institution or something. That's always helpful.
HP tech support is abominable. Don't ever spend money to talk to their tech support people. They don't know what they're talking about, and they barely speak English. The two are not related, non-English speakers can be very intelligent. These people are not. And they charged me like $75 to get bad advice from one of them.
I haven't heard much from Gateway for a while. So I don't really know.
If possible, try to get a computer that doesn't come with a huge amount of trial software and adware on it. Unfortunately, HP seems to do that quite a bit these days. Maybe there's an option to avoid that.
What do you want to use your laptop for? That's a key thing here. If you want to play games, that will require a more powerful laptop than just for web, email and word processing. I haven't been looking too much lately, so I'm a bit behind. I'd imagine you'd want to get 4 GB of ram, or get 2 GB ram with the ability to upgrade to 4 GB in a year or two. Things like processor speed aren't as important, but they don't hurt. Look at what the battery life would be, and, of course, take it with a grain of salt, they are trying to sell you something.
Lastly, if possible, see if you can get some kind of discount through your employer or through an educational institution or something. That's always helpful.
Good luck!
Reply
Leave a comment