Laptop Recommendation?
 

Mods, feel free to delete if inappropriate for forum.

Gang,

My current laptop, a 17" Dell Inspiron 1720 monster seems to have died, so I have decided to replace it with a smaller footprint laptop. I have a 24" monitor I attach it to at home, so do not need that huge monitor for travelling. I do normal things with the computer... no heavy gaming or applications.

So, anyone have any recommendations for a laptop they would recommend? Windows7 a requirement. I use the Office Suite of products... so need some memory... and networking card, think they are now standard.

What deals have you seen that you would recommend?

<Expecting ScottC has all the answers to these questions!>

You can get a light / thin 13" laptop like the HP DM3 or Lenovo Ideapad U450, or a bigger 14 / 15" laptops. If all you need is office, I highly highly recommend the Ideapad U450.

Lenovo Thinkpad x200. 12.2"

Are you going to travel with it, or will this usually be used at home? (Do you have something else you travel with, or ...?)

Do you have any min/max size/weight requirements?

What's the native resolution of your 24" monitor? What connections does it have? (hdmi? dvi? vga?)

-David

I would check out the 13" Macbook or Macbook Pro.

+1 to the macbook pro.

I have the upper specced 13" model and dual boot osx/ win 7 and imo it is the perfect machine.

I love it to death and would struggle to fault it. ^

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It was ScottC who recommended my current laptop to me a couple of years ago, and the machine, a Fujitsu S series, performs in an outstanding manner to this day.

To me, a combination of performance and suitability for travel was paramount, By the latter, I mean power consumption at 75 watts (in order to use airplane in-seat computer power systems), weight at or under 5 pounds, and excellent screen (watching DVDs on the plane is essential to me).

The Fujitsu passes with flying (no pun intended) colors. Excellent build quality (machines are built to order in Osaka and then shipped international FedEx). Good US-based tech support the one time I needed it.

Check out the current model S7220. I think that the website is shop.fujitsu.com

http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Eco...o?series=S7220

I own the Asus UL30A-A2 and love it. It seems to meet the requirements that you've listed.

13.3" screen, 500GB hard drive, SU7300 CPU, 4GB RAM, significanly more powerful than my netbook, VERY thin (one my favorite features of this notebook), stated 12 hour battery life (I've never run it down that far but based on my experience 10 hours seems realistic), 3.7 pounds. 2 thumbs up.

The Acer Timeline series is also something to take a look at. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the Timeline and the Asus but ultimately chose the Asus because of its greater battery life which was one of my priorities.

http://www.amazon.com/UL30A-A2-Light...3311696&sr=8-1

Jason

Far less of an issue today as Empower goes away. Most airlines are installing straight 110-volt AC power plugs.

^^^^^^
I spent most of last year playing with netbooks (10" & 11.6") and while they were great, I think the ASUS 13.3" is perfect for me. Combo of battery life, size, width, power, etc. Love it!

But don't the underlying power supplies still only deliver 75 watts?

I just discovered this forum and spent several sleepless hours last night catching up on the world of travel. I love this...I am a PM with Delta/NWA and spend a lot of time alone in airports or on the planes thinking so many of the same thoughts I've read here - it's great...thanks

To answer the laptop question I can tell you what not to get. I purchased an Acer Aspire One notebook just to check emails when I'm gone. While I like it's compact size I'm certain it's possessed. Suddenly and without provocation text will shrink, navagtion will fast forward or rewind and I think I've even see the screen do a 360.

Seriously I wish I spent a little more time researching and a lot less money.

I just got the same MacBook and I feel the same way. It's almost a fetish object.

If you're thrifty, the best balance of "cheap, portable, versatile" in a full power machine I know of is the Dell Vostro 1320. It's not even in the running for "light or thin" for a 13", but it's reasonably small, has a processor that doesn't require compromises for any kind of general use, has a built-in CD, gets decent batter life, and it's under $600 (slightly over with sales tax in some states.)

Ceases to be a good deal quickly if you need to push upgrades for better speed or battery life.

A couple of more general pieces of advice:
1) Decide on the size/form factor you want before looking at models. While most close sizes are basically interchangeable (11.6/12/12.1, 13/13.3, 14/14.1 and 15.4/15.6), this is the decision to make first.

2) Decide whether you like glossy or anti-glare screens, or don't care. Personally, I really detest glossy screens, and it has made buying on the consumer side tricky at points past.

3) If you're a heavy typist, check out each manufacturer's keyboard; going between Dell and Lenovo machines even at the same rough size tends to give me errors. Of course, dropping to a less than full-size keyboard (anything smaller than 13", and a few 13" models) can be even worse.

4) I wouldn't touch anything with a single-core processor today for real work; that said, the 1.3-4ghz dual core ULV processors seem to be an acceptable tradeoff for better battery life for many folks. About a 2ghz dual core seems to be a good baseline for general use, and IME the newer "Pentium Dual core" processors like the T4300 used in a lot of low end Dells are fine, although they don't have VT (virtualization) which is used by the Windows 7 "Windows XP mode" (which also requires Win 7 Pro.)

5) Lastly, the new Core i3/i5/i7 mobile processors are just starting to come out, and these are going to be a nice speedbump for many people. It might be worth waiting a bit for these to become more broadly available (although Dell has a couple of models orderable already.)

Unsure. I've used my ThinkPad's 90-watt adapter directly plugged into a DL 110-volt socket and it charged fine.