Laptop recommendations

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invisible777

invisible777

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Jul 3, 2007
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I'm looking for a good road laptop... no bigger then a 13.3" screen or so... and nothing with the word "Mac" in the name of the product...

I was considering a Sony Vaio Z as my numero uno... anyone have one?
 


I'd look at the Dell Latitudes (their business line). They just came out with the new E-series latitudes which look to be built very well. I have a Latitude D830 which has been great, built very well (as oppposed to the home line of dells - crappy build quality in comparison) and has a 3 year warranty. All latitudes are dockable as well.
 
I rock a Panasonic CF-T2. Touchscreen, tiny, durable as hell and not bad spec wise. (I run Ubuntu.) I ran XP for a year, but it just got too bloated. (Should mention XP in VMWare under Linux runs better than any XP installation I've ever used.) The older models Panasonic Semi-Ruggeds pretty damn cheap on eBay, worth every penny. (Just make sure you look at the Semi-Rugged, not the Military grade suitcase laptops.) I'm sure there's updated models that have better specs if you need to push Vista.

I've had Sony's, Dell's, Compaq's etc. Sony Vaio's are friggin' gorgeous, but they're not to travel ready. Every Vaio I've ever had seems like its a laptop that's suppose to just stay in one spot. The more you move it, the more it starts to fall apart. The Dell Latitude line is pretty solid.

Why no Mac?
 
Signul9 said:
I rock a Panasonic CF-T2. Touchscreen, tiny, durable as hell and not bad spec wise. (I run Ubuntu.) I ran XP for a year, but it just got too bloated. (Should mention XP in VMWare under Linux runs better than any XP installation I've ever used.) The older models Panasonic Semi-Ruggeds pretty damn cheap on eBay, worth every penny. (Just make sure you look at the Semi-Rugged, not the Military grade suitcase laptops.) I'm sure there's updated models that have better specs if you need to push Vista.

I've had Sony's, Dell's, Compaq's etc. Sony Vaio's are friggin' gorgeous, but they're not to travel ready. Every Vaio I've ever had seems like its a laptop that's suppose to just stay in one spot. The more you move it, the more it starts to fall apart. The Dell Latitude line is pretty solid.

Why no Mac?
Click to expand...

Just about every person around me is down with the cool Mac trend and I see the people I know with Macs shipping them to and from apple like every other day with issues--battery, screen, hard drives... they seem like shit builds. My old Latitude D600 from 2002 has outlasted every Mac I've seen around me.

My iPhone 3G still barely functions, but that's neither here nor there.
 
I've got a Dell XPS, 13inch screen - it's really light and easy to take with me and it runs things like Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop ridiculously quickly.
 
My friend, the computer guy, recommended an Acer!

I had always thought they made junk, but they have really come up in quality in the past few years, and, I heard, recently bought out Gateway.

I bought the Acer Aspire (6920 Series).

My only recommendation is to make sure you get one where the keyboard has the separate "numbers pad". Mine only has the numbers located above the qwerty keyboard (pain in the ass). But otherwise, I am really happy with it.

I found mine on sale at Circuit City for just over $600. Sweet!

(the built-in video camera is top-notch, too.)

So, my word on this is, "Don't be afraid of the Acer".
 
Acer Travelmate (not Aspire)

Travelmate has the most god-like keyboard I've ever typed on. It's like, you could type 270 WPM on that shit.
 
Acer - no. My mainboard went up in flames the day after the guarantee had expired. ONE DAY AFTER. No refund. And I didn't set it on fire, it did that all by itself.

Vaio - I got one and I'm quite happy with it. And it doesn't fall apart like Signul9's. It's quite cool.

Question - why the heck not a Mac?
 
bobsoap said:
Acer - no. My mainboard went up in flames the day after the guarantee had expired. ONE DAY AFTER. No refund. And I didn't set it on fire, it did that all by itself.

Vaio - I got one and I'm quite happy with it. And it doesn't fall apart like Signul9's. It's quite cool.

Question - why the heck not a Mac?
Click to expand...

Some people dont like the glossy screen and some people are getting MacBooks without the "B" ( Apple's new MacBook is Mm Mm good - Engadget )
 
I suggest Dell, they have good support and good options to configure your own laptop but avoid HP as they inflate prices by bundling unnecessary software's.
 
I just bought an Acer Aspire one and I'm very pleased. $400 - 1.6 ghz, 1GB ram, 120GB hard drive, windows XP, 6 cell battery w/ 5.5 hours battery life. They were originally sold out on Amazon so I had to go through a Canadian online retailer (NCIX.com).
 
I'm happy with my Vaio Z1-XMP, a bit dated now but does the job. Very impressed with the battery life. Apart from a smaller hd it's pretty much the same spec as the Acer above (and cost about the same - £200 on ebay a year ago).

I've never had problems with Sony's before and will buy them again, although I might go for something a bit more rugged when I get travelling again.
 
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