Laptop Question w/Specific Applications

[Oasis]

Sorry if this question has been asked a million times before. But I am looking for the most current answers.

Want to buy a laptop that will enable me to take my lousy, 2 year old Emachine desktop offline.

Also plan to get wireless internet access that will enable me to dump my existing high speed cable. Am getting a Blackberry to plug into laptop to access the internet. Every application of this I have seen seems fast enough for my needs.

Since I don't travel too much, want a 17" screen. Want as much memory as can reasonablty be bought. Want to buy all the software that is needed now, plus all future software that can be bought today at a reasonable price.

Can't quite say that "price is no object," but am willing to spend as much buck as necessary to get the best amount of bang at a relatively reasonable cost.

Thank you for your recommendations.

[JMag]

I'd go with an Apple MacBook Pro loaded out and get either BootCamp or Parallels to run Windows apps, if needed.

:thumbsup:

[AverageJoe]

Try Toshiba or a Sony Vaio. For what you are describing a mac will leave you the feeling of lackluster.

[diverge]

Go to BestBuy or equivalent and play with their laptops. Look for a machine that you find visually appealing. Open up a text editor and type a lot of text. Check if the keyboard is to your preference. Look at the various screens. Many have a coating that make them look better. Find a resolution you like. HP gave me two options for my 17 inch. Don't buy from the store unless you want to pay hundreds more for a product that is not spec'ed out exactly like you want it. The only benefit of buying from a store that sells computers like Frys is that you can exchange for any reason(bad pixel).

Make sure you research wireless before you buy it. It is expensive and connectivity/actual transfer rates may be problematic for you. Since you don't travel much I would go with DSL and buy a wireless router. Sometimes it is good to get away from the internet :)

[NetNinja]

Oasis,

your posting has a some contradictions in it.

Why do you want a laptop? What does the laptop really give you that the desktop doesn't except portability?
I have both and each servers it's purpose.

You say you want a Blackberry, that device can do most of the things you want and you can still connect it to your PC.
Or you want to use the Balckberry as a Modem and that's an option.

You can buy a wireless card for your PC and get a wireless modem.

Bang for the buck and Laptops don't go hand in hand. You got to pay to play.

The desktop you can always upgrade the Laptop has a fixed upgrade path.
Hard Drive capacity and Memory. That's it.

Sucks to pay close to 2k worth of Laptop and not be able to expand latter on. But then if you only do simple tasks like email, web browsing and Word docs then that choice is fine.