Recs on notebook PCs

[Ethan_NYC]

Reading up on Cnet about the latest IBM thinkpads (R and T series) and the cool looking Sony Vaio series.

Anyone have any comments about their laptop?

I'm just looking for something portable, with a long battery life and preferably with a Intel Pentium M processor.

[JamesK840]

VAIO's have great features (even the cheapest have Firewire, for example) and some are very sexy. I especially lust after the one with the 17" screen and a 2GHz Centrino, but it can cost upwards of $6K! PLUS Sony VAIO laptops don't have especially long lives in my experience. I've seen Dells built at the dawn of time that still work perfectly, a VAIO is lucky to make it into its 3rd year before stuff starts breaking. (VAIO desktops are great though.)

 

I don't have any experience with Thinkpads, sometimes the designs are interesting but the software load is crap and I usually find things I like better elsewhere. Plus the one thing that's gone wrong in the 3 year old Dell I'm typing this on was the IBM-built Hard Drive...

 

But if small and light are your key criteria Sony and IBM are probably the place to start. Do yourself a favor and also look around on Dell's site. BTW, if you had to buy one now in a local store my preference for store-bought laptops is Toshiba, but some have had problems with them as well.

 

A laptop is the one piece of consumer electronics where an extended warranty (Dell offers as many as 4 years total, what does that tell you about their confidence in the quality?) makes sense, especially if it covers accidental damage as well for a reasonable price.

 

When you get a shiny new laptop, the first thing to do is uninstall all the worthless crap (shovelware they call it) the manufacturer installs, update (or install better and then update) the antivirus software and Windows, and set a password for Windows XP plus the laptop's BIOS (to prevent change to the boot-order, so if you loose the laptop and have a return for reward kind of thing in the case it'd be worth more to the average guy to return it since they can't just use it or re-instal Windows to use it--don't forget these passwords, but don't carry them in the case either).

 

Also, it's a great idea to make regular backups of important stuff on a laptop (I love that even affordable ones are coming with a DVD burner now!) in case it dies or gets lost/stolen (also don't carry the backup in the laptop case...).

[HooBoy]

I just bought my first Vaio laptop and, after about a month, I can honestly say, "I hate it."

 

SONY's proprietary Bluetooth software makes it virtually unusable for me using that feature.

 

Their Web Forum is a mockery of customer service and their customer service is virtually non-existent.

 

I'll stick to SONY for color TV's, but never again a computer.

 

Just my penny.

[tedbear]

>Their Web Forum is a mockery of customer service and their

>customer service is virtually non-existent.

>

>I'll stick to SONY for color TV's, but never again a

>computer.

 

Due to the collapse of a shelving unit, I had to buy a new stereo. I had formerly bought the best piece of equipment for the job and wasn't brand-loyal. But I wanted the ease of operation that comes with the features on modern equipment. (Turn on the DVD and it turns on the TV and Receiver, etc.).

 

I bought Sony, only because I they were the only company meeting certain specs for a DVD changer I wanted. I hate the complexity of the controls. The remotes are not laid out intuitively and the tiny buttons are not well marked.

 

When I was shopping for a large-screen TV, I compared and really did my research. I found the Sonys to be somewhat pale and anytime type appeared on the screen it was heavily pixelated.

 

My Sony-branded TiVo has never worked well and Sony's customer service's idea of help is to call me to call TiVo who tells me to call Sony.

 

Boy, I didn't realized I had this much resentment against the company until I started writing this. If I could only stop spending my extra $'s on men, I'd probably buy a whole new system!

[JamesK840]

If there's one thing you can count on Sony for, in anything (not just computers), it's that they'll avoid established standards and go proprietary every time. I think the great looking 17 incher has Media Center PC features but is running some crap mix of Sony software instead of MS Media Center...

 

From the company that brought us Betamax, and apparently never learns...

 

BTW, there was much discussion of Gateway laptops in another thread, I haven't seen one in a long while. Gateway used to have a reputation as the new Packard Bell (NOT a good thing), but the last (older) Gateway Desktops I opened were long-running and easily upgradeable. Still, if you're going to mail-order a laptop if may as well be a Dell, instead of some cow-themed company that seems to be in dire financial straits.

 

Unless you can't resist the sexy HSN host that is... (Personally, I don't care if the host was going to come to my house and blow me after the purchase, I wouldn't buy a computer from HSN, I shudder to think what their support must be like on top of the inanity one would have to suffer through to get to a good enough one in the show... But I'm somewhat of a snob about HSN, first thing I do when I setup a TV is program it to skip all those channels.)

[JamesK840]

Magazine recommendation...

 

For anybody that wants to learn more about computers there's only one magazine I'd recommend, Maximum PC. They have a sense of humor and aren't beholden to their advertisers.

[+ deej]

RE: Magazine recommendation...

 

>sense of humor and aren't beholden to their advertisers.

 

Maybe not cowtowing, but they're CERTAINLY beholden. :-)

[JamesK840]

RE: Magazine recommendation...

 

Not nearly as much as any other mainstream computer mag I know of. If something really sucks they really let you know in my experience. To the point they'll make fun of it. That's a hell of a lot better then the old Ziff-Davis publications.

 

Sure some websites are even better, but they risk being cut off from more samples and such by giving a bad review (plus most of the great computer websites I check regularly are too high-end and gaming oriented to be useful for the average guy trying to figure out what to buy from Best Buy or Dell). I suppose MaximumPC risks being cut off too, but they seem to do fine with advertising regardless of reviews.

 

They're not a magazine for Grandma to pick out her new eMachine from, but they do a great job of covering the top end of the market which most magazines only dip a toe into every six months.

 

The only other mag I'd rank close to them is CPU, I subscribed for a year or two, I dunno, it just felt too academic to me I guess.

[TotallyOz]

Hoo, I wish I had read you post earlier. I had my laptop broke on the airline upon return to the USA. I quickly headed to Circit City out of the plane and got a new one. I chose the Sony. I wish I had stuck to the Toshiba. Live and Learn!

[HooBoy]

How did your laptop break? Other than it was as big as a first class SEAT...

 

Well, my Sony is no longer an issue.

 

Yesterday, in my zeal to share the Amsterdam Canal Pride Parade on webcam, I was all set up with two cameras and streaming video, when someone streamed a FULL glass of wine onto my keyboard as the parade was beginning.

 

The brand new overpriced SONY is too lightweight to be a boat anchor or doorstop, but too heavy to be a frisbee. (For the record, Vaio PCG-TR5MP, Europe only. Americans and Japanese are too smart to buy one.)

 

So, I am shopping for my third computer in a month, scant days before Hong Kong, where comptuers are as cheap as I am. :-(

[JamesK840]

You know, HB, you may REALLY want to look into a Toughbook. They're made by Panasonic (I think). Some have stopped bullets (and are near the size, shape and weight of a Hummer) but they have a couple nice looking ones now too. Otherwise Dell tends to do pretty well in 'full cup of coffee' torture tests.

 

Of course it'd probablly be mail-order, but you've seen that's about the only way to get real quality in a notebook.