Thinking of Purchasing a Laptop

[Steven Cedrone]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Fortunately that's not a big problem.

I agree, I'd still love to have one!!!

Steve

[Steven Cedrone]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Fortunately that's not a big problem.

I agree, I'd still love to have one!!!

Steve

[shawnc]

Originally Posted by kati42

[Well, can you give us a more clear idea of what you actually need the laptop for? How much is weight/mobility an issue (ie, travelling)? Is integrated wireless absolutely important, or is it okay to use a card (I think cards usually have better range, though there are exceptions)? Do you plan to do any gaming? Is this really your main computer that you'll do everything on (desktop replacement)? What size screen/resolution is important? If you're used to at least a 15" display, moving to a 10.4" is a big downsize, though if mobility/weight is an issue, that may justify the move.

I don't really NEED a laptop, but I would like one. I'm back in school and the portability would be nice. Plus my desktop is a few years old and I would just like something a little faster.

Weight/Mobility - like anyone else, the lighter the better. But this is not a big issue for me. I do travel occassionally, but not enough to make this a big issue. The way I see it (if the wireless works for me the way I hope) is that I'll be spending a lot of time on our patio with it.

Screen size - I think I currently have a 15" screen and that is probably the size of my desktop at work. I also have an IBM laptop from work that is about 3 years old and that screen size is not a problem for me. I guess my answer to this one is that anything I get is likely to be an upgrade for me, so this is not much of an issue.

Gaming - I do absolutely NO gaming.

So to summarize:

I would like built-in wireless. I guess that means 802.11b. To a novice like myself, I assume they all are similar in terms of qualty. If (as you imply) that a card is better than built-in, then this becomes less important since the price of cards has dropped so much recently.

Lightweight and thin would be the preferred choice and I'm willing to sacrifice some performance to get it. What I'm not willing to do is sacrifice performance AND pay a premium price for thinness. That seems a little illogical to me.

Screen size - I really don't think I need anything special here. As I said, anything I get will likely be an improvement over what I have.

Compatibility with Windows - this is a must and the reason I haven't considered an Apple (up until now).

Hope this helps. Maybe you can share the results of those laptops you've been looking so longingly at today :wink: . Thanx for the help.

[Pat Logsdon]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Hmm... I don't want to be a wet blanket, and perhaps my advice is completely igorant, but I'm kind of reluctant to buy a laptop that I can't get support for from the US division of the manufacturer. I think that Dynamism laptop would fall in this category.

I agree that this could definitely be a problem. However, Dynamism's warranty looks pretty good to me. You'd definitely have to ship it off if something's wrong with it, but hey, you have to do that for everything Dell sells, too, right?

Just my 2 cents - not looking to set anyone's wet blanket on fire! :wink:

[shawnc]

Originally Posted by Surgical Snack

I agree that this could definitely be a problem. However, Dynamism's warranty looks pretty good to me. You'd definitely have to ship it off if something's wrong with it, but hey, you have to do that for everything Dell sells, too, right?

Just my 2 cents - not looking to set anyone's wet blanket on fire! :wink:

Surgical Snack,

Appreciate the input and definitely favoring the Sharp right now. I have an Axim and was considering a Dell laptop and your point about having to send it back is well taken. I read the Dynamism warranty and I feel comfortable with it.

[Kati Compton]

Weight/Mobility - like anyone else, the lighter the better. But this is not a big issue for me. I do travel occassionally, but not enough to make this a big issue. The way I see it (if the wireless works for me the way I hope) is that I'll be spending a lot of time on our patio with it.

Just to add another confusing option. If really your main objective would be to use it on the patio, you could get a nice fast (but they're cheaper) desktop system, then a low cost laptop where you're not as worried about features, and use XP Remote Desktop to actually work on your desktop PC from the patio. But that might be getting a little extreme.

Hope this helps. Maybe you can share the results of those laptops you've been looking so longingly at today :wink: . Thanx for the help.

Heh - well, it basically seems like there's a wide variety that could fit your needs. Do you know if you want a CD drive built in, or would external USB be adequate?

Here are a selection of a few laptops on the smaller end.

Toshiba Portege 4010 This one is nice because it has a bay that you can swap a CDRW/DVD drive in/out of (lighter for travel w/o, more functional with), or you can swap in an extra battery if it's a long flight.

Toshiba Portege 2010 Cheaper, smaller, lighter, no internal CDdrive.

Toshiba Portege R100 Probably not one you'd want given what you've said - ultra small with a fast processor, but more expensive than the 2010 (which is probably plenty small).

Dell Lattitude C400 and X200 C400 is only available through small business (and maybe larger business, but not home). This one seems to use external CD drives, though it's really not explicitly stated the way it usually is anywhere I can find. But looking at it in the pictures there doesn't seem to be a place for an internal drive, yet the ordering options look as if it is internal. Call ahead on that one. X200 is smaller and lighter. Explicitly states that CD drive is external or part of a docking station.

Fujitsu B Series Small and light, touchscreen. External CD. This one doesn't grab me for some reason.

Fujitsu S Series Internal bay for DVD/CDRW or 2nd battery. Full size keyboard (I forgot to check on the others, but the tiny tiny ones don't always have full-sized). Small-to-mid weight with 2nd battery or drive.

Compaq Evo N410c This series has a weird way of doing built-in wireless, which is to add a component to the back of the screen part of the laptop - you have to purchase it separately, and it costs more than a regular PC card, but supposedly performs quite well, and since it's in the screen doesn't stick out and hit your leg when using it. This one also seems to require an expansion dock to use a CD drive, though they're not particularly clear about it.

Sharp MV Series I've not seen a Sharp laptop before, and I would be concerned about support. Of the models, though, this one is closest to what I would want.

I haven't listed any Sonys because I'm dissatisfied with how they handled me wanting to update my SR17 from ME to 2000. They were of absolutely no help, and so I am not buying from them again. However, if you don't want to change anything ever about the laptop, they do make good quality ones, though they tend to be on the pricey side as I remember.

HTH

[shawnc]

Kati,

Can't thank you enough for such an exhaustive reply. To clarify the one point you asked about, I would actually prefer that it NOT have the internal CD drive.

You have sent me back to the drawing board with 3 of your options. The Toshiba 2010. Price is a little higher than I was looking at, but the size and specs are dead-on and with the free cd drive, it makes this one worth considering.

Both Dells. I like the X200 a little better, but at $200 off, the X400 appears to be the better value. Dell also mentions a free PDA. I would be shocked if it was the Axim, but it seems bizarre that they would be giving away someone elses PDA. Either way, I'm going to give them a call on Monday.

The Sharp - again, a little more than I was hoping, but for the size and specs on this machine I think I can swing it. It appears to be a little heavier than it looks in the picture and I wish they would indicate what their "weight saver configuration" is, but I can find that out on Monday (or someother time when its not 3:21 am ).

Thanx again for all your help.

[mr_yellow]

No one's mentioned IBM Thinkpads...

There's the new X31 series thinkpad that has the new Intel Pentium M chip, gives a battery life of like 6 hours i think or more, plus you can add on an additional extender battery to double that for continuous on-time.

It's not smaller than the other japanese models out there, but it's still only 1-1.2 inches thick, 12 inch screen, pretty light, excellent build quality, built in wifi with the antenna in the screen.. You shouldn't have any problems lugging it around.

Only downside is that it doesn't have an integrated cd-rom. (although the X series I use, I've barely needed the cdrom while i'm out and and about away from my desk(i also keep a docking station with a dvd-rom).

You can easily get a used or older model X series for pretty cheap...

And I have to say, you *must* get a wireless NIC with your laptop. It just makes it soo much easier to move around and be mobile when you're not tied down by an ethernet cable. Even when you're at home.

anyways, goodluck

[acronym]

Janak - while the new g4 12" powerbooks are nice, it really peeved me that they used the same dim LCD screen as on the iBooks. The 15" and 17" laptops use a much better screen.

[marlof]

Originally Posted by acronym

Janak - while the new g4 12" powerbooks are nice, it really peeved me that they used the same dim LCD screen as on the iBooks. The 15" and 17" laptops use a much better screen.

Dim? I'm looking at that screen right now, and it's brighter than that on my Sony Vaio. I didn't see the 17" in real life, but I know the 15" is a bit better than the 12". That doesn't mean the 12" isn't a very good screen in itself. In fact, the quality of the 12" screen is one of the good things going for the iBook and 12" PB. To me, it's very crisp and clear. Of course, a lot depends on your brightness settings, and some on your viewing angle.

In response to shawnc: I've been using an 12" iBook for some time now next to my WinXP desktop, and I can do most I do on WinXP on OS X as well. Esp. if you give the 12" PB some decent RAM, you could get Virtual PC 6 running on it pretty well, which is a big step forward to running Win apps on a Mac. If you don't want to go that route, it sort of depends on the kind of compatibility you're after. To me it was just about using MS Office docs. Office:Mac and Office XP documents can be shared without conversion, so I had no problem. If you need more compatibility, you should check first if the integration you want is available, before going around looking for solutions to problems you wouldn't have on an XP notebook.

[Kati Compton]

Yes - I realized this morning that I had forgotten the IBM option: X Series. Sorry, it was late. :P