If you own a laptop, post here

[zachj]

I really can't praise the Dell Centrino products enough. To be honest, I don't like the ones from Toshiba at all, even if they're smaller or turn into tablets. I haven't seen another Centrino-based computer that I like outside of Dell 300, 600 and 700Ms. As for screen quality, I'll stick with my 15" PowerBook ( ), but the Dells are certainly bright and clear.

How many people here own their laptop for college purposes? And of those, how many actually make use of the fact that it's a laptop? Outside of taking it to the library last year, my laptop was mostly a desktop. Admittedly, I went to the library almost every day, thanks to having 16 English papers, 3 or 4 history papers, a couple government papers, and an architectural history term paper due in one semester. To be honest, I think most college students would be much better served with a Celeron desktop (the new Celeron, mind you, not the old 128k cache Northwood-based junk) on an 865 board and a Dell Axim or something for portable uses. I never took it to class, and never saw anybody else do so, either. And I really didn't see too many people with laptops in the library. Not that it's a big deal or anything, and people can spend their money however they want to, but a laptop costs significantly more than a desktop, and if it's not used as it could be, then the expense doesn't make sense.

Besides, imagine how many viruses would be avoided if students used PDAs . . . Sasser, Backdoor.SDBot, Gaobot, Korgo, et al are giving us HEADACHES.

Z

 

[Goodie]

Make
Dell
Model
Inspiron 8500
Preinstalled Software
Easy CD Creator
Microsoft Office
Can't remember the rest, was alot installed
Preinstalled OS
XP Pro (came with O.S. CD)
Processor (upgradeable? sodered?)
Intel P4
Speed
2 GHZ
Video (and MB of VRAM)
Radeon 9000 64 megs ram
DVD/CDROM/CDRW
DVD/CDRW
Hard Drive
40 GIG
Memory
1 GIG DDR (don't know how fast though)
Screen Size (image quality, resolution)
15.4"
1280x800 is best on this laptop
Weight/Size (fully loaded, bare bones)
Little heavey can't remember how much, but feels like about 10 lbs
Age
2 Years Old
Price (at time of purchase and what you would pay for it now)
Cost about $4000 , would but it used for $3500 now (mine is in great shape)
Pros
Great for school work, Fast Machine, Stylish.
Cons
Needs a better vid card (Still plays Doom 3 though )
Recommended?
I would recommend this laptop to anyone. I love mine and wouldnt trade it for any other.
Tech Support/ Warranty
I took the 5 year in house Warranty
General Comments
Great Laptop all around. I got it for college last year and have finished school since then. I now use it everyday in the office at work (Database design/web page design) and it never misses a beat. The Warranty is wicked good. I had a problem with the LCD sac in the monitor coming lose when I first bought it and after a quick call to Dell they came to my house and put a new LCD monitor on it for free!!
I also bought a wireless card for my laptop and it works great with it. I got the Dlink DWL 650+ and have had no issues at all.
Also bought a 256Meg memory Stick (removing the cd/dvd rom to put the floppy in was annoying) and I have had only one small glitch with it, but I think it was the memory stick that sucks, not the laptop.
The USB 2.0 is amazing as well. I transfer to my matrox external HDD with no problems very quickly.
Over all I like my laptop a lot. Quick, amazing warranty, looks good and does everything I want it to.

 

[moz_21]

Ordered Apr 15, 2004

--HP--
CTO Compaq Presario 2100Z ($1,223.00)
- AMD Athlon(TM) XP-M 2600+ 2.00 GHz *[Barton core, Mini Socket A]
- Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home
- 256MB DDR SDRAM (1x256MB) *[Samsung]
- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive *[Fujitsu, I believe]
- DVD/CDRW Combo Drive *[LG]
- 54g(TM) Integrated Broadcom 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
- 15.0" TFT XGA (1024 x 768)
- ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) *[8-128mb memory, bios configurable]
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money *[included Norton AV but did not install it]
- Extra 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- hpshopping in-box envelope

Standard notebook notepac -- ($59.99)

--Newegg--
Windows XP Pro ------------- ($141.00)
Crucial 512 MB SODIMM ------ ($115.00)

Grand total ---------------- ($1538.99)

Pros: -Very fast, stable, cool when not running FAH.
-$1000 was a graduation gift to go specifically toward a laptop.
-Integrated Wifi is a nice option.
-I am finding the keyboard shortcut keys very handy lately.
-3-4hrs Battery life.
-Warranty 1 year (but many options for more money)
Cons: -256mb is not enough ram to run smootly on a laptop it seems, though
I got the bare minimum because I figured it was cheaper on Newegg.
-No option to purchase XP Pro with the computer.
-Somewhat heavy with all the junk I put in the notepac.
-AC Adapter gets VERY hot when running FAH. (normal AFAIK though)
-Graphics are only DX7 compliant. (Read: weak) good for 2D and older
3D games such as Command & Conquer: Red Alert)

 

[zachj]

Can anybody comment here about laptop battery life over a specific period of time? I've had my PowerBook for a hair over one year, have left it on almost constantly since I got it, and the battery life while just running Word to take 10 pages of notes for macro and marketing, with the screen dimmed and reduced processor usage settings, is still over 5 hours. I know that batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over their lifetime, and I've seen many a laptop that simply will not run on its battery because of this (over three years old, by now). Is this normal? What battery life are you getting?

Z

 

[Crash893]

ibm t-23

Category Laptop
Brand IBM
Processor Manufacturer Intel
Processor Type Pentium III-M
Processor Speed 1.3 GHz
Installed RAM 256 MB
Max Supported RAM 1 GB
Hard Drive Capacity 60 GB
Battery Life 3.5 hour(s)
Weight 2.4 kg
Optical Storage CD-RW / DVD-ROM
Optical Drive Read Speed 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
Screen Size 14.1"
Max Screen Resolution 1024 x 768
Screen Colour Support 24-bit (16.7M colours)
Video Memory 16 MB
Width 30.5 cm
Depth 24.9 cm
Height 3.3 cm


i got this second hand from a guy that got a t40 ( nice)

pros

built in wifi
video card can support two monitors

cons
batery sucks it
no windows key ( i like the windows key but some dont)
its a laptop ( i dont like laptops but i use it in a docking station at work becuase thats all they will give me)

i would like it more if the batery didnt suck

 

[Cyrix_2k]

Gateway Solo 1450 - 1.33ghz Celeron, 512mb ram, 40gb HDD, DVD, 14" LCD
TWO Micron Transport Trek 2's - 266mhz PII, 256mb ram, no HDD, CD, 14" LCD
and a few older laptops...

Wifi Cards:
Netgear MA111 USB
Netgear MA521 PCMCIA (Realtek chipset - works in Linux)
Netgear WG511 v2 (China version) PCMCIA - being returned
Dell Truemobile 1150 PCMCIA (rebadged Orinoco Gold - works in Linux)

 

[itshondo]

Sold the Acer-

Now have a Fijitsu S6231 Laptop
1.6 ghz Centrino
13.3 Brite Screen
60 gb 7200 rpm Hitachi HD (I installed it)
1 gb pc2700 Adata Memory (I installed)
CD/DVD Burner
802.11B/G Wireless

Windows XP Pro & PCLinuxOS Dual Boot
Uninstalled everything else, now setup with my own software.

Awesome rig, less than 3.9 pounds!

 

[Elif Tymes]

Holy thread ressurection batman!

Make: Apple
Model: G3 iBook
Preinstalled Software: Erm, Mac Default stuff that comes with OS X 10.4
Preinstalled OS: OS X 10.4
Processor (upgradeable? sodered?): G3 800Mhz, Soldered I believe
Speed: 800Mhz
Video (and MB of VRAM): ATI 7500
DVD/CDROM/CDRW: DVD/CDRW
Hard Drive: 30GB
Screen Size (image quality, resolution): 12" Excellent image quality, 1024*768
Weight/Size (fully loaded, bare bones): Erm, I'd say about 4?5?
Age: Unknown. I have owned it for a month. Probably about 2 years?
Price (at time of purchase and what you would pay for it now):$350 paid then, would pay $350 now.
Pros: Very affordable Works like a charm... Nice and sturdy, an affordable way to get used to OS X without investing your lifes savings.
Cons: Need a new battery... only get 3.5 hours out of this one.
Recommended: Heck yes.
Tech Support/ Warranty: N/a. Got it used.
General Comments: Good, sturdy laptop.

 

[attack]

* Dell
* Insp 9200
* *shrug*
* XP home
* P-M upgradable...easy swap
* 1.6ghz 1gb of RAM
* 9700pro Mobile, 128mb own ram
* 8x DVD+-RW
* 80gb 5400rpm
* 17" 1440x900 great size, not too small of res
* 9lbs about...easily portable for me (I guess I'm just tough like that)
* A year now I believe
* paid 875 shipped 2nd day air used. I would pay 800 shipped cheaply
* Nice big screen, powerfull, good battery life, tough, fast
* Can't upgrade video card to 6800/7800 series
* If a laptop is your only computer I'd recommend the new duo from dell...if it's jsut something to use every now and then or you got a high end desktop, then go with a 9300
* It's dell...warranties are great, who needs tech support?
* Dells and IBM are the only laptops to get...IBM if you need ultra battery life and ultra tough notebooks, every other app, Dell.

 

[deez]

Make/Model: Toshiba Tecra A1
OS/Software: XPPro
CPU: P4M 2.2Ghz (not sure if upgradeable)
RAM: 768mb PC2100 (stock was 256)
Video: Onboard Intel 82852/82855 Video 64Mb
Drive: CDRW/DVD drive
HDD: 40Gb IDE
Screen: 15" 1024x768 32bit
Weight: 6.2lbs (very thin)
Age: 2 years old
Cost: $1100 new + 100 for 512RAM probably worth $500-600 now
Pro's: thin, light, well constructed, XP Pro stock, decent battery life, still fast after 2 years
Con's: I bought stripped down model no Svideo out or built in WLAN (but I use PCMCIA card and have an LCD TV with VGA connection)
Recommended: definitely for business/home use
Warranty: 3 year hardware warranty except battery, never needed support
General Comments: Couldn't be happier with this lappy, well constructed, convenient for travelling, nice screen size, would be nice if I could play some fairly recent games but it was bought for business/general use not gaming

 

[Soichiro]

Gonna review two laptops here

* HP
* Pavilion Z4610? I forget
* Came with a bunch of useless software, I don't remember all of it
* Windows XP Home SP1
* Athlon XP 2500+
* 1.8Ghz, 256KB L2 cache
* 1GB DDR333
* ATI Rage 128 Mobility w/ adjustable shared video RAM from 8MB to 64MB
* CD-RW (unknown speed)
* 40GB 5400RPM HDD
* 14" LCD @ 1024x768 60hz
* ~2" thick, 6.5 pounds?
* Almost 2 years
* $1200, now worth about $.50
* Pros: It worked for like 6 months after I bought it
* Cons: It broke way too often, and 4 of the 5 times I got it back from having it repaired, it still had problems. It also got way too hot, due to poor ventilation and crappy heatsinks (my current laptop has a copper heatpipe to cool stuff), DO NOT BUY FROM HP!

* Gateway
* MX6450
* M$ Works 8, Money 2k5, Big Fix (I think that's some firewall or something??), Nero 6, Acrobat Reader 7, Power DVD, McAfee, AOHell, Napster (wtf??)
* Windows MCE 2005
* Turion 64 ML-37
* 2.0 Ghz, 1MB L2 cache
* 1GB DDR400
* ATI Express 200 64MB (shared video RAM)
* DL DVD+RW (unknown speed)
* 100GB 4200RPM HDD (it seems even slower than 4200RPM for some reason)
* 15.4" "Ultra-bright" widescreen LCD @ 1280x800 60hz
* 1.4" thick/6.4 pounds
* 1 day XD
* It was supposed to be $1200, but I got it for $250
* Pros: It's shiny, lighter than the Gateway I had last week, has working wireless (unlike the Gateway I had last week), is pretty fast (except for things that require heavy disk access), good layout of various ports, 4 hour battery life
* Cons: Backlight bleeding at top and bottom of screen, most noticeable on a black screen like the Windows loading screen, hard drive is very slow and bottlenecks the system a bit, and it came with way too much crap

 

[skou]

ibm t-23

Category Laptop
Brand IBM
Processor Manufacturer Intel
Processor Type Pentium III-M
Processor Speed 1.3 GHz
Installed RAM 256 MB
Max Supported RAM 1 GB
Hard Drive Capacity 60 GB
Battery Life 3.5 hour(s)
Weight 2.4 kg
Optical Storage CD-RW / DVD-ROM
Optical Drive Read Speed 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
Screen Size 14.1"
Max Screen Resolution 1024 x 768
Screen Colour Support 24-bit (16.7M colours)
Video Memory 16 MB
Width 30.5 cm
Depth 24.9 cm
Height 3.3 cm


i got this second hand from a guy that got a t40 ( nice)

pros

built in wifi
video card can support two monitors

cons
batery sucks it
no windows key ( i like the windows key but some dont)
its a laptop ( i dont like laptops but i use it in a docking station at work becuase thats all they will give me)

i would like it more if the batery didnt suck

Still my favourite lappy!

steve

 

[Crash893]

ibm t-23

i got this second hand from a guy that got a t40 ( nice)

I must be moving up

I have a t41 now and handed the t-23 off ( i think they donated it to a school or something)

same thing goes

1600mhz pentium m
512 mb ram
40g hdd ( to small imo)
built in 802.11 b/g
touch pad and "nipple"
battery life is okay

again now windows key ( what the hell ibm)

few other neat tricks like a light on the screen that shines down on the keyboard for night surfing

and that hdd protection tech that has a G sensor that will park the head of the hdd if it falls ( havent droped it......yet)

 

[fuzzba11]

• Manufacturer
o Clevo
• Make/Model
o Sager 9860
• Preinstalled OS and Software Package
o got XP preinstalled
• Processor
o Pentium IV 3.6GHz
• RAM
o 1 GB DDR2
• Video
o 256MB GeForce 6800Go
• DVD/CDROM/CD-RW
o 4X DVD-R
• Hard Drive
o 60GB SATA
• Screen Size
o 17"
• Weight/Size
o it has a numpad, it's big
• Age
o 1yr+
• Price
o $2000
• Pros
o Plays any game at native 1680x1050, it's handled Far Cry, Half Life 2, Call of Duty 2, and Black & White 2 at high settings. Great for LAN parties, since it requires about 10 seconds to setup. It's also good for when I'm using 3D Studio Max, I can model, animate, and render high quality 3D animations. It has five speakers, and when I plug my Z-5500s into it the sound quality is excellent. Copper heatsinks with heatpipes, four USB, firewire, card reader, DVI out, webcam.
• Cons
o One. Hour. Battery. No kidding, the battery weighs at least a pound, and it delivers a max of one hour. I avoid carrying the battery around, so I don't use it when I'm not around an outlet. It gets hot on the left palm when gaming, and it's louder than most laptops. It's unwieldy, and the hard drive connector is coming loose.
• Recommended
o You have to really know what you want to be getting one of these. It can't be used the same way as most laptops, it's certainly portable, but some argue about how portable is portable. I found it great for being able to bring my own computer to class while everyone else worked on out-dated school computers. Plus when I travel overseas for any period of time, I don't have to be without my games and media.
• Tech Support/ Warranty
o Sager replaced my graphics card after I overclocked it too much, can't ask for much more. I only got a one year warranty because I wanted to mod mine, now I wish I had got a 3 year.
• General Comments
o It's like carrying a beast, but it makes other laptops shrink in it's presence. There isn't much that's more powerful, but I wish they'd toss the battery and build the power brick into the laptop.

 

[psyshack]

I jumped into the laptop world yesterday. Its all I thought it was. A waiste of money. I truley have no real use for a lappy. Just saw a chance to get a couple heap cheap at Best Buy so I went for them.

Toshiba Satellite M55-S3314
Centrino P-M 1.73 Ghz
512 Meg Ram
80 gig 5400 rpm
14" wide screen
DVD/CD burner, dual layer
Came loaded with a ton of worthless software

Price:
Retai $1000, On sale for $847, No traffic in the store for 3 hours. So I beat down manager to $700 ea. plus tax.

Pros:
Seems to be snappy in the speed dept. Light for me, 5 or 6 lbs. First battery discharge took about 2.5 hours with no power saving. This will fold so no power savings allowed. Keyboard is nice. Feels real good. Almost lke a old IBM desktop board. Wireless is ok. dont see why folks have been going crazy over it tho. Speeds vary from as fast as the wired desktops to slower than 56k setting right next to the router or out near the street. It seems well built for a flimsy over priced puter.

Cons:
its a lappy!

psy

 

[WejRepus]

Dell XPS M170
-Intel® Pentium® M Processor 780 (2.26 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
-2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
-100GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
-256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
-8xCD/DVD burner(DVD+/-RW)w/dble-layer DVD+R write capability
-17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™

 

[shellshock]

* Make-Hp
* Model-Pavilion zv5000
* Preinstalled Software-none
* Preinstalled OS-Windows xp home
* Processor-Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 3000+
* Speed-1.6ghz
* Video- GeForce 4 mx 420 w/ 32mb of decated memory
* DVD/CDRW
* Hard Drive-120gig samsung 5400rpm, 8MB cache
* Screen Size- 17in i think at 1024x768
* Weight/Size- have no idea
* Age- around 18 months
* Price- worth about $400 now probally
* Pros- large screen, great working touchpad, integrated wireless, nice blue led lights on all the buttons
* Cons- Most have faulty power jacks, altough it hasn't been a problem yet. speaker grills dent easy. Scratches and scuffs develop easy on the front


I have enjoyed my zv5000 so far. aside from it being quite large in size. It packs the power that I need, even though its almost 2 years old now.

I traded my desktop rig for it from a member of the forums here. when i got it, it had a 30 gig segate hard drive and 768MB of ram. I upgraded the hard drive to a 120 gig samsung 5400rpm, which has a higher capacity, and is much faster

Cant really comment on the battery life, since my battery that it came with wont hold a charge at all. I will eventually be getting another.

Heat hasn't been a issue yet. The laptop is folding 24/7, and it stays around 60c with the fans at full 12v. its reached up to 77c in my car one time, and kept running like champ. I need to open it up and apply some as5. Just haven't gotten around to it

overall, my zv5000 has been a great laptop so far, even though it does have the "HP" name. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a decent cheap laptop that will still provide plenty of power for everyday use

 

[Avg]

Make
Compaq

Model
Presario 3460US

Preinstalled software
I'll include a link to the laptop specs which will list the preinstalled software, nothing majorly annoying or troublesome.

Preinstalled OS
Windows XP Home Edition

Processor
Athlon 64 3200+, the p-m either where too much money for what I wanted or lacking for the same price

Speed
2.0ghz, socket 754

Video
GeForce4 440go, the nice thing about it is that its ram is not shared, it has it's own 64mb

Optical drive
DVD/CD-RW, I think they could have included a DVD burner instead but they didn't.

Hard Drive
60gb 4200rpm, just found this out at compaq's spec sheet, this is definately the biggest drawback sometimes slowing the computer down to a crawl, very annoying.

Screen
15.4in, widescreen of course, its the best looking screen I've seen, colors are beautiful. Definitely the best feature of the laptop.

Weight and size
This is a freaking brick at 7+ pounds, it's big too but not too big.

Age
Just completed it's first year, had a birthday celebration and everything

Price
Well with the extended warranty and everything came out to 1.5k, a bit much but I didn't have to wait for it to be delivered. I don't know how much it would cost today, I don't keep up with laptops so I don't know what it competes with. It's very quiet can hardly hear the fans.

Pros
It's fast processor wise, I mean I can get stuff done quickly if all it needs to do it processing. The screen is great for watching a DVD, looking at pics, even playing a couple of games. Keyboard is nice and easy to use, it has a card reader which is more usefull that I though it would be. CPU is upgradeable.

Cons
Definitely weight, it's rounder corners make it look bigger then it is (weird but bothers me a lot). Battery life, two hours is not enough. No floppy drive, well I understand they are not including it as standard but I still use it all the time on my main computer. No DVD burner. Battery meter doesn't tell me how long my battery should last. PC2700 when it could use PC3200, and it can't be replaced as some of the ram is soldered onto the mobo.

Recommended?
Well at the time I could have bought a Dell with a 6800 go and pentium M, but my sponsor (my brother) didn't feel like waiting for it. But it is still a reliable laptop and does it's job. So I'd say a maybe.

Tech Support/Warranty
Well I had the mobo sent in to get a battery replacement, but compaq must have though that 15min of battery life was enough and sent it back without replacing it, sent it back again and the battery was replaced with a model that held 15min more then the original battery which resulted in about 2:15 min of battery life. Now since the 1 year warranty is up any problem will be handled by Compusa.

General Comments
I've noticed that a lot of people don't like compaq, but based on this laptop I found nothing wrong with it, no factory problem and all of what I'm complaining about I could have found out before purchase very easily. I have two customer with the same Dell laptop that are newer then mine which have had to replace their keyboards because the keys just pop off, that never happened to mine until my Sun Canure decided to try it out, but it was pretty easy to pop it back in. Oh yes it has jbl speaker which are much better then any laptop speaker I've heard.


the Laptop.

 

[skou]

few other neat tricks like a light on the screen that shines down on the keyboard for night surfing

Your T23 had the same LED. (My T20 does.)

I still like the old IBM stuff.

steve

 

[synthetic_fenix]

Your T23 had the same LED. (My T20 does.)

I still like the old IBM stuff.

steve

I miss the T20 I had from a previous Job. Used to work for an IBM shop and did onsite repairs and there was a lot of times the Light that was built into the lid to shine on the keyboard came in handy. Also after upgrading the hard drive to a 7200 RPM drive and throwing a gig of memory in, thats was one of the fastest laptops I had worked with. The greatest part about it was the fact it still had a serial port built into it so i could console into cisco equipment.