New Laptop Advice

[esun]

My mom's office is allowing her to purchase a laptop. I'm thinking anything from $1500-$2000 is reasonable price-wise. I've heard a lot of good things about the IBM T42 from these forums so that's what I've told her to get so far, but do you have any other solid recommendations in this price range (no Macs, please)?

Duh, I should say what it will be used for. Mostly office apps and the like. I'm not looking for performance nearly as much as I am reliability. I've just researched some more and found a lot good being said about the Fujitsu 7010, which also looks to be a great laptop.

 

[Wuzup101]

I personally would go with the IBM if I were you. IMHO it has the best build quality of any laptop out there... and a very nice feature set. For 2k you can get a nicely equipt IBM T42... I would opt for the 14" screan but that's totally your prefrence. Fujitsu laptops are another fine choice, as are sonys; however, IBM has a reputation for building the best laptops on the market... especially in the buisness sector.

 

[rammstein junkie]

pfft i DISLIKE ibm very much my brother has 2 they both were over priced and under performing

 

[jvarszegi]

One bad thing about the Fujitsu S7010 is that it's got a 14.1" screen, but it is not the CrystalView screen (Fujitsu's competitor to Sony's XBRITE) and your only choice is XGA. These are reasons that most people buy the S6000 series, the latest model in which is the S6231. It's a little smaller, a little lighter, and even nicer. Check PortableOne.com for configuration options.

These laptops come with integrated graphics, but that's plenty for displaying your mom's stuff, even on a higher-res monitor.

I'm using an IBM T41 from work at the moment. It's a very fast machine, and nicely constructed. rammstein junkie could easily have gotten hold of a much slower machine, since you can configure the T series six ways from Sunday. I can also recommend the T series, but if you go with that option be sure to get the best screen possible. The keyboard is awesome, and the laptop itself is just really solid.

 

[esun]

The Fujitsu 7010 does have Crystal View as an option, but you get either that and XGA or no Crystal View and SXGA+, so it is a compromise. However, I personally don't think my mom will benefit from a higher resolution since her vision is pretty bad anyway. I will check out both the 7000 and 6000 series, however. The IBMs don't have any sort of screen brightening technology on their screens, do they? That's what I've read at least.

 

[aux]

Originally posted by: esun
The Fujitsu 7010 does have Crystal View as an option, but you get either that and XGA or no Crystal View and SXGA+, so it is a compromise. However, I personally don't think my mom will benefit from a higher resolution since her vision is pretty bad anyway. I will check out both the 7000 and 6000 series, however. The IBMs don't have any sort of screen brightening technology on their screens, do they? That's what I've read at least.

IBM has something called FlexView (or IPS) on some of their 15" displays, but the T-series 15" models are much larger and heavier than the 14" models.

 

[jvarszegi]

Hey, I didn't notice that they finally put SXGA+ on the S7000 series! Too bad it's not Crystal View, like you said. But in your mom's case, since she has poor eyesight, I'd go for the 14.1" XGA Crystal View screen. It'll be awesome. So thin and light, too. She can take it anywhere easily. Tell her to get the modular battery.