Wait a Week to Buy a Notebook…

If you’re in the market for a notebook for college I strongly suggest waiting until next week to start seriously shopping. Starting Monday you will see a huge number of notebooks announced around the formal introduction of Intel’s ‘Montevina’ platform.

Montevina is Intel’s next generation platform that aims to improve graphics performance, amongst several other features. While the ins and outs of the technology may not interest the average consumer, it’s important to note that just about every major PC manufacturer will be introducing new models in the coming days, making the ones on store shelves today obsolete.

That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with Intel-based notebooks currently available, but you will have a lot more choices come next week.

Several of the major manufacturers will be introducing all new notebook models and discontinuing entire notebook lines. If you’re a tech enthusiast there’s nothing worse than paying full price for a gadget only to see something better hit the market a few days latter. Several of the notebooks that are being announced next week are drastic improvements to current models, with new case designs, features and beefier specs.

If you’re absolutely sure a current Intel-based notebook will satisfy your needs, I still encourage you to wait and buy it on closeout once the new models are introduced.

While we’ve spoken to most PC manufacturers regarding Montevina announcements, we don’t have any solid info on when Apple will update its Macbooks and MacBook Pros with Montevina technology.

Of course Intel isn’t the only game in town and I strongly encourage you to take a look at notebooks featuring AMD Puma technology, which was formally introduced last month. We talked to Bahr Mahoney about AMD Puma and saw impressive demos that demonstrated impressive video performance on mainstream notebooks.

I know not everyone can wait to order, and of course not all of the notebooks announced next week will be immediately available. In fact I just bought a new MacBook Pro since my previous one is on its death bed and I’m very confident it will serve me well for the next year or two.

Remember that no matter how long you wait there will always be the next best thing right around the corner. Just be sure to buy a computer that meets your needs for the immediate future.