Good Portable Laptop / Long Battery Life. Price isnt an issue.

[Peter Pen]

Hey guys. I am the market looking for a new laptop for business. I am currently still using my Dell GEN1 XPS Notebook, but I must say, 30 mins of battery tops not to mention the weight alone just isn't cutting it. I do alot of business presentations while I am on the road and I am just looking for something with performance but good battery life.

Suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[myndlessdayz]

Hey guys. I am the market looking for a new laptop for business. I am currently still using my Dell GEN1 XPS Notebook, but I must say, 30 mins of battery tops not to mention the weight alone just isn't cutting it. I do alot of business presentations while I am on the road and I am just looking for something with performance but good battery life.

Suggestions are more than welcome.

I have an XPS 1210 and with an upgraded battery (9-cell I think) it can last as long as 6-7 hours dependng on what I'm doing and screen's brightness.

Also are there certain specs you want a laptop to have?

 

[Korndog]

the ibm lenovo has an insane battery life of 5.5 hours w/ a 6 cell battery. they sell a 9 cell battery for it too, which i would imagine you could get off ebay or something for less than 80 bucks. get them both and you've got 8+ hours of usage lol! the laptop is about 500 bucks.
since money isn't an issue, you could also buy some more ram, maybe a better processor and bigger hard drive for it.
i plan on getting it, upgrading the cpu to a 1.7 p4m, 9 cell battery, a 120gb hard drive, and 1gb of ram. the total cost came out to a little under 850 for it all together and should kick ares.

 

[myndlessdayz]

the ibm lenovo has an insane battery life of 5.5 hours w/ a 6 cell battery. they sell a 9 cell battery for it too, which i would imagine you could get off ebay or something for less than 80 bucks. get them both and you've got 8+ hours of usage lol! the laptop is about 500 bucks.
since money isn't an issue, you could also buy some more ram, maybe a better processor and bigger hard drive for it.
i plan on getting it, upgrading the cpu to a 1.7 p4m, 9 cell battery, a 120gb hard drive, and 1gb of ram. the total cost came out to a little under 850 for it all together and should kick ares.

Never had a lenovo so I wouldn't know. but that does sound like a kickass deal

 

[mrgreenjeans]

Im sure by the time you add all the 'upgrades', you'll be a bit over $500. I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 1405, 1.66g core duo, 1 g DDR2, on board graphics, 60g drive, on board wireless, 9 cell battery, 14.1 truLife Screen, and it weighs in @ 5.2 lbs. with a 8+ hr. battery life, under a $1000 to my door with a newspaper coupon. I's light enough to tote anywhere and I leave the brick at home! I run a CAD pogram, Photoshop, illutrator, etc. in the course of business and have no complaints on this set up. I just wish I had sprung another 20 spot and got the onboard bluetooth. ( I woulda swore I had it checked on the initial order, but it wasn't on the final build ticket?)
I can recommend the machine. I just wish they would quit loading these things up with all this useless software. I spent the first 2-3 hours uninstalling all the AOL/Earthlink/Dell programs and 'assistant shoppers.'

 

[Korndog]

Never had a lenovo so I wouldn't know. but that does sound like a kickass deal

lenovo's have a good build and decent components (thats coming from a guy who had bad experiences from ibm before, lol)
heres the cnet review for the laptop..
http://reviews.cnet.com/Lenovo_Thin...DD_14_1_inch_Screen/4505-3121_7-31513943.html
there is also a 1.6 p4m model, but it comes w/ a smaller 30gb hard drive, i might just get that and upgrade the ram, and hard drive since i'm not sure how easy it will be to swap cpus. the only issue cnet has with the laptop is the warrenty (i'll void mine the first day so it doesn't matter) and the screen not being crispy enough. if you're just gonna use this for word/excel like me, or for presentations (where u hook it up to a projector/tv) like you said, it shouldn't be an issue i guess..

 

[Peter Pen]

Wow thanks for all the suggestions already guys. I didnt think I would get a responses that fast. Great community here so far.

Korndog - I will look into the IBM Lenovo. Sounds like a bang for my buck.

myndlessdayz - The Dell is nice and compact. Im very tempted to just go with the XPS M1710 topped out for those days I feel like not being productive and just relaxing and playing some online games.

 

[Korndog]

Im sure by the time you add all the 'upgrades', you'll be a bit over $500. I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 1405, 1.66g core duo, 1 g DDR2, on board graphics, 60g drive, on board wireless, 9 cell battery, 14.1 truLife Screen, and it weighs in @ 5.2 lbs. with a 8+ hr. battery life, under a $1000 to my door with a newspaper coupon. I's light enough to tote anywhere and I leave the brick at home! I run a CAD pogram, Photoshop, illutrator, etc. in the course of business and have no complaints on this set up. I just wish I had sprung another 20 spot and got the onboard bluetooth. ( I woulda swore I had it checked on the initial order, but it wasn't on the final build ticket?)
I can recommend the machine. I just wish they would quit loading these things up with all this useless software. I spent the first 2-3 hours uninstalling all the AOL/Earthlink/Dell programs and 'assistant shoppers.'

do u have the coupon code?
u sure it last 8 hrs??
the levono w/ a 120gb hard drive upgrade and 1gb ram upgrade comes out to about 700 bucks actually.

 

[Korndog]

Wow thanks for all the suggestions already guys. I didnt think I would get a responses that fast. Great community here so far.

Korndog - I will look into the IBM Lenovo. Sounds like a bang for my buck.

myndlessdayz - The Dell is nice and compact. Im very tempted to just go with the XPS M1710 topped out for those days I feel like not being productive and just relaxing and playing some online games.

no problem man, ooh, and WELCOME to OCforums

 

[mrgreenjeans]

do u have the coupon code?

I tossed it last weekend. sorry.

 

[funnyperson1]

I would go with the Lenovo Thinkpad T60 or the Dell Latitude D620. Both come with 14" flavors (the dell is widescreen though, while the T60 is 4:30). Both are quite rugged with Magnesium cases covering the LCD, and the best keyboards in the business (from reviews I have read, for good keyboards look at a Thinkpad, then a Macbook Pro, and then the Latitudes).

The T60 gives very good battery life with the 6 Cell battery (5 hours+) but will probably end up being a little more expensive with all things equal. I ended up getting a D620, but only because at the time I ordered the T60 was $300 more for the exact same specs and similar 3yr mail-in warranty. Now the prices are much closer, but you probably want the T60. It is thinner, has better battery life (D620 with 6Cell is around 3hrs), and has arguably better quality (all the business level notebooks are pretty darn good).

Also to consider is that both of these laptops have modular drive bays so that you could get a battery that fits in the drive bay for even more battery life. For the D620 this means up to 5 hours alongside the 6 Cell, and the T60 probably like 8 hours. Now if you got the 9 Cell battery for either laptop (which juts out in the back for the T60 and in the front for the D620) you could probably get close to 10 hours with a battery in the modular bay.

 

[komaa]

also you could look at a hp nc 8430. i have one with a c2d 2.0 GHz, 2 Gb ram, a x1600 mobility, ... and with the standard batt and the super-long-life batt pack that snaps to the bottom i can get 11h max life, but 9h is usual for normal use (screen at 50%, several open docs, wireless internet).

 

[ryanmartini]

The most power packed mini laptop has to be the Dell XPS1210. You get a great cpu, screen and a full size keyboard. Graphics are still pretty decent with the 7400go.

Not to mention with the 9 cell the insane battery life times !

 

[Peter Pen]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I really appreciated it. My accountant has brought to my attention that I should just wait until tax season and see how much I have left over for write-offs and invest in a new laptop accordingly from there. From the looks I am sold on the IBM Lenovos

 

[ryanmartini]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I really appreciated it. My accountant has brought to my attention that I should just wait until tax season and see how much I have left over for write-offs and invest in a new laptop accordingly from there. From the looks I am sold on the IBM Lenovos

dont buy from factory otherwise you will hear cha ching in your sleep for months.