Recommendations for a laptop?

[DanC]

I'm considering (heavily) a new endeavor. I'm required to have a laptop with wireless capabilities and a DVD player. Those are the only caveats.

When I was with Compaq, I toted an Armada laptop all over the world. That's been my only exposure to them. I know desktops & servers well -- but I'm betting I could get some good input from my fellow geeks with regard to a savvy laptop purchase!

 

[MDE]

My eMachines M6805 seems to be awesome, and it's $1300 AR this week at Best Buy.

 

[Overkiller]

search the Hot Deals forum....they have amazing deals on great centrino systems (i.e. the IMB T41 normally 2100+ was on sale for 1400 )

 

[DanC]

IMB? Is that a little "lysdexia" kicking in there Overkiller?

 

[sswingle]

I LOVE my Sony VAIO.

 

[Baldy18]

The IBM T41 has slight revisions over the T40 (which I own and love). It uses the Pentium M processor, PC 2700 RAM (T40 uses PC 2100), 802.11b wireless (also can get them with a, g, or a&b), and has that cool feature where if dropped it won't mess up the hard drive. Anand reviewed it a while back and loved it.

For my money IBM is the way to go and my T40 is 1" thick and weighs less than 5 pounds. I've also heard that IBM laptop keyboards feel more like desktop keyboards than any other brand. Also the case is Magnesium alloy which is very stong and very light weight.

 

[DanC]

I appreciate the input guys. Suffice it to say -- after what HP did to me, it'll be a COLD DAY IN HELL before they get one stinking dime from me.... (oh - no... I'm not AT ALL bitter)

I've seen alot of IBM's out there - as well as the Sony Vaios. I'll certainly check them out!

 

[Ronin]

When I have a sec, I'll give you a breakdown of what I have, and what I feel the pros and cons are (I have 7 of em).

 

[Crazee]

From the experience of a guy who has deployed literally thousands of notebooks over the past few years, I would recommend:

IBM or Fujitsu - both have incredible reliablility and craftsmanship. We have students that abuse machines yet these two brands never seem to have a bad model.

Stay away from Dell their models are very hit and miss. We have never deployed Sony, however their rate of repair in reviews has not been too sterling.

 

[RaySun2Be]

I've used IBM, Dell, and Compaq laptops, and of the 3, if $$ is no object, I would go with the IBM every time.

 

[sciencewhiz]

I've used IBM, Dell, HP, and Toshiba laptops, and needless to say, both laptops I've purchased are IBM, currently a t40.

 

[DaFinn]

IBM... thats all there is to laptops. Got T30 and X24 and love them both!

 

[CyGoR]

You could also buy an Apple
Well... if you might, than don't read Wiz his topic

IBM only has one disadvantage.. the looks..
But, the quality is superb!! From my experiences, go for either an IBM or a Sony..
(Sony has great displays on their laptops!)

 

[Ronin]

What else do you want your Laptop to do, Dan? I mean, my first recommend would be something with a Centrino in it, and to go from there. I've got 2 of em (one is a Dell, the other an Acer), and I think I love them more than any of the others I have (mostly for crunching reasons, but still..)

 

[DanC]

Since it'll be coming out of my hide - I want to keep it affordable.

I'm guessing somewhere around the 1.5GHz range - with 512M RAM - and a processor that is DPAD friendly.
Beyond that -- it'll strictly be a business machine. No games, movies, pr0n, or anything like that.

 

[sswingle]

I dont' like IBMs because they still refuse to go to a touchpad pointing device. That supid erasor head thing needs to die already.

 

[DanC]

arrrrgh. I didn't think IBM used those things. I hated that about my Armada - and used a logitech wireless mouse instead.

 

[RaySun2Be]

That supid erasor head thing needs to die already.

I LOVE the button over any other mouse device! I can do mouse work without ever having to move my hands off the keyboard. Once you get use to it, it's great!

So much so, that at a former workplace, I replaced a desktop keyboard/mouse setup with an IBM keyboard that had the mouse button!

I'm an old DOS guy, and I've always hated having to move my hands off the keyboard to use a mouse, slows me down (So do GUI interfaces for that matter ). And MS doesn't provide a shortkut key for everything you need to do in Windows or Office.