Comments on: Ryan Needs a New Laptop

By: dc

dc — Tue, 15 May 2007 10:40:20 +0000

DoD has a contract with Panasonic - toughbook C-74 and higher are ultraportable, have incredible battery life, and can stop 117 grams of lead.

Well maybe that last bullet (hah) doesn’t really apply, but they can be dropped from maybe 10-12ft onto a zodiac and survive.

The design leaves something to be desired, but the tablet/touchscreen is very fun.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:52:39 +0000

Dan seems to really, really like his lenovo, you might talk to him. It seems to fit most of your reqs with the exception of the dual batteries.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:06:14 +0000

Mac Book Pros are pretty sweet. You can run Bootcamp or Parallels and run Windows or Linux on it as well. Really the best of all worlds. They also have native bluetooth support so you can transfer files between your cellphone and laptop. Backlit keyboard so you can type in the dark. The keyboard buttons feel a bit weird at first but you get used to it pretty quick. MacBook Pros also work well with most projectors without having to mess around with system settings. And you can install MAMP on your Mac and test websites (with PHP and MySQL support). Yes, Macs seem more expensive. But if you try to spec out a “comparable in features” laptop from standard PC manufacturers, the difference is only about $100.00 or so. If you choose to go with a straight-up Windows running PC, Lenovo’s ThinkPads generally rank high up on customer satisfaction charts. Kaylee has a Lenovo 3000 N100. She says it doesn’t wake up from sleep very well and she doesn’t like the glossy screen - she prefers the matte screen. She also had a minor issue with the battery, which Lenovo quickly replaced - excellent customer service. But otherwise it’s a good computer. However both the MacBook Pro and Lenovo are standard laptops (5 pounds, 3-5 hours of battery life, optical drives, etc.). Anyway, here’s wishing you the best in your next laptop purchase.

By: Stickman

Stickman — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:38:44 +0000

Dell and HP are big and heavy, but they’re big names. That means cheaper and good support.

If you buy from Fry’s, last I heard (my sister bought a laptop there a while ago), you can upgrade once for free within a three year period as soon as the laptop begins to “feel sluggish.” Most places do something like that with the warranty but don’t advertise it like that, where you can turn it in for a replacement, and since they don’t have the old models around they just give you a new one.

There’s also the Mac models, but Mac tends to be a bit more expensive, and unless you’re familiar with BSD you may be more comfortable with Windows. They DO have some really nice features, though, like the magnetic power plug that pops right out when you trip on it.

I don’t know much about laptops, but they have some amazingly small, thin, light models out there. You probably want one of those, especially if you’re carrying it around a lot.