It doesn't stack up at all. Just about all laptops will have built in wireless. If you want high battery life, then you need to go with a mobility chip like a Centrino. All pentium 4s are going to eatt batteries like it's their job (screen size is a factor as well). Pentium 4 laptops battery life is generally 2-3 hours, a centrino can be as much as 6 hours. But you lose out on speed when you get a centrino. If you are just doing school work and such, an increase in ram will make a centrino run as fast as you would ever need it to run. But if you want to play DOom 3 and Half life 2, you WILL need a P4 coupled with a Nice graphics card and then your battery life will suffer short of getting two batteries.

Check out this centrino (for battery life).

Sony Vaio

Or this P4 (for gaming performance)

HP - no holds barred battery eater

You really can't have it both ways. Plus keep in mind that the most expensive component on the laptop IS the screen. Just looking at specs on the internet is not going to show you the difference between that crappy acer screen and a "NICE" screen like on the Toshiba Qosmios. Go down to your local CCITY or BBUY and check them out.

 

thanks meth.. you have pm...

 

Hey Pete,

I'll chip in a little bit here (EDIT: holy, actually this looks longer than I had in mind; sorry for the long reply). I develop computer software for the energy industry, and for the last 5 years I've used only laptops as my business machine. Here's what I think.

1. Get the best display you can possibly afford. In the old days you had to be aware of the type of display you got to make sure it was bright enough and the colors looked real. Now-a-days they all use the same type. What varies is the resolution. I would never use a display with a resolution less than 1280x1024. Lot of guys ship laptops with res's of 1024x768. I get a claustrophobic feeling working at that res, especially if I'm using it for work. There's just not enough room to do anything. I personally run at 1600x1200 (and on a 14" display too). That cost me a ton, but I love it. Make sure to see it in person before you buy it (or see the equivalent res and screen size). Some people don't have good enough eyes to see the small fonts at high res's.

2. If you plan to rely on this laptop day-to-day, get an on site full service warranty that lasts for the length of time you plan on using it before you replace it with a new one. I've yet to own a laptop that hasn't had some sort of hardware failure. My current laptop is a Dell (here's the reason not to get one) and I'm currently working on my 4th motherboard, 3rd hard drive, 3rd CPU, 2nd set of memory, and 2nd power supply. The laptop is 2 years old, and not all these parts failed at the same time. A mother board costs $1000 for my laptop, and is about two hours labor for an experienced pro to replace. I paid $250 extra for my on site support contract. A guy comes to my office and replaces everything for free, usually within 24 hours of me calling. And after watching him replace the motherboard the first time, I'm glad I got the on site support. I'm a pretty handy guy, but there's no way in hell I'd want to do that. I've had two IBM Thinkpads and though they didn't fail like the Dell, they did have their share of problems. Get the service contract. My Dell has a three year contract; the day it expires I'm hoping that whatever new laptop I've order has finally arrived.

3. Be sure that you REALLY REALLY want/need a laptop! As you're finding out, they are hella expensive compared to a desktop, and have the reliability of a mid 80's Ferrari compared to a rock solid desktop. I move between four different customer offices and I need my computer to follow me around. After living with one for many years, I'd never buy a desktop again, but I know computers and can fix them if something goes wrong, I've got a company's bankroll to pay for them, and I'm patient enough to live with the hardware unreliabilities.

4. When you're trying to figure out what brand to buy, I honestly think it's a crapshoot. All the parts are made in the far east by people who are being paid next to nothing. I think all the laptops are going to have their share of problems.Protect yourself by buying from a company that has an excellent service department. After that, really all you can do is look at price, performance, and size/weight. You can control two of those factors, and the third will be decided for you. There is no mythical laptop that is super powerful with a high res screen, weighs next to nothing and costs less that a new motorcycle. Believe me, I've looked. Pick the two factors that are most important to you and start there.

Personally, my next laptop will be another IBM Thinkpad T series (my Dell days are done). IBM does make super fast, high resolution laptops that weigh very little and have smaller cases. They cost $5000+ though. So, you can guess which factor I've decided not to control. Good luck Pete.

Chris.

 

Okay all you computer experts. Does anyone have any opinions on the Sony VAIO VGN-S260 laptop?

I'm looking for a laptop to be used for heavy travelling. I'm not going to be a real power user. Internet, photo sharing, light video editing and of course, watching movies on DVD will be the main uses. To this end I need a good battery life, reasonable amount of hard drive space and very importantly, light weight.

Any thoughts on lightweight laptops, and any positive or negative comments on this model or Sony laptops in general would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

 

RainMan, like someone said before, check in to the Centrino's because their made for power saving and since youre not much of a power user, it should be perfect for you. I'd say you should check em out.

 

RainMan, that laptop looks like it would work for you. The only concern I have with it is it's 1year warranty and it's ATI 9200 vid card. Even by last generation's standard, it's still quite slow. Although you aren't a power user, that vid card might limit you from many things in the future.

 

$5k to change the interior color of your car?


eh.. i think u should get this ferrari notebook.....






yeah.. get the ferrari notebook

 

OMG!

I just got home from a 25 hour shift at the hospital, and I'm laughing so hard, I almost fell off the chair!

I might be an unemployed graduate student, but dammit, I'm squeezing every drop out of my student loan money!!!

Thanks to everyone for the laptop/notebook advice. As you can see by my posts, I'm busy checking out the stuff you are recommending. I haven't made my final decision, so please post more. Your opinions are appreciated.


-Pete

 

Wayyy too expensive (Especially for an Acer!).. You can get the same features for half that price.. I'd look at Dell's.. People were praising them a couple years ago, now the trend is to bash them.. But they still make really good computers from my experience.. and all custom to suit your needs.. Plus the shipping is quick and they always have a free shipping deal or some upgrade for free on their site.. Sony's are nice too, although I think they're overpriced

 

Maybe half the price might be an exaggeration, but EvoVII does have a point. A Dell 8600 fitted to match the Acer spec comes in at around $1900. But, on the other end of the spectrum, an equivalent IBM T Series comes in at about $3250 if you build it up from scratch. You may be able to lower that if you get one of their pre-fab'd models.

Honestly, the spec on the Acer is pretty good. It's got a HUGE number of ports available on it and the integrated card reader is nice. Those aren't typical features on a laptop. And 6.5 pounds is actually good these days. Laptops seem to be getting heavier each year. That's light in my books. But, you can just as easily get a USB powered universal card reader and USB hub from your local electronics store for next to nothing. So, having those features built in are worth an extra $400? I'd take the difference and funnel in into more memory and software if you can't score some copies from someone else.

Ohh, look to get Windows XP Pro, not Home for an OS. I only get frustrated with Home edition when something goes wrong with it. Microsoft's Pro edition is more stable and their bigger seller. I'm sure it gets more attention in-house then their home edition does.

About Dell and their bad rap. They get this for two reasons.

1) Their laptops have a bad habit of having motherboard failures at the most inappropriate times (like two weeks after your two year warranty expires - I swear there's a time bomb built into them). The software shop I work for has a ton of Dell 8000's, 8200's, and 8600's. We don't have much hope for them after the warranty is up. They become parts computers after that. And we do have a number with dead motherboards.

2) Their 1-800 service department can be very frustrating if you're not computer savvy. Your call will get routed to India and you will talk to someone who is going to run you through some script that is written down. If you call them about software problems or software/hardware bugs, you're going to get frustrated. But, if all you're going to call them for is to get dead hardware replacements, I think they're great. Dell will keep sending you parts till that computer starts working again. But again, you've got to be computer savvy and know what to say to them to get your parts without a huge fight convincing them that there's a problem with the hardware. Fortunately, Dell ships all their laptops with a Dell Hardware Diagnostic CD that runs a brutal set of tests. If you can get that program to general an exception code, give the code to the online tech and you're almost guaranteed to receive a new part.

I can't stress enough though, GET AN ON-SITE SUPPORT CONTRACT!! It sucks having to pack up your laptop and mail it away if something breaks!

Chris.