Buying a PC? Laptop likely to be the best choice

If there’s a recent grad in your house or you’re one of the many buyers who think they can get a better deal at mid-year than during the holidays, changes are good that you’re looking for a computer. If you’re a student, the advantages of a laptop are obvious. Being relatively young and strong, you probably don’t think twice about toting one around campus to take notes in class or study in the library. And it can easily travel home with you on vacation. On the whole, when the average price of a computer is now in US$600 to US$700. At the highest, and least portable end, are desktop replacement machines. They can do everything a desktop computer can do. Most of these computers have 17-inch, wide screen liquid crystal displays. At the low end, these machines may have older versions of Intel or AMD processors that use a lot more power than newer machines. So their battery life is likely to be few hour at best. The sweet spot for most laptop customers is still the all-purpose machine. Most weight five to seven pounds and have brilliant 15.4-inch displays. This year’s option-turned-must-have-accessory is a built-in web cam. Students love these for posting videos on You Tube, My Space and Face-book, as well as for making videophone calls or chatting with their friends. These are relatively inexpensive gadgets (less than US$100) and well worth the time it takes to set up. For real travelers (or laptop-toting students) who value portability and battery life over everything else, consider the road warrior. These as little as three pounds and have screens in the 12-to-14-inch range. Their keyboards may be slightly less than full-sized, which can be a real pain if you or your student does a lot of writing. So try one this size before you buy it.