Jack, you can't be cheap when it comes to computers. I wouldn't recommend ASUS at all. The brand makes unreliable computers and customer service is abysmal. I see a lot of college kids using them..
Anyways, save up some money and get a laptop that will last 5+ years.
EDIT: Why don't you get a keyboard for you IPad? Actually, why did you get an IPad anyways?
Where'd you get this opinion of from ASUS? They've been in the PC business a really, really long time. They've got a lot of low-cost offerings these days, that's for sure, but they hold one of the highest reputations for enthusiast grade desktop motherboards. It's like any other company that has a wide breadth of products... there's going to be the gems, and there's going to be the crappy products. This applies to the Dell/HP/etc lines as well. 5+ years is a LONG time in tech. I'm not saying it's unreasonable to want/expect 5+ years, though. Clinging to a laptop for 5+ years when the cheap/crappy models will be faster than a nicer than a 5 year old machine in 3.5 years is kind of a silly mentality. Especially when total cost of 2 low end machines is less than the single 5+ year purchase. Different story when we're talking about build quality and the semi-intangibles, obviously. Nothing wrong with an iPad, they're excellent consumption devices. If you try to force your current usage model onto a device that is not designed to do what you're doing right now, you're going to have a bad time. There are benefits/drawbacks to either side, of course.
(As a real-world example, the Intel Celeron processors are actually insanely awesome bang/buck. Since Sandy Bridge, Celerons have been much, much faster than 95%+ consumers could utilize. Look at benchmarks if you don't believe me. The cheapo laptops are no joke these days. MANY come with 4+ GB RAM, and several hundred GB hard drives are extremely inexpensive. Build quality issues aside, upgrade the HDD to an SSD for $~80 and you've got a pretty mean machine that can handle quite a workload.)
Wait, you buy a computer with no software and hardware warranty? That is not wise. Honestly, buying a computer is an investment. I spent around $950 for my computer because black-lit keyboards are a must. It was the cheapest one as well. Also, I would not purchase any warranties from Best Buy. The folks there are freaking sales hounds. Seriously, a sales rep spent 10 minutes trying to persuade me to buy an expensive PC warranty when I didn't have enough money for it. I told him that I didn't have the moolah, but he still kept talking! I recommend getting the software and hardware warranties from Amazon. They are better and less expensive than BB's.
When I purchased my first laptop in October, Windows 8 was already installed. I hated the software, but I got used to it. I don't use any of the apps except for the scientific calculator. Now, I have Windows 8.1. I barely notice the difference.
Every time I go to a coffee shop, almost everyone is using a Mac.. Interesting..
Warranties are generally a bad thing to buy additional to the purchase of your machine and the built in manufacturer's warranty. This is assuming you don't get additional support. There are people and situations where a warranty or service plan are useful (non tech savvy folks for sure). You can get a warranty extension from buying machines on certain credit cards (Amex extends mfgr warranty +1 year, for instance). I won't get into a credit debate, as it's beyond the scope of this thread, though.
Well, you get what you paid for.
Yeah, spending three to five times more money is a better approach.
Isn't this what you're arguing FOR when talking about a $950 model vs a $300 model or a tablet? Where do you draw the line? It's arbitrary and subjective, is it not? Is there a magical cost/benefit ratio that everyone is supposed to be born knowing? I feel like there's a double standard, here...
Ok I think I'm going to get an Acer Aspire V5 11.6" but have a ciuiple questions.....
Should I get the windows 7 model for $300 or the Win 8 model with touchscreen capabilities for $350?
Is Windows 8 as bad as everyone is saying?
While you already made your decision (and IMHO you made the wrong one), WIN8 is actually pretty awesome, BUT it requires a touch screen to really appreciate the design decisions. Microsoft (and for full disclosure, I'm biased when we're talking about Microsoft
) made some UI mistakes. WIN8 is actually an excellent OS, but things are so different, and navigating is not intuitive, so it's hard to see why and how things are working right. I think people are too rooted in their "old ways" in windows that they just aren't ready to embrace change. I understand both sides of the coin, here. There's a point in life where it's just not worth trying to keep up, and Microsoft didn't do a good job in communicating how to work with WIN8.
If you like WIN7, get an inexpensive (or free) add-on/tool to give you back your original start menu and boot to desktop. WIN8 has significant improvements over WIN7 that will benefit everyone who cares about boot speed. This is especially true if you have an SSD.
As far as WIN8 being as bad as everyone is saying --> It depends. It really depends on how you work with your computer. If you have a touch screen, the UI becomes a non issue IMHO, and if you can learn a few tricks, it's actually pretty awesome for the most part. There are SOME design choices that I really hate, though. (For instance, shutting down prior to win 8.1 took 4 actions). Think about why WIN8 exists for a few minutes before turning a WIN8 PC on, and I think you have a better frame of reference for the entire system. It's splitting the gap between traditional desktop/laptops and tablets, and it does an OK job of both, but not a great job of either.
Well if I had my mind made up, I wouldn't be posting here looking for ideas, now would I?
Actually PP had a great suggestion about the Chromebook. I really don't need a full blown laptop w/ Windows. I just inititally thought I didn't want to be limited to the Chrome OS, but after I thought more about it, it made a lot of sense.
I actually really like it so far, except the keyboard keys need a pretty hard press for typing. If I can't get used to it, back to the store it goes!
Sounds like you'd actually love a Surface RT or similar device. It is more inline with a traditional tablet, but has a keyboard and a "real" office suite. If you have no connectivity, how useful is your chromebook? I won't get started on Windows RT, as I think it was another miss for Microsoft, but for the price ($179 refurb on ****), the Surface RT has great battery life, and is extremely productive (as compared to an iPad). There's no comparison when it comes to app libraries, though. Devs build apps for iOS/Android first. So if you need the latest/hottest games, you'll want to avoid the Windows environment for now (assuming we're talking about a consumption device). The Win RT should be considered a productivity device, so it's kind of in this weird limbo from a market positioning perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYf5MWyTn8
Check this video out, and before anyone freaks out at me -- compare apples to apples, please. Surface 2 is better, but it gets out of budget pretty quickly.
Edit: I'd like to add to my WIN8 comments...
It's a crappy OS for mouse/keyboard (only) usage. It's just inefficient and slightly annoying having to navigate things. It gets way easier with keyboard shortcuts, but I wouldn't expect most people to remember/memorize these shortcuts. In WIN8.1, Win+X = a treasure trove of power user "frequently used" items. Win+I = charms/settings. Win+D = desktop view (minimize everything, hit it again, it brings it all back up). Windows management = win + Left or Right cursor keys. Snap windows left and right quickly, multitask efficiently. You can do this in Metro/snap, but I won't bother with any metro apps until you can window them and/or until the app store gets really useful. To be fair, the big names are all available as metro apps, but I prefer tabbed browser experience over metro. It's too flat.
Here's the one that seems to bother EVERYONE though. Start menu used to be Start -> Programs -> FolderofProgram-> Program. Simple, right? NO. This is inefficient and awful. Since VISTA <---- you could hit the windows key to bring up your start menu and then simply type the program you want. Lets say you wanted Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer, or Firefox. You can simply hit: Start -> "browser name" -> Enter. This still holds true to the metro start pane. Just hit windows, type the app you want (don't even have to look at the screen), and hit enter. I'm a bit of a keyboard shortcut snob, though. Anything that requires me to move my hands from the keyboard is inefficient. The mouse is SLOW. Touch can be quick.
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57390299-285/23-new-keyboard-shortcuts-for-windows-8/
