looking for info on thin and light laptops

[Kaido]

I'm going to be doing a lot of PowerPoint presentations over the next year and I need a laptop to do them with. Something with good battery life, not too heavy, decently powerful, and very, very reliable. Under $2,000. So far I really only know of the IBM X40.

I am also a bit nervous about the operating system. Would it be wise to use Windows 2000 instead of Windows XP Professional? For right now, it just needs to be hooked up to a projector through VGA-out and run PowerPoint (Office XP). The PowerPoint presentations will include digital video in them.

Any recommendations, thoughts, advice?

 

[NeBaWONG]

You should check out ASUS laptops.

I like the ASUS S5N

ASUS S5N

 

[Kaido]

ooh, that looks really nice. similar styling to a powerbook. I'll read up on it, thanks!

 

[Frightcrawler]

IBM is king. I think you know that already.

About the operating system, it's really just a matter of preference.
Both are pretty stable (as stable as you can get for something from M$).

 

[axelfox]

Averatec (Sp?)

 

[fbrdphreak]

Averatec is a good for the money, but if the man has under $2G's to spend, IBM is definitely the way to go. X-series is very light and comes with Pentium-M processor, which is extremely efficient & great for even heavy users. I have a T42 and love it to death. :thumbsup: for IBM

 

[NeBaWONG]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Averatec is a good for the money, but if the man has under $2G's to spend, IBM is definitely the way to go. X-series is very light and comes with Pentium-M processor, which is extremely efficient & great for even heavy users. I have a T42 and love it to death. :thumbsup: for IBM

yes... but IBM won't exist for laptops in a few years. =(

 

[halfadder]

For presentations, I actually prefer to use Keynote (http://www.apple.com/keynote/) on a PowerBook. But right now is a bad time to buy one. The G5 or a dual-core G4 is due soon in the PowerBook and the iBook is due soon for a faster G4. Both are due for newer GPUs. The OS X version of MS Office is pretty funky, but it works.

I know, I'm weird, but I like a mix of machines. That's also why I have a Saab and a Ford.

 

[hopejr]

Originally posted by: halfadder
For presentations, I actually prefer to use Keynote (http://www.apple.com/keynote/) on a PowerBook. But right now is a bad time to buy one. The G5 or a dual-core G4 is due soon in the PowerBook and the iBook is due soon for a faster G4. Both are due for newer GPUs. The OS X version of MS Office is pretty funky, but it works.

I know, I'm weird, but I like a mix of machines. That's also why I have a Saab and a Ford.

Yeah, MS Office 2004 is, well, not as good as I expected it would be, but PowerPoint is fine for presentations except for the random bugs where custom animations don't work and some things don't appear/stay on the screen (Keynote is much, much better).
So they're close to getting a G5 into a notebook? Would be nice if that was the case. A dual-core G4 would be nice too.
Powerbooks and iBooks are nice and thin (the PB is only 1" thick) and have nice battery life for presentations as the battery doesn't run out very fast even with an external screen attached (I know lots of lecturers that use them and, this is one of the reasons). They're good machines.
However, if you want a PC notebook, don't get a Clevo. I had one and it was way too heavy, too thick, too hot, and had useless battery life. Get an IBM or something if you don't want a Mac.

 

[halfadder]

I don't like PowerPoint on Windows, and it's no better on Mac. Overall I've found Mac Office to meet all of my needs, but it has a strange feel. Sort of like driving a British sports car.

OWC / MacSales.com sold me an extended life battery for my PowerBook, so now I'm getting an extra hour... for about 4 real hours of real use.

 

[jvarszegi]

The Fujitsu S6231. I don't know why you don't want Windows XP; you should be more worried about Windows 2000, not less. This laptop comes with a modular bay which will accept a second battery, which will give you well over eight hours of battery life.

 

[hopejr]

Good point that jvarszegi made about WinXP as opposed to Win2k. XP SP2 has some great security features that 2k will never get, and you can turn off all the bloatware in it anyway and make it similar to 2k. I've had to do that on some of my computers and it worked out fine (BTW, if you want a good Windows OS without the bloatware of XP, but with all the features, get Win Server 2k3. I run it on my Pentium 2, and it's so fast. It's heaps more expensive though, and when SP1 comes out, it will have all the security features of XP SP2). I happen to have access to MSDNAA, so I didn't need to pay for it

 

[kuangs168]

i was gonna recommend dell 700m, but since you got cash. go IBM if the eraser head mouse is no big deal to you

 

[hopejr]

Originally posted by: kuangs168
go IBM if the eraser head mouse is no big deal to you

They still use those things? I thought they were done away with years ago!

 

[halfadder]

Even the HP/Compaq TC1100 uses an eraser head mouse/pointer!