Laptop advice

[PCL Flt-ops]

I am thinking about getting a new laptop. I need something portable, but also with performance. I love the 15" screen and good performance, but don't want too much weight. I'm thinking Dell. Any recommendations.

 

[Typhoon1244]

My wife swears by her Toshiba Satellite A15...15" screen, wireless modem, real durable.

 

[saabcaptain]

Since I carry my laptop with me on every trip I went for the Dell 600m, 14 inch screen but with fantastic resoultion, 60 gig HD, DVD+CD-RW combo, built in 802.11b Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless. Total weight... 5 pounds, 4.6 if I remove the DVD drive for a trip.

Really the way to go with our usage patterns.

Oh one thing: go with a Pentium M processor NOT A Pentium 4 or Pentium 4M. The M processor (no 4) is actually about 1/3 faster at a given clockspeed than the Pentium 4. For example my 1.6 ghz Pentium M runs as fast as a 2.4 ghz Pentium 4. Of course the Pentium M also increase battery life etc. and is a key element of "Centrino" laptops.

 

[fr0g]

I have a 12" iBook, the 700MHZ white model.. I upped the RAM to 640, and it has a DVD/CD burner.. good battery life, (2 DVD's), and it's tiny!! I love it.

 

[Iceman21]

The new Dell line of laptops look promising. Cost isn't all that bad giving you the option to customize the thing so you can get exactly what you want.

If you want small and lightweight then you almost have to go with a Sony VAIO. You will find them alot more expensive, but they don't come much smaller than theirs.

 

[flx757]

If you want small and lightweight then you almost have to go with a Sony VAIO. You will find them alot more expensive, but they don't come much smaller than theirs.

If you want small and lightweight, you don't HAVE to go with a Sony VAIO. Take a look at the Fujitsu LifeBook Series...particularly the P series, and specifically the P5000D. PC World rates it highest among ultraportables. Of course, you won't be getting a 15 in screen, but not many ultraportables give you that. Check it out
here. I had a buddy go with the Dell, and now he says if he knew then what he knows now, he would have definitely gone with the Fujitsu.

If you (or anyone else out there) wants a great deal on a virtually new Compaq laptop, with 4 years of warranty, super fast Pentium 4 2.2GHz, 512 MB RAM, CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive, ATI Video card, 802.11b wireless card, Windows XP, a great batch of software, including Nero 6 Ultimate CD Burning Suite, send me a PM. I don't go on the road anymore....lost my medical due to heart attack and bypass surgery, so don't need the laptop. Paid $2800. Send me a PM and make an offer. I'll take anything resonable. There is much more info available on this laptop in the "Buying and Selling" section.

 

[T-Gates]

I don't go on the road anymore....lost my medical due to heart attack and bypass surgery, so don't need the laptop.

Sorry to hear about that man.... I had that happen to a friend of mine at DL, he got it back about a year later.

Good Luck,

T-Gates

 

[flx757]

Sorry to hear about that man.... I had that happen to a friend of mine at DL, he got it back about a year later.

Good Luck,

T-Gates

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words. It's hard to say that this was "one of the best things that could have happened to me", but everything went very well. I am in better health than I have been in over 20 years. I have lost over 50 lbs and feel better than I can ever remember feeling. Life has never been so great. I'm sure I'll get my medical back, probably sometime next summer, but you know....one of the last things I want to do at this stage in my life is pack a suitcase and go on a 4-day trip. If you can understand where I am coming from.

But, thanks again for the kind words, and take care.

flx757

 

[sky37d]

COMPAQ
We recently got 3 compaqs and all of them are good performers. We got the AMD 2600 processors, and 512 Mb Ram. Lots of RAM is important.

 

[MSNFlier]

IBM ThinkPad...

On my third one. Each seems to get better than the last. I like them for a number of reasons, but it began with the fact that their keyboards are close to full-size and they have equal size shift keys (I know this sounds petty, but I have bigger hands and do most of my own typing - you cannot imagine how irritating it is to be zooming along on a brief in stream of legal consciousness and see that you're in the line ABOVE where you're supposed to be because the up-arrow key is just to the right of a half-size right shift key).

I didn't know whether I would find the TrackPoint (that orange nub in the middle of the keyboard that controls the mouse pointer) intuitive but I got used to it quickly and really like it. My newest one has what's called an UltraNav which includes a touch-pad, too. You can turn off either, or leave them both on, whichever your preference.

I would write more but let me offer two more bits of advice (have to catch a NWA flight home and they just called it).

First, DO NOT get a 15" screen. It's too big, and if you'r behind someone in a plance in either coach OR first and they lean their seat back while you're not paying attention, they could accidentally break it or crush it. 14" is PLENTY big, plus it's lighter.
\
Second, ABSOLUTELY get a laptop with a CENTRINO chip. Built-in wireless, and most importantly, it was engineered with the purpose of being used for laptops and thus its power consumption and, most importantly for long-life of your laptop hardware, it runs MUCH cooler than the old Pentium III I had before.

Sorry I cannot write more, but I'd highly recommend IBM ThinkPads. One last thing, they have a authorized IBM servicers everywhere, so you can just take it there for warranty service, rather than send it back to Dell or Gateway. They're usually very competent, too. The place I go where I live has a person who is basically the ThinkPad maven and is great.

See you!!

 

[350DRIVER]

I would stay away from the Dell and Gateways of the industry.. I have heard horror stories from friends who have them and have nothing good to say about the customer support after your purchase... I have a Sony VAIO super slim laptop and I really have no complaints about it whatsoever. Very small, compact, lightweight, and you don't need the docking station at all times. Go to Best Buy, purchase the extended warranty for 3 years and anything goes wrong they fix it. (no questions asked). Also has a port on the side for the memory stick which I use quite abit not to mention some pretty good programs that are included.

First, DO NOT get a 15" screen. It's too big

I agree- too too big..


go with the VAIO

good luck

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