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Apple-Quality Intel Laptops?
arashiakari asks: "I have to buy a new laptop soon and I am having trouble settling on a brand or model except one that I cannot use. Apple's iBook laptop is beautiful, functional, lightweight, and made of high quality materials. I would buy one today except that I am a professional programmer and MUST use the same platform my compiler targets: Intel. So far each Intel-based laptop I have looked at is both grossly over-decorated (Compaq, Toshiba) and made of cheap flimsy materials (Dell), or has the combined problem of being overpriced and under-powered - with external bays for everything (Sony). IBM is expensive, but they are as close as I've found to "right" ... with Toshiba in second place. It seems like Intel-based laptops are either hot ugly tanks or oversized PDAs, there seems to be a scarcity of balanced well-thought-out and produced machines. Does the Slashdot have any suggestions?"
Will an intel emulator work? Something such as virtual pc? I know you can use the commercial product for Mac's called codewarrior that is able to compile for intel. You'd still need some kind of emulator to test it though. Has anyone else done this?
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Get a job developing for macs.
Problem solved.
There's a rule to follow: "Thou shalt lust after no other laptop than an IBM Thinkpad."
I've owned three of them, and all have been really great computers. I've owned other laptops, and they failed to measure up to the standard set by the Thinkpad.
My current machine is an A21m with 800mhz Pentium III, running Linux. All the hardware on the machine works with Linux. I have use it every day for work for the past 2.5 years, and it's just plain reliable. It's worth the money I paid for it, and I've noticed that the prices have dropped a lot. You can get a Thinkpad for much much less than what I paid for mine.
My next laptop will be an IBM Thinkpad.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
IBM laptops win my vote for having the best ballance of quality, features, performance, portability, sturdiness, and design. Yes, this all comes at a higher price but if you look, it's about the same or less than the equivalent Apple gear. Moreover, amazingly the prices did go down compared to say 2 years ago. I remember there was no way to get a T-series Thinkpad for under $2000 and it still would be stripped down unless you get a $3000. These days you can buy a well configured T-series Thinkpad for under $2000 or you could opt for an cheaper R-series and pay the prices pretty much in Apple's 12inch iBook range for it (excapt that you'd get a better screen and much faster CPU)
What I've always liked about Apple's notebooks is their ability to make the right compromises between size, weight, cost, speed, expandability, etc. I'm not saying they're perfect, but I agree with you that they're usually a lot better thought out than most of the wintel notebooks out there. You're better off asking yourself what your priorities are in a portable machine, and then picking a box that was built with the same priorities as you. As you said, the VAIO line is well designed, but often lacks features and speed. Do you need that extra speed? If you're looking for a devel machine then maybe you should just bite the bullet and buy a chunkier box.
Another poster suggested testing your apps in VPC on the Mac, but I think a virtual machine is the last place you want to be debugging test code. Any chance you could move to high level development? That way the test platform wouldn't really matter, just use your OO language of choice.
Don't knock HTML email. It makes my life easier, since I
I was roughly on the same quest as you a year ago. I spent too much time searching for online product reviews that it eventually crush my head. I decided to go to a local computer mall, and browse around the products that I've reviewed online. The product that I actually picked was none of that I thought was good (based on the reviews), it was a Fujitsu Lifebook S Series (6010); as I expected it's the closest thing that can come to iBook's quality, screen is definetly the best of all other notebooks I've used (Dell, Compaq, Toshiba, Vaio, Acer, Gateway, etc), the magnesium alloy screen cover is very solid. And oh, it has a superdrive--the same one used in ibooks!
All in all, it's the tiny bits of design detail that catch my attention on this well built pc, fujitsu actually manufacture it themselve in Japan, unlike others that usually outsource their production line to taiwan.
I would suggest you to go and check out the physical product yourself, ask for a live demo, try launching programs, use the disk, connect to an external mouse just like how you'd use the computer; a 20 minute of physical test is much better then a 2 weeks of reading online reviews.
With all the big names flying around, have you considered an Alienware machine? They're not the lightest in the world but they look to be fairly high quality.
They bill for games, but performance is performance.
Sager laptop owner forums
Sager reseller
It may be a somewhat unknown brand, but I have been totally blown away with it. Check out the specs and the forums.
The thing you have to do is understand why IBM and Apple are at the top of their markets.
One reason...they build their own Notebooks...take a look at this page and then you'll understand why...
The short answer is Alienware, Toshiba, Dell, Compaq, etc are all made by the same companies...chances are they are all the same laptop.
Sony, IBM, and Apple all used to design their own notebooks...Apple kind of has to (yet they still use ODMs to assemble their boxen), and Sony and IBM have started to slip recently (using some of Quanta's ODM systems).
But if you want to find out how good the notebook is, find out who really made it.
Of course, you can always buy from the site that I linked to. They will sell notebooks without an OS and even have a Linux Forum. Not to mention they have unmatched customer service.
We got rid of the guy where I work who insisted on using a Mac on his desktop. Because, while that alone really wasn't an issue, it was a symptom of a contrarian crank, who was never going to be easy for anybody to work with.
Think Different indeed.
I am also a professional programmer, so I can relate to your worries about development restrictions on a non-PC platform. I've been running VirtualPC on my second-hand TiBook for awhile now, and I can testify that it works quite well for PC development purposes.
...I find I write better code on trailing-edge hardware, because any speed issues become extremely obvious where the same code would SEEM fine on my Athlon box.
;-)
:-). Check out the Connectix web site if you're interested in more info.
On a 667 Mhz laptop, i can use visual studio without complaints. Yes, it's slower than it would be on a P4 notebook. Let me tell you why I don't care: optimization!
But then again, maybe I'm a maniac.
Anyway, based on my experience, I'd suggest that you not rule Apple out yet... Unless you're doing hardware drivers or video games, the emulation won't be a huge issue... And the reliability and design on these laptops are almost everything the zealots say they are
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
2. Become a stockholder. Stockholders also get access to discounts.
3. eBay. The IBM store on eBay has some sweet deals.
If you save enough money you can go out and buy a cheap iBook as well. Have the best of both worlds.
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