Best laptop for Realtor use?

Patty

If you are just taking it to and from work, then don't worry about the weight. Get as much RAM, a CD or DVD burner, wireless and as big a hard drive as you can afford. The rest will take care of it'self.

I just bought a new one Patty.  I have always been a Dell or Gateway user, but I wanted a laptop without the new Vista operating system.  Dell is only using Vista now, and Gateway only has limited models without it.  After extensive research, I ended up with a Lenovo Thinkpad.  (formerly IBM)  It is a perfect size, lightweight, but with a 14" widescreen, has a large hard drive, plenty of memory and has the operating system I wanted.  And I only paid about $1000 for it.  It did not come with the Office suite, but I had a copy of Office 2003 that came with my desktop and the license allows you to install it on your laptop too.  I did upgrade the Outlook part of it, but I didn't want Office 2007 either, as I didn't want the learning curve.  Outlook 2007 doesn't mind as much as Outlook 2003 if you have a lot of emails.  Look at the Lenovo before you make your decision!

Patty

Contrary to what Joanne says, Dell will still give you a choice of Vista or XP on their Vostro line which you can find in the small and medium business section of dell.com

Patty, I would agree with Terry about Dell,  however, I would go with a Latitude D531 one of our team members just got a new one with a 15.4" screen and it is awesome.  Very nice size screen, good preformance, not excessively heavy.  I would get at least 4gb of RAM, Windows XP Professional, 250 gb hard drive, cd/dvd burner, wireless card.  I would also get the D-port advanced port replicator.  I you are going to carry it back and forth it is great to only have to snap it onto a docking station and not screw around with all of the cables.  In addition, I would get an additional power supply.  That way you will have 1 with the docking station, 1 to carry with you and 1 you can just leave ready to go at home next to your favorite computer spot and not have to pack and unpack the cords every night.  Hope this helps a little bit.

 Brian Bartley

I could talk for 16 straight hours about how a laptop is a laptop is a laptop, and specifically how you need to concern yourself primarily not with WHO makes it, but with 2 specific things, both which are extremely important regardless of what you buy.  And it's quite sad how many people fail to keep these considerations in mind:

1. Warranty - Know your warranty.  Know it covers manufacturers defects ONLY.  Any physical damage, spills, etc...no coverage.  When someone approaches me saying they just got a new laptop, my first question is when does your warranty expire?  I cannot even begin to tell you how many people have no clue.  If you ever need a repair, it will be the single most important thing you will ever WISH you knew.

2. Insurance Coverage / Accidental Damage Coverage - Without a doubt the single biggest thing a laptop user fails to consider.  Remember, any such damage, spill, theft, fire, flood, etc....manufacturer warranty coverage will usually not cover it AT ALL.  Take a wild guess how much a cracked LCD screen will cost you to repair....oh, how about $900.  If you have protection, maybe 50 to 150 bucks?  When buying the laptop, see if the laptop comes with a protection plan, an option for such a plan, something.  Check your home insurance too, sometimes there is a ryder...rider? whatever it's called, just check!

It kills me when people go out and buy $399 laptops and get a 90 day warranty and no insurance.   Maybe you'll get lucky, maybe you will not.  Me?  I'm not taking any chances.

Thanks for the question.  I wanted to know as well.  I recently purchased one that was inexpensive and it is slower than molasses. 

I agree with Nick about the warranty.  Sorry I forgot that above, we always get a 3-4 year warranty + 3-4 year accidential damage coverage on all of our laptops.  In addition we have been getting lo-jack for all of the laptops, started doing that after we had one stolen.  Haven't had one stolen since then so I guess it was a good investment (LOL).  Warranty coverage & accidential damage coverages are incredibly important.  It is way to easy to spill a cup of coffee or a coke into the machine.  My final recommendation would be not to go cheap, it will cost you more in the end.  One last thing, I always ask people to think long and hard before they order a new laptop, if you can honestly tell yourself that you will haul that computer with you almost every day (my current laptop is 2 1/2 years old and I've only left it at the office for 3 nights) then by all means go for a laptop, but in your heart-of-hearts you know that you aren't going to take it with you, then purchase a desktop machine.  You can get so much more bang for the buck with a desktop machine + a 19-21" wide screen flat panel monitor, wireless keyboard & mouse, etc,  Have fun with the purchase.