Laptop recommendation?

MJK said:
My favorites are the Dell Latitude D630, or the Lenovo T61 series.
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Ditto on both accounts...I've got a few Dell laptops and the D630 is my favorite.
 
Another vote for an Apple product. I've had my MacBook for about a year and a half now with absolutely zero problems. It's even held up through a wreck on my motorcycle with nothing more than a little scrape on one edge.
 
Avoid the T61 ?

I purchased a brand new T61 from lenovo 3 months back with great hopes considering that my T30 was such a gem.

Lenovo however messed up. While the specs are nice and the magnesium roll-cage and the superb wi-fi reception are all great. The T61 is a POS. Read up on the notebookforum etc. I did not, I expected it to be a thinkpad and that was that.

Damn thing crashes and hangs more times than not when coming off of a standby. Pretty frustrating. Frequent intel driver updates, Lenovo crap software, messed up drivers for their hard-drive shock protection are all driving me up the wall. I am hoping that they will sort this driver mess soon. For now, I keep hard powercycling it when it hangs and backing up my stuff. I gave up on vista and installed XP and have the same headaches of crashes etc.

Please read the T61 problem reports on notebook forum before you place an order. Their customer service is populated with idiots so no fun.

Having said that, performance is good, wireless is great and battery life is decent. Even with onboard graphics and a 5400 RPM drive, I get 2:15 hours tops (Wifi-on all the time however). There is an option for upping it by an hour (or 1.5 hours) by putting in a battery in the DVD drive bay.

I live with these annoyances and get by with cursing lenovo engineers to a special hell as I just can't stand dell's crap keyboards and all the other laptops not having the little light that makes my nighttime typing so much nicer.

-vamsi
 
Re: Avoid the T61 ?

joove said:
I purchased a brand new T61 from lenovo 3 months back with great hopes considering that my T30 was such a gem.

Lenovo however messed up. While the specs are nice and the magnesium roll-cage and the superb wi-fi reception are all great. The T61 is a POS. Read up on the notebookforum etc. I did not, I expected it to be a thinkpad and that was that.

Damn thing crashes and hangs more times than not when coming off of a standby. Pretty frustrating. Frequent intel driver updates, Lenovo crap software, messed up drivers for their hard-drive shock protection are all driving me up the wall. I am hoping that they will sort this driver mess soon. For now, I keep hard powercycling it when it hangs and backing up my stuff. I gave up on vista and installed XP and have the same headaches of crashes etc.

Please read the T61 problem reports on notebook forum before you place an order. Their customer service is populated with idiots so no fun.

Having said that, performance is good, wireless is great and battery life is decent. Even with onboard graphics and a 5400 RPM drive, I get 2:15 hours tops (Wifi-on all the time however). There is an option for upping it by an hour (or 1.5 hours) by putting in a battery in the DVD drive bay.

I live with these annoyances and get by with cursing lenovo engineers to a special hell as I just can't stand dell's crap keyboards and all the other laptops not having the little light that makes my nighttime typing so much nicer.

-vamsi
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Sounds like you could use a MacBook Pro :wink:
 
You should look into IBM Thinkpads. I have had one (T42) for 3+ years now and it works flawlessly. It is the best laptop/computer I have EVER owned. I have had Dells, Sony VAIOs and other home-built PCs over the years. I even had a mac in the late 80s/early 90s. I have NEVER had ANY malfunctions with the IBM. It is pretty unbelievable, but they have made a believer out of me. I will probably only buy IBM thinkpads from now on, unless something else spectacular comes along. My friend bought an Apple Macbook to replace his IBM Thinkpad, and he said he regretted it. Remember to check the heat on the laptops. His Macbook got too hot. UNcomfortable if you have it in your lap all the time. The IBM venting/cooling system is perfect.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=8FA114A7D9FF4F38AE8E19B36EC665A7

If you need to draw things, and alphanumerics will not cut it, look into a tablet. I have never owned one personally, but it will be my next laptop when this one must be retired (which will be a long long time from now).
 
KSXNSX said:
You should look into IBM Thinkpads. I have had one for 3+ years now and it works flawlessly. It is the best laptop/computer I have EVER owned. I have had Dells, Sony VAIOs and other home-built PCs over the years. I even had a mac in the late 80s/early 90s. I have NEVER had ANY malfunctions with the IBM. It is pretty unbelievable, but they have made a believer out of me. I will probably only buy IBM thinkpads from now on, unless something else spectacular comes along. My friend bought an Apple Macbook to replace his IBM Thinkpad, and he said he regretted it. Remember to check the heat on the laptops. His Macbook got too hot. UNcomfortable if you have it in your lap all the time. The IBM venting/cooling system is perfect.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=8FA114A7D9FF4F38AE8E19B36EC665A7

If you need to draw things, and alphanumerics will not cut it, look into a tablet. I have never owned one personally, but it will be my next laptop when this one must be retired (which will be a long long time from now).
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IBM still makes computers? they're still around? :wink:
 
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