need laptop recommendation: light/durable/good screen/ no frills

[Davegod75]

I'm looking at laptops and will prolly buy within a couple months. Hopefully I can get some suggestions

Weight: Must be light < 6.0lbs because I will be traveling at ton (is that light??)
Dimensons: The smaller the better
Construction: Must have very good construction/very durable
Screen: 14.1" inch screen or higher (highest possible res. /good quality)
Graphics: I won't be gaming much but nice graphics would be a plus
Memory: don't care about amount. Prefer as little as possible, even 0, so I can buy it myself but ddr333 is good
HD: don't care reallly, will be buying seperate most likely ( option of no HD is cool)
CD/DVD: must have modular dvd at least. anything else is a bonus
Battery: Good battery life isn't really an issue, only on the plane rides
Software: I'd prefer no software at all, i.e. no os (already have that stuff)
warranty: eh i don't know

Main uses: MS office, light gaming, lots of DVD movies, web surfing, programming

Basically looking for a highly mobile and very durable laptop

Price. preferably around 1500.00

Thanks

 

[Pandaren]

I'm not sure you can get all that for about $1500. The lowest end ThinkPad T40 series notebooks go for about that much, but the low end models don't have WiFi or high resolution screens.

Anything in the 5-6 lbs range is pretty portable. The T40 weighs in at 4.9 lbs with optical bay and battery.

You may want to look at the Fujitsu S6000 series notebooks. They use smaller screens (13.3" XGA), but they are even smaller than the T40 and still have an optical bay. The only downside is that they use integrated graphics rather than a discrete GPU, but if you aren't playing games it won't matter.

I don't recommend Dell 600m/D600 units, especially if you are going to be coding a lot. These units have some of the worst keyboards I have ever seen (poor feedback, lots of flexing).

 

[Frightcrawler]

I recommend the Gateway M505(X, if you wish). It fits your bill perfectly. It has nice graphics, great build quality, and im pretty sure the screen is good.

Looks like i got here before BargainSeeker 😀.
If you have any questions about the M505, I'm sure BargainSeeker will be happy to help.

Link

 

[Pandaren]

I recommend the Gateway M505(X, if you wish)

A very powerful multimedia machine to be sure 🙂, but at 6.7 lbs, I think it is too heavy (he says he wants under 6 lbs). Also, widescreen machines are a bit more cumbersome than 14" LCD notebooks.

 

[jpeyton]

HP ZT3000 w/ 15.4" WSXGA (1680x1050), 6.5lbs, 1.25" thick, 1.4GHz Pentium-M, 256MB, 40GB, etc.

 

[acebake]

What about one of the Dell 500m/600m models? The biggest thing you're going to run into is the screen-the smaller you go laptop-wise, the smaller the screen will get (as a general rule).

 

[jpeyton]

Dell's have crappy keyboards.

 

[Davegod75]

i've been looked at both the m505x and dell d600. I think the m505x is going to be too heavy and I have used several dell's and really don't see a problem with the keyboards.

anyways. is it possible to call up dell and get a laptop with a blank hd ( i.e. no os?)


anyone ever heard of the aopen laptops? something like 1507

 

[ai42]

You might look at the Acer TravelMate 800/290 series laptops. But the weight might be a bit high. But the built quality is very good, far better than any Dell I've seen.

 

[UTmtnbiker]

A lot of people seem to mention the Gateway 505. I think that's a bit heavy, especially when comparing it to something like the Dell 600m (which I had and sold recently).

I've been looking at the Gateway 200x, which I consider a closer competitor to the 600m. A little bit more expensive than the 600m, but A) it looks nicer and B) it seems thinner than the 600m.

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: Davegod75
i've been looked at both the m505x and dell d600. I think the m505x is going to be too heavy and I have used several dell's and really don't see a problem with the keyboards.

anyways. is it possible to call up dell and get a laptop with a blank hd ( i.e. no os?)


anyone ever heard of the aopen laptops? something like 1507

I've heard good things about this laptop. It's an Aopen made by wistron, who makes the m505. It satisfies most of your criteria except for being $150 over your limit and a tad over 6 pounds. It comes with a 60 gig 5400 rpm drive by toshiba, but you can upgrade to a 7200 hitachi for $63.