Choosing a new laptop

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Monday,  7 July 2003 at 15:45:20 -0400, Jesse Guardiani wrote:
> Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
>
>> I've decided it's time for a new laptop.  In the past I've been
>> relatively happy with Dell, but their web site is driving me to
>> distraction (want info about Latitudes?  Tell them you have a home
>> office and they'll give you Inspiron instead).  Questions to you:
>>
>> 1.  Which brand?
>
> IBM, if you can afford it.

They're not overly expensive.

>> 2.  Which model?
>
> I hear the T series has pretty good battery life.

I had a T22 until about a year ago.  The battery life was terrible,
much worse than my Inspiron 7500.

> I personally have an A30p. Battery life sucks (1 hr avg),

The T22 was better than that, about 2 hours.

> but I've got good power (1.2Ghz PIII), 1600x1200, and an excellent
> keyboard. I got mine used for $1,350 on ebay.

I don't like the keyboard.  As I say below, 

>> I also want a keyboard which I can remap and a touchpad which
>> works; a third mouse button would, of course, be a good idea.

I was thinking specifically of the T22 when I wrote that: the bottom
left key is Fn, and you can't remap it.  Is that different on your
machine?  Also, the T22 only had this damn silly eraser head "mouse".

>> I use laptops when travelling and for presentations.  For the former I
>> want long battery life and high resolution (preferably 1600x1200).
>> For the latter I need something that will feed run-of-the-mill data
>> projectors at 1024x768 and with enough grunt to run an increasingly
>> lethargic Acrobat Reader without noticeable delay.
>
> My A30p has TV out and an external VGA port. Projectors are no
> problem.

The T22 has a feature which looks like a bug: it has separate video
for the external output and the LCD screen.  Although I was working at
IBM at the time, we weren't able to get it to display the same thing
on both screens, but I always used my Dell for presentations.  I hear
they've since fixed the problem.  With the correct software, this
feature could be quite nice (display the presentation on the projector
and an annotated version on the LCD), but I don't know of any such
software.

> Lots of grunt too, but again, crap battery life. T series is good for
> battery life. However, the larger the screen, the shorter the battery
> life.

Grunt doesn't seem to be the problem nowadays.  Hot laps might be.

>> I'm suspicious of the new wide screen versions because of potential
>> problems with the data projectors;
>
> I'm suspicious because I don't think I'd get the same # of square inches
> on a wide screen model. I think it's a marketing trick. 17 inches of wide
> screen isn't the same # of square inches as 17 inches of a normal aspect
> ratio.

Basically it comes down to the number of pixels.  It's nice to have
two normal-width xterms side by side.

>> if people can allay these concerns, I'd be quite happy to have a
>> wide-screen model.  I also want a keyboard which I can remap and a
>> touchpad which works; a third mouse button would, of course, be a
>> good idea.
>
> Thinkpad's trackpoint shows up as a normal PS/2 mouse.

The trackpoint is ugly.  I won't buy a laptop with it.  But I think
the newer Thinkpads also have a touchpad.

> Three buttons.

Yes, that's an advantage.

> Fully working keyboard.

Nope, see my complaints.  Is that different on your model?

Anyway, I've bought an Inspiron 5100, which looks like being a
reasonable compromise.

Greg
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