Looking for a laptop

[Cogman]

I'm in the market for a laptop. I have a few requirements.

1. I need (really, just want, really want...) it to be a core i7 quad core.
2. Battery life is something that I want. I would like to have something that I can use for a while without having to plug it in. At LEAST 2 hour battery life, though 4 or more would be great (or the possibility to buy a battery that will extend its life.)
3. video performance comes next. I'm fine with any non-intel solution, more is better, but not at the cost of battery life, so probably not top of the line, I'm happy with low->mid-range performance.
4. Ram, while not that big of an issue as most have meet this. 4+ Gb is what I want.

Now, for what I've been looking at (to give a rough price range, I'm looking for $1300 and below)

Toshiba Satellite Laptop

Dell Studio Laptop (This is the one that I've been leaning towards the most)

Dell Studio Laptop (bigger screen)

Asus 16-inch laptop (seems to have good reviews, I don't know about battery life)

Of course, these aren't the only options, any recommendations would be helpful.

 

[Jeff7181]

I'd consider Lenovo... I really like the build quality. I have a ThinkPad R61 and it came with less crapware than the Dell I had prior to that, though I did a clean install of Windows 7 when that came out so it really doesn't matter now. I'm pretty sure most ThinkPads can be upgraded to a 9-cell battery and they come with i7's but they seem to be around 1.6 GHz for some reason. If you go with an IdeaPad you can get 2.8 GHz i7's (possibly even higher).

 

[Cogman]

I'd consider Lenovo... I really like the build quality. I have a ThinkPad R61 and it came with less crapware than the Dell I had prior to that, though I did a clean install of Windows 7 when that came out so it really doesn't matter now. I'm pretty sure most ThinkPads can be upgraded to a 9-cell battery and they come with i7's but they seem to be around 1.6 GHz for some reason. If you go with an IdeaPad you can get 2.8 GHz i7's (possibly even higher).

For the crap ware, I couldn't care less . I know how to remove that stuff without much issue.

I haven't ever heard of Lenovo, so thanks for the heads up.

As for the clock speeds, The i7's support turbo-boost, which allows overclocking of single cores up to 2.8Ghz for the 1.6Ghz model. Hence, they come up with that 2.8Ghz number (rather then intels 1.6, which it really is.)

The model for the CPU is 720QM, the clock speed isn't so important as many companies lie about it .

 

[Jeff7181]

I don't know the details of the business transaction, but IBM used to make ThinkPads... now Lenovo does (there's still an IBM logo on my R61 which is about 2 years old, not sure if it's still on the new ones) and the build quality is as good if not better than when IBM made them.

 

[Spook]

I've been looking for something similar to you, except I settled on an i5, instead of an i7. i7-quads are running 1.6, or 1.73Ghz, and dual i5/i7's are running 2.23Ghz to 2.66ghz, at least on the laptops I've seen. Now, considering its a laptop, and I'm not going to be running serious apps that will harness a Quad, I decided a faster dual would be more optimal. 1.6gz quad, when most apps are single threaded still? or a 2.4 or 2.53Ghz Dual... I can use the speed more than the quad multi-threading in this instance.

Im with you though, a low end video card. I just need it to process HD. Most if not all the laptops I've seen will do 2hrs... extending the time can be done with larger batteries, lowering the brightness of your LCD, or adding a SSD drive to the unit... among other things. But many of these laptops will run into the 4hr+ range

Just food for thought.

Spook

 

[corkyg]

Echo the Lenovo - the T410 Thinkpad probably meets or exceeds all your specs. You can cusromize it for graphis and have the I7 processor.

FYI, Lenovo bought the entire IBM line a few years ago, and have built a solid reputation for reliability and ruggedness. My T60 fell off of the airport security check counter and dropped 3 feet to a concretye floor. Scary, but no damage at all.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/...x_en|t16A38|s&

BTW, they still carry the red, green and gray IBM logo on the lower right corner of the lid.

 

[Brainonska511]

BTW, they still carry the red, green and gray IBM logo on the lower right corner of the lid.

I thought they stopped putting the IBM logos on them. The last X and T series notebooks I saw didn't say anything about IBM.

 

[corkyg]

I thought they stopped putting the IBM logos on them. The last X and T series notebooks I saw didn't say anything about IBM.

My T60 has it, my son's T61 has it. OK - I checked the photos of the T410, and the "IBM" is gone, but "Thinkpad" remains - that was IBM's laptop trademark, so the connection is still there.

 

[Brainonska511]

My T60 has it, my son's T61 has it. Since they bought the rights to use it, IMHO, they would be foolish not to.

I thought they only had the rights to use the IBM logo for a certain number of years after the purchase.

For instance:
The X201 doesn't have it: http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=49917
Neither does the X200 or T400: http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/34750.jpg http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=42198

 

[corkyg]

You are correct. But thry still say "Thinkpad." For geekdom, that says IBM just as "Inspiron" says Dell.