Advice On Buying Laptops

Having been on Andrews University's campus for some years, I have often been asked questions on advice in buying computers. 'What do you look for when buying a laptop?' One of the biggest mistakes I have found that college students make in purchasing a laptop is that they spend far too much money. It is rare today to find a student purchasing a laptop for under $1,000. Yet for the vast majority of students this is far too much to pay for a laptop. Why do I say this? There are two misconceptions which face buyers, which lead them to make such purchases. 1. They think that expensive = quality performance and 2. Inexpensive computers don't last as long as expensive ones.
Concerning the first misconception. First of all let me hasten to say -for all the computer geeks breathing down my neck that, yes, the more expensive the computer/laptop the high quality performance it will have. Then why did I make that statement. I made this statement because for the vast majority of college and university students you will be doing nothing more with your computer than, using Microsoft Word, the Internet, playing Music/Video and the occasional low graphics game. Wake up people! You don't need a $1000 dollar computer to do this. This is the misconception. Your Microsoft word will not run faster on the expensive computer, the internet will not load faster and your music will load faster. Performance difference will only be seen if you play games which require high graphics, or you are doing some other complex computing function that require processing power. The cheapest computer that you can buy from any retail store like Best Buy, Dell or Mac, will EASILY perform this operations without any noticeable performance difference.
The second misconception is that a new expensive computer will last longer than a new inexpensive computer. This absolutely makes no sense. If you take care of your computer it will last. If you want to be certain just purchase the warranty.
There is only one reason why students are willing to pay these high prices for laptops/computers. So that they can say that theirs is better that yours. That's it! So unless you are a die hard gamer, have really complex computing to do, or just have money to waist, get wise and buy a less expensive computer.