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I'm glad to see numbers, but where's the link? ;) Never mind, found it.

The mac does pretty well in that comparison. I built your Dell for under $1200, maybe you had XP Pro? I started from the bottom-of-the-line d620, which permits Home. Still, it's less of a difference than I expected.

Ah, here's the reason. You're not giving the d620 credit for all it's ruggedizing features (shock-mounted hard drive, magnesium-alloy case. More information here). It would be better to compare the Macbook to an Inspiron E1405 like this one, which has the same specs (I even got the upgrade to 667 MHz memory, though I've read that it doesn't improve performance) for almost $300 less.

Also, if you require a video card or if you don't want a DVD burner, the d620 gains ground against the Macbook.

By the way, what's so special about the black one? If you get the $150 upgrade from the 80 GB to the 120 GB harddrive in the white one, it's the same machine for $50 less. Is it just a style thing?

(And why is the hard drive upgrade so expensive anyway? $150 for 40 GB more space is insane.)

I run my finger over the fingerprint scanner just below the trackpad on my compaq.

That's funny, that's exactly what I do with my finger to unlock your laptop!

... The only thing more pathetic than a PC user is a PC user trying to be a Mac user. We have a name for you people: switcheurs. ...

We have a name for Mac users: poseurs.

... and we'll leave beige to you ...

:-) red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet :-)

But seriously, if you think the colour of a computer makes it better, then that says it all.

I think we've grossly miscommunicated here from the beginning. The items that got me into this coversation were people claiming that the MBP was basically a dongle for OSX, and overpriced, or (later on) a "luxury" notebook. Speaking as a pro photographer who bought the MBP as the cheapest available hardware, then wiped OSX off it, I felt like I had something to say here.

I am a pro photographer. When I show up at gigs, I'm carrying a tripod, a monopod, three camera bodies, and 18 pounds of lenses. Weight matters in everything I do. I spend over twice as much on carbon fiber tripods & monopods for their reduced weight. When I show up, my notebook's job is to run a series of RAW processing filters on the pictures I have taken. This is a mix of noise ninja, RAW converter, and a bunch of other photoshop CS2 stuff that I use, on the images, which are 10 megapixels, so in a typical shoot probably 12 gigabytes of data. I also use it to preview proofs for the client. Right now CS2 for OSX isn't optimized for intel or dual core, so I dual boot into XPSP2 (photoshop appliance) and Linux (for me).

So let's look at what I do with this thing, professionally. I carry it around, sometimes long distances. Then I use it to process 12 gigs of photo data (on my current 2.16 Ghz, this takes around 25 minutes right now). Then it burns a DVD for the client - so DVD burning speed is important. Is the 2.16Ghz important? Well, I'd have bought the 2.33 if it was in my budged, and yes the speed difference impacts me quite a bit. Both cores are completely maxed in the course of business.

So, if I'm using the MBP to the full extent of its capabilities to do my job, is it still a luxury notebook? No. And is 4.5 lbs a requirement? Well 2 lbs would be much better, but yes, that's very near the top end for me.

So let's look now at the dv6000t.

First, weight and size. The web site claims 6.6lbs for a comparably equipped version, but if you look at the spec sheet, that's still missing some of the options you need to get it near the MBP spec. Calling hp, 'cindy' was quite helpful telling me that my dv6000t with the Nvidia, dvd burner etc. would be 'closer to 7 pounds'. Ok. That's not a notebook, it's a desktop replacement. It's a completely different class of computer, a full %36 heavier, putting it into competition with other desktop replacments. It's surprising, considering it only gives up 15% to the MBP in cubic volume, that it's that dense.

Having ruled it out of competition by weight class alone, let's look at the rest of the gap:

Resolution: MBP: 1.3 megapixels (bad) HP:1 megapixel (heinous). As a pro I'd rather have the 1.6MP screen on the Lenovos, but out of my price range. )-: That said 1MP on a 15.4" screen is a setup for moire. Eek.

Video card: MBP smokes the Nvidia by nearly 50%

CPU: I need performance desperately, so the 2.0 would hurt a lot. I've noticed that most makes charge around $300 for the upgrade from 2.0 to 2.16. This probably makes little sense to you unless you have to deal with foot-tapping clients. Either way, it's not a comparable system.

Build quality: compare like to like: a b

On the student discount, while I don't know anyone who hasn't gotten a friend to edu-discount them their MBP, I guess it's possible it could happen. For me, a $1350 desktop replacement outclassed in nearly every feature category by my $1800 MBP. The MBP is more expensive - but not in the same class.

So, I will claim again that the MBP is the cheapest hardware available in its class. It is not a luxury item. I use it professionally, and I can't find any cheaper hardware to RUN WINDOWS ON to meet what my job demands of it. The only brands that came close were dell precision and the Thinkpad

I think we've grossly miscommunicated here from the beginning. The items that got me into this coversation were people claiming that the MBP was basically a dongle for OSX, and overpriced, or (later on) a "luxury" notebook. Speaking as a pro photographer who bought the MBP as the cheapest available hardware, then wiped OSX off it, I felt like I had something to say here.

I am a pro photographer. When I show up at gigs, I'm carrying a tripod, a monopod, three camera bodies, and 18 pounds of lenses. Weight matters in everything I do. I spend over twice as much on carbon fiber tripods & monopods for their reduced weight. When I show up, my notebook's job is to run a series of RAW processing filters on the pictures I have taken. This is a mix of noise ninja, RAW converter, and a bunch of other photoshop CS2 stuff that I use, on the images, which are 10 megapixels, so in a typical shoot probably 12 gigabytes of data. I also use it to preview proofs for the client. Right now CS2 for OSX isn't optimized for intel or dual core, so I dual boot into XPSP2 (photoshop appliance) and Linux (for me).

So let's look at what I do with this thing, professionally. I carry it around, sometimes long distances. Then I use it to process 12 gigs of photo data (on my current 2.16 Ghz, this takes around 25 minutes right now). Then it burns a DVD for the client - so DVD burning speed is important. Is the 2.16Ghz important? Well, I'd have bought the 2.33 if it was in my budged, and yes the speed difference impacts me quite a bit. Both cores are completely maxed in the course of business.

So, if I'm using the MBP to the full extent of its capabilities to do my job, is it still a luxury notebook? No. And is 4.5 lbs a requirement? Well 2 lbs would be much better, but yes, that's very near the top end for me.

So let's look now at the dv6000t.

First, weight and size. The web site claims 6.6lbs for a comparably equipped version, but if you look at the spec sheet, that's still missing some of the options you need to get it near the MBP spec. Calling hp, 'cindy' was quite helpful telling me that my dv6000t with the Nvidia, dvd burner etc. would be 'closer to 7 pounds'. Ok. That's not a notebook, it's a desktop replacement. It's a completely different class of computer, a full %36 heavier, putting it into competition with other desktop replacments. It's surprising, considering it only gives up 15% to the MBP in cubic volume, that it's that dense.

Having ruled it out of competition by weight class alone, let's look at the rest of the gap:

Resolution: MBP: 1.3 megapixels (bad) HP:1 megapixel (heinous). As a pro I'd rather have the 1.6MP screen on the Lenovos, but out of my price range. )-: That said 1MP on a 15.4" screen is a setup for moire. Eek.

Video card: MBP smokes the Nvidia by nearly 50%

CPU: I need performance desperately, so the 2.0 would hurt a lot. I've noticed that most makes charge around $300 for the upgrade from 2.0 to 2.16. This probably makes little sense to you unless you have to deal with foot-tapping clients. Either way, it's not a comparable system.

Build quality: compare like to like: a b

On the student discount, while I don't know anyone who hasn't gotten a friend to edu-discount them their MBP, I guess it's possible it could happen. For me, a $1350 desktop replacement outclassed in nearly every feature category by my $1800 MBP. The MBP is more expensive - but not in the same class.

So, I will claim again that the MBP is the cheapest hardware available in its class. It is not a luxury item. I use it professionally, and I can't find any cheaper hardware to RUN WINDOWS ON to meet what my job demands of it. The only brands that came close were dell precision and the Thinkpad

I think we've grossly miscommunicated here from the beginning. The items that got me into this coversation were people claiming that the MBP was basically a dongle for OSX, and overpriced, or (later on) a "luxury" notebook. Speaking as a pro photographer who bought the MBP as the cheapest available hardware, then wiped OSX off it, I felt like I had something to say here.

I am a pro photographer. When I show up at gigs, I'm carrying a tripod, a monopod, three camera bodies, and 18 pounds of lenses. Weight matters in everything I do. I spend over twice as much on carbon fiber tripods & monopods for their reduced weight. When I show up, my notebook's job is to run a series of RAW processing filters on the pictures I have taken. This is a mix of noise ninja, RAW converter, and a bunch of other photoshop CS2 stuff that I use, on the images, which are 10 megapixels, so in a typical shoot probably 12 gigabytes of data. I also use it to preview proofs for the client. Right now CS2 for OSX isn't optimized for intel or dual core, so I dual boot into XPSP2 (photoshop appliance) and Linux (for me).

So let's look at what I do with this thing, professionally. I carry it around, sometimes long distances. Then I use it to process 12 gigs of photo data (on my current 2.16 Ghz, this takes around 25 minutes right now). Then it burns a DVD for the client - so DVD burning speed is important. Is the 2.16Ghz important? Well, I'd have bought the 2.33 if it was in my budged, and yes the speed difference impacts me quite a bit. Both cores are completely maxed in the course of business.

So, if I'm using the MBP to the full extent of its capabilities to do my job, is it still a luxury notebook? No. And is 4.5 lbs a requirement? Well 2 lbs would be much better, but yes, that's very near the top end for me.

So let's look now at the dv6000t.

First, weight and size. The web site claims 6.6lbs for a comparably equipped version, but if you look at the spec sheet, that's still missing some of the options you need to get it near the MBP spec. Calling hp, 'cindy' was quite helpful telling me that my dv6000t with the Nvidia, dvd burner etc. would be 'closer to 7 pounds'. Ok. That's not a notebook, it's a desktop replacement. It's a completely different class of computer, a full %36 heavier, putting it into competition with other desktop replacments. It's surprising, considering it only gives up 15% to the MBP in cubic volume, that it's that dense.

Having ruled it out of competition by weight class alone, let's look at the rest of the gap:

Resolution: MBP: 1.3 megapixels (bad) HP:1 megapixel (heinous). As a pro I'd rather have the 1.6MP screen on the Lenovos, but out of my price range. )-: That said 1MP on a 15.4" screen is a setup for moire. Eek.

Video card: MBP smokes the Nvidia by nearly 50%

CPU: I need performance desperately, so the 2.0 would hurt a lot. I've noticed that most makes charge around $300 for the upgrade from 2.0 to 2.16. This probably makes little sense to you unless you have to deal with foot-tapping clients. Either way, it's not a comparable system.

Build quality: compare like to like: a b

On the student discount, while I don't know anyone who hasn't gotten a friend to edu-discount them their MBP, I guess it's possible it could happen. For me, a $1350 desktop replacement outclassed in nearly every feature category by my $1800 MBP. The MBP is more expensive - but not in the same class.

So, I will claim again that the MBP is the cheapest hardware available in its class. It is not a luxury item. I use it professionally, and I can't find any cheaper hardware to RUN WINDOWS ON to meet what my job demands of it. The only brands that came close were dell precision and the Thinkpad

Not even close.

USB2 is theoretically 480Mbps, but in reality it maxes out around 260Mbps. (33MB/sec)
http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html (read the "tested on Windows" part)
Plus, if you look into it further, using USB devices saps CPU power. USB2 is a polled I/O bus meaning that the CPU must constantly do work monitoring each device for activity. Even empty USB connectors require constant CPU effort to scan for device insertion.

Next, 7200RPM drives max out around 60MB/sec. We really don't have a reason to be using anything past ATA/66 if you have just one drive on each channel. I mean, look at the max speed for the 160MB Seagate desktop drive and the fastest 7200rpm notebook drive ever. Not 60MB/sec.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 840

Finally, the fastest class of USB2 flash drives is the dual channel ones. Essentially RAID stripe across two chips. It puts out data at 28MB/sec. http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives /ocz_rally_high_performance_usb_2_0-dual_channel-f lash_memory_drive

Flash drives have the advantage in seek time, but the majority of time you're working with RAM on disk, it's going to be pages, which the bandwidth can easily negate the seek time advantage.

As the author of the article states, "1024x768 resolution could use an upgrade".

What he failed to mention though, was that this resolution was already very poor and uncompetitive in a well-featured tablet PC back in 2004 !!! As a clear fan of his X41t and X60s, I think he's reviewing the new Lenovo through rose-tinted spectacles.

I looked at the X-series along with many others when I was researching for my own tablet PC some 2+ years ago (before that I had a Thinkpad), and the Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet came out miles ahead on so many fronts that it was like something out of the future, yet it was very cheap compared to its rivals: 1069 UK pounds in 2004.

Graphically, there was just no comparison: the Tosh has a terrific 1400x1050 screen (driven by nVidia 6200 Go), and as this is a convertible tablet (the laptop screen swivels around and folds back down flat for tablet use), this lovely screen supports pen-proximity sensing too, as well as the usual touch pad and Thinkpad-like nipple on the keyboard.

The Tosh is tightly packed with other features too (Wifi, Bluetooth, Firewire, SD card, PCMCIA, gigabit Ether, excellent Linux support), but graphics is the killer advantage that decided the choice. Lenovo's 1024x768 was pretty poor even back in 2004, but now it is simply unacceptable on any but the most basic laptops, and in an otherwise-sexy Lenovo tablet it is so completely out of place that I find it just totally incongruous.

I liked my old Thinkpad, but if Lenovo are going to attract people like me "back to the fold", they need to take a very serious look at their specs compared to the competition.

Consider looking at non-mainstream, customizable notebooks, known as whitebooks. These notebooks are often made by the same manufacturers as those of Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and other brand names. There are only a handful of ODMs (original design manufacturers), the companies that actually make the notebooks, in the world, the two largest being Quanta and Compal; ASUS lags behind them but is making its way up to the top three.

With whitebooks, you will never get a laptop cheaper than through, say, Dell, but you will get much higher quality components for the buck, greater customization options, excellent warranty options and of course, you can buy the parts! Whitebooks are normally purchased through notebook resellers. My favorite is PowerNotebooks.com, but there are plenty of others such as ProPortable.com.

Current models to check out would be the Compal HEL80 and HGL30 and ASUS S96J and W3J. Check out the reviews and the forums at NotebookReview.com (better known as NBR). That site was a tremendous resource for me and helped me decide on the Compal HEL80 for myself.

I just bought a dv8000. I was busy with other things in my life, and didn't realize until it was too late to return it to the HP store (21 days!) that it is horse poo.

The keyboard and the touchpad occasionally go haywire, and it's not just me:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1 608306

Wish I'd seen that before I ordered (or very soon after).

I bought it because I need a portable, fast machine with a big display.

So if HP is indeed pulling ahead, it won't be for long.

Look at ALL of the numbers..
Remember, with selective statistics, you can prove anything.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3 291

I can break this down many different ways but they all say the same thing.
-PC sales increased overall more then Apple sales increased in the 3rd quarter.
-Percentage wise, Apple had the largest "growth" but they are one of many computer sellers and all of the others sell PCs. Basically, if you take the ratio of all PC sales compared to Apples sales last quarter, Apples overall market pentration percentage went down.

For to purpose of understanding this concept, think extremes. Assume my company XYZ was included on this list. Last quarter I sold 100 units. This quarter, I sold 200. My growth would be 100% but overall, my 100 extra units is a drop in the bucket compared to what everyone else sold and my overall market penetration went DOWN.
Too break it down even further. If you asked 1000 people last quarter what type of computer they have, a Mac or a PC, and compared it to this quarter, less people would respond Mac.
Why? What? Mac sales went up by a record amount? That can't be? Well, it is because even more PCs were sold across all vendors although each individual did not not have outstanding growth rates.

I'll go out on a limb here and say if and when MS finally gets around to realizing Vista, there will be a huge surge of PC sales, just as whne Apple releases a new OS of piece of hardware, which there was plenty of Apple releases this year which will not be as many next year (the big switch to Intel is all but complete).

I own and highly recommend the Compal HEL80 This notebook is awesome! You can get it with a matte (not glossy) WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen. Power behind it is nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, and you can get Intel Core 2 Duo now. It's a whitebook which means you buy it from a notebook reseller, not from Circus City or Worst Buy. My favorite and most highly recommended reseller would be PowerNotebooks; if you order from them be sure to order by phone for a nice discount. ProPortable is also a good place to buy from.

Start looking here http://forum.notebookreview.com/

That was with a $200 off $999 code. You can look here to see current coupon codes, or check out Slickdeals.net or Fatwallet.com.

Laptop arrived today nine days early and I have been very happy so far.

I bought an XPS 1710 over 6 weeks ago and I am thoroughly impressed by it. The most important benefit is that fact that it is SILENT and COOL. I can literally play games on my lap. How Dell managed to get the 7900 GTX to run so cool is beyond me. Why is this astounding fact is missing from that review? This is the review that made me buy it in the first place: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 887&review=Dell+XPS+M1710 Even running the latest games with all gfx features on and at 1900x1200, it occasionally engages its fans, and then once finished it always stops immediately - and even so the fans are QUIET. And this is during the summer at 27 degrees C. Lastly, the only other important point to add is that the built-in speakers are awesome. I have a Logitech THX 2.1 for my desktop to compare against and thus I am not easily impressed. I simply cannot fault it.

I have the Asus V6V (read more at: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 311) Firewire - Have not used it, but it looks to be supported and configured External video output - Yes, I use this to give presentations at our LUG Power Modes - I do not have much use for the various power modes so I would not be able to answer specifically if everything in that area is working, however there is this project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/acpi4asus/ Battery Monitor works Track pad including tap works Sound works - best yet even my special volume keys work Internal wireless and Ethernet both worked without any extra configuration There is no docking station connection. So yeah, from my experience, the Asus V6V (running any of the latest 3 releases of ubuntu) has everything working. However, there are things I have not tested. There may be some issues in the power management, but maybe not. I also have not tested the card reader (it doesn't have a CF slot which is what my Rebel XT uses). I also have not tested the dial up modem. I would not be surprised if this untested hardware also worked flawlessly (with the exception of the modem--I remember the hell I used to go through with modems and linux way back in the day, but that may have changed too). If you really want me to test some of that other stuff, I'll find time to do so.

I think we'll see within the decade solid state drivers. CF memory is now available in 3GB sizs for about $300; 32GB chips are now coming on the market; assuming these 3GB units use 8GB chips, we can imagine in the near year CF cards with a 12GB capacity at the same price point. These are already large enough to support a credible laptop computer, although you'd need ten or so to provide storage for a typical desktop.

Mobile PC's with solid state drives are already here. They not only use much less power but they are also much quicker. From the first article listed below:

"The SSD reads 300 percent faster (53MB/s) and writes 150 percent quicker (28MB/s) than normal hard drives. As a result, multiple application programs can operate simultaneously and large volumes of data can be edited and reproduced more efficiently. Microsoft Windows XP will boot up 25-50% faster on the SSD than on other drives. Moreover, the typical 1.8-inch hard disk drive weighs around 50 grams; whereas the SSD is 20 to 30 grams lighter, depending on the package type."

I want one NOW.

Read more here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 953 and http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/default.asp?news ID=476

"High operating temperatures (Almost 85 degrees!)"

In the Ars review, the mentioned that the thing was throttling the CPU down to avoid damage, and in another review they had some instability caused by the heat.

I would have expected more from Apple, particularly after they had an identical issue with MacBook Pros. They have released a firmware update, but that just turns the fans on at lower temperatures, it can't increase the thermal conductivity of incorrectly applied thermal compound.

Apparently, Lance was drunk during the event and thought he had some kind of big scoop when really he was too wasted to understand what was going on at the event.

Even if this guy opened the normal non Blue-ray laptop, why was Sony using a DVD+R to show a side by side comparison with the Blue-ray player.
You can see the comparison at this site. The picture in question is about halfway down the page

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 939

What I am getting at here is a DVD+R has half of the capacity of a normal DVD and when you shrink it you get a very noticible quality degredation, so if Sony was comparing Blue ray to this other laptop running the same movie with on a DVD+R this is NOT even remotely a fair comparison.

Please view both laptops at http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 939/. Duh!

Yeah, great. You were all duped.

The laptop on the left was running a DVD demo, and the one on the right was Blu-Ray. You know. To show the difference...

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 939

Fake.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 939

Agreed if you look at this: http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/12136.jpg It is quite obvious to me that they saw this DVD too, but actually noted it was a comparison like grub had said and quoted above. Just a plain hoax.

The premium model comes bundled with one of the first Blu-ray Disc (BD) movies, House of Flying Daggers, which Sony showed side-by-side tonight, along with the DVD version. Contrary to what some have said, the difference in quality is instantly noticeable

• The Trackpoint is gone
• There are bloody useless "Windows" keys on the new models now, taking up precious space (WTF?), IBM had always refused to add them
• Even the larger models have stupidly small "Return" keys now
• The overall look&feel is that of a cheap Acer laptop, not that of a good old solid and practical ThinkPad...

Then again, since Toshiba is building laptopos with totally impractical keyboards these days, I don't think ThinkPad users will buy from them ... Look at this view on a widescreen laptop from Toshiba (with german keyboard layout) - ridiculously small space bar, tiny Control-keys, tiny Tab key, so much space wasted. What the f... were they thinking when they designed this? It must be a model for people who only ever use the mouse on the PC ...

but from what I've seen on Lenovo's website, they are already adding gimmicky things like white marks on the top to indicate where various ports are

Yeah, a PowerBook/MBP docking station would be nice, and I don't know why Apple hasn't made one (ExpressCard could handle it). But that's not the solution for everyone -- I have a tower with faster hard drives and 2 big monitors at home, so I don't dock. I use my DVI connector on the road to connect to monitors and projectors at remote sites, and VGA wouldn't always cut it.

I also like the trackpoint and wish it were available as an Apple option. I disagree with your characterization of the keyboards, though -- I find I'm faster with the Apple PB/MBP keyboards than the ThinkPad one. (If you're thinking of the flimsy iBook keyboard it's a different story.)

The other thing which the ThinkPads (and 99% of all other non-Apple laptops) is lacking is digital audio output. This is especially glaring as laptop analog audio hardware is both cheap and very prone to interference from inside the case.

By the way: stealth fighter = 1982. :-) Seriously, I'd love to buy other Core Duo laptops but I haven't seen one with a design even half as sleek and well-executed as Apple's -- and the MBP is only a slight evolution of a design first unveiled in 2003! Laptop manufacturers need to get with the design program. Garish multicolored plastic 1.5" thick enclosures aren't good enough.

More info and pics on the new Lenovo's.

No Track Point?

The hard drive is currently NTFS in a USB 2.0 enclosure, so I can just bring the drive and connect it easily. I want to be able to write to the drive from both Windows and Linux. Also, since they are living in the dorms, the firewall blocks many things such as Samba.

I have the MX700 mouse, with 2 thumb buttons and the scroll buttons above and below the scroll wheel. I believe I can use imwheel to capture the thumb button events (8 and 9). xmodmap only works on the corepointer, which I have the touchpad set as. I do like the scroll buttons working as default, though.

My keyboard is the Logitech keyboard that came with the mouse (MX Duo). The buttons I am referring to are the volume wheel and the buttons such as Media, media control (Play, Stop, Forward, Back), Web.
These buttons used to work perfectly using lineakd, but some update broke them so they no longer generate events in xev, despite having set the keyboard to the appropriate model, "logiinkse", in xorg.conf. Also, lineakd now just gives me a string of xkbsetmap errors when I start it.

As for Apple, if they come out with a 17" core duo with a keyboard that fits me (like the HP) and an exterior with the right connectors (not that I'd use them all), then I'd love to get one; however, I'd still need to run Windows for games -- and that would have to be Vista.
Vista so far has incomplete drivers (current ATI vista drivers have some functions like tv-out disabled). Vista 5270 has moved many options around just for the hell of it -- display control panel tabs are separated into different places, for example.

The HP:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 681
http://www.mobilityguru.com/2006/01/11/hp_pavilion _dv8000z_is_big_heavy_and_full_of_features/
Vista current build screenshots:
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5270. asp

2 things I hate:
IGPs (even if ATI or NVIDIA, I still want more power -- I want HL2 at 1680x1050 if at all possible)
Companies moving things around just for the hell of it so you can't find anything

Wow. That's the biggest bit of flamebait I've seen in a long time... Let's break it down, point by point.

Because your modern Windows machine will traditionally have a more powerful AMD processor.

While AMD is indeed outselling Intel in the 'retail desktop' market, there is nothing 'traditional' about this, it's a recent turn of events. And by most counts, the Pentium-M and Core Duo are at least a match for the latest AMDs. Yes, the Pentium 4/Pentium D suck. That's why Intel is abandoning that core.

AMD's solutions, even the mobile ones, outperform Intel consistently at low prices.

Ah, AMD fanboy speak. I'm sorry, but Core Duo simply spanks any available AMD mobile solution. Check out some reviews (Core Duo 2 GHz, ATI X1400 scores 2092 3DMark05's, and... Oh, wait, I can't find any reviews of a dual-core mobile AMD with current-generation graphics... Sorry. The best I could find was 1203 3DMark05's for a 1.6 GHz Turion with AMD X700 graphics. I looked for over half an hour. Only one review of an AMD-equipped laptop without integrated graphics. And AMD doesn't offer dual-core mobile at any price.

It'll possibly have more RAM, better integrated graphics, and so on.

possibly? You can choose the amount of RAM you want... Better integrated graphics? Look again. Apple has X1600 at 128 or 256 MB of VRAM. I only found one non-chipset graphics on an AMD notebook, and it was 64 MB X700. Although I did find an Alienware with a desktop processor and video chip for significantly more than a MacBook Pro (when configured with the slowest dual-core processor, and all other specs equal to the MacBook.)

Moreso - it will be customisable and easy to optimise the hardware for gaming purposes.

Yes, and most of the customizations are necessary to bring it to the minimum level of the MacBook; and my 2.0 GHz Core Duo and 256 MB ATI X1600 will be just horrible for gaming. I mean, for crying out loud, the Alienware $2500 portable gaming monster only comes with 256 MB of system memory by default!

... it's still a Mac and they paid way more money for less computing power than the regular Windows...

If it's the same hardware, then it's the same computing power. You can install Linux on a Mac just as a Windows machine. And, again, configure the same between a PC company and a MacBook Pro, and you'll find that you're not paying 'way more' money. Maybe a little more, but as I like 'thin and light', it's worth it to me. (And, as I mentioned, if you configure an Alienware the same, it ends up significantly more expensive.) Nobody ever said Apple was a 'cheap' supplier. They're at the same level as Alienware, or Dell's XPS series. Or compare to a ThinkPad or a Sony. Those are the same 'level' of computer as a Mac. Don't compare to a Compaq or a generic.

Apple is not the only manufacturer using the Core Duo chip.

I've been undervolting my HP zv5000z Athlon 64 notebook since July of 2004, and I got the idea from Silent PC Review where people were undervolting desktop Athlon 64s. I switched to using CrystalCPUID to manage speed and voltage since that initial post was written and most people have switched to RMclock. Lots of people on R3000 Forums and the HP forum at NotebookReview.com have been undervolting their notebooks. I believe I was the instigator on both of those forums.

Anyhow, I'm still undervolting, now with a Mobile-class Athlon 64 3200+ CPU that I swapped in some time ago (HP only used DTR-class chips). AMD is very conservative with their default voltage levels so there's lots of room to work with. I've set my CPU to run at roughly Low Voltage-class levels, close to what a Turion ML is rated to do. The machine is solid. I got great battery life before and even better battery life now. I was able to play DVD video for 3 hours (12 cell battery) and get closer to 4 hours in general use. That's with a 7200RPM HD too. Not bad for a desktop-replacement behemoth.

Note that if your machine usually runs at AMD's 800MHz idle speed, undervolting won't buy you much (if anything). AMD's PowerNOW! is already extremely efficient in normal use. If it jumps to full speed a lot, undervolting does wonders.

So, there's no need to suffer with a 32-bit-only Intel CPU and their awful integrated GPU if you want a long-lasting notebook.

(Anyone know how to undervolt under Linux? That's the one thing I've been missing...)

This video corruption problem isn't only limited to the pro 6100 model line. There was also one other class action suit before this one: http://www.lieffcabraser.com/notebookcomplaint.htm Myself and a large number of others also have the problem on the 5105-Sxxx model line. Here is a huge thread on the issue: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=2 6673 Also a MSN group has been started to try and get a settlement for 5105 users here: http://groups.msn.com/TOSHIBA5105DISPLAYPROBLEM/me ssages.msnw If anyone else is having these issues on this model line (or for that matter other models not included in the two earlier class action suits please sign up!

What do you think of something like this monitor filter? Maybe make it required for students who wish to use their laptops. Seems like most of the time, the laptop users would prefer this anyway; I know on the few occasions I've had a laptop in a lecture setting (conferences, not schools, but basically the same thing) the laptop wasn't distracting, but the ability of other people to read my screen made me uncomfortable, even though I was doing innocuous things.

Nice find! I was skeptical about this since the image from the linked page looks simulated. Then I found this link with actual pictures. At $35 a piece, I may go pick one up myself.

Here's a nice big pic
Taken from Notebook reviews

Looks quite nice

Here's a nice big pic
Taken from Notebook reviews

Looks quite nice

I'm largely talking about laptops. That said the G5 tower I was working with heavily until recently was well laid out but certainly nothing special where componentry is concerned - anyone that has actually built their own PC tower from parts can open up a G5 tower and tell you that. They'll also tell you it does look fantastic from the outside. This said IBM's G5 PPC chip is where the real appeal lies.

Apple makes a brand, not hardware, and a very good brand at that. Don't imagine a plant in Cupertino, rather imagine a massive smoking assembly complex in Taiwan churning out 20 models of laptop simultaneously, one of which is an 'Apple'.

Regarding your customer satisfaction surveys, I think it's great that so many are happy with Apple's customer service (as your link covers), though it has little bearing on what people are actually buying. I have no idea how Apple's workstations fare in a similar context. I certainly won't be ordering another one (especially given OSX's poor memory management) and the fact their next spread of workstations will likely be Pentium 4's with intelligent haircuts.

http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews.html