Laptop hunting
Mar. 27th, 2005 20:44![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillOkay. I need a new laptop sometime in the foreseeable future. Any advice I can get in terms of recommendations, industry gossip, or horror stories is welcome.
What I need:
What I don't care about:
What brands I will not consider:
Dell and Gateway. I won't give Dell my money, if for no reason other than the crappy stunts they pull on desktop computers. (Ask me about the power supply trick... *shudder*) Besides, I hear more Dell horror stories than any other. Gateway has really bad support and quality both.
Sony and Apple both come under the category of "good but overpriced". If I could get a Sony for the same price as an identical HP or Thinkpad, I'd jump at it. And I can run linux on a Powerbook, though it wouldn't let me dual-boot WinXP as I occasionally like to do. Windows capability would be nice.
What brands I have considered in the past:
HP's Omnibook has done well by me for several years. I've heard the Pavilion notebooks have gotten better (they've always been better than the desktop models anyway). Last time I was also looking at Toshiba, IBM, and possibly Compaq. I'm hearing conflicting reports of both HP and Compaq quality since the merger; I'm curious as to whether HP's quality has gone down, and/or Compaq's has improved.
So. That's where I am... any thoughts?
What I need:
- A touchpad. I don't care if it has a clit-mouse, but I won't use it... I'm absolutely a touchpad person. Two buttons at least, three would be ideal.
- Built-in wireless would be really nice.
- A couple of features which I suspect are standard these days: an ethernet jack and DVD-ROM. I had to hunt for the former last time.
- A 14-15" screen or better.
- Linux compatibility. Again, I expect most good models are pretty good with linux, but if you know of one to avoid, please let me know. I have heard that some Dell laptops have been dismal in this regard...
- Reliability. This is my primary machine, and gets a lot of hard use. It can't need to be fixed regularly.
- I need it to be affordable. The only reason I haven't bought Sony in the past is because they cost too much, not because they're bad machines (quite the contrary). I need a basic, well-built machine for as little as possible; I bought Hesseth for $1100 plus tax and shipping, and I'm looking for that sort of deal again.
What I don't care about:
- Processor speed. Any of the current processors are plenty fast for me.
- Graphics. Ditto above -- I'm not going to be playing Half-Life 2 on my laptop, and any model out there can handle playing DVDs just fine.
- Weight. I'm quite used to 10+ pound luggables.
- Stock memory. It does need a relatively high memory capacity, but memory itself is so cheap that I can buy it separately.
What brands I will not consider:
Dell and Gateway. I won't give Dell my money, if for no reason other than the crappy stunts they pull on desktop computers. (Ask me about the power supply trick... *shudder*) Besides, I hear more Dell horror stories than any other. Gateway has really bad support and quality both.
Sony and Apple both come under the category of "good but overpriced". If I could get a Sony for the same price as an identical HP or Thinkpad, I'd jump at it. And I can run linux on a Powerbook, though it wouldn't let me dual-boot WinXP as I occasionally like to do. Windows capability would be nice.
What brands I have considered in the past:
HP's Omnibook has done well by me for several years. I've heard the Pavilion notebooks have gotten better (they've always been better than the desktop models anyway). Last time I was also looking at Toshiba, IBM, and possibly Compaq. I'm hearing conflicting reports of both HP and Compaq quality since the merger; I'm curious as to whether HP's quality has gone down, and/or Compaq's has improved.
So. That's where I am... any thoughts?
