How not to buy a computer

Wappingers Falls, NY — One of the more exciting purchases for a college freshman is the laptop that will hopefully last at least four years. I bought a Toshiba Satellite in 2005 with my dad, and all it took to convince me was that it was a Satellite (reliable?) and that it was a lovely teal color. It did in fact serve me for four years and then some. The only issues I faced were the result of dropping it a few times, inadvertently of course.  So when somebody (my brother, won’t admit it but I know him too well) dropped it in May, the screen cracked and my teal Toshiba gave up. Thus began my search for the post-college laptop.

I don’t do any heavy duty downloading or media manipulation. I have an inexplicable aversion to Macs, even though I am forced to use them in the office every day.  I figured I just needed a basic machine that wouldn’t be a pain to carry around every now and then, but not quite a netbook. So I began by visiting Best Buy stores.

Pinker than pink

I really didn’t like anything in there, so I looked at some online options. The first one to catch my eye was a lovely baby pink Toshiba Satellite with everything I wanted–a decent processor and more than 512MB in memory. I bought it right then and there. When it came in the mail, it was pinker than Barbie and “Legally Blonde” combined. I just couldn’t picture myself in grad school or a conference room one day, pulling out what looked like a play computer for 5-year-old girls. I returned it and ended up losing 15 percent of what I paid because I opened the computer. Oops.

The next computer to catch my eye was another Toshiba. It had a 13.3 inch screen, was eco-friendly and really thin. The really thin part should have tipped me off. I had two people look at it online before I bought it and no one realized that not having an optical drive means not having a disc drive. I only realized this too late. Luckily, this time I didn’t open the laptop when it arrived in the mail. I like to watch movies and have the option to burn CDs, even though I’ve never done that before.

So, I returned it to Best Buy.

Finally, I gave up on Best Buy and turned to the J&R superstore in downtown Manhattan. The whole time I had been laptop shopping, people had been recommending Lenovo ThinkPads. I personally think they need to make them more aesthetically appealing but at that point, I figured, what do I know?

I found a really great-sounding ThinkPad Edge that came in glossy black instead of the old-school matte black. I told myself that this was the one, no more foolishness. Good speed, good memory, lightweight – what could I complain about? Well, two weeks later (return period = two weeks) the thing is slower than my 5-year-old Toshiba and I’ve already run out of disk space. Oh, and it overheats like Hell’s opened up.

I have two options for when this laptop inevitably crashes: 1) wear glasses that make me color blind while I’m shopping with a list of only specs that I need or 2) join the Macbook cult.

- chocolateandfruit