Looking for a good laptop, state of the art.

[DonLandis]

I started shopping for a good Windows laptop for a travel system to replace my 4 year old HP 2.4Ghz Pentium.

Wanted-
Express slot 54
PCMCIA slot
Built in webcam
Built in wifi
Built in BT
Ethernet and dialup modem
1394
100Gb Sata hard drive
Prefer to have small size with long battery life 3 hours minimum. under 5 pounds
DVD burner
HD15 and S video output
Windows Vista compatible
2 Gb Ram
3 minimum USB2.0
Sturdy case for LCD protection.
SD and CF card readers.

Processor brand not important, just want it to be fast enough to edit video, so a good gaming card would be nice.

Cost less than $2000.


Any suggestions? Will conside as much as I can of the requirements. So far all the ones I see in my requirements are 17" screen sizes, not really what I wanted in size. HP has some smaller 15 " coming out that offer most of the requirements. If a PCMCIA card reader for the USB input is available I will consider scrapping the PCMCIA slot. Then I see HP has a few that meet the other requirements. I have a few PCMCIA cards I need to read.

[CoriBright]

I just got the Toshiba Satellite P105-9312 which meets almost all of you requirements except the weight limit and webcam. $1,999

200gb sata hard drive
P4 T2500 dual core
2gb RAM
256mb dedicated GeForce 7900 GS graphics
1 x 1394
Bluetooth and IR
3 x USB 2.0 ports
fingerprint reader
DVD multidrive.... everything except lightscribe
17" W/S
DVI-D, D-Sub and S-Video output
PCMCIA and Express54
WiFi a,b and g
10/100/1000 Ethernet
Modem (which I will probably NEVER use)

Erm what am I forgetting.... well the specs are at the Toshiba site and you can find it at CompUSA. They're in short supply though.

Before I got this I talked to several authorised repair facilities.... they reckon they get 25 15.4" notebooks in for every 1 17". Granted there are more 15.4's sold, but they do tend to overheat and blow things much more than the larger models.

[CoriBright]

oops, forgot.. it does have card readers too.... and the ability to play DVDs and CDs without loading Windows, and it comes with a remote for just that. It's also Vista compatible.. says so on the sticker!!!

[DonLandis]

I've narrowed the requirements list down now to Just Express54 socket since I discovered Verizon now has released their EVDO card for Express socket. I'll need to upgrade to one of those and will need to see what sort of deal I can get on my PC EVDO card. I'll just have to figure that cost as part of the upgrade. The other cards I have can be replaced with USB I/O versions.

PS- I did look at that Toshiba but rulled it out due to screen size. I want something a bit smaller than I now have for travel.

[djlong]

Just out of curiosity, what are you using now to access the EVDO network?

If you're using a Palm Treo, there's a piece of software that lets you use the Palm as an "EVDO modem" (or 1X modem if you're not in EVDO territory). I bought a copy and it works GREAT - just over $30 as I recall for "PDAnet" from June Fabric Software. They have versions for Palm OS and Windows Mobile 5 Treos.

Allegedly, the Windows Mobile version now supports use by BT. I use it hooked up with my USB cable so I can't speak for the BT connection.

[DonLandis]

I have the XV6700 PDA and yes the BT hack does work as well as the USB cable. I've only tried the BT hack. My wife has the Treo 700w. I've thought about using that too but there are some disadvantaged such as speed. The PC card EVDO gets on the average 600-800kbps while my cell phone only gets 250-400 kbps speed. I have no idea why that is but it is. I had the PC card about 4 month prior to getting the XV6700 and I still have a year on it's contract or pay the Verizon early cancel. I really don't mind as the EVDO is damn near perfect. I used to have T-mobile GPRS and while it was the only game going when it came out, times change and I needed more reliability and speed. EVDO seems to give me that now.
The newest Express version of the EVDO card is said to even work faster. I wonder if the BT and the PC card I/O is a bottleneck that the Express card overcomes?

[Bogy]

Before I got this I talked to several authorised repair facilities.... they reckon they get 25 15.4" notebooks in for every 1 17". Granted there are more 15.4's sold, but they do tend to overheat and blow things much more than the larger models.

Not to mention that Toshiba's always come out on top when it comes to reliability and the ability to survive stupid things their owners do.

[DonLandis]

Spoke to a Microsoft rep over the weekend and was advised to get the Duo 2 Core intel chip, the latest chip out. It seems that every mfg is coming out with their compliment of notebook.

I have pretty much narrowed it down to two radically different notebooks.

The Dell with a 2.33 Ghz Duo 2 Core, 2Gb Ram, 100Gb 5400 HD SATA with an Nvidia 512 Mb Video card. This machine will allow me to hold off on upgrading my Verizon EVDO card since it has the dual Express 54 plus the PC card slots. It lacks a built in webcam, but has a screen that is 15" and 1920x1200 pixel resolution. BT and IR as well with excellent battery life in excess of 6 hours, weight 5.5 lbs. Not bad except for the custom build prioce of ~$3000 delivered in 2 weeks.

The HP dv2000t custom build. with a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2Gb Ram and 100Gb 5400 Hard drive SATA The video card is less at 256 Mb Nvidia and the screen is 1280x1024 14.1" weight is 4.3 lbs and the battery burn time is close to 9 hours :) but it sticks out the bottom. The 5 hour battery doesn't.
Webcam, BT and IR plus a 5:1 card reader built in. The delivered price is at $1600 with 2 year ext warranty. It only has an Express 54 slot so I would need to upgrade my Verizon EVDO at $179 additional cost. Bottom line cost is 1779 delivered in 2 weeks.

I also heard that most of the stores will be getting in the new notebooks this week with the Core 2 Dur processor so I plan to wait until Friday to see what will turn up in the store deals. Buying from a local store could cost me the sales tax, save on shipping and have local return support. But I'd have to take the builds available and these have typically not been the top processor or lack in some other feature while mandating some extended warranty that is loaded with weasel clauses.

The best advice I had from store managers and Microsoft was wait for the Duo 2 Core and based on how I use it and how often I upgrade go for the maximum machine I can afford.

While I can afford it, it does go against my better judgement to spend close to $3000 for a Dell, even though I'm pretty sure I'd be thrilled with the performance. I still would like to have the smaller machine for travel!

I know many favor the Toshiba here but I really haven't been excited about the overall Packages they offer. Same for the Sony. With Sony comes a higher markup on the featureset and lacking some industry standard stuff like media card readers, TV video out. There are a few other power machines in compact size too but these all looked cheaply constructed and I am afraid they would hold up with travel beating. Contrary to some opinions, I've been trough a number of HP machines and all but one was very good to me. The one bad one was an earlier AMD athlon which we still use today on it's 3rd hard drive now. The problem with it is overheating and the drives get hot as a flame.

[Nick]

ATI Delivers 'Ready for Vista' Multimedia Performance and Productivity
with New Mobility Radeon'R' graphics processors for Notebook PCs

PRESS RELEASE - Monday September 25, 6:00 am ET

ATI's Mobility Radeon'R' X1700, Mobility Radeon'R' X1450 and Mobility Radeon'R' X1350 graphics processors offer an elegant balance between performance and power management for notebook PCs

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY - News; NASDAQ:ATYT - News) has developed a family of notebook graphics to meet the complete needs of mobile professionals-from creating vivid presentations, to watching high definition videos to playing their favorite video game on their flight home. ATI's Mobility Radeon X1700®, Mobility Radeon® X1450 and Mobility Radeon® X1350 Balance performance with longer battery life to transform notebook PCs into high-powered mobile entertainment systems and Windows Vista™-ready workstations.

ASUS will be the first to market with the Mobility Radeon X1700 graphics processor, with its newly launched high-performance notebooks, including the Mobile TV, Mobility, Multimedia and Entertainment notebook series. ...

More @ biz.yahoo.com (http://biz.yahoo.com/ccn/060925/200609250348792001.html?.v=1)

http://www.ati.com/products/mobile.html

[DonLandis]

Finally made my decision-

Dell XPS M1210

I finally decided the most important feature for my travel needs was size, power, and durability, I/O in that order.

The 1210 is a smaller screen size but using one in a store, I found it to be OK by me and if I need any larger screen for home use I can plugin the laptop to me 24" screen. The laptop is not stamped metal but made with cast mag/Al alloy for drop proof strength.
The processor is the latest intel Core 2 duo 2.33Ghz, with a 633 Mhz bus speed and 2G ram. Not bad! I went with the lower speed hard drive, 5400 RPM due to past bad experience with the 2.5" 7200RPM drives and excessive heat. This put me at 120Gb SATA at 5400 RPM.

The Dell has more I/O than the others I looked at. It has the latest EVDO Verizon cell phone data card built inside! I called Verizon and they said they will permit me to move my laptop PC card number to the laptop integrated card with no penalty. But they said if I decided to go with an Express 54 card I would be charged $150 premium to make the move before Sept 2007- no exceptions. One thing about Verizon is they are real *******s when it comes to stuff like this.
WiFI a/g 1394 and 4 USB SVHS Video out and enhanced audio with auto sense surround speakers when plugged in. The video card is an nvidia 7400 with 256Mb ram so it is Vista ready, but comes with the XP- media pack. On the top of the screen is a swivel webcam 1.3 Mpixel and a supercardiod noise canceling microphone. I ordered two batteries, a 9 cell said tpo power the laptop while connected on line for 4:30 and a 6 cell one for about 2.5 hours. Much longer with the connectivity shut off. The 9 cell will run the laptop for almost 4 hours with the DVD playing. I could have gotten much longer battery time but opted for the higher power processor and the heavier Video card which is taxing on the run time. I can always swap batteries during a long day but can't swap processors too easy. The Blue Tooth is designed around 2.0 so it is ready for future too.

The big negative is it is costing 2/3 more than I planned to spend but considering the package, I should be happy with this for a good 5 years. My current laptop is now 6 years old and the main annoyance with it is the lack of USB 2.0 and no DVD burner. It's battery under no connectivity is only 2 hours!

[Nick]

Looks like you made a great choice, Don.

For those of us that may be interested in such a machine, here's
a good LINK (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2965&review=XPS+M1210+Review) to a comprehensive review of the Dell XPS M1210.

[cdru]

If you don't need something today, I would hold off a week or two. Dell will be clearing inventory for end of 3Q. Also, it is expected that Microsoft will be offering free upgrade coupons for when Vista comes out starting in October some time to those that purchase WinXP MCE.

[DonLandis]

Nick- Yes, that link is what I used to convince me but I discovered some of the options listed there were different than what Dell actually offers.

There also was a live video of reviews if you Google Review of Dell...

The main trouble of getting older and more understanding of what I miss when I travel, vs. what the cost up front of this stuff is, makes it difficult to find the right tool for my needs. Dell finally offered it in this package, I hope. Time will tell!

cdru- Are you saying they will have another round of machines or that the one I bought will be available at a lower price in a week? I already ordered it and signed up for their 0% interest for 18 months which makes it really a sweet deal on the financing end. You just have to pay it off in time! I did this with my home mortgage a couple of years ago.
As for Vista- Don't you think it will be wise to sit on the Microsoft legacy of 3rd version is the charm? I do. I'm not in business to experiment with their mistakes. I want a tool that makes me money. If, I'm on the road and a client wants to sign up for me hosting his webcasting, that one account contract will pay for this Dell if I can do the encoding and upload the video to my server immediately.

[CoriBright]

Nick- Yes, that link is what I used to convince me but I discovered some of the options listed there were different than what Dell actually offers.

There also was a live video of reviews if you Google Review of Dell...

The main trouble of getting older and more understanding of what I miss when I travel, vs. what the cost up front of this stuff is, makes it difficult to find the right tool for my needs. Dell finally offered it in this package, I hope. Time will tell!

cdru- Are you saying they will have another round of machines or that the one I bought will be available at a lower price in a week? I already ordered it and signed up for their 0% interest for 18 months which makes it really a sweet deal on the financing end. You just have to pay it off in time! I did this with my home mortgage a couple of years ago.
As for Vista- Don't you think it will be wise to sit on the Microsoft legacy of 3rd version is the charm? I do. I'm not in business to experiment with their mistakes. I want a tool that makes me money. If, I'm on the road and a client wants to sign up for me hosting his webcasting, that one account contract will pay for this Dell if I can do the encoding and upload the video to my server immediately.


One thing I've learned about Dell from my consumer support is that there's no such thing as a standard Dell anything. What they put in each one seems to depend entirely on what is in stock in the factory on any given day. I've fixed Dell desktops that are suppposed to have one graphics card in them according to the specifications at the Dell site, when I've checked the Dell support website there is an option of about 12 different types that 'might' be in the PC and when I've looked inside, there's something different altogether. And this is for a supposedly standard 'off the shelf' PC with no options specified by the purchaser. Sometimes there are extra devices, and sometimes something the purchaser thought would be there isn't there at all.

[CoriBright]

Toshiba brought out their Core 2 Duos today... the P105-9132 turned into a P105-9722 with the swap of the CPU being the only difference. I'm told it's a huge (!!) 2% increase in speed. Price is the same. Oh and the color of the top changed from gold to dark 'onyx' blue.

Personally I prefer my gold one!!!! There is something really good about having a gold notebook!

There are no price drops on the older 9132s as there are almost none left in stock anywhere in the US. They disappeared off the shelves quicker than the new Tickle Me Elmo 2006.

[cdru]

cdru- Are you saying they will have another round of machines or that the one I bought will be available at a lower price in a week?I'm in the market to purchase a laptop as well and from what I've read, it is expected that Dell will be having some better promotions in the next week or two. At least that is what I've read in the hot deal forums. Right now they have somewhat warm but it's been a while since they have had a smoking deal. I've been eyeing a Inspiron e1505/6400 with the newer Core 2 Duo proc and would like to keep it under $800 but it's not quite there. As soon as it gets to that level, sign me up.

I already ordered it and signed up for their 0% interest for 18 months which makes it really a sweet deal on the financing end. You just have to pay it off in time!If you've already ordered it, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But I would keep an eye on pricing until you receive it. Some people have had luck giving Dell a call if their PC hasn't shipped and getting a price adjustment

As for Vista- Don't you think it will be wise to sit on the Microsoft legacy of 3rd version is the charm? I do. I'm not in business to experiment with their mistakes. I want a tool that makes me money. If, I'm on the road and a client wants to sign up for me hosting his webcasting, that one account contract will pay for this Dell if I can do the encoding and upload the video to my server immediately.It's your call. My needs are obviously different then yours. While I plan to use mine for business (web development on the side), I can afford to have issues and/or reload my machine. For a real business though, it probably would be wise to stick with something that has been tested. That being said, Vista isn't suppose to be out for a while yet and no one said you HAD to install it when you got it. You could sit on it for 6 months and let some of the big bugs worked out until you install it.

[cdru]

One thing I've learned about Dell from my consumer support is that there's no such thing as a standard Dell anything. What they put in each one seems to depend entirely on what is in stock in the factory on any given day. I've fixed Dell desktops that are suppposed to have one graphics card in them according to the specifications at the Dell site, when I've checked the Dell support website there is an option of about 12 different types that 'might' be in the PC and when I've looked inside, there's something different altogether. And this is for a supposedly standard 'off the shelf' PC with no options specified by the purchaser. Sometimes there are extra devices, and sometimes something the purchaser thought would be there isn't there at all.It depends on which Dell you buy from and what the model is. Their budge PCs on Dell Home typically have whatever is the cheapest component at the time they put in a bulk order configured in the system. This week it might be a NVidia graphics card, next week it could be ATI. There may be a good/better/best option for a component, but next week it could be different.

With Dell Small Business, Large Business, servers, etc the components often are much more consistant. A Optiplex purchased 6 months ago likely will have the same (or possibly a older revision but still compatible) hardware as today. This lets businesses support few parts and use the same image for deployments across the enterprise.

[DonLandis]

Once I decided on the Dell 1210, I did quite a bit of on line research for any deals. What I discovered was it all had to do with what was included in the off the shelf systems and no real deals at all. I did the same for the HP core 2 Duo the dv6000 and the 2000 series and with HP, As they say, the devil was in the details.

[DonLandis]

Ok, so this computer isn't so perfect afterall.

I began to load my applications and got to Inscriber character generator. That software has to have a dongle hardware lock installed on the Parallel port. Whoops! there isn't a P- port to be found on this machine. How did I overlook that? Well, I need to have this installed. Have any of you ever tried to use a dongle with one of those USB to Parallel port adapter cables? I don't own one or I'd give it a try. Hate to buy one and it doesn't work like that.

[CoriBright]

Ok, so this computer isn't so perfect afterall.

I began to load my applications and got to Inscriber character generator. That software has to have a dongle hardware lock installed on the Parallel port. Whoops! there isn't a P- port to be found on this machine. How did I overlook that? Well, I need to have this installed. Have any of you ever tried to use a dongle with one of those USB to Parallel port adapter cables? I don't own one or I'd give it a try. Hate to buy one and it doesn't work like that.

Hmmm, only experience I've had is users with printers and sometimes they work, sometmes they don't. My Toshiba doesn't have a parallel port either... it's not something I'd expect on a Vista compliant PC. Technically it's legacy hardware that should have disappeared a while ago along with the serial port, the PS/2 port and the floppy drive.

[Bogy]

I've had experience with 2 of these in connecting older printers, one where I only had 1 parallel port and two older printers I wanted to use on it, and in using an old printer to a computer with no parallel port.

The one I had success with was by APC.
http://www.shopping.com/xPO-APC_Parallel_adapter_19008

The other was purchased from Radio Shack and worked at best intermittently. It was on my mother's computer, 3+ hours away. I reinstalled the printer once and it worked again. Soon after it stopped working again. My sister tried but could never get it to work. Mom finally just bought a new usb printer. I am hoping I can get it to work with a portable printer I bought to use with my laptop, since I don't have any parallel ports on either of my laptops either.

[DonLandis]

I took a look at the USB to P-port adapter today at a store and what I forgot about these is the printer end is a Centronics connector, not a DB25. So much forr that idea. Next is to try a serial port / USB cable. I have one of these and will try the dongle on it. According to the manual the dongle is auto sensed whether it is on a serial port or a parellel port.

[DonLandis]

Well, I'm away again but this time on my first trip with this new laptop.

First report is that the newest onboard EVDO/ Verizon service is blazing fast even when compared to my older PC card EVDO. I am averaging 1.2 Mbs here this evening. I can't believe the test speeds so I decided to put it to the test.

I downloaded full motion streaming video from two security cameras at my house simultaneously! At best I could do refresh rate 0f 2 seconds on 320x240 on a single image with the old system from this location. Sling Box looks great on full screen size.

Next while doing this I recorded a video mail with the built in webcam in the laptop's screen and sent it via e-mail to my wife. Easy as pie!

This afternoon, while at a client's location, I got a DVD of some stock video footage and loaded it up to the timeline and re-edited it to a loop for playback with my projector. Very impressive!

Bad news- I was having real problems with MS Outlook receiving e-mail. I could send but it would not download any e-mails from my domain server. I launched Outlook Express and it worked flawlessly. Something must be corrupt with the Outlook 2003. I'll check that out later.

Haven't had the time to test my dongle on a serial / USB adapter yet. Maybe this weekend when I get back in town.

I want to figure out next how to stream video from this laptop webcam.