Laptop help......

[LearLove]

Looks like its time to start bringing a laptop on the road. Looking for something light and small (I hate lugging stuff) with wireless.

want to spend around 1500.

Computer guys any help?

thanks

 

[Mr Biggelsworth]

Highly recommend the Dell Inspiron 700. Can fit in the pouch in the back of a Travelpro nicely. Paid around 1200 a year ago with a couple of upgrades on it. Any of the details needed, just pm me.

 

[Prop2Jet]

iBook from apple. 5 hour bat life, very light, never crashes and you can buy Microsoft office for around 180 (say you are a student!)

I would never use a PC again!

 

[The Drizzle]

Unless you are a hater, I suggest a MacBook.

 

[Lear70]

I used to buy, repair, and sell laptops on eBay for extra $$ back before they got cheap as crap. (Ask the PCL guys, used to sit ready reserve and have a laptop completely disassembled in the break room rebuilding it).

I can honestly say that although I don't personally prefer Mac products, the newer iBook line is excellent if you aren't going to be doing any gaming and have that much cash to spend.

My personal machine is the new Toshiba L35-S2161. Pentium M 1.7 machine with 2GB of RAM, 100GB Hard Drive, 15.4" widescreen LCD (great for movies), Dual Layer DVD drive which works great for copying DVD's if you're into that sort of thing, all weighing about 6 pounds and costs about $500 bucks brand new on eBay, search New Toshiba L35*

I carry the PNS laptop bag that clips onto my suitcase above my flight bag, works great.

Good luck!

 

[Kream926]

im a third on the MAC

 

[172driver]

1. Macbook if you don't mind learning Mac.

2. Dell XPS M1210 is consistently rated at the top. About 4.5 lbs and a 12 inch screen. Can get well equipped for $1500.

3. HP Pavilion dv2000 is nice looking, durable, 5 lbs and 14 inch screen. I love mine. Can get well equipped for $1000.

4. If you want a lighter one (2.5-3 lbs), you're going to sacrifice performance, money, or most likely, both. What you really want is the Panasonic Toughbook W5...sweet machine but $2200 or so.

 

[Junkflyer]

I've got a 5 year old Mac powerbook that has taken an unbelievable amount of beating and is still going.

 

[Way2Broke]

I just bought a V3015 HP today. Dual AMD processors, 1 GB ram, 120 GB Hard Drive and paid 850 with a 2 year protection plan. If you want to spend 1500 your going to buy ALOT of notebook in todays market.

 

[myq2u]

I have Dell 700m and I love it. I bought it about a year ago and had it maxed out with all the extras. I'll probably upgrade it though to the new Dell XPS M1210 pretty soon because it has a better graphic card and one of my addictions are computer games. 700m is great though and I have some games on it too. The 12" screen is great, easy to watch a movie yet even easier to pack, I keep mine in the flight case btw, plenty of space to spare. I’ve also heard that the Sony Vaio is a good laptop, check it out.

 

[AutoBus]

Looks like its time to start bringing a laptop on the road. Looking for something light and small (I hate lugging stuff) with wireless.

want to spend around 1500.

Computer guys any help?

thanks

Compaq V5205 $399 onsale at best buy, good battery life, wifi, DVD reader, 60 MB hard drive. Keep in mind your taking it on the road, it's just not worth spending big bucks on a expensive laptop, keep it for a couple of years and then move to a new one, if it's gets stolen oh well, keep your important stuff on a jump drive.

 

[Nightrain_080]

DVD burning, Gaming, overall compact and Style I would choose Sony. Toshiba would be 2nd. HP will do a good job as well. Don't waste your time with Dell. Mac if thats your style but forget gaming power with Mac.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...VAIONotebookComputers_SZSeries&Dept=computers

www.clearanceclub.comhttp://www.clearanceclub.com/depot/quelle_browse.cgi?keyword=&category=105&manufacturer=Sony&price_high=&price_low=&processor_type=&processor_speed_low=&processor_speed_high=&hdd_low=&hdd_high=&ram_low=&ram_high=&screen_low=&screen_high=&series=SZ&sort=price&order=ASC&availibility=ALL&condition=ALL&limit=10&

 

[AvroJockey]

Get a MacBook!!! Or a MacBook Pro if you want to splurge.
I converted 5 years ago and will probably never go back to a Windows box for my personal computing.

Once you go Mac...you'll never go back!

BTW, seems Bill Gates likes Mac OS X too! (Vista = OS X knockoff, just 6 years later!) Vista vs. Mac OS X

 

[AvroJockey]

Mac if thats your style but forget gaming power with Mac.

Interesting...Apples are all on the x86 platform and use the same hardware as a Windows box now. They have no problem with gaming! In fact, you can install Windows on a Apple machine an it runs natively alongside Mac OS X, so if you have PC games...you can play them on a Apple.

 

[ATLplt]

I've got the Dell 700M and love it. My next laptop will be a new Mac though. You get the best of both Windows and OSX all in one.

 

[indianboy7]

The Fujitsu laptops are awesome...strong, light and the battery'll run for about 3 hours. I have the 13" model and it's really easy to carry around, it's only 4 pounds....imp:

 

[lear24]

+1 on the macs. I have been running an iBook for 4.5 years now, and it is awesome. I am going to eventually replace it with a MacBook (replacement to the iBook) and be able to run Windows on the same machine for those occasions where a program is not available in mac OS. If you're still a US Air employee (furloughed might qualify too) there is a link in the perks section of theHub for a 6% discount.

 

[d328pilot]

I bought a Sony Viao TX series. Super light and small. Only a 11.1 inch screen. Cost about 2200$. Not wanting to spend as much, I bought my wife a 11.1 inch Averatec. I actually like it better than my Viao, and its only $999. Very small and portable.

 

[CA1900]

Another vote for the MacBook. I've had mine for about 7 months now (got it shortly after this new model was released), and it's been just a fantastic machine. Lightweight, very fast, very reliable, and a great battery life. (I routinely see 3 to 3.5 hours; if I dim the screen and am not using the WiFi, it'll go over 4.) Though originally equipped with a Core Duo, the new models are now using the Core 2 Duo processor, which I understand runs cooler and uses even less power.

They start at $1099. With your budget, I'd go for the mid-range model, which as a slightly faster processor, more memory (1GB), bigger hard drive, and a dual-layer DVD burner. The 512MB in the base model isn't really adequate, but the 1GB that's standard in the mid-range model is enough for comfortable usage. If you want to go all-out, you can either get it custom-configured with 2GB for $175 more, or you can add it later. Since your budget is $1500, I'd go ahead and get the 2GB now -- the Mac operating system is very good at using whatever memory is available for caching and such to make the system run faster, so it'll be well worth it.

And if you want to upgrade the memory and hard drive later, it's very easy: pop out the battery, unscrew a little cover, and it's all right there. Two levers to pop out the two PC5300 memory modules, and the SATA hard drive slides out just by pulling on a tab attached to the sled. (I just replaced my original 60GB drive with a 120GB drive, and it took about five minutes. I did it so I'd have room for videos on the road without taking the discs. I use a program called Handbrake to rip DVDs to the hard drive; it's great.)

Even the power connector is unique: It's held magnetically, so if you manage to trip over the power cord (or a pax does it in a terminal when you have the cord stretched out), it breaks cleanly away with no damage to the computer or the cord, and without pulling the computer off the desk. Very, very slick.

It comes with a ton of software, including video editing, a slick photo program, DVD authoring, and more. It will run Microsoft Office if you need it (Word and Excel have actually been around longer for the Mac than they have for Windows), or you might try the free NeoOffice, an enhanced-for-Mac version of OpenOffice.org, which can read and write most Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files. If you have a retail Windows XP install disc, you can even install that if you like, and use it to boot the machine. Or you can use Parallels, which will let you run almost any OS at the same time without rebooting. I use it with a Windows 2000 CD I've had for years, and just put it on my external monitor. I can just roll the mouse pointer from screen to screen; it's seamless.


Overall, a fantastic on-the-road machine; I highly recommend it.

 

[sperfly]

I am very computer illiterate and have always had a Windows based desk top. My first laptop purchase a year ago was an Apple iBook G4 and I didn't have any problems switching over, it never locks up and I have microsoft office installed. I don't think that I will ever own anything else.

 

[imr125]

Here's another vote for the MacBook.

Got mine some two weeks ago:
Its small, beautiful screen, very zippy performance.....

 

[Hovernut]

After being a Windoze user since its inception, I just got a MacBook Pro yesterday and I'm liking it a lot! I still have tons of Windows programs and I'm glad I'll still be able to run them on this machine after installing Apple's BootCamp boot manager, or Parallels to run Windows concurrently. Since it's got an iNteL chipset, it'll run anything any other Windows based laptop will run.

The smaller MacBook would fit your bill just fine!

 

[Parrot_Head_Fly]

My Toshiba is ok.. make sure whatever laptop you do get has the following.

1gb or Ram
100gb Hard Drive
Built in Wireless g/b
check consumer reports for battery life, thats a kicker.

 

[CA1900]

Definitely... for a person who travels in the back of an airplane a lot, battery life is very important!

Speaking of Consumer Reports, in their latest laptop review, the MacBook machines were rated highest in each category (including battery life) where they had an entrant. They found the 13.3" model to have a 4-hour battery life, which corresponds to what I've seen on mine.

 

[ATA73Pilot]

I picked up a Dell M1210 off their outlet site for $800 a couple months back.

www.dell.com/outlet

Lightweight - full featured and doesn't break your back lugging it through the airports. Fits well in standard flight cases.

Normal battery runs 3 hours plus - extended battery runs 5 hours +

That being said - I am seriously tempted to try the new macbooks.....

 

[JediNein]

Lenovo X-series, T-series if you want the weight of the optical drive. I use the X-series Tablet version. I'm weight and size sensitive, but if you're not, any of the A, Z, and T series do well. Look at the Lenovo outlet through the VISA or Mastercard discount links.

The 3-5 year warranty, drop protection programs, and support are excellent. You don't speak to India unless you are calling from India.

 

[Leroy Smith]

Mac user since 1987. They stumbled a bit in the late 90's, but overall, have always been head and shoulders above Windows machines. Now that you can run WinXp natively, the only reason to settle for less (software that just wasnt available) is gone. The 1+ Gigs of memory is a good recommendation. Also, spring for the Applecare.

Once you go Mac, you never go back.