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The Best Traveling Laptop?
Subaiku asks: "Next semester my girlfriend will be traveling to Japan to continue with her studies. As a going away gift I plan on buying her a laptop of some sort. I've been thinking about going with a PowerBook, or maybe a Dell, but I really need advice as to which brand/configuration/platform would be best in terms of ease of use/connectivity in foreign places (namely Japan). Any suggestions?"
or powerbook, but youll want a good quality screen so stay away from the 12"ers. Battery life is awesome on the g3 ibooks, so it is great for travel. Pretty good shock resistence, resilient case, etc. If your going the pc route, ibm thinkpads beat the hell out of dell imo. There are new centrino based thinkpads with great battery life too, so mac is not the only lower power platform. Only problems Ive found with owning a mac are the little apps all cost 10 bucks or so, and you really need em.
Sleep is for the weak.
It depends on what she'll use it for.
:-)?
:-)
AS a deskop replacement, portable workstation, or just another mobile email station
I love the Powerbook (and I'm not huge into macs, tho OS X is nice). I personally have an IBM T20 that's slim, light, and rugged. I love it, and I've taken it all over the world, including Japan.
Mostly, it'll depend on her expertise (if she has to do on-the-fly configuration), and just personal preferences. I dunno. Ask her.
[este]
Your first thought was a good one. .jp, Apple has done a GREAT job in preparing the system.
Get her the 15 inch Powerbook G4.
While certain features of OSX (such as the movie listings) don't work properly in
The Japanese support in OSX is top-knotch, and there is a lot of BSD support for Japanese.
The machine is strong, and gets great battery life. And, I must admit, Apple's Technical Support and customer care is Top of the line.
I had had a number of problems with my laptop due to physical manafacturing, and after working with Apple, and describing the problem, they not only replaced it, but gave me a faster model as an apology.
I cannot recomend Apple laptops enough.
Colin Davis
I like a big thick laptop that does everything... a real brick with two batteries... I know others that like their smaller machines, it is a trade off. I will say get her at least one extra battery for the flights
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Just for the sake of its Japanese Language support, if she does anything related to translation or typing, it will allow her to localize settings for Japan or the US/English. Also there is a very strong following of Mac fans in Japan, so finding support / connectivity should not be a problem.
I can't really say if either an Apple or a x86 based laptop will be better in therms of ease of use. Many people swear by Apple, on the other hand, you might get a better bang for the buck when buying an x86. I'd say it's probably just being used to something. I've been working for years with Windows, now i'm hooked on Linux and Gnome. I've never had my hands on an Apple PC so can't say.
I'd say the only thing you need is to find some sort of either an travel adapter or some replacement power brick for Japan, which shoulnd't be that hard to get. Ethernet and stuff is the same all over the globe, so connectivity is nothing I'd be worried about. Problems could arise when using an analog modem, since these can be quite a pain in the butt sometimes. But you can get some adaptors for the differnet plugs, so again, no problem.
So as you can see, it's just a matter of getting the best bang for the buck, everything else is pretty much a no-brainer, just a matter of getting some adapters and/or power brick. Just ask your hardware dealer to help you out.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
She will probably be able to buy something better at the same price, or roughly equivalent at a cheaper price, once she is there.
Get a nice iBook, or 15" powerbook if you can afford it. Stay away from the 12" powerbook (its basically an ibook) and gets VERY hot.
:)
MacOS X has excellent multilingual features, and can be completely in Japanese, or English with Japanese language support and Japanese text input.
Just my opinion, anyway.
Actually, the only problem with getting her the powerbook is you won't want to let her take it... you will so badly want to play with it yourself
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
Next semester my girlfriend will
/. need more help than you.
Sorry, I stop reading from there. I'm afraid majority of
Don't buy dell. Everyone knows Dell's are crap.. everyone. You get what you pay for (esp with laptops). You don't want that Dell crapping out while you are overseas.
Invest in a good quality laptop (Toshi, Apple, Acer or IBM). All three companies support international travelers and Acer has a 2 _hour_ turnaround on their repairs.
And for godsake buy the extended warrenty, worth it's weight in gold (literally unfortunatly)
I was at a trade show yesterday and was looking at the IBM laptops. I notice that the sales guy was throwing them around quite abit and I questioned him on it. Well he closed it and _stood_ on it for a while, then he opened it up and passed it to me by the _monitor_ and lo and behold still worked fine. I was impressed.
As for battery life, those new Centrino systems are sweet, as are the Transmeta ones. Up to 8 hours battery life on a standard battery.
One last one was the new laptop from Toshiba it was about as thick as a finger and wieghed 1.2kg. PIII, 30GB HDD, 512 ram, wow. Expensive though.
Just a thought, try buying the laptop on the way if possible, they are often cheaper (and higher speced) in Asia.
Robert
This isn't really the answer you're asking for, but she's going to find much more advanced laptops for sale in Japan than you have a home. You're better off just giving her a raincheck, or the cash in advance. Seriously.
The first has already been brought up. Basically, whatever crappy laptop you buy her in the U.S. is going to be completely too large and too heavy compared to the laptops she can find in Japan. Take the Panasonic Let's Note Light or the Sharp Mebius Muramasa as examples of laptops that are at the pinnacle of portable, not to mention that they already support Japanese out of the box.
The second thing to consider is that this is *your girlfriend*. It's not your wife, it's not your sister or your mom. It's someone with whom you do not have a determined future with. Are you prepared to give away $1,500 bucks and have it disappear forever if she decides that she likes Fuji Nakamichi more than you? Some advice (that's why you're posting here, right?) - give her a big kiss and some flowers.
I have been pwned because my
I wrecked my car last week and the thinkpad flew off the passenger seat (wasn't using it at the time!!!) and hit the dashboard at 40mph, not a scratch!
James
Like tinyurl, but one letter less! http://qurl.co.uk/
I'd get either the 15" pBook from Apple or an IBM T30 (particularly with the 1400x1050 display) from IBM. You might even be able to get it cheap from ThinkPad Depot. They frequently have good deals.
The one piece of advice that I would have for anyone getting a laptop is to MAKE SURE YOU GET 3 YEARS OF COVERAGE!!!
Laptops take a beating, and parts go bad. You can't easily (and cheaply) pop old parts out and new parts in, so get the extra warranty!
Buy a nice tiny unreleased in the US model in Japan. That is what I would do if I were going there myself. For the girlfriend maybe this wouldn't work as her geek factor might not be up there. But if it is, why not consider this? Some people here buy the latest laptops from Japan to use in the US. Remember to check into the warranty situation.
For young folks with good eyes I'd say to go for the 12" screen. AFAIK, The resolution is the same on the 12" and 14" inch screens.
The 12" ibook is smaller and lighter, and IMO it looks better (the 14" model seems dwarfed by it's own screen).
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Sonny, listen to me. We geeks have a tendency to either be incredibly cheap or get so overly excited about finally having a girlfriend that we go overboard on gifts.
Giving her an expensive gift will not improve your image in her eyes. To the contrary, it will send the message "I'm so desperate I'm willing to shell $3K to impresss you". Knowing she has you wrapped around her finger will encourage her to search for another potential boyfriend, as she knows there is a fail-safe option at home.
Don't get me wrong. Be nice to your GF but don't over do it, and occasionally you might want to hold back a little on purpose so she yearns for you.
Save the $3k and promise to visit her in a few months. If she really loves you, the thought of having you in Japan (for a _visit_, you dirty minded folks) would be gift enough for her.
A lot of the smaller laptops aren't as small and portable as they seem. Most of them achieve small size by making their peripherals external. If you want those peripherals when you travel, if anything they're worse than a larger integrated all-in-one unit. (Size of original peripherals plus external enclosure plus cables.)
Whether you get her a Dell or an Apple depends on what she's used to. If she's a PC person, get her a Dell. I have an Inspiron 8200 and love it. It's big and a bit heavy, but it has EVERYTHING, including a screen that blows away all of the Apple screens except maybe the 17" one. (Bad screens are one of the biggest problems the Apples have... The 17 inch PB only has a resolution of 1440x900, the Dell 8x00 series has *two* different 15" 1600x1200 screens - If you go with Dell, *get the UltraSharp version of the UXGA screen* - The difference between the USharp screens and the original one in contrast and viewing angle is like night and day. (My dad has the original one on his 8000, although he prefers the lowered viewing angle for business confidentiality reasons, less chance of someone seeing his work on an airplane.)
I love my 8200. A number of friends had 8000s in college and loved them, my dad likes his 8000, and my research lab in school had an 8000 that all of the researchers coveted.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
And it works perfectly. (Inspiron 8200)
My dad, 3-4 friends at my alma mater, and my research lab there all had Inspiron 8000s, all of them were rock solid and we loved them.
4 years ago or so (Inspiron 7500s for example), Dells did suck, they were in a major quality slump during my sophomore year in college, but starting around the time of the Inspiron 8000 series they shaped up a lot.
Toshibas were good deals, but all were a bit on the flimsy side. This may have changed, I stopped looking at Toshibas long ago.
Acers - I never liked their form factors, and IMHO their tech support *sucks* (My old laptop was a TI/Acer Travelmate, that thing was a real mess.)
Apple - Good quality, but their displays lag behind PC laptops. And if this guy's GF is a PC person, then Apple isn't really an option.
IBM - Expensive, but I will agree with you here, the only thing tougher than a ThinkPad is a Panasonic ToughBook. ThinkPads seem to last forever. (I worked in the computer sales/service department of my campus store a few years back. The average age of IBMs coming in for service was 2-3 years or more older than everything else, and most of the problems they did have were minor ones or user-created problems like a Coke spilled in the keyboard.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
These days, with enough additional OS packages, Windows and OS X are about equal. I've got a coworker in my office running the US version of Win2K with everything set to Japanese. It's rather annoying when I've got to use that workstation, but it's certainly Japanese. OS X, of course, is known for having excellent language support, and Apple is committed to supporting the Japanese market, so she should be fine either way.
The real issue, then, isn't the CPU. It's the overall design.
In Japan, anyone using a full sized laptop will stick out like a sore thumb. I strongly recommend something small and light, especially since she might need to carry it around a lot. No one wants to lug an 8 pound laptop around.
I used to own a Toshiba Libretto 110CT, one of the smallest laptops available in the US. It was a great system, but with a 233 MHz processor, I decided it was time to move on. As a whole, though, subnotes are completely usable systems, and I can't remember a single time that I ever left it behind due to packing constraints. Sure, I left it at home when I went canoeing, but that's just common sense. Get her something like a Libretto (almost any Japanese ultralight, really, although I've heard that Sony's stuff is somewhat flaky,) and she's almost guaranteed to have her laptop handy whenever she needs it. A good modern example might be the Fujitsu P-series laptops.
The other option, bringing you back to full-size keyboards and the like, are the Powerbooks (and iBooks, although those haven't been updated in a while.) The 17" is simply massive, and has no place in a traveling student's hands. The 15" is pretty nice, but hasn't been updated with the new Aluminum Powerbooks. The 12" Powerbook may actually be a bit more power than she needs, of course, and you may want to lean towards a 12" iBook. Out of the Powerbooks, the 12" is still the cheapest, although I'm sure if you looked at refurbished and used models, you could find a great deal on a 15", which is a bit older, and a bit more "tried and true."
In general, though, you should look at portability over power. A nice small laptop will end up in her bag a lot more often than some 6-8 pound behemoth. And, as long as she's got an Ethernet connection, I don't think there are any major issues to worry about re: adapters and the like. Power should be close enough to the US norm to work fine, and the only thing I'd really worry about are modems, and drivers if she gets some crazy Japanese cellphone and wants to hook it up to the laptop.
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."