So i'm looking for a laptop

[Stanley]

hey guys,
Â* so i've been doing somethinking, and so now, i'm looking for a laptop. I'm still very interested in the apple, but i've been wondering about some of the other cool laptops out there. So, if you know of any cool laptops let me know.

Here's what i'm looking to do:
Â* Â*Graphic and Web Design
Â* Â*Programming
Â* Â*Basic Day to Day
Â* Â*Word Processing

Here's what I want in a laptop.
Â* Â*Relatively small - I want to actually carry this thing around on a regular basis
Â* Â*Light - see above
Â* Â*DVI output - i'm hooking it up to a monitor when i'm in my room
Â* Â*Reliability - and don't say dell because i know too many people who've had issues with these machines, and don't say all the parts are the same, because i have yet to meet someone who's had vaio's die.
Battery life - i want to at least make the 3 hour trip from nj to cincinnati with only having to plug in MAYBE once for a little.

alright, cool, thanks a bunch.

[Cyram]

Where I work we've made the switch from Dell to Toshiba Laptops after several issues came up. Toshiba seems to make a good laptop, and we haven't had any problems with them (been about a year). And they're less expensive than Dell. Bonus.

The VAIO (which a coworker affectionately calls the "buh-bye-oh") seems to be priced a bit higher than they're worth, and I have had a few problems with them...but not too bad. Most of them are pretty good.

I've played around with a few apple laptops, and I agree they are definitley cool, but expensive. ;-)

I actually got a laptop on ebay for $100. An IBM 300 MHz that was broken and I fixed (I don't recommend doing that though). All I wanted is something to do word processing and web work though. Nothing too demanding. ;-) IBM makes a good laptop...or they used to anyway. Mine's pretty rock solid. Not sure about the newer laptops though.

Hope that helped...

[GPeszek]

Dell refurbished laptops (http://outlet.us.dell.com/Dispatcher?target=InventoryPage&action=filter&lob=INSP&unique=1043608919664&sessionID=2005fJCq!1292894922!-1538409786!1043608761332&tgtSeg=I) are quite cheap these days. They're having a big sale right now, get $50-$500 off plus free shipping. Â*They seem to have quite a large stock of Inspiron laptops with attractive prices. Â*The one I saw was a Inspiron 2650 (http://outlet.us.dell.com/Dispatcher?target=InventoryPage&action=sort&sortColumn=proc_search_and_display&lob=INSP&sessionID=2005fJCq!1292894922!-1538409786!1043608761332&sortDirection=down&tgtSeg=I) (P4 1.8ghz, 256, 32mb Geforce, 30gig, 24X/10X/40X CD-RW, 14 inch XGA, floppy, WinXP) for just over $1000. Â*Not a bad deal. Â*Not sure about size, weight, battery life or DVI, that'd be something to look in to (yes I know you don't like Dell but you can't argue that their reliability and support are very good).

At the risk of being completely crucified, Gateway (http://www.gateway.com/work/products/sb_ptb_catalog.shtml) makes some sweet looking laptops these days. Â*They're about the same price as Dell laptops but they have the Apple look (silver case, they're really sleek). Â*Then again I know nothing of reliability or support from Gateway. Â*You could always get a Tablet PC (http://www.gateway.com/work/prod/sb_ptb_tabletpc.shtml). Â*Gateway does refurbished laptops (http://www.gateway.com/reman/sb_notebook_matrix.shtml) as well. Â*Maybe something to check out.

As scary as this may be, Amazon.com sells laptops (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/field-keywords%3Dlaptop%26index%3Dpc-hardware%26field-product-group%3Dpc%26search-type%3Dss/qid=1043610148/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4_etk-pc_all/002-4685632-0610438). Â*I saw a few Toshibas and Sonys on there when I checked it out. Â*Amazon.com has always been a great buying experience for me (I got my cell phone [v60g, free after rebates] and my PocketPC [Toshiba e740, normaly $600 got it for $300 on Amazon]].

[jyorke]

I'd say an Apple or a Sony VAIO. My roommate has a VAIO PCG-R505GC, which is uber-portable, cool-looking, and comes with an awesome docking station including a CD-RW/DVD drive. He gets really good battery life too. I used to like my Dell, an Inspiron 4000 series, but lately I've been having problems with my glidepoint (my mouse runs away!), so I'm not going to recommend Dell that highly. If you do buy a Dell, be sure to buy from the factory outlet, and buy an extended warranty. Dell's service is great, but you DO want the extended warranty, because something is probably going to fail after a little more than a year if you are using your laptop as your main computer and running it hard like I do. I think this will probably be true of most brands, and I can vouch for Dell's service if it does.

As for Gateway... I still think they're shady, but that's mostly an unfounded opinion. Toshibas are nice and worth looking into as well.

[Nebula]

Gateway? Shady?? pah, no http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif Â*We had a Dell, and it broke around the end of it's 2nd year of life (we had a 1 year warranty). Â*Our Gateway computers not only look cool (shiny http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif) but they work very nicely too http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

course, again, that's just personal preference. Â*I think it's because they're silver http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

I don't like black cases...most of the time. Â*It depends on the atmosphere...who knows how corny that sounds? http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Kows]

I'd say apple. I'm a PC guy, but most PC laptops are from guys I simply don't trust.


...Unless you want a Tablet PC... =D
(but who wants one of those....it's a laptop with more work!)

[rosemary]

Just my two cents,

Fred has finally given up the ghost and I can honestly say I probably won't go for another laptop in the foreseeable future.

If I were you I would just get a really sweet desktop maybe with those dual LCD monitors you used to want so bad http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I will miss fred, but I will also be glad to have a machine that doesnt need a reboot every 2 hours and doesnt need me to spend more on a battery than the damn thing is worth

[descapa]

Stan move to Iceland....pleae will you?
http://www.ubergeek.tv/switchback/


also this one too:
http://www.ubergeek.tv/switchlinux/

[jyorke]

Take the quiz at http://bbspot.com/News/2003/01/os_quiz.php and use a computer with whatever OS you happen to be....

[descapa]

omg...it said I was OS X! Â*I guess I need to demand a recount

[GPeszek]

Good god, I'm Slackware (http://www.bbspot.com/Images/News_Features/2003/01/os_quiz/slackware.jpg).

Could be worse, I guess.

[jyorke]

Personally I'm Debian (http://www.bbspot.com/Images/News_Features/2003/01/os_quiz/debian.jpg)

The one that's missing though is:

You are MacOS 9... everyone hates you now, even those who faithfully followed you for years.

[Stanley]

Hey guys, thanks for your advice i just got back from a ski trip. Skiing good. Friends brought TiBooks, played with them, had fun. Probably gonna sell kidneys and get one. On another note, apperently, i'm OS X (http://www.bbspot.com/Images/News_Features/2003/01/os_quiz/os_x.jpg). Whoa...kind of freaky.

[linked]

Wait! Hold the train! You say you want battery life?
From what I hear, Intel is coming out with a new chipset on March 12th- Designed SPECIFICALLY for laptops, as opposed to their Pentium x-M line, which are just watered down desktop processors. Apparently, the new chip, code named Banias, will come generally packaged as part of the Centrino package. Centrino will include the new, powerful, BATTERY EFFICIENT chip, coupled with built in wi-fi access. Built in Wi-Fi, and good battery life, what more could a stanley boy want?
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109267,tk,dn020703X,00.asp