Need Opinions on purchasing a laptop

Me again!

Geeze, I don't know where I'd be without my PD people, you guys have helped me make so many decisions! And guess what? I have another I need help with

I've decided to give up my back-pack battle. I'm commuting to college this year (45 min. drive one way), and decided at the beginning of the year that I'd tough it out with a backpack for as long as could.

It's been as long as it could.

I'm carrying 35 lbs. on my back up and down hills, and it's STUFFED. I normally have to get by my Tae Kwon Do gear to even get to my books, and I'm tired of it.

So! My dear PaperDemon friends, I need your help in finding a laptop. I've got an idea of what I want, but I'm not comfortable enough with what I know to buy this thing over the Internet. I know there's a lot going on with HP at the moment, but I've got an HP PC and have been pretty happy with it. I'm not sure about Mac's because I've not worked with anything other than Microsoft (wait, they make Microsoft for Mac's now, right?) Basically, I'm not discounting any brand.

What do I need? I need a laptop with good battery life (I may have to buy a better battery with whatever I get, my day's are 14 hrs. long), I need GREAT productivity ability, and would like a decent amount of memory. Being able to do art on this thing isn't going to affect my decision because this will be (almost) strictly for school. I have my PC for all the fun stuff . Oh yeah! I need wireless capabilities out the wazoo.

Please, oh, please voice your opinions, as I'm really just in the dark about what would be good. I'm too scared to move forward on a purchase, so any bias' are totally welcome! If you've had nothing but a good experience with one brand, and nothing but an awful one with another, let me know I'm taking everything into account for this

Thanks so much everyone, and I look forward to the pearls of wisdom I'm to receive!

The first thing I'd do if I were you is head over to your school's bookstore and see if they sell any laptops at an academic discount. Thats also a good place to get software.

Toshiba is a good laptop brand but they are expensive. I'd avoid Dell like the black plague. their tech support stinks. Although their online Outlet store is a good place to get really good monitors.

changed topic name

I bought a laptop recently, so I have done my homework on that subject. And I have met no laptop with a batterylife of fourteen hours.

I can recommend Acer, not too expensive but good quality. Furthermore I, indeed, would not buy a laptop from Dell if I were you. HP's a pretty good brand aswel, but the batterylifes of those laptops aren't really something. I wouldn't go for a Mac too by the way. It really isn't that much greater than Windows to my opinion, but it costs a lot more.

One thing you should never EVER do, around here at least, is buy your laptop from your school. you always end up with crap that you will have to replace within a year anyway.

But please keep in mind that I live in Europe and that perhaps things are different around here. Still, I thought I'd try to give you a hand.

Oh definitely Vtp,

I'm asking for any and all opinions, and I appreciate them greatly!

I know I'm not going to find any battery with a 14 hr. life-span, so I'm thinking my battery time shouldn't even play a part in my decision. I'll have to charge up a few times a day any way, so what does it matter? And I'm hearing from a lot of people to stay away form Dell...I think I'll heed the advice

Susie, I talked to an IT guy today about laptops and he recommended Toshiba as well; said the screen resolution was great. I looked them up and they were on the pricier end, but I've not heard anything bad about them so far.

Does anyway know anything about the Gateway, or any for that matter, tablet PC's? I've seen them before and wasn't too impressed, but I've not really worked with one before. Any ideas?