Good laptop brands
 

I'm getting rather fed up with my compaq nc4000 - it's only 14 months old and has wrecked two batteries at £125 each in the last two months.

I'm understandably wanting to replace the laptop with something better built - used to have a Dell which was ultra reliable but they seem to be big compared to the 4000. So, here's a list of my requirements - if anyone can recommend a machine then I'd be eternally grateful:

Machine must be:

- small/light - ideally around the nc4000 size
- have good battery life i.e. more than 2.5 hours on a full charge
- built in wireless would be good, but not essential
- a reputation for strong build would be great

Thanks!

Suggestions
 

If you are a PC man (it seems so) check out the IBM X series for ultralight laptops (X40 or X41), or the T series for "thin and light".

Thinkpads are well built, reliable, and have excellent keyboards.

If you like Macs, go with a Powerbook.

Have you thought about a Sony Vio. I had one and it was light and was great. it got old so the company bought Dell's. Not a bad laptop, but it is encripted and I cannot use it on the plane. There is no adaptor according to Igo for my type of Dell. So I sit with a $100.00 paper weight. :mad:

Went shopping with grad student son for a light but powerful notebook, and went home with an Averatech AV3250H1, for US$899 from Circuit City (YMMV.)

Athlon 2200, 512mb, 60gb, burner, 802.11.g, 12" screen, around 4 lbs (1.8kg). Built like a tank. Very impressed. May grab one for his mother and me before a longish RTW jaunt this summer. He reports no probs +5 mos.

I know that some on this board will come out against Sony, but my experience has been great.

I bought a Sony desktop in July, 2002. It worked so well that when it came time to replace my old HP laptop, I bought a Sony S150P. It has been great--the perfect mix of performance and size.

Mark it, Sony and Canon products for me, dude.

Personal preference. As previously mentioned above, the IBM Thinkpads are reliable and durable. I currently use a T42.

The Sony Vaio's are small, sleek, powerful, and expensive. They look really cool, but I don't have much experience with them. I owned one 5 years ago and never had a problem with it in the 3 years that I used it.

ibm is good for business
 

but i like the panasonic notebooks. they are light and powerful. and no problem with anything.

Personally i would take a iBook G4

According to Consumer Reports, Apple ranks highest in reliability. They also rank highest in customer support. They have been at the top of the list in both categories for at least three years now.

Averatec
 

I love my 4.3 lb. Averatec....I have beaten it to death in my tote bag as a flight attendant. Bouncing it down the jetbridge stairs a couple of times a week for the last 18 months, in and out 4 days a week at security...built in wi-fi, DVD, CD-RW...1.5 inches thick. LOVE it!

There are several threads here on this topic.

IBM's were rated pretty good

Sony got blasted here for nefarious customer service.

Dell was rated good on service.

On paper, Acer offers by far the best value for money, especially in the high-performance category. But their build quality isn't very highly-rated by the few IT people I know (though a friend of mine who doesn't belong in that group does own an Acer notebook and is happy with it).
I have heard great things about Toshiba and Fujitsu-Siemens-Nixdorf, while my first and last experience with a Sony Vaio lasted for two days (wasn't working at all well so I got my money back). I understand the latter might have been a matter of chance, but really won't be buying a Sony machine again unless I could get an unrepeatable deal. I've been very happy with my previous notebook which was a Gateway (have been abusing it for 4 years but it's still working fine); however Gateway have pulled out of Europe so I wouldn't recommend as spares/service are impossible to get.

Edited to add: Important battery tip in case you didn't know: unless there is danger of a power cut, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT leave the battery in your laptop when working on mains electricity. Electricity goes through the battery wearing it out big time.

IMHO, Dell
 

I own two "ultra lite" Dells. The X300 and the 700M and I think they are great. The battery life on the 700M isn't the greatest (about 2 hours on the extended battery), but on the X300, it's great! I've gone as long as 4.5 hours on the extended battery.

The only downside is that they are a little pricey, plus for some reason IGO has decided not to make adapters for the new Dell laptops. I think it may be because they manufacture Dell's car/wall/air adapters (however with a stupid, stupid, stupid design) and therefore can't compete with their own brand. :(

The only downside is that they are a little pricey, plus for some reason IGO has decided not to make adapters for the new Dell laptops. I think it may be because they manufacture Dell's car/wall/air adapters (however with a stupid, stupid, stupid design) and therefore can't compete with their own brand. :([/QUOTE]


Well I just talked to Dell to see if they have a adapter for the D600 that I have. To go along with my IGO. What a surprise No we don't, but you can buy a whole new charger for $80.00 that will work. :(

If you're not stuck on Windows - you didn't say, and the predominance of Windows posts in this thread probably reflects market share more than anything else - I'd suggest a 12" Apple PowerBook. (If you need to run an occasional Windows-only app, you can do it through a program called Virtual PC, but I wouldn't recommend that if you'll spend most of your time using programs that don't have a Mac version or equivalent).