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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
Epinions Laptops
http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews.html
Dell laptops are very good and reasonably priced - this is being written on one.
But have you noticed just how much advertisting dell do in print and online media? Often they have the inside front cover and two or three pages inside a magazine. This makes it almost impossible for the publication to say anything bad about their products.
As I say, they are generally nice machines, but perhaps this has something to do with the lack of comparative reviews.
Indeed, even for whole systems it's very hard to find comparative reviews these days (i.e. a Dell XYZ versus a Gateway ZYX), and I would gather that the reason is that there are so many options out there, and the models change so frequently (or are badged in a country specific way, which we see a lot in Canada), that it's impossible to stay current (not to mentioning very difficult to get them all together: Pretty much limited to the very large publishers like ZDNet). Instead, the review sites target whatever new singular piece of hardware is out: A nice granular little review for a timely piece of hardware such as the new Athlon XP 2.2 or the WD 8MB cache harddrive -> It's easy to review something so contextual as you know what the readers are looking for.
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
From my experience (2+ years in retail computer sales) the best laptops you can buy are ones that you cannot see, like a Dell or a Toshiba Tecra. (This is changing, however, their Satellite's have gotten very good recently, check out the 5005-s507, s504, or, if you want to go all out, s607) I would try cNet, they usually have some ok reviews on notebooks, or browse the opinion sites, keeping a air of cynicism since some of these people will bitch up a storm because they didn't know how to turn on the computer.
Personally speaking, if it were my money, I would go Toshiba. Great unit, low price, warranty extensions available through them for 3 years full accidental damage, the whole bit.
Couldn't be any happier with my PowerBook G4. Runs Mac OS X great and works well with Mandrake 8.2 PPC. Plus it's one cool looking notebook! 8-)
iBooks are nice, but they use G3 CPUs... Mac users are waaay better off with a G4.
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 will also try to tell you that you have to register with them or your warranty isn't valid. Ran into this problem with a Sony Vaio.(sp?)
What?
Yes, I know - only one mouse button.
;) ). There's a Firewire port in the back so you can plug in your DV cameras and the like - again, sat there in the living room with my wife and tweaked my daughter's birthday party video.
But otherwise, my Powerbook is a great machine. I can put Yellow Dog Linux on it if I want just Linux. Or if I want a good BSD system, like the song says, "Boom...there it is." Runs the major apps I care about (MS Office (yes, I know...but it's a business thing), Adobe Acrobat), runs the apps I make (Perl), has a great display, DVD playback, and if you plug in a monitor in the back, you can make it work as a secondary monitor (instead of just a mirror, which is kind of cool). Instant sleep-off, sleep-on just by closing the lid. (Most Windows based laptops I've seen get *very* pissed off when you put them in sleep mode, what with the PCMCIA slots getting redected and all.)
Modem, 1 G/100/10 Ethernet built in, Airport built in (you can turn it off if you're worried, or get an Airport and bridge it to your local network at 128 bits encryption - sitting in the living room surfing the net was never so much fun
Other than the mouse thing - and you either get used to doing Control-Click for secondary mouse stuff, or when you have it at a desk you plug in a little USB mouse - it's been a rock solid machine.
Oh, and it plays Icewind Dale great too. (Baldur's Gate runs all right, as long as you boot into OS 9, because the bastards haven't Carbonized BG I yet.)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
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.
Most of the sites mentioned (like Ars, Anand, Tom's, and so forth) are targeted towards the "enthusiast" market. They're the people who go out and but new motherboards, video cards, and so on, and they tweak constantly. You don't see too many reviews of actual, brand-name computers on those sites unless they are doing something truly unique.
Laptops, for the most part, appeal to two groups of users - corporate shops and students (granted plenty of exceptions). Enthusiasts don't seem to buy as many laptops, probably because of the performance compromises virtually all laptops make. You can't readily upgrade anything on the typical laptop except for RAM, HD space, and Cardbus devices. There's no CPU swapping, no video card upgrades, and overclocking is kind of pointless on a laptop (though I had a PowerBook 3400c once that I overclocked from 240 to 270 MHz).
What coverage there is of laptops has usually been in the "mainstream" print publications like PC Magazine, but they don't even go there too often.
When it's a situation like yours, with multiple co-workers getting laptops, usually it's a pretty simple answer - your IT department will give you a Dell, Compaq, IBM, or Toshiba and tells you to love it. At least you guys get to pick!
As for our shop - Compaq Evo N600c laptops. They're pretty slick. As for me (IRL), I use a TiBook 667 as my main computer at home, and it's most wonderful indeed.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Click here for example
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
The problem is that the person isn't looking to find a laptop that can run anything: they are looking for a laptop with great specs. I don't think that's the way to buy a laptop.
;)
When my wife and I decided to buy a laptop, we sat down and discussed what we wanted to do with it. After that, the specs wrote themselves, and we could move on to finding compatible machines.
For example, she wanted to run Evercrack. I wanted screen real estate for work application. So a 3D accelerator, 512M RAM, and 1600x1200 display were part of the specs.
Did I eventually want to run Linux on it? If so, then maybe a laptop with no proprietary hardware (as it turns out, I don't want to run Linux on it, though, at least not for a while).
Finally, after determining what we wanted to do with the laptop, we spec shopped for the machine, using C-Net, USENET, vendor sites.
In the end, we narrowed it down to the high-end Vaio and high-end Toshiba. Both had comparable specs, the Vaio was slower, with larger screen size (same resolution, though) and a slightly better 3D card (mobile radeon 7500).
We went with the Toshiba, though: GeForce4Go (but the video card can be swapped out, apparently, which was a big plus), SD/Smart Media readers built in (for digital photography and swapping files to my Zaurus), Firewire. So we got a machine with great specs, but that does what we need it to do (plus more).
Of course, the Everquest thing should have tipped me off. I think I've used the laptop once since we've gotten it. Silly wife.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
As somebody who's been using laptops for the last ten years as my primary machine, and as a guy who's surrounded by mobile salespeople and execs who live on laptops, the reason why you don't see comparison reviews is because most of us are zealots about one or two brands.
The salespeople at my shop are absolutely married to their Sony Vaios, because they look sexy, they impress clients, and they're very lightweight. They don't care about things like driver support or warranty, because the tech crew handles that, and they always get a new one every year anyway.
The network admin crew loves Dells and Toshibas, because they're solid as rocks and the driver support is much better, with pretty regular driver updates.
You're already seeing lots of people slap up their opinion here, but notice that it's all opinions - not hardware comparisons. Us Slashdotters are subject to the same hardware fanatacism that my cohorts are subject to. Whether you want integrated 802.11b, big hard drives, big memory support, whatever, you can always find it in any brand. Everybody's doing basically the same thing, and the performance is within 10% of the next guy.
What's your damage, Heather?
What's that?
Oh, *right* - that thing I voided with a screwdriver that first day...
Actually, I've never needed to use the warranty on my vaios - I have 2 of them. Damn solid little machines. They've literally been all over the world, usually rattling around in a backpack without any special padding or protection. The older one is held together with tape in places, but it performs like a dream.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
I haven't used Sony, but they have a SuperSlim Pro series that is very light-weight and seems to have good features, including FireWire and video out.
I have used and supported Dells and Toshibas extensively at our University, however, and they both seem to be rock solid machines. Although the Dell might have a slightly better looking display, I think I favor the Toshibas a bit more. They are a little sleeker looking and they just seem to be incredibly stable. (We are running Toshiba Satellite 1805's (new), 2800's (old) and 2060's (moldy)). Kudos to them for redisigning their touchpads, which have incredible accuracy in their newer models.
Note: We are a Windows 2000 only shop.
...is that in three or four years you will have to invent a reason to buy that really cool newer version, as your old computer will still be running just fine...
Let's try this again....(in html this time)
System shootouts comparison page
--geethree
But have you noticed just how much advertisting dell do in print and online media? Often they have the inside front cover and two or three pages inside a magazine. This makes it almost impossible for the publication to say anything bad about their products.
I subscribe to several magazines, and yes, some do seem to be lenient on their advertisers, but there are some publications out there who stick to their guns and call a spade a spade -- one recent review blasted Dell for shipping a P4 system with DDR SDRAM rather than RDRAM due to the performance hit. So making a blanket statement such as this is not accurate.
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
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.
From what I understand, there are only three or so
notebook MANUFACTURERS. Dell, Sony etc. take these notebooks, slap their trademarks all over
kick up the price by 50%-150% and force you to pay the M$ tax.
Scan http://powernotebooks.com to build your own.The above link has a perfect score in http://www.resellerratings.com (makes me a _little_ nervous) but they have a nice range of books from minimal SIS chipset based to the lateses P-4 DDR units with 64Mb DDR radeon video. All in the $800-$1700 (US dollar) range.
For a narrower range of notebooks but with better prices, pop over to http://www.mwave.com and poke on notebooks in their catalog. mwave has very good ratings in http://www.resellerratings.com (more realistic IMHO) and will let you configure your notebook without the M$ tax.
Is there anywhere that will custom-build me a laptop? I know it will be quite expensive, but as long as the price of the laptop is less than the price of the equally powered desktop plus $750 I would greatly consider it. I'm just one of those my computer my way kind of people.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
If you've got the dough and want something that'll last with some "ooo" factor, get a TiBook with OS9, OS X and YellowDog Linux.
That's what I got in January when they finally started to deliver a CD-R & RW burner in 'em. (I HATE not being able to back-up.)
I can only recommend it. My G4/667MHz 512MB RAM 30GB disk is great.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I have to agree and expand on the parent post. First, not sure there is anyplace "good" to get laptop reviews, so finding out from the /. crowd should work out better. In both cases you will get lots of words, but on /. you can hear from longterm users like me and others.
During the past 8 years I have owned two (that's all, 2) laptops, both are Toshiba. The first one was a T1100 and it kept working until I broke it tinkering inside the case.
The second one, a SatellitePro, is about 6 years old and has had almost daily use, only now starting to show some stress (cracks, etc) and has been to the shop once for a defective battery. Bought my son one when he was about 12 yrs old, he recently replaced it (Toshiba was still working fine) with a Dell. The Dell has been sent back for various repairs several times in the past year.
My SatellitePro is now my livingroom websurfing machine. Will be replacing it with another Toshiba this summer.
Also, at work I have used Panasonic (the CF series is great if you don't mind paying a premium for a ruggedized machine), also used Dell and NEC. Hated the Dell and NEC, both seemed slow for their processor and memory, but the biggest thing was they just did not feel "solid" like a Toshiba. Fo a long time I refused using stuff from the office and took my own machines everyplace.
The prices of Toshibas are reasonable, just make a casual comparison at Best Buy or a similar store.
Bottom line: Toshibas always work.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
I simple took a visit to Apple's homepage and once again realized that they are the creators of the finest laptop computers around.
As simple as that.
Can I get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the new Toshibas?
Anything with PCMCIA slots will take a wireless card of whatever flavour you like. Last I looked all the Toshibas had 2 PCMCIA slots.
if anybody finds a model with more let me know!
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
PCWorld has a Top 15 list broken down into Power and Value categories. They also cover the pros and cons of each.
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
.
.
;lame I know...
-- Mod me down. I am not a karma tart. ffs,gag
I've had several Sony Vaio notebooks, and have been very happy with them. They are not the cheapest, but the build quality is good and they look the part, and they work nicely with other Sony kit.
I've currently got a PCG-GR215SP. I want to put Linux on it but am afraid that it might have proprietry hardware that will screw up the install. Has anyone reading this got Linux running on one of the latest Sony Vaio machine? I know people have done it on earlier ones, but can't find anything on the web about installing on a machine like the PCG-GR215SP.
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
LOL, I remember that. Did not check your link, but I remember them selling the Soviets an 8 axis laithe or some sort of machine equipment to make quiet propellers for ships and subs.
Returned a new Toshiba VCR at the time too, just paranoid I guess, thought they might not be able to repair it during their suspension from doing business in the USA (did not know how those things worked then).
Anyway, they got in trouble, paid a price and make great stuff now, from what I can see.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
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.
The 10-20% performance difference between laptop models is nothing compared to the ergonomics and quality of the hardware. Remember, this isn't a box sitting under your desk which you can connect any keyboard or monitor to - once you buy it, you're going to have that box sitting on your lap, be staring at that screen, and be using that keyboard for hours per day. (Unless you're using it docked all the time, in which case it's more like a luggable desktop.)
:-), but aside from that it's a a pleasure to use. Lightweight, excellent quality, gorgeous screen, and everything Just Works smoothly out of the box with a tolerable operating system, unlike the many hours I usually spend getting all the random quirky hardware in a PC laptop working under Linux. And there's no Windows Tax.
That's why laptop owners are so religious about their machines - this is an area where idiosyncratic unexplainable personal preference really is the most important factor. It's also why comparative laptop reviews are generally useless. Go out and get your hands on a bunch of different machines - that'll tell you more than any magazine article.
That said, PC Magazine's Support and Satisfaction Survey will give you some useful hard data on laptop reliability, and reading lots of comments on epinions can give you a dim impression of common trends in owner experience.
My personal experience: I bought a ThinkPad T21 about a year ago, but I found the keyboard painful to use and had to sell it. (Which is a shame, considering how good previous IBM and ThinkPad keyboards have been.) Compaq has a good keyboard, but Compaq sucks for build quality, reliability, and service. I tried HP and Toshiba models at a local store and was unimpressed with their ergonomics and general quality. I recently used a Dell Inspiron 4100 for a month - it was cheap, and the three-year CompleteCare service plan is awesome, but I found the machine itself to be mediocre in every way. Mediocre build quality, mediocre ergonomics, mediocre screen, a little too heavy, and really ugly.
I'm now using a PowerBook G4 - it has a few quirks, the main one being that it's not i386/Linux
Or if I want a good BSD system, like the song says, "Boom...there it is."
;) )
Uhh... that's "Whoop there it is"...
Airport built in (you can turn it off if you're worried, or get an Airport and bridge it to your local network at 128 bits encryption - sitting in the living room surfing the net was never so much fun
The Airport antenna is built into every new Mac (desktops and laptops), and they all have an internal slot for the Airport card, but the Airport card itself is an extra $100.
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
One thing I really REALLY need in a laptop that I am buying is no friggen OS pre-installed. I have only had self built PCs and even when I used windows ... well, I got it the cheap way. Now, my copy of XP is a student license and I don't even use it - and I sure as heck don't want to pay for it twice when the price of the laptop is already pretty damn expensive. This is not a pro-linux troll - its a statement that I am a cheap bastard!
After that - price is my major litigating factor. I am just not in the money. The current laptop I am looking at can (humerously enoug) be found @ www.walmart.com. Since my girl works @ wal-mart I am hoping to get the 10% off it so its only a $900 laptop (p3 1ghz, dvd - not a bad little laptop for the price).
Built in 802.11b is important, bluetooth not so much - but I can live w/o tho since I can get the adapter
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
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
I've been using a Sony Vaio PCG-505GX for a couple years now. It screams. It runs Red Hat 6.x and 7.x beautifully.I wouldn't trade it for the world, unless I could get a similarly sized and functioning ThinkPad (because unlike most people I actually prefer the eraser).
My only objection is that now that the disk drive is failing, I can't get any support from Sony. Period. The online support docs, if you manage to get just the right search, indicate that the drive isn't replacable, the nearest service center is San Diego (I live in Raleigh), and there are no authorized dealers nearby (yeah, I know, CompUSA sells Sony laptops...but refuses to fix them).
You can make snide comments about neon lights and so on, but I think those comments apply to the PowerBook and similar fruity translucent systems than to a silver/purple Vaio.
Now for an appeal: If anyone here knows how I could replace my disk on my own and set up the OS with a new suspend memory to disk partition, please let me know. I only bought the laptop for $900, but I see no reason to trash a good piece of hardware if a way can be found to extend its life.
What is your Slash Rating?
Which never worked. There was always some fancy -- and basically useless -- technology that my clients just had to have. One reason I'm no longer a consultant!
I have a Tecra 8100. I have two big complaints:
1) Bloody loud.
2) Really really bad keyboard layout. What idiot placed "home" to the next to and to the right of the backspace key? I can't say that I ever got used to the other page movement keys either in their column on the right. But that Home just causes permanent issues... I should really just bind it to BS and lose the functionality altogether. I would be much more productive that way.
I dunno bout Windows, but my PCG-505GX works great under Red Hat 6.x/7.x...didn't even have to get a new pcmcia driver :}
What is your Slash Rating?
Go AlienWare. They by far have best service and warrenty that I have yet to encounter. Not to mention the coolness factor. Who else has a 2.4ghz LAPTOP for under $3000?
If you are interested in GNU/Linux laptops, you can narrow the search quickly via
Linuxcare Lab's certification reports. As usual, GNU/Linux-related docs are useful descriptive than the manufacturers'. =-)
-Paul Komarek
Personally, I'd wait two weeks (until WWDC) and see what shows up here.
~jeff
Strange, the eraser mouse I thought was a feature of the laptops. I *hate* those damn pads. My wrist will occassionally brush it while typing and cause the pointer to go some where I dind't want it to..
Now the eraser mice I find easy to control, but not easy to screw up.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Otherwise you're just paying for all the advertising and marketing budgets.
Deleted
As long as we are on the subject of rabid laptop testimonials, I'll tell you about my laptop.
A Tadpole SparcBook 2, from 1993. A neat little thing I got from my company and it still works great, though I no longer have a working battery for it, it is neat to boot up for nostalgia's sake. Built in SCSI, AUI Ethernet, etc. Anyway, the funny thing is my home was robbed and the laptop stolen. I tried to call pawn shops to report it, and they all had the same question (so, is it a Mac, or a PC, I would say "saprc, running solaris, and they would ask "is that a DOS program? Does it say anything about intel on it? A latop *has* to be either PC or Mac, so you probably have an old 286 or 386 or something" Describing this thing to pawnshops was painful., eventually I just said if it is a laptop and you can't tell what the hell t is, it's probably mine). As it turns out, no one would buy it and they guy got caught two years later and couldn't even figure out how to turn it on, and I got it back intact. Still works great, though I'm looking for a cheap PC laptop replacement, since the SparcBook 2 is getting long in the tooth. Mac platform looks like they approach Sun quality on laptops, but is too expensive, oh well.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
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
From IATA.org:
OSX: Kosciusko Airport, Attala County, MS, US
So Apple is Still in bed with MS... ooops! that is MS as in Mississipi, right?
No sig for the moment.
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
It's got firewire, yeah...I've had no use for it so that I can't vouch for...it doesn't have a memory stick slot.
What is your Slash Rating?
OK...I've got the GX model with a Fugitsu drive. I don't have the original OS discs...they didn't come with the laptop when I purchased it because the previous owner couldn't locate them. That doesn't matter too terribly much, because I use Linux, but I'd like to know how you went about making it hibernate to disk.
What is your Slash Rating?
Don't forget comp.sys.laptops newsgroup to read users' reviews. Definitely use groups.google.com :).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This is buried so deep you probably will never see it.
I have a compaq Armada E500 with the 1400X1024 LCD in a titanium shell,DVD,integrated 10/100, modem P-III 866 with 256 meg ram.
EVERYTHING works under linux, setting up Slackware was effortless, I have the modem working, everything else working and X 4.2.0+ had the DRI 3d acceleration for the ATI card working again..
No hardware on this INCLUDING the docking station works perfectly under linux.... it is an awesome machine for linux.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Laptops are a very personal thing. The ergonomics are way more important than anything else. In fact, you should ignore all the "horespower and torque" ratings and just focus on this.
I chose my IBM because I tried a friend's and fell in love with the keyboard. I now prefer it to a desktop keyboard. I also really like the pointing device, especially in combination with the third "scroll" button.
The 14" screen is the perfect compromise- just big enough for all day viewing at 1024x768. Bigger isn't necessary, smaller is too squinty.
There's also an overall quality feel that's a notch or two above everything else, except Apple. Ti Powerbooks are beautiful.
As far as I'm concerned, IBM blows everything else away. In comparison, my bro-in-law's Dell feels like a piece of crap.
I'd still take a three year old IBM T-series over a brand new anything else. Speed, schmeed.
Something to be really careful with is screen size and native resolution. Bigger is not always better. As LCD screens get bigger, their native resolution is higher too. A 15" screen with 1200x1600 resolution sounds great, but in fact the text will probably be too small. Putting that screen at a more comfortable 1024x768, it may look horrible, because it's not the native resolution- text may be a bit fuzzy, and pictures not as sharp and clear. A 14" screen at a native 1024x768 will probably look better, with more readable text, even though it's smaller.
Most web pages these days are designed for 800x600, with some at 1024x768. So 1024x768 is probably best for most people. It happens to be the native resolution of most 14" laptop screens. Bigger screens are usually higher, and smaller screens lower. So 14" is probably the sweet spot.
Since about 1998, this has been taken care of by the "palm rejection" feature of the Synaptics touchpad driver. Of course it only works for Windows, and so far as I know, there's no equivalent for Unix/Linux, but then, laptops *still* aren't Linux-friendly, but at least we've progressed to the point that you can *load* Linux on most of them. (FWIW: I have still *never* seen properly functioning audio on *any* Linux machine, laptop or not. Sad, but true. I'm told it's possible, just not with any of the hardware I've ever owned (which is only about half oddball stuff like Librettos.))
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
There was point in time when I wanted a PowerBook G4.. and well, I bought one (400mhz). However, I became fairly sick of it after a while.
The Ti case was kind of cool looking, but quite weak . Disite that fact that I treated it like a baby, it aquired a dent, scratches, a missing foot, and a slight curve to the monitor's backing. CD's also seemed to need a bit of help loading after a few month.
I also found the 5400 RPM harddisk and the 16meg Rage 128 to to be quite a let down as well.
No doubt, it was revision "a" machine, and this stuff happens with new toys. However, some of these case and hardware problems still exist in the current batch of PowerBooks. It was nice machine with a TON of features, however I can't seem my self looking at another PowerBook anytime soon. I think I'll stick with my DPG4 box.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Had my Dell Inspiron 8000 for two months when the video started acting skittish. Called Dell customer support. By 9AM the next morning the service representative was at my workplace swapping out the LCD. No muss, no fuss.
I currently dual boot XP and Mandrake 8.1. At one point I was tripple booting 2KL,XP and Mandrake 8. No problems. The ATI M4 viedo card uses the generic ATI Rage 128 driver though in Linux. After a year Dell finally put out a decent video card driver with OpenGL support. Of course, newer models use GeForce cards.
If you work for a big company you get a beefed up 3yr warranty if your company has an account with Dell (most do).
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I don't need speed - the only things I burn CPU on are Microsoft Office and (in the past) The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. I need something I can carry on the train without breaking laptop-bag straps all the time, and without breaking my shoulder. The one good thing about overspec'd overweight devices is that since the folks back at headquarters are cheapskates and don't give us new toys every year, at least they don't get obsolete as fast
Over the years, we've used a variety of vendors - Toshiba, Dell, IBM, and back when we sold computers, OEM NEC machines with AT&T Death Star logos on the front. Unfortunately, we've always seemed to have been doing Toshibas when my machine was up for refresh - they've mostly been heavy unreliable pieces of junk that aren't made for the physical abuse that laptops get on the road, and they've got quirky power management that tends to have real trouble restoring from power-save mode without having to reboot half the time. Fortunately, my current-generation machine died, and the backup they've found me is one of the Portege7020s - the battery's ancient, so battery life is too short, but the machine's lighter and thinner than its faster predecessor :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It's too heavy - the things weigh 5 pounds or so. And the screen doesn't have enough pixels, though it's otherwise gorgeous. The battery life rocks - I don't know if I believe 5.5 hours in the real world, but it should scale pretty well with the 2-3 hour promises for many other laptops. So it's about long enough for an across-North-America airplane flight. Being able to connect the Firewire to the back and use it as a disk drive for your desktop Mac also rocks, and in traditional Apple fashion, there are a lot of things that just fit together nicely and make it a friendly environment.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
You caught me. I did buy the 2040 I was trying not to sound like an advertisement for any particular make/model. I probably should have been more discreet.
I would say that the machine feels a bit faster than a PIII 600, which was the processor in a Thinkpad provided for me at work. One shortcoming is that I notice distinct periods of slow performance every now and then -- for a few seconds every now and then XP just feels less "snappy". Part of this is probably XP paging stuff to virtual memory, or just XP doing something funky. I plan to throw in another 128 megs of ram so this should alleviate some of the problems.
The only processor-related negative performance I've noticed is when I'm programming JSPs and I hit my app for the first time (thus running the compiler). Since the initial hit compiles, initializes static objects and sets up database connections (dbms on my machine, no less), I definitely see some churning. But the delay is only about 5 to 10 seconds longer than on my p4-1.5 desktop, so maybe about a 1/3 slower. This is all estimation of course...I haven't really done any analysis.
There are some benchmarks out there that really test the 2040, and although I researched them when deciding on the fujitsu, I honestly stopped thinking of pure processor performance in lew of form factor and portability.
The biggest complaint I have with the 2040, however, isn't the processor. It's the the right shift key. Fujitsu crammed the directional arrow keys in the bottom right with shift key to the right of the up-arrow key and above the right-arrow key.
To illustrate:
[up][sh] [lt][dn][rt]
Since the shift and up keys are right next to each other and the EXACT same size I sometimes hit the wrong one. I've gotten used to it so I don't have problems, but it was annoying the first few days.
Shit, the pre tags didn't seem to have an effect, or maybe I was just careless. Here is the point I was trying to make with the diagram:
[up][sh]
[lt][dn][rt]
I really wish they had knocked out one of the windows buttons (why do we need two anyway?) or maybe one of the alt or ctrl-buttons on the right side. Oh well.