Could you recommend me a laptop please?

[-DaRK-RaiDeR-]

Guys,

I'm flying to USA (Boston) to work and i will buy a laptop there so i'd be more than grateful if you could recommend my a good laptop to buy. I'd like a powerful and complete one. If i will buy one then i want a very good one, if not the better. I'm asking you brand, features and price (as long as you can ), if not, then maybe you can tell me some real places (or online too) where i can find this info about laptops, and it will be very helpful too.

Thanks in advance,

DKRR

[instronics]

Hi Dark Raider. I have 2 sony vaio laptops, running with 256 ram, 40 GIG HD, 1.4 GHZ. So far im very happy with this laptop, its fast, its awesome, has a dvd player in it. Bad things are, it has no built in eth card, and it has a winmodem. When i got it, they gave me a pcmcia ethernet card free to go with the laptop, but i still carry an external modem with me.

If you want a laptop thats friendlier with *nix, i recomend you get an IBM laptop, with an internal motorolla modem, since its supported by *nix. Another good laptop is the HP Omnibook series (winmodem), they are reliable too (make sure you upgrade the bios on these though). Reason why im recomending these is cause i have used these in the past, and they have kept me happy.

One more tip, if you decide to buy the sony vaio, make sure you get an extra battery pack. Its known to die sometimes, and afterwards its hard finding one.

Good luck on your new laptop, enjoy...

Cheers

//addon//

just one more thing before i forget.... if you would like to choose SuSE linux as an os, SuSE has a special distrobution that works on macs/power pcs. So that would mean linux on extreme hardware, although macs are known to be very expensive.

cheers.

[mmelby]

For business I like Dell's they seem to be very reliable. I have been recomending them to customers for about 2 years. When there has been a problem ( which is rare ) they have on site support which is nice. They are a little more expensive than some but I feel they are a good laptop for the money. Their middle product is the Latitude line. I have one customer that ordered 10 of these for travaling salemen. They have had them about 18 months with no problems.

Most models come standard with plenty of features. The only thing I usually recommend to customers is to order more memory.

Along the sames lines as instronics... I am assuming you will be running some form of Windows. I have not run any other OS on these boxes so I can't help there.

Good Luck

[Dr_Evil]

DaRK-RaiDeR-

I recommend this one. It 's got brilliant 16 in LCD screen.



http://www.laptop-shop.co.uk/new-lap...tebook-new.htm

Had no problems with it so far!

Good Luck


Dr_Evil

CPU - Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 2GHz-M Supports Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep™ technology
512MB DDR-SDRAM (PC200) (upgradeable to 512MB)
60GB HDD
Display 16.1" (40.9 cm) TFT colour display 1600 x 1200 UXGA resolution
Graphics - ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 7500 (32MB DDR SDRAM) with 3D performance · Colours: 64 Bit
CDRW-DVD Drive - Removable CD-RW / DVD-RW drive Speed: DVD-R-write: 1x, DVD-RW-write: 1x, DVD-R/DVD-RW read: 4x max., CD-R-write: 16x max., CD-RW-write: 8x, CD-ROM-read: 24x max., DVD-ROM read: 8x max
Built-in modem V.90, K56 flex
Internal 10 BASE T/ 100 BASE-TX Ethernet RJ-45
Touch Pad Mouse
UK Keyboard
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Ports on unit i.LINK™ (IEEE1394), 400 Mbps · 3 x USB ports · DC-In · Microphone Jack · Headphone Jack · Parallel port · RJ-11 direct port - built-in modem V.90, K56 flex · VGA out · RJ-45 direct port - built-in Ethernet 10 BASE-T/100 BASE-TX · TV out · MG Memory Stick™ Slot
PC Card Slot(s) 1x Type III · 2 x Type II, I PCMCIA: Card Bus Compatible
Dimensions (W x H x D) 355 x 39.8 x 292mm
Weight 3.8kg

[Maverick811]

I agree with mmelby on this one. I have purchased several Dell Lattitude and Dell Inspiron laptops for some employees here at work - we have never had a bit of trouble out of them, the product is usually in within two weeks upon ordering, and these machines are well-priced for what you are getting...

[micael]

I agree with mmelby and Maverick811,
I have a Dell Latitude C840 and I can't complain over anything except the weight .

[dspeidel]

I have a Dell Dimensions Desktop at home -very happy with it. I had a IBM Thinkpad T20 at my old job -it kicked a$$ and responded very well running w2k. Now I have a HP Omnibook at work less happy with it. My brother recently bought a Sony Viso w/a 17" screen which makes him very happy.

My thoughts are go and drive a few and see how they handle. Note Dell will be setting up Kiosks (sp?) in Sears (not sure if that as started yet but it they will soon).


Other thought is buy the best that you can afford (almost goes without saying) since you are going to want to keep it for as long as possible.

Cheers,

-D

[the_JinX]

Yup,

A Toshiba 5100-603..

A bit expensive, but the best laptop I have ever laid my hands on..

Look at my baby here..

Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor - M 1.9 GHz
Front Side Bus : 400 MHz
2nd level cache : 512 KB
System memory : 512 MB DDR RAM

Hard disk capacity : 60 GB

CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive maximum speed : 24-speed CD-ROM, 16-speed CD-R, 10-speed CD-RW, 8-speed DVD

Diskette drive type : External USB 3.5 " 1.44 MB

Display size : 15.0 " Super Fine Screen TFT colour display 1600x1200 16.7 million

Graphics adapter : NVIDIA GeForce4™ 440 Go 64 MB DDR Video RAM

Battery technology : lithium-ion maximum life : 2 hours

AC adapter input voltage : autosensing AC adapter (100/240 V) for worldwide usage

Interfaces 1 x headphone
1 x DC-in
1 x line-in
1 x external monitor
1 x RJ-11
1 x RJ-45
1 x line-out
3 x USB
1 x i.LINK® (IEEE 1394)
1 x external microphone
1 x S/P DIF
1 x TV-out
1 x SmartMedia™ slot
1 x SD™ Card slot
1 x Fast InfraRed (FIR)

Expansion 2 x memory slots (0 available)
type : 2 x PC Card Type II or 1 x PC Card Type III

Wireless communication Wireless Technology : Bluetooth™
Compliancy : FIR
Network Support : 4 Mbps
Wireless Technology : Fast InfraRed
Compliancy : Wi-Fi™
Network Support : 802.11b
Wireless Technology : Wireless LAN ready

Wired communication topology : Ethernet LAN
speed : 10/100 Base-TX
topology : international V.90 modem
speed : 56 Kbps data (V.90) and 14.4 Kbps fax

Sound system supported audio format : 16 bit stereo
speakers : built-in stereo speakers and sub-woofer - tuned by Harman Kardon

Keyboard Keys : 86
Windows® keys : 2
inlaid numeric keypad : No
special features : Multimedia bar with CD/MP3 player control function with Sub LCD (mode select), Internet launch button, Toshiba Console button

Physical dimensions W x L x H : 330 x 296 x 47.6 mm
weight : 3.2 kg

Pointing device type : cPad™
interface : LCD-equipped touch screen
description : cPad™ offers control applications such as calculator, application launcher, multimedia controls, date and time, signature input and sticky notes.

Warranty 1-year international warranty

Bundled hardware external USB diskette drive
AC adapter
TV-out cable
remote controller

Bundled software Toshiba utilities and drivers
Toshiba Hibernation Utility
on-line user manual
WinDVD™
Drag'n Drop CD
Microsoft® Works Suite 2002
Motion DV studio

Well mine also has a 10Gb slack 8.1 (totaly updated with KDE 3.1 etc..) linux (2.4.20)

[Spyrus]

I went through this same delimma about a year ago. The only bonus I had was that I was working retail for the last 2 years so I got to see what laptops came back a lot and which ones were reliable. Now after being on the road for the last 9 months I have seen the true test of what laptops are good and which arent.

I purchased a Sony Vaio which you are supposed to be able to install all kinds of OS on it. Now if any of you are interested in reliabilty I have used just about every laptop there is on the road.

Sony has held up the best to normal wear and tear. My sony also has the cleanest, and Brightest Screen of the bunch, only problem is it like to use up power, battery life of 2 hours

Compaq: 3 guys I work with have compaqs and 2 have had battery issues. Battery life of 25 min on both that bombed

Dell Latitude: I have gone through one of these in the last month. I had issues with the LCD screen and then bad sectors in the hard drive, I am currently on number 2 which is doing ok so far. Dell was the only laptop I have had that allows for com port access (needed for terming into routers and switches). Good battery life of 2.5 hours

HP: 1 guy I work with uses a HP, he hasnt complained about anything so far, and I believe this is multi OS compatible too. 2 hour battery

IBM: The other contracting firm that works with me are all supplied with IBM thinkpads. This seems to be a good laptop too, the model they have also has com ports and seems to be able to withstand some heavy duty beating also. 2.5 hour battery

I hope that this will educate some and help some others as to what laptops they want to use, or answer some questions you might have had. This info has all been based on the fact that I make about 4 airplane flights a week and have been coast to coast for the last 8-9 months.


In Short I would stick with Sony or IBM over all the rest of the brands from first had experience. Stay AWAY from dell. You should be able to find good prices at a Circuit City or at a Best Buy . Boston has lots of places you can shop too.

[Jabberwocky]

i'll tell you what....i've been a pretty dedicated *nix user for a few years now, but i've been really impressed by macs os x....

i plan to buy one of their little ibooks with jaguar on in within the next few months while i can still get a student discount. it'll be my first apple product, i'll let you know how it goes.