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Comparative Laptop Reviews?
clambert asks: "A few co-workers and I are in the market for a new laptop, but it's been incredibly difficult to try and explore what's out there. How do Sony's warranties rank up against Dell's? Can I get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the new Toshibas? What model IBMs feature DDR memory? There doesn't seem to be an AnandTech/Ars/Toms for the notebook market, and short of filtering through all the marketing hype on every {brand}.com, its tough to find out what systems offer what specs. Are there any comprehensive resources out there for those of us in the market for a new laptop?"
Epinions Laptops
Just got a new Tecra 9000. CD-R/DVD, 1GB RAM and a 1.2GHZ processor. I love it. Using XP and RedHat and both work flawlessly.
Pretty solid bang for the buck...
Epinions Laptops
http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews.html
If you are going to use the notebook computer as a mobile device (meaning that you travel with it), then I recommend checking out mobilecomputing.com. One of the best resources for notebook computing and PDA's also.
Listen the regular cnet and zdnet sites usually have reviews of laptops. They are not as tech centered or as unbiased as other sources IMHO. However, they make for a good starting point.
_ __
If you are going to use an alternative OS (linux or BSD for examples obviously) then check out a quick google search first to see people's impressions of the compatibility. This is a good idea anyway since people often sprinkle general comments into these and give you an idea of the quality of the product.
Finally, unless you are going for a Dell please go to a computer store and browse. Laptops are very personal machines and pointing device preference and the feel of the keyboard beneath your fingers as well as general layout of special buttons and the brightness and clarity of the screens are something you need to get a feel for first-hand.
If you get a Dell or other mail-order product it also gives you a point of reference so you know what to look for. For example if you try a box out at a store and realize you can't live without at least 15" screen or something.
I have Dell Inspiron 4000 and have been very happy with the quality of the product. SuSE 7.3 installed with no issues and Sax2 did a better job than Dell in figuring out my video settings.
Castle Wolfenstein looks damn good.
_______________________________________________
ACK
I've previously had Compaq and Dell laptops. I've had a IBM Thinkpad A21P for about a year now. - I must say that it is the best laptop I've ever seen/used. It's display is a dream. Sound,graphics card, pcmcia, networking (miniPCI + Dlink DWL650) worked out of the box when installing linux as well as FreeBSD (installing Win2K or NT means hunting for drivers online ).
/m
First you must make sure the laptop is 'Linux-Ready'. Take a look at the Standard Certification at LinuxCare. So that you can see whether your favourite Linux distro fits with your laptop of choice. Then proceed to google for the linux support for the rest of the devices.
sony has a 90 day limited warranty UNTIL YOU REGISTER THE PRODUCT, then it goes into a full 1 year limited warranty. Read your book, troll.
Click here for example
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Let's try this again....(in html this time)
System shootouts comparison page
--geethree
Yeah, I used to be the corporate sales guy that everyone assumed could spend 10 seconds online and have boiled down the entire laptop market to give my customer the scoop on exactly the price and feature point in the market that he/she wanted. Now you know what it's like out there...
FWIW, I mostly sold Asus, which are a monster product, but I had to provide most of the support myself. For retail customers the Toshibas are great products, lot of third party accessories available for cheap, and if you spend $1500 to $1700 you can probably get what you want.
Spring for the extra warranty, otherwise you might be flushing $2000 down the toilet if you break the thing 366 days after you bought it.
:)
I tend to favor the main brands (Toshiba, Acer, IBM Thinkpad). You'll find that most Linux-ready laptops are also the better-made onee. I think this is because the linux laptop FAQ is weighted towards laptops that use decent hardware that has drivers available, so you get less off-brand internals.
After 8 laptops (varios purchases, various sources), my two recommendations are:
1) Make sure it has a 3 months warrenty. Most problems happen immediately (manufacturer flaws that appear during the first days of use). Most accidents happen during the first month (while you learn the 'stresses' your laptop can handle).
2) Never get reconditioned (or used) laptops unless they include a new battery-- battery replacement is expensive.
A.
I own a Dell Inspiron 4100 (Geforce 2MX Go 32Mb version) with 14.1" SXGA screen (1400x1050). I've added an extra 256MB of ram (384Mb total) and a Cisco Wireless adapter (PCMCIA) and I have to say that it's an amazing machine (especially since I went with the DVD/CDRW combo drive) and everything works fine in Linux. I wanted a machine that is fast, that can play neverwinternights when it eventually comes out, that isn't like carrying a brick of led and that had decent battery life.
I was sort of lucky, since Dell first fucked up my order and sent me the Radeon version, so I got to see both versions. The battery life was pretty good. Radeon version could do 2h11m of straight DVD playback, while my current version can watch any normal length DVD's (did't really do any stress tests yet).
The LCD is extremely sexy and displays everything perfectly. I also didn't have any dead/lit pixels in either I received. The speakers are below average compared to my ATP3's at home, but that was expected.
The keyboard feels great! I read on http://www.zdnet.com and http://www.cnet.com reviews of different laptops and they always said the Dell's had really good feeling keyboards and they weren't lying. You also have both a touchpad and the little thingy in the middle of the keyboard. There's also 2 sets of clickable buttons. Which is nice since they are nicely positioned depending on which mouse you are using.
One last thing: I was considering a Toshiba 5k series, however I read that it was a BIOSless machine. You might want to be careful if you go with toshiba, not to choose that series if you plan on installing Linux on it. Go to: http://www.linux-laptop.net to see success stories of installing Linux on different kinds of laptops.
I can honestly say that everything works on mine, except for the modem (but I didn't even try configuring it yet, nor will I ever).
Dell customer services suck the bat though. They are completely clueless. When I called to report that they had fucked up the order, they kept me on hold for a while. Just to give you an idea, I fast forwarded the DVD the Matrix to the kung fu part at the beginning of the call and I was able to watch the entire movie from that point on while on the phone with them. 90% of the time, they kept me on hold. If I never worked in a call center and didn't care for the actual poor sucker that got my call, I could of weaseled out a easy upgrade, but I'm not that kind of person.
Hope that somewhat helps!
Fish
Your Toshibas seem to be pretty old, I've had real hassles with the 72xx's from a few years back after a load of exec's decided that shiny silver pretty things were the way of the future... Maybe they're good again now and we just got a bad batch.
I'm really happy with my ibook right now - durable, great power usage and nice os - dualbooting ydl & osx
I'm currently using a A21p (850 PIII) as my main machine. I've had it since March '01 with no probs.
:)
Reason: 1600x1200? You cannot really argue with that.
Also, these IBM's have video in too! (Tosh's don't by default (I've just checked))
The previous one was a 770z (March '99? I think I get a new one every 2 years. That had a 300 PII I think), which at the time had the highest resolution (1280x1024) and that's still going strong on someones desk (the battery's dead by now).
Previous to that, it was a Tosh' Tecra something-or-other 166 (Nov '98) which is still running as a router somewhere in the organisation. (how's about that for reuse then
Unfortunately, there isn't anything with a higher resolution of 1k6 x 1k2 yet (prove me wrong) but I'd get it as soon as it came out.
Other collegues typically have Vaios (crap video cards (CStrike-wise)) and Dells (the little Inspiron 2650's ok, but too small).
& the one I've got my eye on is the A31p but I'll wait for the 2 or 2.1 Ghz P4 (Q1 '03 roll-out, methinks) + it'll take the Ultraport camera I got for the last one too!
After saying all that bollocks, I think that if this is your first laptop, the main things to ask yourself is:
"How long's the warranty? (Y'know you'll drop it more often/earlier if it's shorter)"
"Trackpoint or scratch&sniff?"
"Will it scale up my display on the LCD if I drop the resolution (IOW: play CS) , or does it only show up the middle 30% of the screen?"
"Can I carry it easily? (e.g. I don't feel like a dickwad with a 3kg 'top in a rucksack, or am I a neo-PHB who looks cools with a teeny briefcase)?"
"Will it run Linux/BSD/OS-of-choice?"
I'll shut up now & get on with....
XOR EAX,EAX
PUSH EAX
RET
.
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;lame I know...
-- Mod me down. I am not a karma tart. ffs,gag
DUDE! Not legal in most U.S. states!
Anyway, Sony's service does really suck--I watched the guy in the next cube go through two months of hell with them (over his personal laptop) until he threatened a lawsuit and they gave him his money back.
I'm in the market as well and I found this article pretty helpful. To summarize, unless all you do is hack audio/video, it's a waste of money to get a P4-M w/ DDR memory, despite the faster bus, etc. Photoshop and AutoCAD tests were actually faster on the PIII-M.
I was leaning toward the Toshiba Satellite 5005-S504 until I read this. Running linux is a must, so now I'm considering a Dell Inspiron 8100.
Both of the above have UXGA (1600x1200) displays. I originally tought I wanted a Powerbook G4, but am not convinced that I can be productive on a 1152x768 display. My development environment looks like this: Left 1/3 of the screen is an Eterm running screen. Right 2/3 is XEmacs. A higher resolution means more code visible at a time and/or a more readable font.
At the end of the day, many of us would like to check the laptop for "linux compliance" before actually purchasing the machine.
I found these 2 site quite useful:
Linux on a laptop
UniX with Mobile Computers
I have the same problem with my Satellite. Something in it is overheating, but only when I run Windows for some reason. And Toshiba keeps sending it back saying there is nothing wrong with it. At first I thought it might be a driver issue, but I have all the latest drivers from Toshiba, and the latest BIOS. Nothing seems to stop it from overheating. The funny thing is, it only overheats/locks up when I use IE or Netscape/Mozilla. I haven't tried Opera yet, maybe I'll try that tonight. The other thing is that the fans actually turn OFF when running Windows, they only go to a low speed with FreeBSD and Linux. I doubt I will buy another Toshiba for personal use, because of the poor response that I have received from tech support. I had to return the laptop and get a new one three times when it was new. The other ones had pixels burned out on the LCD, even though it was just out of the package. One also had a bad firewire port. But I just boot to FreeBSD if I need to do anything besides play a game, and it works great. So maybe it is not hardware, just software, but Toshiba should put out a patch for the buggy crap they have.
It's something that should happen.
If you put an Apple notebook to sleep, it stops. The CPU stops. Everything stops. That's why your download stops.
i had the exact opposite problem. every time i tried to load linux (rh7.x) on my tecra 8000, i couldn't work on it for more than an hour before it started to flake out. mouse would jump, slow performance, finally it would lock up. i tried reloading redhat several times, with different options to see if there was something i was loading that was doing it, but nothing worked. i finally redid it with 98se, and it works fine. no overheating, no mouse funny business, nothing. same thing on my thinkpad 390x. linux ran fine on my dell latitude though, but with the smaller screen i'm having to stick with the thinkpad and windows. for now.
Free Webmail
If you are looking for a high end laptop, I would definitely check out Dynamism. They have great service, and offer some very cool machines. There comparisons are purely spec based.
Spencer Ogden
In the last month Anandtech had begun reviewing laptops with the same rigor with which they approach everything else! While they have only covered 3 laptops so far, I think the reviews are exactly what a technical person wants to read when they are trying to make an educated decision.
They have covered the:
Asus T9
Toshiba Satellite
and just today:
WinBook N4
I am really glad to see someone as trusted at Anand filling this niche!
-OctaneZ
A TiBook is really nice, but I am absolutely in love with ny 12" iBook, it's small, light and has everything I need. I write large web apps for a living, and it's nice to run them in my notebook with all of the tasty goodness of UNIX for client demos
I have used the thing as a portable recording music studio at my cottage for a week (USB sound and MIDI adaptors and a big fat firewire HD). It did 8 or 9 digital audio tracks with FX plus a whole mess of MIDI tracks without skipping a beat. It may not be as fast as a TiBook, but it certainly seems to be fast enough. All of that did require a reboot into OS 9, however. One of these days, the professional audio apps will move to OS X and I will rejoice and no longer have to dual boot at all.
As the above poster mentioned, sleep is flawless (comes of having the same company build the soft and the hard and not having to support all sorts of no-name commodity parts) and every multiple button USB mouse I have tried works perfectly and gives you your right mouse button doing what it should as well as a scroll wheel.
I've worked with Dells, and they have been okay too.
I also supported a few Gateway laptops, and the ones we had were constantly having problems. We started out with 4 working Gateways, all of which had problems. By combining parts from the four I was able to get two working. I had to swap out hard drives, screens, CD drives, keyboards, and more.
- Eric, My web site
- Eric, InvisibleRobot.com
I've got an Inspiron 8100 and a TiBook and two iBooks (indigo and the new 12")
the comparisons go like this:
TiBook:
- Fast, slick, and very durable. you wouldn't assume so given its dimensions, but it's really tough. Screen resolution is somewhat iffy, but it still runs Photoshop 7 at blazing speeds.
Indigo iBook:
- small, clunky, but really quite good at Debian. using it mostly to try out new technologies and it gives my daughter something to bash around (very very durable)
New iBook:
fast, very strong, very small and light. Runs OS X really well and is actually my preferred machine just because I can really bring it anywhere with no trouble at all.
Inspiron:
The reason I mentioned durability up there is because in the 3 Dells I've bought, not a single on lasted more than a year. My current one's hinges are too lose, or cracking, the screen fizzes and turns bright green if you tilt the thing the wrong way, and something deep inside sounds like it's chewing apart the CPU. On the plus side, as a dual-boot, I haven't had any problems and Windoze 2000 even stayed afloat for 8 months before needing a re-install. Dell refuses to fix the screen because, as they said, it still works.
Advice: if you want something that will LAST, get a new iBook (14" is nice). As with most things PC, the hardware is just plain badly built. You only realy appreciate it when you use a new iBook. It really makes a difference.
BEST - IBM ThinkPad T-series - All other laptops are playing catchup to the IBM T-series line of portables. They have the best weight/performance/features ratio of any laptop on the market. IBM offers a fully 3-year warranty that covers your laptop internationally, no other mfg does this like IBM. Since this is /. I should mention that you can load your favorite *NIX distro onto one of these without a lot of trouble.
The biggest drawback to the T-series is the price - starting at $2400. If you can afford it, this laptop is king.
Sony Vaio - Beautiful laptops that run great until you have to get them repaired. The backlog on parts from Sony is a joke - 3-6 months easy.
Toshiba - They used to make great laptops, but have fallen in years past to mediocrity. A reasonable cheap solution.
HPaq - Forgetaboutit. Neither HP nor Compaq makes a laptop I would purchase, period.
Apple - The PowerBook G4 is beautiful, so long as you can stand running Mac OS. X is better... much better. The iBooks work well too. Apple repairs on laptops - mail it to them and get it back in a week fixed. At least you know it'll be done right.
Hope this helps. Best of luck.
Sapere Aude - Homer
I bought a SONY VAIO F180 in April 1999. Great price, great design, 1 year warranty, because I registered immideately. I bought it in the US via Sony Direct.
;-).
May 2000, back in Germany , the right display hinge broke.
I called support in Germany about this and learned that Sony has no world wide cooperation with all its Sony minions, unlike, say, Toshiba (thats what my friend told me about Toshs).
So I called the American support and they blabbed about shipping it to Florida and stuff, so it would have been an open ended thing regarding money that I would have to spend. There was no way that they could just ship the broken part.
Faced with this dilemma, I opened the case myself. Cudos for Sony here, because it was real easy, but display hinge is made of the *cheapest* metal. Think desktop PC slot covers.
It wasn't even cheap on purpose, the metal was still way stronger than the glass cover of the LCD backlight, so the breaking hinge wouldn't protect the LCD from breaking to save me some money.
I finally repaired it myself by using a piece of desktop slot cover metal to solder the 2 broken parts of the hinge together, like with a brace. And I dare say it's stronger than the original part
2001 I had to fix the right hinge the same way.
2002 I read that Sony Germany now asks for $20 just to qoute you the price of a spare part (they dropped that policy by now).
So I love Sony for their design and components, but I dread their support.
I could go on and on about this:
When I bought the notebook computer above, I asked them if the modem would be usable under Linux, they said "yes". Lucky for me I didn't expect this, but asked to amuse myself and in a faint hope that it would work. It was a Windows only soft modem of course.
Anyway, the design of that F180 is still sleeek and many other laptop vendors have worse looking machines. It did it's job for 3 years now and is still very functional even though I do not treat it daintily (it's a tool, dammit).
I will soon buy the successor to that laptop, it won't be a Sony.
I dream of a TiBook, but probably go for Tosh or HP (even though their displays are suppose to be crap on _some_ models. I hate inconsistency.)
Marcus
Try Mtechlaptops.com