Who knows about laptops?

[Kor]

I am an old-school computer geek, but I have never owned nor even read much about laptops. I am going travelling a lot this year and think I may need to buy one after Christmas.

Maybe someone can give me some promising models or places to shop to get the best deals on Boxing Day? Online and Offline.

My criteria are (in order)

- Price. Its gotta be cheap .
- Small and light. I hate big laptops. 10"-12" screen is fine.
- Battery Life. Long.

I don't need an especially powerful processor, and I definitely don't need to pay for graphics capability, sound, or media capabilities (DVDRW etc).

So... what fits?

[Khyron]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

Used.

Seriously. Dells are the cheapest (without being crap) Sonys are the coolest and usually lightest (but fragile) IBMs are the most durable but expensive. I hate HPs (replace the motherboard for 800 bucks after 2 years because the batteries won't charge anymore).

I have an old Toshiba Celeron 500 laptop beater that works just great when travelling.

Khyron

[Kor]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

Arent most Dell laptops build very heavyweight? I am not using it for a desktop replacement, I will mostly be using it during long flights and in long lectures for work and taking notes.

I would like one of those Tablet PCs if I can find one that is affordable.

So I should be checking eBay?

[R_Ethug]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

kris you can buy celery powered dells for like 1000 bones

[Kor]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

eBay has some Tablet PC's for about $1000 US

Apparently RedFlagDeals had an awesome laptop for $600 but I missed that deal.

I am thinking I should get a used Thinkpad because I have seen my friend's and it is built like it could withstand a whuppin'. I am scared that with any other used laptop I don't know how many times it has been dropped down the stairs....

[Khyron]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

Laptop weight is all about the battery and the case. And if you want built in DVD etc or an external drive (pain in the ass!).

Expensive lightweight metal cases are expensive. Otherwise you get heavy metal or shitty plastic. I use plastic cause I don't drop laptops :P I have seen some very light dells but they are not the cheap ones.

Wait till you start seeing processors made with diamonds - then you will see price increase.

Ebay, hell even beyond has some laptops pass through the misc section quite frequently.

Khyron

[seanfournier]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

Laptop weight is all about the battery and the case. And if you want built in DVD etc or an external drive (pain in the ass!).

Expensive lightweight metal cases are expensive. Otherwise you get heavy metal or shitty plastic. I use plastic cause I don't drop laptops :P I have seen some very light dells but they are not the cheap ones.

Wait till you start seeing processors made with diamonds - then you will see price increase.

Ebay, hell even beyond has some laptops pass through the misc section quite frequently.

Khyron

Buy a Dell man. I've been buying Dell for 6 years and every new computer I buy (6 months) they get better and better and then I go to discount places and am constantly reminded why I buy dell. They are VERY well made.

Couple days ago I had my laptop sitting on one of my machines (www.smartslitters.com) and i was uploading the program to it and stupidly i turned on the mandrel and my laptop went flying across the room and smacked into the floor. with a knot in my stomach i pick it up and open the lid and son-of-a-gun the thing worked perfect. the serial port is now officially messed but other than that... great cases.

[Billip]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

All you guys are gonna hate me for this, but somebody has to say it.

An iBook would do everything you wanna do. It's very durable (built to withstand school children), has a super long life battery, is pretty fast, has a 12" screen (larger if you want), and runs Java. I've got IntelliJ, Tomcat, JDK 1.4.1 and 1.3.1 installed and it works awesome. The only thing you probably won't like is the price... so I understand if you couldn't buy it for that reason. But really, $1499 for a laptop of this capibility is comparible to a Tear 1 PC (ie: IBM, HP, Sony, etc.).

iBook at the Apple Store

I just remembered that you would be eligable for an educational discount as well.

Flame away!

[seanfournier]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

I love iBooks. Amazing machines. However... I can't justify it do to the fact a lot of apps (vag-com) doesn't work with it. Even when you run virual pc type software. And also it has no Serial port which all my devices (programming) use. Are there any kind of serial port devices that can work on a mac? I've never seen one.

anyways, yeah, the dual g5, go check it out at westworld... its amazing.

All you guys are gonna hate me for this, but somebody has to say it.

An iBook would do everything you wanna do. It's very durable (built to withstand school children), has a super long life battery, is pretty fast, has a 12" screen (larger if you want), and runs Java. I've got IntelliJ, Tomcat, JDK 1.4.1 and 1.3.1 installed and it works awesome. The only thing you probably won't like is the price... so I understand if you couldn't buy it for that reason. But really, $1499 for a laptop of this capibility is comparible to a Tear 1 PC (ie: IBM, HP, Sony, etc.).

iBook at the Apple Store

I just remembered that you would be eligable for an educational discount as well.

Flame away!

[Billip]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

I love iBooks. Amazing machines. However... I can't justify it do to the fact a lot of apps (vag-com) doesn't work with it. Even when you run virual pc type software. And also it has no Serial port which all my devices (programming) use. Are there any kind of serial port devices that can work on a mac? I've never seen one.

anyways, yeah, the dual g5, go check it out at westworld... its amazing.

Unfortunately, it sounds like you have some pretty specialized stuff going on that doesn't translate well to a Mac. I've tried a serial port to USB adapter cable before, but it didn't work at all (we were trying to get a 9 pin serial VAG-COM cable to work with a USB laptop... no go).

Yeah that dual G5 is awesome. One day I will have one. I used to work at WestWorld for several years so I still have some friends there... who treat me, how shall I say, well.

[Kor]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

I do Java development and a lot of word processing, those two tasks pretty much describe my work. An iBook/Powerbook would be perfect. However, they do cost much more and I don't see where the value comes from.

I haven't looked at the numbers, but I am guessing that the performance of an 800 mhz iBook will not match the higher end P3/P4 laptops out there. And the new M series P3/P4 laptops or Transmeta laptops boast 9 to 12 hours of battery life while the iBook only lists 6 hours.

[bart]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

dell 300m i think thats the model. anyway, its smaller and lighter than apples' smallest. its about $1800-1900.

[Stonewall]

Re: Who knows about laptops?

http://www.acer.ca/APP/AKC/INTERNET/...5?OpenDocument
A nice mesh of car and computer My dad just bought one of these in the $2600 range and I had a quick look at it while I was in town and it must say it is pretty slick.

I am an old-school computer geek, but I have never owned nor even read much about laptops. I am going travelling a lot this year and think I may need to buy one after Christmas.

Maybe someone can give me some promising models or places to shop to get the best deals on Boxing Day? Online and Offline.

My criteria are (in order)

- Price. Its gotta be cheap .
- Small and light. I hate big laptops. 10"-12" screen is fine.
- Battery Life. Long.

I don't need an especially powerful processor, and I definitely don't need to pay for graphics capability, sound, or media capabilities (DVDRW etc).

So... what fits?