What to look for in a Laptop?

“I need a laptop and I need it soon. Problem? I don't know what to look for or what to get!!

I want it to be fast. I want it to have good graphics. ummm??/


help!!”

“Public transport would seem to be a good place to look for one, or hang out at Starbucks and wait for a user to head to the bathroom or grab another coffee.

Look for a new expensive leather case, or a nicley dressed user in an expensive suit, this should yield a laptop of the desired power.
last edited: 8/25/05 12:04:54 PM”

“A sense of humor? Deep, broad-based compatibility?”

“In order to give you the best advice, I need to take a good, long look at your lap.”

“Don't get one with a Pentium Celeron processor. It will be too slow. Get a Pentium 4 or a Centrino.”

“Twinks, are you going to be doing video editing with it? Photo editing? There's such a wide range of features and prices it all depends on what you specifically need it for. Will you be taking it in the field? Some are built to take a beating more too.”

“Yeah, photo editing would be really nice. And yes, I would like to be able to take it into the field with me. Mostly I'm doing so much traveling (only local stuff...blah) and am sick and tired of not being able to use my time as fully as possible because I have to wait until I get back home to do any computer work.

I've been eyeing the Dells...they have monthly payment options and I've only heard good things about the laptops”

“it all depends what you want to do, most laptops you get now will do most of the stuff you need them too. Only if you use graphics intensive stuff will you run into too mcuh trouble”

“why do i suspect twinks enjoys her fair share on internet porn?”

“Better get a decent wireless card then.”

“With centrino it's built in, right?”

“Golly, I dunno. Maybe.

I've always considered laptops a waste of money, unless you really need a computer on the go all the time. They cost more than a comparable desktop, and are more prone to breaking down. When they do break down, they are more difficult and expensive to fix. They are also more difficult to expand.

But, if you travel a lot and need to use your computer on the go, then I suppose they are worth it.”

“I look for a sweet stripper from the local club sitting on my laptop.







...but really, get at least a 15" screen, but don't go larger if you plan on actually carrying it a bunch. Huge screen = bigger weight. And even a 3 or 4 pounder will weigh a ton after hauling it from one airport gate to another. Get at least 512MB RAM. Hard drive space is less important since this will be your secondary computer - get the smallest amount they offer. Make sure it has at least two 2.0 USB ports. You can get just about any auxillary function you want, including external video port, as long as you have a 2.0 port to plug the gadget into. The fewer of the other legacy ports there are, the better, since USB is the way to hook up now. Check out www.usbgeek.com for examples of all the things you can get now.
last edited: 8/25/05 1:07:51 PM”

“Virus. You don't want that.”

“Don't worry, the_goat, I would use a firewall.”

“Try looking at Dell's refurbished laptops. They are cheaper, and usually come with a warranty. Some of them are simply off lease. I few years old, but much cheaper”

“Personally, I would stay away from a Dell. My daughter has has nothing but problems with her Dell laptop. Customer service really stinks. That's been my experience. I won't be buying another one for my son when he goes off to college next year.”

“I have a 4.5 year old dell laptop that has been great. It's actually outlived the usefulness of its technology so I just ordered a new one (that should arrive tomorrow - woo!) from dell. Dell online has some great coupons out there, so do your research before ordering anything. I used a code for $600 off a laptop $1499 or more.

Hubby has a 6 year old Gateway that's still chugging along great too!”

“I'm partial to Thinkpads. I like the eraser-head style trackpoint mouse. I'm just not what's going to happen to the product line now that IBM has sold to some Chinese company. Thinkpads are really popular with the space shuttle and space station.”

“I've had good experience (so far) with both HP and Gateway. Both have nice displays. My Gateway has firewire and USB. I've used both, but agree that for most, USB is a requirement (2 or more USB 2), Firewire is nice but I wouldn't call it necessary. The more memory, the better.

The Gateway doesn't have a serial port (my GPS uses serial, so I had to get a USB/serial adapter), might keep that in mind if it is important to you. I don't remember if the HP has a serial port or not, never needed one there.
last edited: 8/25/05 2:46:40 PM”

“There is so much mis-informtion & "personal opinion" crap on the internet it scares me to think anyone would believe 1/2 of what is posted on any BB.

There is very, very litle difference between major computer vendors. Almost all major vendors buy their chip-sets, hard-drives, screens, keyboards, etc., from only a handful of key players. Thus, there's not a ton of diff between an HP, Compaq, Gateway, Dell, etc.

The BS about a Celeron vs an Intel chip (he didn't say Intel, he said "Pentium", which means he's confusing the manufacturer with the specific chip speed) is just that.. BS. Chips are measured / spec'ed in speed, and there s virtually no measurable difference between a Celeron or Intel chip RATED THE SAME. It's learning to compare apples to apples, instead of apples to elephants, which is what some here are doing.


Many, if not most, vendors sub-contract their service out to a 3rd party. Thus, if you buy a Dell, or Gateway, or whatever, chances are you're actually dealing with the very same field service group. To complain about one vendor, but not the other, means you had a specific service issue that the field team would not have been able to address regardless of the vendor.

Litle details... there is a HUGE difference between Video-editing & Photo editing. They have vastly different requirements. Video editing is extremely resource-intensive, meaning you need faster processing and more memory... photo-editing I can do with an old, slow coputer w no problems.

So... botom line, I'd suggest you buy a Dell. Good product, viable company who will be there to support you, good service contracts, a gazillion customers & they keep coming back, which is why they are the leading vendor. That should tell you something.

IBM is, and has been, a "has-been" in the PC business for a long time. They are too large a company, too slow to respond to changes in a rapidly changing technological world. If it was free, I "might" take an IBM, other than that, no thanks. They still have a "mainframe" mentality as a company, and that kills them in the consumer marketplace.
last edited: 8/25/05 3:26:27 PM”

“Celeron is an Intel processor

Pentium 4 is also an Intel processor

There is a difference between the two. Celerons have a lot less L2 cache, so they don't perform as well as a Pentium 4 at the same clockspeed.

I think wanderer is thinking that Celeron chips come from AMD, and stating that there's no difference between an AMD and Intel processor of the same clockspeed. I dunno about that, having never done a comparison.

Most of the rest of what he had to say is correct, though. There's not much difference between them all, other than marketing. My personal choice would be to stay away from HP/Compaq though. I have had lots of Dell desktops and no problems with them.
last edited: 8/25/05 3:32:50 PM”

“thanks for the tips”

“http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp

Dell Coupons”

“Bit is correct, my head was in gear before my typewriter that happens to me a lot :) )... bottom line though is that AMD chips *& Intel Chips are pretty competitive.. don't believe that crap about one being inferior to the other.

I'm in the software biz not hardware, but becaue of what I do I get asked about 50 times / day from our customers "which hardware should I buy"... so I try to stay somewhat current. Unless they are a hiogh-data special uer scenaria, usually I recommend Dell for a generic laptop / dekptop, at the lower end-mid-range tey're OK for servers at igher end I recommend HP.

BUT... what I use & what I think is the all-time KICK-BUTT user platform is a tablet PC, specifically, I LOVE my Motion tablet. Go HERE for a demo... http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_le.asp

I use a 1400, am trying to figure out how to get my company to spring for a new 1600!”

“The only bad thing about my Motion tablet is that it uses a USB keyboard which is "lacking", to put it gently. When you see all the typo's from me, it's because this keyboard drops the H, 5, & a few other letters/keys rather frequently.

It's y only b!tch, but since I usually use the handwriting recognition for composition I am increasingly overlooking it - keyboards are obsolete technology!!!!.”

“Yow, not for me! I type way faster than I handwrite. Now, when they get perfect speech recognition, that will be different!

I think coders will use keyboards, until programming interfaces become more sophisticated.”

“we sell to Doctors.. they can't type for #&%!$. VR is impractical because we need to do discrete data element searching & data mining, we have a wy to let them do that in specific fields that VR screws up.

Plus.. a great many can't speak English very well :)
.”

“any considerations to take when taking one overseas, like different plug-ins, etc?”

“I don't want to sell overseas... too many different requirements to make it a profitable venture.”

“well, im buying even if youre not selling”

“I don't want your business.

That sounds strange to a lot of Doc's we see at seminars & educational symposiu, but it would cost me more to train/support you that you'd be willing to pay.

If I didn't train/support you properly, then you'd be an unhappy customer, and I'd rather have no customer than an unhappy one!”

“im not overseas now. but i may go in the future”

“Laptops have to be light; as light as your budget allows. That should be your primary consideration. Everything else is just details.

My IBM ThinkPad that I bought a couple years ago weighs 8 1/2 lbs, which is way too heavy for a laptop. A good laptop will weigh around 4-5 lbs or so (or less if you can afford it).

Another thing you might want to consider is power consumption and battery life, as laptops are often used unplugged for maximum portability. I would think that a good battery will last around 3-4 hours when brand new (don't forget that this time will go down as the battery gets older...)

The rest of the computer is just details -- get whatever you like. All these other components can be upgraded if you need better performance out of them later.”

“BP...

The majority of data entry I'm referring to is done via a "point & click" approach .. selecting from a well defined option list... this additional data entry is just an elaboration, meant to simply augment the discrete-field data entry, this additional data is usually done via VR or handwriting or typing. Since it's a limited amount of data entry, handwriting is usually far more acceptable than typing.

They're not typing a long letter or "War & Peace", :) just some "add-on" info to the data entered via the "point & click" method.

At least that's in the case of what I do... which is Electronic Medical Records. I'm sure other folks have different requirements.”

“I couldn't personally imagine writing code by hand. I hate to write, my hand cramps up. Typing is so much easier for me.

But I can see how your system would work, the way you've described it. Probably, in the next decade or so, there will be similar systems for writing code, but we're not quite there yet.”

“Wanderer - you rely on handwritting recog. to get input from doctors? LOL, I'd think that would be the worst way for a doctor! If the system can pick out what they are writing, I'm impressed.

bit - I'm with 'ya. I'd be a much slower coder if I had to use handwriting. Get voice input up to a useable level and I'm there. The office will get a lot noiser around me, though, with everyone dictating code. Think what a sensitive mic would do, you'd get code like this:

for x = 1 to I'm going to lunch
if y = 5 then you're fired”

“tectrek, the HW is only for addendums to their discrete data-field "point & click" entry.

Having said that, the newer HW recognition algorithms ae actually pretty good... they're part of the Windows Tablet OS, go play when you get a chance, you'll be surprised.”

“Gotcha, that would be a whole different ball game from deciphering doctorscrawl.”

“This site has alot of reviews and user forums. Good to read what other actual consumers think of a product.

http://www.notebookreview.com”

“Inspiron 9300
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)

Operating System (Office software not included)
Genuine Windows XP Professional

Display 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display

Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
V
ideo Card ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X300 64MB HyperMemory™

Hard Drive 80GB 5400rpm Hard Drive

Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD/DVD Drives FREE! 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability

Wireless Networking Card Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)

Office Software (not included in Windows XP) Microsoft Office Small Business Ed.- Basic plus PowerPoint and Publisher

Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 15-months

Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)

Hardware Warranty 2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr HW Warranty Support
Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service & Support
Financial Software No QuickBooks package selected - includes limited use trial
Operating System Backup & Recovery PC Restore recovery system by Symantec
Dell Digital Entertainment Starter Entertainment Pack - Basic digital Music, Photo and Game experience”

“As long as there's no porn blocker I say go for it. LOL!

I'm terrible about computers. I grab the latest and greatest game and ask the guy, "Will it play this? Yes? I'll take it."”

“Twinks,
Check the price at the school bookstore for MS Office and other software that you have to pay for first.”

“First you need a lap, don't try to look for one standing up! That's a common mistake ;-)”

“I dont speak computer-eze. I learned though when I bought a laptop that was too slow for my purposes. If you are going to do more than one thing at a time and or play games on it you want CENTRINO inside. I had a celeron thingee in it and brought it back because it was too slow.

Just ask. Tell them what you want to do with it and get your best prices available. How long will they let you use it before you can return it?

Have fun. I love my Sony even with its 12 inch screen. Vaio rocks for me.”

“Looks like a nice setup. You don't mention an optical drive... a DVD burner is a cheap upgrade and nice to have.”

“I have been impressed with HP laptops. One thing to look for is the type of ports the machine has. I still have peripherals that use a nine pin serial port. Some lap tops have dropped this completely and replaced them with USB. If you only need USB that is not a problem.”

“The glob of jelly that fell out of the sandwich?”

“You can get USB to serial cables on Ebay.

Sounds likes a very nice system.

HP also makes a good laptop but they are AMD lovers, not Intel for the processor.

Go with your Dell :)

Did you know...

that if two folks in Wisconsin each have a Dell laptop, then...

Those laptops are...

Wisconsin Dells!!!

:D”

“I'm also game for a new laptop... I haven't settled on anything yet.”