Brother getting a laptop- What do you think?

My brother wants your guys expertice on laptops, since neither of us have ever bought one before. Please offer your comments! Here are the specs:

Acer TM4000WLCi-XPP-2MB
Pentium M 710 @ 1.4GHz w/ 2MB L2 Cache
15" XGA TFT (1024x768)
512MB DDR333 SDRAM (2x256)
Intel Extreme Graphics 2
40GB HDD
DVD/CD-RW Combo
v.92 56K
10/100 LAN
802.11b/g
3x USB2.0, VGA, S-Video, IEEE1394, FIR, Audio
5 Hour Battery Life
6.6lbs
1 Year Warranty

$939.00 @ NewEgg

If he's not gonna game, that'll be great for internet and word processing... plus he'll love the battery life from a pentium-M processor

He said all hes going to do is just watch DVD's on it, surf the web around the house, and instant message people. It will most likely be replacing his current rig, which has the following specs:

Athlon T-Bird 1400MHz
Shuttle AK31 KT233
256MB DDR RAM
32MB PCI ATI Radeon All In Wonder
40GB HDD
24x CDRW

An AIW original Radeon PCI card isn't much of a gaming card in itself. I'm wondering how it competes with IEG2.

That P-M will be a nice step up for him. Sounds like it's all he needs. Acers have some great features, like the ability to play DVDs without booting into the OS, among other things. I really like their displays.

Too expensive. My brother got an HP with a Sempron 2200, 256MB, 40GB HD, 17" display, CDRW/DVDROM, 4 USB 2.0, 10/100, 56k, AC97, FX5200, SVGA for $579. The only thing you're missing is firewire(which most people don't need), wirelss ($30 pcmcia card) and 256mb SODIMM, definately not a $360 difference. Dell has one with a Pentium processor at that price too, same equipment. I wouldn't pay that much.

^bump^

There's a difference in mobile power between a Sempron and a Pentium-M. The -M will get much better battery life, run cooler, and run quieter than the Sempron. My first personal PC was an HP, and I never want to go back to that again. Acer is a quality brand of notebooks, and that should last him several years.

I'd go with the Acer- definitely with the P-M. I have an Acer 1662 that I love, just wish I had bought a model with the P-M instead of the P-4 3.0.

Well my brother wanted to bring one home that day. So last night me and him went to BB. We looked at a few models under a grand, and found a gateway that he really liked. So he picked up a barton 3000+ with 512MB ram and an uxga widescreen. I'm on it right now, and its really really nice. Very speedy and runs suprisingly cool. I havent had a chance to play any games on it yet- but DVD's look awesome on this widescreen. I tried telling him to spend the extra $100 and get a P-M model because it will be better at battery power, and since it has 2MB cache- but he had his eyes on this one.

It will work for what he wants- mobile instant messaging and surfing around the house. Hes going to pick up a wireless router- but I'm not sure what the typical range is on those. He currently lives 2 stories above our basement where all the networking stuff is now. His other option is to hook something up to the connection he has in his room... but I'm not sure how thats going to work out.

They make WAPs that extend the range of your network. It takes the signal it receives and re-broadcasts it at full strength. If you put it halfway between your base station and where you'll use your notebook, you should be fine. My 802.11g works about 100 feet pretty much no matter what's in the way. On a good day I can really get going on wireless range, up to 200 feet with an external PCMCIA card.

Thanks, I think thats what he will go with- that way he will have full strength throughout the house and not just in his room. But that's an extra $100 for a nice extender. Oh well... his money not mine .

uxga - for sure - i can not stand laptops with a max res of 1024 x 768 - XGA - that is what i dont like about new egg - i think they have like 1 laptop with a WU or WSXGA screen and it is like $2k sony vaio