That the budget pushes us out of the better models. This is like you wanting the Lexus for a Ford price.
Even the cheaps in the 300 buck range don't fall apart in months here. But I see a lot of abusive owners that blame the laptop for it's early demise when they would drop their backpack as they came in the door. Ouch.
As to metal? Metal bends and breaks. Plastic gives and at some point breaks. Metal costs more, just look at the Apple line.
In the CNET Laptop Forum we have many lists so I'd look at the current Amazon best sellers. How about this one?
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-C55-C5241-Laptop-Intel/dp/B010SBAJDS/ref=zg_bs_565108_1
WHY the DVD drive? You can add one from WaImart for 30 bucks.
Note: Edited for spelling.
Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum. So my sister is going to college and she asked me to find her a good laptop, as I'm the only tech savvy person in my family. I already know the specs and everything that I want. She won't be gaming or anything so I think something like an Intel i5 will do just fine. And she doesn't want to spend more than $600.
I've been researching laptops for the past couple days, and whenever I think that I've found the "perfect" laptop, I then find a bunch of reviews and websites saying that the build quality overall is just crap. Some laptops that I've looked at have been the Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241, Dell Inspiron laptops, HP 350, various HP Probook models, various Acer Aspire models, etc. I just don't know which brand has the best overall build quality. I keep on hearing that HP is crap, then from another place that Acer is crap, and so on. It's just been getting so frustrating. All I want is a laptop with decent specs under $600 (around an i5, at least 4gb ram), built very solid (metal preferably), dvd drive, but I can't seem to find the right one. I guess I'm just afraid that the laptop I would choose for her would fall apart in the first 6 months.
So I guess what I'm asking is what brand (or brands) in your experience have the best overall build quality? And would any of the laptops that I mentioned by ok? I'm open to any other suggestions such as buying used or refurbished or any other good laptops in that price range. Thanks a ton!

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