Hi all, i've decided today that I need a laptop to carry around with me. I've owned and built many desktops but have never dealt in the laptop world. What i'm looking for is a nice reliable good computer that is as small and mobile as possible, but is still usable. What I mean is that I want it to be thin and small, but not an under-sized keyboard that's hard to type on, or one with a screen so small that it's hard to read.

What I found so far that looks appealing is the Dell Latitude series. I saw one in person and it seemed very thin, light, and usable. It is, however, quite expensive and that's the only thing keeping me from ordering it right away.

Has anyone had experience with one of the dell latitudes? Or does anyone have any suggestions for other good laptops?

Thanks!

 

Liebernoodle,

Good choice on the Dell, they're great computers. I have a Latitude, and it's great. Nice, slim, and powerful. Get the built-in wireless antenna - once you go wireless, you'll wonder how you ever survived w/o it. I have a PCMIA wireless card, but may try to get my boss to take it so I can get the motherboard-mounted unit.

Depending on your intended use, an Inspiron may be a better fit for you. It's more oriented towards consumers and small business, while the Latitude is developed more w/ corporate users in mind. The Inspirons tend to be more leading edge in processing speeds, peripherals, and features, while Latitudes have longer, more stable product life cycles.

Here's the latest customer sat. rankings from TBR, an independent research company:
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Technology Business Research (TBR) recently announced that corporate I/T purchasers again gave Dell the No. 1 ranking in overall customer satisfaction across all form factors for the third calendar quarter of 2001.

Server Customer Satisfaction results: Dell maintained the No. 1 position, with a 1.62 point lead -- down from a 2.47 point lead in Q2'01.

Key points from TBR include:
"Dell has only given back a small fraction of the astounding gains this vendor established in the prior quarter

 

If you want small and light get ready to pay cash and in support. I peronally use a 667 G4 Titanium Mac with 1 gig of ram, airport and cd/dvd burner it is overkill for just about everyone. For a decent vaio get ready to pay close to 2500 or so Mine came out to close to 4000 after all the options came in so it all comes down to your price range.

 

Although not THAT light and thin, I JUST got my Inspiron 8100. PII 866 mhz, 256 megs of ram, 16 meg nvidia vid card, 15'' screen, DVD, nice keyboard layout, win XP (need win2000 on that beast). So far, so good. $1444 including shipping, but that was when there was a deal going on. I think it's a bit more expensive now. I plan to get a wireless card since my school offers wireless service.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris S
[B]Liebernoodle,

Good choice on the Dell, they're great computers.