Laptop recommendations

Easy choice.


http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

or

http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html

 

Folks will tell you 'buy this' or 'avoid that', Doc is correct, get an Apple.
But whatever you get, you may get a diamond, or you may get a lemon, the brand name means nothing anymore.

WHATEVER you get, you need two things:
1) as much RAM as it can hold, and:
2) get TWO power supplies/chargers. Chances are good one will fail at the worst possible time, so spend the few extra bucks for a spare up-front.

 

Apples aren't for everyone. I have one (got it free). It often irritates the crap out of me.

If you want something that just works 85 % of the time, get a laptop with pre-installed WinXP. But Windows can be infuriating when it fails (and it will fail eventually). If you're geeky and don't mind peering under the hood of your system and doing some work to get a trouble-free system, get a laptop and install a new Linux distro onto it.

 

If you dont want you Apple I can send you my address!!!!

 

Nah... But thanks for the offer. It's the only laptop I have, and I don't intend to buy one (remember, I got the Mac free from a contest). A laptop is useful for my frequent presentations/lectures. The rest of my PCs are dual boot Linux/WinXP desktops.

 

Yup, just at the Doc said, Apple is an excellent choice, im in love with mine and plus its cute. I had a Viao before, but never again will i go with Sony or Dell, had to returned my damn battery. Jerks.

john

 

Get something stupidly expensive, over-hyped and not even remotely worth your time or money.

You have two choices. Apple, or Alienware.

Alienware even sells a Superman laptop that'll match yer underoos.

 

If you’re not tied to pc applications Apple makes some great laptops, the simplicity and features of OSX almost make it a no-brainer.

If you’re tied to pc apps or want that little bit more flexibility that a windows laptop affords (more applications, more adjustability in the OS) I thoroughly recommended Lenovo. Their build quality in my experience is second to none.

Dell offers good value for money and decent quality notebooks, I most certainly would not rule them out, especially if they have a product with all the features you’re interested in.

My experience with LG (monitors and phones) is that they make good stylish kit, but not great kit.

Whatever you get, remember to spec it as high (RAM, hard drive) as you can sensibly afford to go, the costs of upgrading later can be very high with notebooks.

Regards

Martin H

 

How much processing speed is enough? 2.0Ghz? What about RAM, 512 or 1G?

 

agree completely! love my macbook, get a mac and then install XP on it via Boot camp.

No one can ever go wrong w/ a mac

 

It really depends on what you want to do with your computer. Normally I would recommend 2 gig of RAM on either an Apple or pc system, especially if you plan on running windows vista in the future. And Apple’s OS X Leopard could get demanding with all those new widgets open.

If you’re just using it for browsing the web and writing a few emails getting a really fast processors is not top priority. But if you like to edit movies, photos and play a few games generally the quickest you can sensibly afford.

Personally I like to buy a high spec machine and keep it a good amount of time rather than replace every year or so.

Regards

 

stray from the mainstream?

try http://www.anuslaptops.com/

 

I'm in the same boat right now. I've researched everything and the one brand that keeps popping up and to the very front of my list is Lenovo Thinkpad X60s.

Yes, they're pricey, but their cases are made out of magnesium and they have a serious on-site repair warranty. It is THE business notebook of choice. IMO everything else is just a play toy.

I've narrowed my choices down to the X60s and the T60. I want a small, light notebook, so I'll likely end up with the X series. 9 hours of battery life. 100G SATA drives, EVDO, Bluetooth, 3.0 lbs.

I've spent literally hours upon hours researching this alongside laptops like the Dell XPS ultraportable and the new Sony Viao.

www.lenovo.com

RMX

 

Actually it's 10.5 hrs with the wifi switched off.

RMX

 

I have a Sony Vaio, it's 5 yrs old and performs flawlessly.

Battery life: I purchased a brand-new battery a year ago, and I had about 5-6 hours of battery life - for about 3 months. Now it's about 2.5-3 hours.
ALL batteries are awesome when brand-new, but they break down rather quickly.

 

I just got a Macbook pro 17", this is so much better than a PC.

 

Lenovo has kept the IBM fire burning hot, which is nice to see a company not rape a good thing...Thinkpad today is just as good as the old tanks of yore.

Apple still includes garter belts and stockings for men...think power suits for the Powerbook-totin, Power Tie-wearin, metrosexual group of just-a-little-bit-too-eager group of male entrepreneurs and you have just defined Apple's core market.

On balance, there's Linux for the Lenin/Stalin/Maoist types, with users of Microsoft's products as fulcrum in the whole mess, and then there's the three remaining users of BeOS that just want to milk their cows without governmental influence on their homesteads of 1000 acres or more.

Then there's the 47 users left over from Windows 3.1 who continually RMA their CD-ROM drives....imagine the blank stares and slack jawed drooling the RMA Return Department undergo on a daily basis as they extract floppy disks from CD ROM drives...

It's all a mess.

Germany made their own OS in the late 30's, but it had its detractors when the OS immediately installed itself on every hard drive in Poland.

The USA had another one of the first OSes in the early 40's, but that star didn't shine for too long when a couple of Jews sold the source code to The Soviet Union.

The USA/OS proved itself in battle, however, by removing every known virus in Japan's own OS, codenamed Nagasaki/OS and Hiroshima/OS.

Lately, the USA/OS has been criticized for trying to find viruses in Iraq/OS while ignoring Iran/OS and Kim/OS2.

OS's suck.

 

As a guy who made/makes his living in music, Macs have always been touted as somehow superior to PCs. I tried both G4 and G5 towers and found that a well-built PC running Cubase SX will run rings around a Mac running Logic. Anyway, you're right. I've always had a mental image of Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex In The City" writing her artsy column with a Powerbook, sipping a latte in her underwear. Macs are for people who drink soy milk. I just cannot take them seriously although the new Macbooks with dual partitions is a nice start. I cannot get that "dude, you're gettin a Dell" image out of my mind, either. Read the boards - Dells have a lot of complaints, expecially in the customer service department. No thanks. Lenovo it will be.

RMX

 

Without question, ThinkPads are the best out there. I always recommend them to friends, and I almost never get a "support" call.

Dells are OK in the Latitude series. Inspirons are consumer grade and average at best.

 

I bought a Fujitsu T4210 Tablet Laptop last week. It's beyond insane! Working with the stylus pen in Tablet Mode is pretty slick. The writing transfer to text is almost flawless. The screen rotates and flips down backwards and locks face-up. Worth checking out at www.fujitsu.com.

BTW, they are a bit pricey. I paid about $1500 for it. It's my second Lifebook. The only problem is that the power cord connector design sucks. In the last three months, I have had to have it re-soldered, almost a complete taredown for the fix (But the guy that fixed it stated that this problem is not limited to Fujitsu, as he see's MANY other brands over a couple years old with the same problem).

 

Uh, no. If you want a really, really good laptop and not a fashion piece, get a Lenovo T60. I can point you in the direction of some good deals.

I personally own an S7110 Fujitsu, but wish now that I would have purchased the T60. Don't buy an Apple because people tell you that the OS is rock solid, it's perfect, etc. Take care of your Windows machine, use a firewall, be smart on the Internet, and run your built in system care utilities on a regular basis and your machine will be fine.