Never owned one....will be used for both digital still evidence storage, display of pics for supervisors, DA and review in the field, court room presentations...yada yada.....

Wireless capability, long lived battery life...etc....

I CAN use it for personal use so other bells and whistles like DVD/CD Burner......

Dell quoted 3800....my budget is 2500....

Don't want to have to come out of pocket...much....

Look at the warranty on the battery!! I bought a Sony and 35 days after I bought it the battery went bad. Sony only offers a 30 day warranty and the replacement battery (when I needed it) was $279! I felt cheated!

I have been told that Dell batteries are all interchangeable and run around $35 each. I could have bought 8 batteries for what I paid for the Sony battery!!!

You have to decide what features you cant live without. Get alot of storage, RAM and the fastest processor you can afford. The CD Burner is a must now-a-days! I wish mine had the built in Wi-fi but it will be easier for me to upgrade to 802.11G when I want to!

Jeff

Look for a Centrino CPU...longer battery life..built in wireless. These types of laptops can play a full DVD without running out of battery.

Stay away from the Sony brand. Its for home use ONLY. They are not supported for upgrades/additions/changes...nada. If you want to change it out of the box its not supported.

The HP site has a better configuration tool than Dell. HP does not try to hide upgrade fees in the config tool.

DVD burners are still in thier first generation. Copying works fine but if you want to capture video and burn it to DVD it often takes overnight for the conversion to occur. There are two or three on-the-fly capture modules out now but I cant find a review on them yet.

You will likely find doing a custom order a few hundred less than the prebuilt laptop. You have to wait up to 6 weeks though.

As a word of caution. RUN do not walk, away from any HP laptops. I have one now and it has been replaced once and had a tremendous amount of repairs. This has included the system board in both units, keyboard five times and the modem is now shot. I had to take another one via Best Buy because I had to choose a replacement from the same manufacturer. Take all this with a read and heed attitude. I'm a systems engineer and my laptop needs to be on the ball all the time. Right now I would love to do a Dave Darling floatation test on it. I will never buy another HP laptop again. This was a very expensive and time consuming lesson. Look into the Dell units is my personal advise.

We are an IBM (deployed PCs and Servers here) shop. The new T41 RAWKS!!!! WiFi, cetrinoM, big Harddrive... and a nice screen.
For around 2k you can get a screemer! Cnet and ZDnet like em too.
Check with CDW.com They are pretty good and will match prices, so play them off the IBM site for the best deal!
laptop ninja dtd

Mikey,
did you look at the laptops in the Outlet part of the Dell site?


http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.as...s=22&l=en&s=dfh



Sc

Dells are ok. But anything in a close out bin isnt worth what they are charging IMHO. For biz or legal, you need something robust with a great warrenty.
Check out this link: http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...egoryId=2072541
Right now they are even offering a free upgrade to 512MB of ram. Of course because it is IBM, you will have to hunt around the world's worse e commerse site!
dtd

Look at another laptop from Dell... you can get a decent configuration in your price range... we buy 100s' of them around here for windows laptops now. I am on my second one and never had a problem.. this one has even been dropped to the pavement and come out O.K. Screen resolution and clarity are fantastic.

I ditched the floppy drive in favor of a second battery for added lifetime away from the plug. You don't need a floppy these days with wireless connections and the USB memory stick "hard drives".

Mike I am not expert but I am using a Dell latitude 4000. Comes with a external CD drive but you can get internal also. I am sure Motorola gets a discount from Dell since they buy in volume but for the laptop with docking station it came to $2300 (I signed the PO for it).

We just got a home computer and I have have the Dell catalog here and they show a Inspiron XPS with Pentium 4, 512MB DDR SDRAM, 60GB hard drive, 15.4" screen, 24x CD burner/DVD combo drive for $2599. You can get a wireless card for another $49. I sure wish I knew what all that means.

- Garold

Whatever you decide on make sure you run it on the shop bench with a few processes going to see how noisy the fan is. I had an issue with my NEC which I use at work and cart around with me. It was a bit noisy after it heated up but fortunately there was a bios upgrade that pretty much fixed it.

Dude. Apple makes the best laptops hands down. Even if you use a Windows box for everything else having an Apple laptop is a great solution. I've had my iBook (1200 bucks) for about 3 years, and now i have a new Aluminum PowerBook. They rock.

I repair PCs and adminstrate a LAN for a living. For what you get for the $$$, IBM is unbeatable right now. Side by Side, the new Thinkpads blow everybody away on RETAIL price, performance, configurations, warrenty, and even fan noise.

Dell wins in the desktop, but for 2grand, you get one hell of a laptop from IBM.

The Apple option will cost you more to get Word/Excel capability and you may still have conflicts with others using PC's software. My mom is sold on Mac but getting anything on a Mac for less money is tough to do! The Mac's do appear to have less "issues" out of the box!

Jeff

Laptop Comparison from PC World.

Well I was right last week
LOL

I also support computers for a living and I would also suggest an IBM T series laptop if you are going PC. If you can go Apple then the new Powerbooks are extremely nice.

Thanks.....went to PC Club at lunch.....shaved 1200 off the price....

Think I can do better with an IBM?

Then....discountlaptop.com


DiscountLaptops.com
501 South Rancho Dr. Suite H-53
Las Vegas, NV 89106

888-726-8924 (Toll Free)
702-363-2842 (fax)
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Order #11139 Details [Placed on: 04/07/2004] - Estimate


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Ordered Items
Qty. Part # Item & Description Price Ea. Total Price
1 Chem 2060 -V Chembook 2060 -V

15.1" SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) Active Matrix Display
1.7 GHz Intel Pentium M (Centrino) Processor (400 MHz FSB - 1024k L2 Cache)
64 MB Dedicated DDR Vram - ATi Mobility 9600 Pro (M10)
80 GB Hard Drive (4200 RPM)
1 GB (PC2700) DDR SDRAM (512 MB x 2)
2X DVD-R / 8X DVD / 24X CD / 16X CD-RW Combo Drive w/ Softwares
Internal 56k Modem
10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet LAN Port
Internal IntelPRO 2200 Wireless Ethernet/Lan (802.11 b+g)
Smart Lithium Ion Battery (5.0+ hours battery life)
Built-in Flash Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
AC Adapter w/ power cord
Free Deluxe Carry Case
FREE BONUS! Notebook Essentials Software (19 Titles)
MS Windows XP-Professional Installed, CD Included
1 year parts / 3 year labor, life tech support $2,265.00 $2,265.00
1 Custom Ext Warr. Extended Warranty and Priority Support Programs

3 yr. additional on-site warranty w/ priority support from purchase date (EW3-T4) $120.00 $120.00
1 Optional LCD Protection

3 year LCD Damage Protection from purchase date (requires EW2-T3) $195.00 $195.00
1 MS Office Microsoft Office Software Suite Options

MS Office XP 2003 Professional Edition $340.00 $340.00


Transaction Summary
Sub Total: $2,920.00
Price Adjustments: $0.00
Payment Method: Credit Card
Payment Method Adjustment: $74.87
Sales Tax: $0.00
Shipping: $30.00 - Ground


Total Payments: $0.00


Grand Total: $3,024.87
Due Balance: $3,024.87



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Yes!

What's an ENP600?

An IBM T series laptop is like a Porsche, all the others are just pretending.

I agree about the T series IBM laptops. I work at Intel making the P4 and Centrino processors and I use a T40 on wireless all day, every day...

-Britain

I've been buying IBM laptops since 1996 or so and had a perfect track record with them.

I am using a heavily loaded (and -heavy-) A31 something-or-other as my main work machine right now; I use a port replicator at the office with a regular keyboard, 20" LCD, speakers, printer etc. The machine can hot-undock in like 1 second to carry off to a meeting, or toss into standby mode and bring home, where it immediately detects my wireless lan when I power back up.

This beats the hell out of my old setup where I had a work desktop and laptop, and a home desktop and laptop. Keeping all that stuff maintained and "in synch" was a royal PITA.

I have used Dell for almost all of our desktops and Intel-based servers since the early 90's with good results. They farked up my most recent order and I ended up cancelling it. I think they are having some supply-chain / ordering system problems lately.

OK....so who can get me a deal on a IBM?

Or who do I go to online?

I'm in the tech field also, Dell's....high failure rate, HP's (ex Compaq's) burn through batteries like you can't believe.....IBM Thinkpads are the best!

I would use only an autorized IBM reseller or IBM themselves. Read the fine print. They are just like Rolex. Warrenty may be void if not purchased thru an IBM partner.
I have had great luck with CDW. Melissa Richardson is my TAM. She beat IBM's price on single unit purchace of a T-41 recenly. Her email is MeliRic@cdw.com
Be sure that you know what you want and how much MRSP is. They are good, but they are also in the Retail biz...
dino
360networks (just in case you do go there. It might be worth something)
www.cdw.com

Thanks....

BTW your avatar needs more skin....

oooh new PC smell argggg yum

Just emailed her....she ever send ya any nekkid pics?

ummm no, she is nice and has a great personallity...
Strictly professional

I asked and she said ya never asked....bummer....

Nice gal....

And I didn't see that coming? I am gettin slow on the draw...
Good Luch, Mike. Keep us posted...

Z, You have a PM.

I agree with the IBM we have X30's for work and 600Es before that (and a 360 or something before that with a Toshiba 660 in between.

They take a beating and keep on going. Very nice feel and good solid build.

I disagree in part about Sony. I've had one for about 4 years and it as well has been a fine machine. They do suport windows upgrades, usually issue new drivers to make all of the quite nice sony software work with new windows versions.

(by the way, there are 2 other Sony computers (Desktops) in the house which perform flawlessly as well)

You can't change much in the way of components anyway in most laptops so there isn't much need for much more.

All things being equal, I'd chose the IBM though. (when I purchased mine an IBM with the same spec was nearly 1000.00 more)

Also IBM has a goverment sales program, call them.

Been using Toshiba Portege's for the last 4 years. Worked very well. (but that depends on how much you care about function over weight -- lighter matters to me. ymmv)

Others around me are very happy with IBM 'pads.

kim.

I have an older (2001-ish) Sony "ultraportable" at home and it has worked out well...runs Win2K and is 2.5lbs so great for traveling or reading email out by the pool etc. The main gripe with that machine is the hard drive is super slow (which is relatively true of all laptops).

Mike - I work at IBM - contact me with your e-mail and I'll forward you our latest special employee friends and family deals -my personal e-mail is t_loevenich@hotmail.com - I am sure they are within your budget - Theo

Well there you have it!

An IBM at a brother in law price, can't beat that!

HI - Mike - check your e-mail at 356@cox.net I send you the info!

HEy Theo, I might need a F&F deal on an Enterprise Exchange server

HI Dino -- works only on Pcs - but I got a washer and dryer at a good price