Laptop of Choice (and/or Practicality) ...

[Samurai®¥©]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

I agree converge. I had a small Fujitsu P-2040 and have to admit that it took some getting used to. The Sony I have now seems fine with the keyboard as it is recessed only slightly and with normal palm rest to keyboard spacing.

I guess I am stuck on the smallness factor since it makes for such easy and fluid portability. I am really happy with it. Thanks for the advice as in the future, I may change to another small one and wouldn't have thought about that.

[converge]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

If I had to choose another brand, since I like small, I would probably choose the Dell 710M.

I definitely recommend a try-before-you-buy on this unit for sure. I know I'm glad I did, because for the smallness and configurability it has, Dell maintains excessive plastic on the thing, particularly in the space between the touchpad and slightly recessed keyboard. When trying to type on it with my big mitts I missed 3/4 of spacebar attempts; something that got old in the mall, let alone after an extended period of using one.. I suspect placement/height of the keyboard as the issue.. since I have no trouble on the same size keyboard in my fujitsu.

[Samurai®¥©]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

I use a Sony TR2A, which is a teeny little thing and weighs very little. Although it is an older laptop and has some issues from previous owner abuse, the thing is amazing. Funny thing is I am at just short of 6' tall and love all things small. I drive an MR2 and love this laptop, both work perfectly when connecting to a wireless network outside a hotel at 1am!

I made it a dual boot system on a 40GB drive, with XP Pro and SuSE. I also agree that I will not be upgrading to Vista or any other MS OS again. So far in the 3 Sony computers (2 laptops, 1 desktop) that I have had, nothing has ever went wrong or performed poorly.

If I had to choose another brand, since I like small, I would probably choose the Dell 710M.

[converge]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

the Dell laptops I've used have been too old and generally crappy to get an unbiased opinion

I stand pleased that my inspiron 8100 is the best laptop I've ever owned (next to my tandy model 200).. still in service as a mobile server/ids/younameit within the household. The Dell of that age beat systems that came before it and outlasted systems that followed .. including the crappy inspiron 8200 line. Buying a new Dell sounds feasibly workable as long as you get their highest level of insta-replace service alongside it.

[Samurai Drifter]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

I've got a MacBook Pro and am very pleased. Bootcamp is nice, though I haven't tried putting Linux on a separate partition yet. Service apparently varies. The people at my Apple store are supprisingly competent and are especially nice to those people who are in frequently.

I have a MacBook too, which I am also pleased with. Unfortunately dual-booting doesn't seem to work well in my experience. I haven't tried dual-booting XP (but I've heard it runs like shit), but I loaded Knoppix on it and had a field day trying to get it to work before ultimately having to restart and use the emergency eject command, which I had too look up since I hadn't used Macs much at that time (somewhat different from normal dual-booting obviously, as it was a live CD OS, but the point stands).

As I don't generally have a use for running Linux, though, my MacBook works great. It's not something I'd reccommend if you're really into gaming, but if like me all you really need is Starcraft and WoW, and don't require a Windows machine for employment or school purposes, go for it. I'm glad I went with a Mac when deciding to buy a new laptop, despite the bitching from stupid Halo fanboys that enjoy licking Bill Gates' ass.

I'm of the opinion that Dell is crap, though mainly I've disliked their desktops for being impossible to work inside; the Dell laptops I've used have been too old and generally crappy to get an unbiased opinion of how they operate vs. other computers their age.

[converge]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

i have had nothing but love for my fujitsu p7010. .. but after a year or so it has several outstanding issues.

) The most painful thing is that after some decent use it seems to have developed an issue where bumping the LCD will turn off the backlight .. an annoyance that can only be resolved by switching to a connected external vga (90% success) or rebooting altogether and making sure I don't bump it again .. or close the lid to take it somewhere.

) It also has no clitmouse .. something that I thought I could get over.. but never really have. After previously owning a Dell for years (back when they made them like tanks), I was absolutely relieved by the 12" profile; I could fit two of them in the slot previously designated for my single Dell. OTOH, I absolutely miss the type-II mouse and the ability to run with dual batteries (or hotswap a dying battery by leveraging the dual slot).

) I never have quite gotten the sd reader to work under linux.. which would actually be quite useful, considering all my devices (phone, nds, etc) use sd/mini/micro

) It is not a macbook. More importantly, it is a pre-Yonah proc that doesn't support sse3, and has a builtin intel graphics chip that has much to be desired. In addition, the graphics chip is not compatible with my ATI usb tuner... something that I used heavily as a swiss army knife for misc video activities. ATI says its an Intel issue, Intel says its an ATI issue.. based on ATIs CRAPPY ABILITY TO DEVELOP SOFTWARE.. I blame ATI profusely, but alas that hasn't restored the functionality. Now the proc complaints aren't so off considering the timing of when I bought the unit, but for current purchases I would aim towards a core 2 duo as best as possible.

) No bluetooth unless you wield a dongle.

) I want a MacBook/PowerBook/ .. I have for no less than 7 years now. I can never afford them when I try, and even now I review the hardware specs and ask if I can justify purchasing from Apple when I can duplicate or surpass the setup for cheaper. Temptation strikes me to build my own, but most barebones kits for notebooks appear in the 15" to OMGTHISISBIGLIKETHAT286IONCEOWNED range.

... desperate male hacker seeks 12" profile with type-II mouse and dual battery chassis, core 2 duo proc, nvidia chipset graphics with usb2, gigE, firewire, cf/sd reader with module support under nixes, single or dual layer dvd burner will suffice, builtin wifi (ipw2200 well works for me) with killswitch for tx, builtin bluetooth.. modem optional but preferred, deathray a plus; for good times, long roads, and hot nights.

[big chopper]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

<snip>I travel a lot, and I have to have something that isn't delicate (speaking of Sony Vaios). </snip>

I also travel (domestically) a fair amount plus my laptops also frequently accompany me to local client sites. In the last six years I've had two Vaios (separated by an HP) and haven't had a problem with either Vaio. My old Vaio (circa 2001) is in semi-retirement, but still strong and gets use from time to time.
--bc,

[theprez98]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

The whole "laptop of choice" argument reminds me of the many other unsolved mysteries of our time: Ford vs. Chevy, Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux, Linux flavor a vs. Linux flavor b; and so on.

Most people's experiences with one product either enhance or degrade the value they associate with that product. So when your laptop fails and the manufacturer provides shitty technical support, they go on your bad list. Nothing wrong with that, except that the evidence is anecdotal and generally not helpful to determine the "laptop of choice." In other words, the evidence is unscientific because it cannot be investigated by means of scientific method.

The long and short of it is: whatever works for one person may not work for someone else; asking what is the laptop of choice will probably result in getting 10 different answers from 10 different people. In the end, the asker of the question hasn't really gotten anywhere.

Case in point: in this thread we have seen people talk about their love for Dells, Sony Vaios, IBM Thinkpads, MacBooks, HPs, Toshibas.

Other people have talked about their dislikes of Dells, Sony Vaios, HPs, Toshibas.

My older laptop is a Dell. I've loved it and hated it depending on what it was doing (or not doing) at the time. My newer laptop is an HP and has worked fine for me. Crammed into my Dell laptop case, it was picked up by the propwash of an Army Blackhawk helo and tossed about 10 feet. Not a scratch on it. So of course I love it. Had it broken, I would have hated it.

[shrdlu]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

since many folk are contributing their bitch stories as evidence against particular vendors, it may be relevant to bring up the Toshiba Video Card Disaster™

[snip]

Toshibas are officially off my list... not so much for their substandard parts in this one batch, but for their awful and unforgivable reaction that left so many customers with broken hardware and no clue as to what was wrong.

Well, there you go. I recall the issue you mention. Toshiba fell down on that one. On the other hand, I use only Toshiba or Thinkpad. I travel a lot, and I have to have something that isn't delicate (speaking of Sony Vaios). I've owned four Toshibas (I still have two of them, and a robbery was the only reason I don't have all four). One of them I dropped hard enough in an airport that I was expecting fracture lines in the display. I reseated the memory, and that was it. I recently had a TSA moron try to play skip the stone with one, and I just popped the frame back around the display, turned it on to show him he wasn't buying a new laptop (see, I can be nice), and went on my way.

I used to include Dell in that group, but, well, we all know how bad they've gotten.

Oh, I also have the one Thinkpad, and it's just as rugged.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

i'm personally waiting for the Itronix crew to come out with a GoBook in ultraportable... something with an optical drive that i can kick the shit out of and then drop into a pool, but which weighs only a few pounds and isn't much more than 8' x 12" in size. call me when they cook that up.

i also considered a Panasonic Toughbook-19 when i was making my last purchase.

[800XL]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

Quick note about Sony Vaio. I've never owned one, but about two years ago I interviewed a gentleman from Sony who was a laptop technician in San Diego. At the time I thought that these laptops looked very cool, so out of curiosity I asked "do you like and own Vaio yourself?", to which he answered "Hell no!" and told me about many issues with them. So, I never got one after that.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

since many folk are contributing their bitch stories as evidence against particular vendors, it may be relevant to bring up the Toshiba Video Card Disaster™

a while back, in their 5005 and 5105 series of laptops, there was this huge batch of Toshibas that shipped with 440 GeForce video cards that were assembled with substandard soldering. this resulted in horrible video artifacting errors that got worse over time.

the problem has been conclusively identified as the video card, and older broken ones routinely appear on eBay (if you're good with circuit board work and want to make some extra cash, keep an eye on auctions for broken FMC2G1 cards... if you fix the solder points properly, they can be flipped for over $400)... there are many, many forum posts where users stumble in, unaware of their problem and make page after page of posts wherein they all speculate about fans, heat, LCD connectors, etc. eventually on all these forums some knowledgable person will come along and conclusively inform people of the real problem and post some links to the proper facts.

the thing that puts Toshiba on my shit list is the fact that they have, by all accounts that i've read, repeatedly stonewalled the customers and gone heavily on the defensive, denying that there was every any manufacturing defect whatsoever. many, many folk have been left hanging and frustrated... but not nearly enough that it would make financial sense to issue a new run of nVidia 440s for these now-discontinued Toshibas. someone in a board room somewhere came to the conclusion almost immediately, i'm certain, that the customers affected were to be totally lied to and fucked and that it would be up to them to get another laptop... possibly pissing away hundreds on attempted repairs and diagnostics by their local PC shops first.

so yeah, that's my Toshiba rant. i only came across all this knowledge because a teacher at the school had an old 5105 and showed me the problem, asking "is there any way to fix it up? i'd gladly donate it as a machine for teacher or student use."

i took it on as a side project just for fun (hadn't monkeyed around inside a laptop in ages) and almost immediately could see it was VRAM. only after i started Googling did i learn the full effect of the problem and the horrid behavior of the company that allowed it to go unchecked and unaddressed.

Toshibas are officially off my list... not so much for their substandard parts in this one batch, but for their awful and unforgivable reaction that left so many customers with broken hardware and no clue as to what was wrong.

[[Syntax]]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

I prefer the dv & zv series notebooks HP makes, they are in thier business line, some have dual hard drives, most are 15.4" screens, mine has a desktop cpu in it, bad for battery life, but great performance wise. Certain models are considered "Desktop Replacements" not really laptops, usually the ones without mobile cpu's.

My friend has a Sager Notebook, www.sagernotebook.com they have customizable units, custom built, shipped without os, you can do dual or tripple hard drives, tv tuners, ect.. video cards are upgradable, they offer SLI video on some of thier laptops but it all comes with a price, however their machines seem to hold up to alot of use.. You get what you pay for.

[DaKahuna]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

Personal - MacBook Pro, 2.0Ghz Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard drive with Parallel Images for Windows XP, Windows Vista Enterprise and BackTrack 2.0

Work - Dell Latitude D620, 2.16 Ghz Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard drive dual Boot Ubuntu

I prefer the MAC but have to make do with the Dell when I am doing my regular job.

[TheCotMan]

Re: Laptop of Choice ...

The company I work for has been using business grade HP laptops for the last 10 years. I currently have HP nc8230 and like it a lot. Having 50+ of these things, on average we do not run into many issues. If we do, HP will fix the laptop within 5 business days. Default warranties last 3 years, which extends the life of your computer, especially if you travel a lot.

A peer at another business bought several HP laptops for his company people who are on the road. Each experiences overheating problems if left running for over 2 hours. HP was contacted multiple time to fix this, but they didn't fix this problem. Eventually, 2 years later, their "solution" was a BIOS mod that forced speed stepping to the slowest speed possible, and forced the fans to max, all of the time-- this did two things:
It cut battery life to just under 2 hours, and made the machine run at about half the speed they should.

HP is on my craplist of laptops to never buy. On the plus side, they are marginally better than gateway.