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Comparing laptops

 
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fiveeagles



Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 12:08 am    Post subject: Comparing laptops Reply with quote

I am looking at this laptop right now and it seems to be the best deal that I can see.
Toshiba

What do you guys think? What do you think of Future shop's 3 year plan?

Thanks!
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mrsquirrel



Joined: 13 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 12:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you want to use it for?

I spent a good few days in BKK looking at laptops. I eventually chose a Thinkpad R60.

It may not have all the flashing lights and touch sensitive buttons of the new HP's/Compaqs but the build quality is superb. big metal hinges, good keyboard, trackpad and nipple, non reflective screen.

I bought the wife a Compag DV3000 and in comparison it looks nice with it's blue LED's and it's touch sensitive vilume control but the build quality is just that little bit cheaper. THings like the CD tray is not as solid and the keyboard isn't laid out as nicely. Screen is the high gloss which gives a nice picture but reflects like a sod.

The only downside to the Thinkpad is I sometimes touch the nipple when typing and move the cursor - easily sorted by turning it off.

Thinkpad has really nice software as well for recovery and backing up as well as a program which downloads all the necessary drivers for you and sets it up.

OS-X86 can be used if you are feeling flash
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SuperHero



Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

15" is rather large for a laptop, don't you think?
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the_beaver



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mrsquirrel wrote:
What do you want to use it for?
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fiveeagles



Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mostly for work which consists of emailing, calling from skype and Microsoft office. Sometimes, I will be using it for making promotional videos (5 mins to 15 mins), building my website and using powerpoint for presentations. I will be traveling a lot, so I will need it to be pretty tough.

I like this one, because for 1000 bucks I get;

2gb of ram,
Intel centrino core 2 duo T5200 processor,
good battery life,

What I don't like about it is that it is a Toshiba which doesn't get a good grade from PC-mag and the service warranty for 2 years is 350 bucks.

So when I compare other computers out there, this seems to be the best priced option, but I don't want to be bringing it into the shop every few months.

I currently have a compaq presario r3000 and haven't liked it. When I was in Korea it was constantly breaking down and with no overseas support.

Thanks guys!
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zappadelta



Joined: 31 Aug 2004

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would suggest taking a look at the DELLs, since they have a big presence in Korea, and after service will not be a problem. Just do a search for Dell korea and see what you find.
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mrsquirrel



Joined: 13 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DELL have made a big comeback.

I lost faith in them in the early nineties when they went bust.

Appear to be a lot more popular now.

Is it just down to loyal support because they are American or has the reliability and after care service really improved that much?
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fiveeagles



Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm back in Vancouver now so that's not a problem. However, I do travel a lot!
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smurfystew



Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Seoul, ROK

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Macbook
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Missile Command Kid



Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

fiveeagles wrote:
Mostly for work which consists of emailing, calling from skype and Microsoft office. Sometimes, I will be using it for making promotional videos (5 mins to 15 mins), building my website and using powerpoint for presentations. I will be traveling a lot, so I will need it to be pretty tough.


You need an ultraportable, no question. For what you need, you don't 2 GB of RAM, you don't need a C2D machine, and you do need something under 4lbs. A 15.4" widescreen? What for? I've got an iMac as my desktop and a 3 year old IBM Thinkpad X31 as my laptop. It's tiny, 12" screen, something like 3 lbs, has 512 MB of RAM, and runs Office, Skype, and any HTML editor you can throw at it. Even making promotional videos doesn't necessarily *require* higher specs, though they might be useful.

Look at form factor first and go from there. I know that there are many ultraportables out there - one of my coworkers here in Korea recently picked up an 11" Sony Vaio ultraportable that's incredibly light, is decently fast, and looks great. You might even want to consider picking up a used Thinkpad and buy a brand new battery for it - might be cheaper than a completely new computer and would likely work just as well. One more thing to consider is keyboard flex. If you do a lot of typing, it will drive you mad if your laptop bends while you type. Just as you need to try out a keyboard before you buy it, you definitely should try out a laptop before you buy it as well. It's something that you'll be carrying around for at least a year.

(Oh, and I'd forget about Future Shop/Worst Buy if I were you: they're useless when it comes to warranty services. If your laptop has a problem, they'll take it away and give it back to you up to 60 days later. Either go with an OEM in Vancouver or maybe order from a store out of province, as you'll save money on PST.)
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