Here we go again - Looking for Laptop Advice

[shawnc]

Well folks, just figured I'd follow-up for those who may be interested. I've had the Dell for a few days now and here are my first thoughts:

Looks - only average. Actually I don't like the bid Dell logo on the top of the machine. Nor do I like the blue/silver mix. The Toshiba looks MUCH better with all Blue. Also, I almost selected the Sharp soley on looks. I don't know, the black and silver makes the Sharp look both professional and sleek.


Wireless G - I have not noticed a reduction in performance from my Toshiba (lynksys wireless G card). It is AMAZING how easy it was to "set-up". Turned the darn thing on, in two minutes it recognized my router and set itself up. Been working ever since.

Keyboard - definitely will take some getting used to. I find myself having to look for keys whereas with the Toshiba that was not necessary. My fingers are probably about average so anyone looking looking at an ultra-portable will likely have this problem. It doesn't affect most of my typing, only when I need to find the "End", "Home", or "Delete" keys (which with my typing skills is more often that I would like to admit).

Portability - OH MAN! This is where the Dell shines. At 2.9 lbs, it is an absolute joy to pick up and take to the can, or from room to room (I have a desk set-up where I do my school work when I'm not cheating and watching TV in the living room).

Screen - this also took some getting used to. My toshiba had a 14 inch screen and the dell as 12 inch one. I didn't realize how much of a difference those 2 inches would make. Some of the ultra portables have 10 inch screens. Anyone who is working off of a desktop will have difficulty adjusting to anything less than 12 inches (IMO). But it is a beautiful screen. Nice and very bright.

Optical drive - I thought I wouldn't mind the external, but now I'm not so sure. On the bus ride home from work yesterday, I wanted to show off my new toy and plop in a DVD. The only reason I didn't is because I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of connecting the drive. That can't be good! The problem is how much additional weight am I willing to accept for this convenience? 3 lbs was really my sweet-spot. I don't think I was willing to go as high as 4 lbs but in retrospect if I could find an internal drive at 3.5lbs, for the right price, I would recommend that route.

Customer Service - the beauty of all the negative publicity dell is getting these days is that you can see they are making a concerted effort to step up. I have had to call twice and both times I was quite pleased with how I was treated (though keep in mind that my questions were probably much less technical than most of the members of this community would be). I did get routed to India (I think, based on the accent) both times, but the people were pleasant and knowledgable (again, my questions were very basic). Overall, so far I'm pleased.

Battery - about what I expected. Roughly two hours. Anyone expecting more out of a subnotebook is kidding themselves.

Performance - bottom line is this machine does not perform like my toshiba P-4 laptop, but I didn't expect it to. For what I need (email, web surfing, and school requirements) this machine has performed exceptionally over the past few days.

Value - there are some better looking machines out there (sharp, toshiba, overpriced sony's) that weigh less than 3 lbs. But for the memory, hard drive size, and feature set that dell offers, I think this is the best deal. I think I'll keep it :wink: .

[shawnc]

Well folks, just figured I'd follow-up for those who may be interested. I've had the Dell for a few days now and here are my first thoughts:

Looks - only average. Actually I don't like the bid Dell logo on the top of the machine. Nor do I like the blue/silver mix. The Toshiba looks MUCH better with all Blue. Also, I almost selected the Sharp soley on looks. I don't know, the black and silver makes the Sharp look both professional and sleek.


Wireless G - I have not noticed a reduction in performance from my Toshiba (lynksys wireless G card). It is AMAZING how easy it was to "set-up". Turned the darn thing on, in two minutes it recognized my router and set itself up. Been working ever since.

Keyboard - definitely will take some getting used to. I find myself having to look for keys whereas with the Toshiba that was not necessary. My fingers are probably about average so anyone looking looking at an ultra-portable will likely have this problem. It doesn't affect most of my typing, only when I need to find the "End", "Home", or "Delete" keys (which with my typing skills is more often that I would like to admit).

Portability - OH MAN! This is where the Dell shines. At 2.9 lbs, it is an absolute joy to pick up and take to the can, or from room to room (I have a desk set-up where I do my school work when I'm not cheating and watching TV in the living room).

Screen - this also took some getting used to. My toshiba had a 14 inch screen and the dell as 12 inch one. I didn't realize how much of a difference those 2 inches would make. Some of the ultra portables have 10 inch screens. Anyone who is working off of a desktop will have difficulty adjusting to anything less than 12 inches (IMO). But it is a beautiful screen. Nice and very bright.

Optical drive - I thought I wouldn't mind the external, but now I'm not so sure. On the bus ride home from work yesterday, I wanted to show off my new toy and plop in a DVD. The only reason I didn't is because I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of connecting the drive. That can't be good! The problem is how much additional weight am I willing to accept for this convenience? 3 lbs was really my sweet-spot. I don't think I was willing to go as high as 4 lbs but in retrospect if I could find an internal drive at 3.5lbs, for the right price, I would recommend that route.

Customer Service - the beauty of all the negative publicity dell is getting these days is that you can see they are making a concerted effort to step up. I have had to call twice and both times I was quite pleased with how I was treated (though keep in mind that my questions were probably much less technical than most of the members of this community would be). I did get routed to India (I think, based on the accent) both times, but the people were pleasant and knowledgable (again, my questions were very basic). Overall, so far I'm pleased.

Battery - about what I expected. Roughly two hours. Anyone expecting more out of a subnotebook is kidding themselves.

Performance - bottom line is this machine does not perform like my toshiba P-4 laptop, but I didn't expect it to. For what I need (email, web surfing, and school requirements) this machine has performed exceptionally over the past few days.

Value - there are some better looking machines out there (sharp, toshiba, overpriced sony's) that weigh less than 3 lbs. But for the memory, hard drive size, and feature set that dell offers, I think this is the best deal. I think I'll keep it :wink: .

[ignar]

Thanks for the update. I think battery life can be better since there are a few sub notebooks which last 4 to 5 hours, and I think battery life is even more important for small notebooks whose top priority is portability. But, I guess you can get an extra or larger batteries if you need them.
Enjoy your new toy.

[shawnc]

Good point ignar. I think battery life is probably more important for those who travel and don't want to take an AC adapter (which BTW, the dell adapter is horrible, just horrible).

I don't travel much so I'm always near an electrical outlet. I run down the battery and simply plug in if I'm not done. You are right though, I did see ultras with significantly longer battery life, though I'm not sure that they would come in at 3 to 3.5 lbs.

[Kati Compton]

FYI - this doesn't cover all CD needs, but one thing I do is use Daemon Tools (google to find it), and rip my most-needed CDROMs (all purchased) to images that could be "mounted" with that program. Doesn't work for everything, but a lot of things. I did this when I was using my Sony that didn't have a drive, and then also on my current laptop when I don't want to bring my original CDROMs with me when I travel. It also saves battery life.

Now, it won't help for the situation you just mentioned, wanting to pop in a DVD, but it can be useful nonetheless.

[Zack Mahdavi]

Congrats on your purchase Shawn. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. I'd expect more power out of your batteries. Was your screen on full brightness at the time ?

[shawnc]

Originally Posted by Zack Mahdavi

Congrats on your purchase Shawn. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. I'd expect more power out of your batteries. Was your screen on full brightness at the time ?

Thanx Zack. Yeah, I always had the screen on full brightness. That way I don't notice a drop-off from the Toshiba I just sold.

But everyone hold the phone! I think I'm sending it back (yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking ops: ) but the lack of internal drive is bothering me a little more than I anticipated. Also, since I've never seen or used one before, the drop from a 14 to a 12 inch screen has proven to be more dramatic than I thought (though I PROBABLY could have lived with the screen if the lack of internal optical didn't bother me more than I thought).

Just ordered the Gateway 200X so I'll be packing up the Dell and shipping it back. But I've got nothing bad to say about the 300M. It's performance exceeded my expectations and the portability factor is tough to beat. Anyone who can live with the smaller screen and lack of internal drive would be well advised to give this sweet machine a look.

The Gateway is 4.5 lbs, which is a little heavier than I had hoped for. But get this, the height is slightly less than 1 inch, the same as the Dell. Thinness is DEFINIETLY important to me and it shows me that the added weight is in the internal optical and extra screen size. The specs (memory, HD, etc) are more impressive than the Dell. Screen size is 14 inches. What's the catch? Anyone who has ever ordered from Gateway already knows. Their order process is brutal, just brutal. And it takes them two weeks to ship a product that is already configured and in stock. Dell shipped in one week and they had to build the darn thing. All I can say is get your Gateways soon because no way they survive with their current business model. Just to d**n inefficient.

But the reviews were great (even better than that of the Dell), though I've heard that Geteway has some quality issues. Hopefully that won't be the case with me, but I'll probably get the extended warranty just to be safe.

I'll post back a couple of weeks after playing with the Gateway with an update.

[Kati Compton]

Originally Posted by shawnc

The Gateway is 4.5 lbs, which is a little heavier than I had hoped for. But get this, the height is slightly less than 1 inch, the same as the Dell. Thinness is DEFINIETLY important to me and it shows me that the added weight is in the internal optical and extra screen size.

Well, if you don't like the Gateway, take a look at the IBM T40. It's what I have, and it's fantastic.

[shawnc]

Originally Posted by Kati Compton

Well, if you don't like the Gateway, take a look at the IBM T40. It's what I have, and it's fantastic.

Kati, that's exactly what I planned to do. I was trying to keep this purchase at less than $1,500 and the T40 will take me over that. But I've convinced myself that I'm going to keep whatever I end up with for a few years, so if I have to spend an extra couple of hundred, that is what I'll do. The T40 is such a sweet machine and if money was not an issue, that would have been my first choice from the get-go!

[Kati Compton]

Originally Posted by shawnc

Kati, that's exactly what I planned to do. I was trying to keep this purchase at less than $1,500 and the T40 will take me over that. But I've convinced myself that I'm going to keep whatever I end up with for a few years, so if I have to spend an extra couple of hundred, that is what I'll do. The T40 is such a sweet machine and if money was not an issue, that would have been my first choice from the get-go!

Yeah - IBMs are pretty pricey. This setup cost me $2500, and that was academic pricing. 8O

[Skoobouy]

Wait Shawn! I've got something for ya!

Someone pointed me in the direction of the Asus M5N, so I examined it, and it looks like the ideal machine. Definitely destined to be my iPaq h1930 replacement. Here's a post I already wrote in a different forum:

www.1toppc.com has hugely configureable Asus notebooks. There's the S5N (and S5Ne) which are 12" screen < 1" thick ultraportables. There's also the M5N which is 3.4 lbs, about 1" thick, has a built-in optical drive.

The first cool thing is all of the options. You start with a "barebones" and add whatever you want. You can get the S5Ne (no optical drive) with a ULV P-M 1GHz (if battery life is your priority), or else get the standard M5N with a P-M 1.5-1.7GHz. You choose RAM size (256-768MB) HDD (40-80GB at variable speeds), OS (XPH or XPP), optical drive, etc.

The second cool thing is the prices, which are very low. Here's the config I want:

M5200-N Asus M5N/M5200N Centrino Notebook
12.1 inch XGA
512MB RAM
Internal CDRW+DVD
Modem/Lan/Card Reader
Windows XP Home
40GB 9.5mm 5400rpm
Intel Centrino 1.7 GHz
Built-in 802.11b wireless network
Standard Warranty

('Free') Deluxe Carrying Case
Extra Primary Battery 72 Whr

3.4 lbs with the standard battery
10.8" x 9.2" x 0.8" (thinnest point)-1.2" (thickest) thick

Price is $1602 (Free ground shipping)

[Shawn, you could easily get the price under $1500 by choosing a lower clock speed, or going with 256MB of RAM, or a smaller HD. I won't tell you to forego the hi-capacity battery though--you'll need it].

Not bad, eh?

www.1toppc.com doesn't sell the S5N (without the 'e'), but ProPortable does. They're more expensive though.

I found two very good threads with user-impressions (stuff like build-quality)

For the Asus S5N and S5Ne and the M5N (optical drive model).

The only bad thing about this is that I didn't see an option for built-in Wireless G.

I had done some research on the Dell 300M too, and it turns out there's a funky issue with the LCD. Apparently, 300M's are popping up all over the place with "smiley face" screen artifacts. It's been established that there's an issue with the construction of the screen/lid. Supposedly, all units have it, but on most it's unnoticeable. That would drive me nuts just thinking about it--I wasn't going to tell you unless you discovered it for yourself. (If you're anything like me, you would go looking for it if you knew about it).