Which Laptop

lynnma · May 1, 2005

Ok all you roadies... I need a laptop for the road. It needs to be: small, easy to use, fabulous screen, all it needs to do is run Photoshop CS and word, allow me to answer email and moderate dgrin, and burn to dvd/cd. And it needs to be quick.:uhoh Having never had a laptop I have no clue... no, let me say, I have less then no clue. So, rave about yours and it's wonder features.:1drink
Thanks..

Shay Stephens · May 1, 2005

I had a Sony and really liked it. I now have a Dell and really like it too. I think it will be hard to find a bad one out there if you get a name brand with the features and speed you want.

lynnma wrote:

Ok all you roadies... I need a laptop for the road. It needs to be: small, easy to use, fabulous screen, all it needs to do is run Photoshop CS and word, allow me to answer email and moderate dgrin, and burn to dvd/cd. And it needs to be quick.:uhoh Having never had a laptop I have no clue... no, let me say, I have less then no clue. So, rave about yours and it's wonder features.
Thanks..

DavidTO · May 1, 2005

lynnma wrote:

It needs to be: small, easy to use, fabulous screen, all it needs to do is run Photoshop CS and word, allow me to answer email and moderate dgrin, and burn to dvd/cd.

Hmmmm....small, easy to use....

Seems to me that any laptop running Windows will be equally easy to use, no?

Small and easy to use, runs PSCS and Word, email and moderate....That's the 12" Powerbook.

wxwax · May 1, 2005

Some light reading from the sin bin.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70607&page=1&pp=15&highlight=laptops

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72854&highlight=laptops

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75547&highlight=laptops

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13364&highlight=laptops

DavidTO · May 1, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Some light reading from the sin bin.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70607&page=1&pp=15&highlight=laptops

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72854&highlight=laptops

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75547&highlight=laptops

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13364&highlight=laptops

You guys are quite the potty mouths over there.

And some of those posts are two years old. But Lynn, if a 17" Powerbook is good enough for Baldy...need I say more?

wxwax · May 1, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

And some of those posts are two years old.

Yeah, I thought about that. But the last post in each thread is relatively recent, I think.

dragon300zx · May 1, 2005

Here is what I buy as an IT professional, for what its worth.

Apple - Anything of theirs is good
Toshiba - Also good laptops (mine has been thrown, dropped, had stuff spilled on it, and all that was just from my ex gf) and the beast still works, no cracks, no problems.
Sony - Very good laptops, drawback is warranty repairs and out of warranty repairs are a pain
IBM Thinkpads - Gotta love 'em
Panosonic Toughbooks - Feature rich, and virtually indestructable.
Alienware - Great products.

One's I will not order
Dell - I personally have had to many problems with them. Maybe its bad luck but 50% of the shipments I recieve from dell are wrong or missing something, like drive bays, batterys, etc.
HP/Compaq - These are good laptops. But they just aren't as robust and bullet proof.
Gateway - Gateways engineering is substandard to the company's I do recommend.

These are the recomendations I give my client's. I personally only buy Toshiba, Panosonic, or Apple laptops for myself.

luckyrwe · May 1, 2005

I just got my wife a HP DV1049CL, a 5.5lb Pentium M 1.4, 512mb ram, 14.1: widescreen, 54g wireless, centrino, 4 hour battery, CD and DVD burner, all for $879. Save money for the lenses! :> Found it at globalcomputer dot com.

Andy · May 1, 2005

apple 12" powerb book

or

sony t-series

i've used both, and both are excellent road machines. fwiw, i'm on sony now, and have had great luck with sony laptops for past 4 years.

lynnma · May 1, 2005

andy wrote:

apple 12" powerb book

or

sony t-series

i've used both, and both are excellent road machines. fwiw, i'm on sony now, and have had great luck with sony laptops for past 4 years.

Thanks all for this great info... I'ts kinda what I had in mind.. I've had Dell and would never buy from them again.. I usually build my own systems (that sounds intelligent don't it) let me re-phrase that.. my engineer son and I usually build my systems. I think he has a Toshiba lap top come to think of it.

Thanks again

ChrisJ · May 1, 2005

lynnma wrote:

small, easy to use, fabulous screen

I have no experience with Macs, but if you're looking for a Windows laptop, grab an IBM ThinkPad while you still can. IMHO, they're the best available, but the line is being bought by Lenovo and may soon change.

"Small" and "Fabulous screen" rarely go hand-in-hand. The true portables typically have 10-12" screens which only give 1024x768 resolutions (possibly 1280x768 with a wide-screen). Great battery life. They also usually require a seperate piece of hardware for the CD/DVD drive (either USB or a docking station). My wife has an IBM X31 (~4lbs), and she loves it! For me, the screen is too small.

Step up to a 13-14" screen and you can get 1400x1050 (or higher) resolution. I much prefer this when working on photos, but it can get a little cramped depending on what seat you're in on the airplane. You can get a CD/DVD burner in the system itself. You have to be careful to get one that's light enough for you. I have an IBM T41, and will use it as long as the processor holds out. I really like it. I just weighed it at 5 1/2 lbs with the small battery.

You can get bigger screens, but those become more luggables than laptops.

In my experience, Dells and Gateways have been a bit fragile. I have also had good luck with Toshibas. Sony's are somewhere in between those two. I've never been disappointed with an IBM, but you do pay more!

FWIW, I'm also an IT professional.

Chris

Kirwin · May 1, 2005

Agree with ya'! The HP dv1000 series is an incredible value. The one I ended up with even has a built in 6 in 1 card reader! Finally made the decision to go from desktop to laptop, and have been very satisfied with this comp. Got mine at Circuit City.

luckyrwe wrote:

I just got my wife a HP DV1049CL, a 5.5lb Pentium M 1.4, 512mb ram, 14.1: widescreen, 54g wireless, centrino, 4 hour battery, CD and DVD burner, all for $879. Save money for the lenses! :> Found it at globalcomputer dot com.

robscomputer · May 1, 2005

Another vote for a Thinkpad. I'm using my T42 for all of my school work and Photoshoping. It's a great notebook and one of the few that is actually built very solid. With the new T43's out, you should be able to find some deals on the T42. I would also recommend the 14" screen for a slightly smaller package. My 15" 1450x1024 is great but the overall size is a bit large, still smaller than other notebooks.

Rob

95Mcaj wrote:

I have no experience with Macs, but if you're looking for a Windows laptop, grab an IBM ThinkPad while you still can. IMHO, they're the best available, but the line is being bought by Lenovo and may soon change.

"Small" and "Fabulous screen" rarely go hand-in-hand. The true portables typically have 10-12" screens which only give 1024x768 resolutions (possibly 1280x768 with a wide-screen). Great battery life. They also usually require a seperate piece of hardware for the CD/DVD drive (either USB or a docking station). My wife has an IBM X31 (~4lbs), and she loves it! For me, the screen is too small.

Step up to a 13-14" screen and you can get 1400x1050 (or higher) resolution. I much prefer this when working on photos, but it can get a little cramped depending on what seat you're in on the airplane. You can get a CD/DVD burner in the system itself. You have to be careful to get one that's light enough for you. I have an IBM T41, and will use it as long as the processor holds out. I really like it. I just weighed it at 5 1/2 lbs with the small battery.

You can get bigger screens, but those become more luggables than laptops.

In my experience, Dells and Gateways have been a bit fragile. I have also had good luck with Toshibas. Sony's are somewhere in between those two. I've never been disappointed with an IBM, but you do pay more!

FWIW, I'm also an IT professional.

Chris

DavidTO · May 1, 2005

robscomputer wrote:

Another vote for a Thinkpad. I'm using my T42 for all of my school work and Photoshoping. It's a great notebook and one of the few that is actually built very solid. With the new T43's out, you should be able to find some deals on the T42. I would also recommend the 14" screen for a slightly smaller package. My 15" 1450x1024 is great but the overall size is a bit large, still smaller than other notebooks.

Rob

And another vote for the Powerbook.

What, can't vote twice??...dang.

Angelo · May 1, 2005

get a dell, get a dell, get a dell dell dell!!!

I have the Inspiron 8600. It's not small and light featherweight but boy-oh-boy does it do the job! powerful! wireless! fast!

I have mine about a year and there are newer models. Dells don't win accolades for light-weight portability but you can't beat their performance.

Unless you're into the Mac vs PC, this is the one for you!

The InspironTM 8600 improves upon Dell's award winning 15.4" wide-screen Inspiron 8500. The new Inspiron 8600 incorporates Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology to provide wireless connectivity anywhere wireless access is available and improved battery performance versus its predecessor. The Inspiron 8600's Wide Aspect Display (up to 1920 x 1200 pixels) provides a wonderful panoramic view for side-by-side document viewing or DVD movie watching in the cinematic 16:10 aspect ratio.

ChrisJ · May 1, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

And another vote for the Powerbook.

What, can't vote twice??...dang.

If I knew something about Macs, I might vote for them too. I've thought about buying one just so I can edit my digital video more easily!

DavidTO · May 1, 2005

95Mcaj wrote:

If I knew something about Macs, I might vote for them too. I've thought about buying one just so I can edit my digital video more easily!

Let me know if you need any help with the digital video (on a Mac), that's what I do for a living.

marlof · May 1, 2005

And here's my vote:

1: Apple
With Apple anything is good. I use both WinXP and MacOSX, and both can get a job done. In the end, I like working in MacOSX a bit better, but that might just be me. All Apple hardware is great when it works, but I do get the feeling that Cupertino is cutting some corners when it comes to quality control. And their Apple Care simply is too expensive. And get yourself ready for another suprise if this is your first Mac, and you want to use Photoshop CS: Adobe doesn't do any crossgrading, so you'll have to pay full price again for PS CS even if you have a license on the Win platform.

2: Sony Vaio
If you'd like to stay in the Windows world: Sony has to be the Apple of the Windows world: a lot of thought is put into design, and there's a lot of integration between hardware and software. Alas it also goes for the more negative side effects: Sony is prone to use proprietary software / hardware at times, making it a bit of hassle to get repairs. And I hear their Service isn't that great, but I haven't needed it in using their Vaio line for over 6 years now (one notebook, two desktops). I like their T and S lines especially.

3a: IBM
I don't like the design, but they work. And work. And work. It's the Energizer Bunny of the notebooks.

3b: Toshiba
Also very good, but I like their design a little less even than IBMs.

On Dell: as long as you *don't* get their consumer line of notebooks (Inspiron), but the business line (Latitude), quality is a lot better. But then they also get a lot more expensive, and for that price I'd go for another premium brand.

lynnma · May 1, 2005

marlof wrote:

And here's my vote:

1: Apple
With Apple anything is good. I use both WinXP and MacOSX, and both can get a job done. In the end, I like working in MacOSX a bit better, but that might just be me. All Apple hardware is great when it works, but I do get the feeling that Cupertino is cutting some corners when it comes to quality control. And their Apple Care simply is too expensive. And get yourself ready for another suprise if this is your first Mac, and you want to use Photoshop CS: Adobe doesn't do any crossgrading, so you'll have to pay full price again for PS CS even if you have a license on the Win platform.

2: Sony Vaio
If you'd like to stay in the Windows world: Sony has to be the Apple of the Windows world: a lot of thought is put into design, and there's a lot of integration between hardware and software. Alas it also goes for the more negative side effects: Sony is prone to use proprietary software / hardware at times, making it a bit of hassle to get repairs. And I hear their Service isn't that great, but I haven't needed it in using their Vaio line for over 6 years now (one notebook, two desktops). I like their T and S lines especially.

3a: IBM
I don't like the design, but they work. And work. And work. It's the Energizer Bunny of the notebooks.

3b: Toshiba
Also very good, but I like their design a little less even than IBMs.

On Dell: as long as you *don't* get their consumer line of notebooks (Inspiron), but the business line (Latitude), quality is a lot better. But then they also get a lot more expensive, and for that price I'd go for another premium brand.

Thanks a lot everyone.. this is GREAT stuff...

mercphoto · May 1, 2005

Apple 12" Power Book. Or, for less money, the iBook. Compare the screens if you can. A few less features, but if it isn't your primary computer...

Stay away from Dell... I know people who work at Dell. They are fundamentally a marketing company, not a technology company. They do very little R&D. Dell doesn't rank very high with me.

ian408 · May 1, 2005

I'm pretty happy with my IBM T30. But I have to mention, we've had 5 or
6 in the last couple of months that have died. Most with disk problems
and all of them are around a year old. So far, knock on wood, mine hasn't
had problems.

I travel with mine and keep it in my backpack with all my other stuff (I
tend to travel light). It gets shoved under the seat, tossed around, etc.
The only thing I do is try to shield it with a magazine or two for the sharp
pokes.

Ian

Angelo · May 1, 2005

mercphoto wrote:

Apple 12" Power Book. Or, for less money, the iBook. Compare the screens if you can. A few less features, but if it isn't your primary computer...

Stay away from Dell... I know people who work at Dell. They are fundamentally a marketing company, not a technology company. They do very little R&D. Dell doesn't rank very high with me.

How does that square with all the success Dell has had as a provider to many companies?

No matter, I can only speak from experience. We have about 350 - 500 (?) Dell computers at my company, spread over 9 locations (not to mention laptops) and we have excellent equipment and technolgy services from Dell.

ian408 · May 1, 2005

Angelo wrote:

How does that square with all the success Dell has had as a provider to many companies?

No matter, I can only speak from experience. We have about 350 - 500 (?) Dell computers at my company, spread over 9 locations (not to mention laptops) and we have excellent equipment and technolgy services from Dell.

We use Dell desktops exclusively. Had very little trouble with them. But
laptops? Everything from batteries to motherboards to displays dies. For
time we had them, most of them ended up with something wrong. The
decision to ditch them was easy for us based on the batteries alone.
Most would last a couple of hours new but within a month or two, 45
minutes was the longest they'd last on battery power.

I'm not sure what level of service you have but we've got one of the better
packages and I'll say that calling them for repairs is painful. You have to
jump through hoops to prove the part you're requesting is the right one.
Even when it's obvious what the problem is.

Ian

ChrisJ · May 1, 2005

ian408 wrote:

We use Dell desktops exclusively. Had very little trouble with them. But
laptops? Everything from batteries to motherboards to displays dies.
Ian

Dell desktops are very well made, their laptops are much less so.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1623865,00.asp

That being said, if you buy a new notebook from *any* vendor, the odds are that it will be fine.

Chris

luckyrwe · May 1, 2005

There are only 3 or 4 notebook makers, they are all made by a few companies for the big boys. I use Micron (made by Acer) because I have 4 years warranty with next day exchange guarantee.

ChrisJ · May 2, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

Let me know if you need any help with the digital video (on a Mac), that's what I do for a living.

<minor thread hijack> Cool, So do you use Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere? (or something else?). </minor thread hijack>

Chris

DavidTO · May 2, 2005

95Mcaj wrote:

<minor thread hijack> Cool, So do you use Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere? (or something else?). </minor thread hijack>

Chris

FCP. PM me if you want to talk about it more. Or we could start a thread in Wide Angle....

lynnesite · May 2, 2005

Another happy Mac Powerbook user here...15" screen, primary photo editing machines since 1998.

The 12" is a very handy size for travel, and elegant to use.

DoctorIt · May 2, 2005

Lynn, go apple. This is your chance, seize it! My 12" pbook is now my main computer. The 12" makes it tough to do really precision work on big photos, but MacOS makes it SO easy to add an external monitor to extend the desktop. this was a huge factor for me, as in the future I may have money to add a nice big display.

If you want to play with one, Hunts carries them and may have one. Or heck, if you come down to this area, you can check out mine. I'll even let you push the buttons.

wxwax · May 2, 2005

Problem is, I think, that lynn has a windoze desktop, so having a mac laptop would make things confusing.

DavidTO · May 2, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Problem is, I think, that lynn has a windoze desktop, so having a mac laptop would make things confusing.

I think it's more that if she has a Windows desktop, that would make it confusing.

Actually, more important than confusing, would be cost, since the license for PS would be no longer a one-time expense to swallow, but an ongoing one. Unless she upgraded her desktop...but then she's headed down a slippery slope of money cascading out of her wallet.

Yeah, can't believe I'm saying this...get a pc

Which Laptop

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