Please help! I need some advice from my s2ki friends who are more IT savvy than me and have laptops for use "on the road"....Patty, Jim, Jonas, whoever!


With my non-working status at the moment, I am contemplating a S2000 Road Trip in the next 4-6 weeks.....probably ending in San Diego to see friends and Patty/ SoCal bunch

I would like to buy a laptop 'for the road' for wireless connection to email and the web....thus able to connect with family and also deal with Google searches/ Mapquest/ etc. I don't currently expect to use it for photo or music storing.

If I want to keep the hardware/software cost at around $1,000, what are the features that would be most important......OS, software package, memory, RAM, battery, monitor size, options, etc. What brands/ models would you recommend.....Dell, Toshiba, etc.

All suggestions from my S friends would be appreciated

 

When I did my road trip to the west coast this past September I took my Dell Latitude 620 and made sure that I only stayed in motels that had FREE wireless. You need to be careful as some advertise wireless but then charge for it. I didn't use a cell wireless card as I was in many places that didn't have cell service.

I won't recommend a computer because in that price range it is my opinion that they are all about the same. I would recommend a mapping program like MS Streets and Trips. It helped several times when I couldn't get on the internet for maps.

If you do it have fun and be safe. It is a trip that will remain with me for a lifetime.

 

Um, I am not smart at all when it comes to this, Jerry. I am cheap, like you, but I didn't want to skimp on a laptop. I went to Costco.com and ordered this computer I am typing on. I listened to Jonas's advice on what to get. I have an HP Pavilion. I'll see if I can just copy what's in it.

 

Jonas is my reliable expert when it comes to computers so I suggest you get his input.

I have this:

HP Pavilion dv6000
Processor: AMD Turion 64 x 2, 2.0 GHz
Memory: 2046 MB
System type: 32-bit Operating syystem

 

A little out of your price range, but I just got myself a Sony Vaio TZ150 for Christmas. My main criteria was size, weight, battery life and connectivity, and the TZ150 is pretty much unbeatable on those points. It's not a desktop replacement, so I would not do heavy video editing or anything like that, but as a travel computer it is phenomenal. And despite its size, the keyboard is still useable!

First thing to do, then, is to get rid of Vista (Sony does provide all necessary XP drivers on their website, along with instructions how to install XP) and to spend another $30 for a 2 GB memory chip (which effectively turns the TZ150 into a TZ170, which usually costs $300 more).

http://tinyurl.com/26fu4d

 

How come you don't like Vista? I don't really see any difference between it, on my laptop, and Windows XP on my desktop.

 

Visually maybe not (I always switch to the "Windows Classic" look anyway), but I get annoyed by the nanny approach Microsoft has taken in the name of "security". "XY would like to do Z. Are you sure?" After the fifth such question in as many minutes I had enough.

Besides, Vista is a resource hog. Especially if you install the new SP3 for WinXP your system will be faster (and more stable) than under Vista. If you google for that subject you will get tons of hits. Hell, even PC Mag is cheering SP3 and jeering Vista, and they are the biggest MS cheerleaders.

 

Thanks for the comments from David, Ulrich and Patty. For what I want, I can't see spending $2k (the Sony on the link that U provided)....but thanks for the info.

I hope to hear more from others.....where is Jonas

 

It's really just $1700 on the web (look at PriceGrabber.com), if that makes it more palable.

But I guess my recommendation would really be to look along the same dimensions as I did and then see what the best compromise between them and your wallet is going to be.

 

If you have Vista, 2GB memory is the bare minimum for any performance. I have a Vista laptop with 1GB memory, and it's a real dog. The same 1GB is plenty of memory for Linux or XP. I don't know about OSX.