The great Laptop discussion forum

Maybe... But Mac's Operation System is weird for me (I have been Windows' man all my life ) Besides that, I doubt that Mac laptops can be fall-proof. IBMs are said to be unkillable.

the macbook Air was *almost* sexy until i realized it had no functionality in terms of battery life
having extensively supported macs and pcs... i still have to say that for business functionality, pcs r it
but oh man.. the colors on the macs =)~ *drool*

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on a different note... i just conned sprint into giving me 10 bux off unlimited data (29.99 for data) to tether (PhoneAsModem) my Moto Q to x61 (i think thats a sekgeeky combo)

did research and it seemed sprint was the way to go in ann arbor

anyone have experience on that? i'm planning not to have cable/dsl at all and go satellite all the way and probably velcro-ing my moto-q to the x61

[/quote]I just purchased a 12.1 inch ibm lenovo x61 off of ebay... can't beat the long battery life on those things. It is also approximately 3 pounds (which would fit in a purse) and I trust the casing on those IBMs to be ok with rough handling. For me, the fact the laptop is small/light enough to fit into a purse really was the deciding factor.[/quote]

The X61 does seem nice. However, I'm not prepared to deal with the fact that there is a good chance the wireless won't work in parts of the bschool at Ross. That would be extremely annoying. I'm leaning towards one of the Dell's, but haven't decided on which one yet.

Yeah, there's always going to be bigger (read: smaller) and better things on the horizon. Please keep us posted on what you decide!

Also, if you're going to order, it might be better to do it this month, because the Lenovo website is giving 28% discounts on everything. On top of it, check out the ecoupons.com discount (search for it on the thinkpads.com website) for an additional 5%.

Internationals located outside the US can't make the orders through the Lenovo website, can they?

I have no idea...but I'd definitely be willing to help any GMAT clubbers outside the US with this. PM me if you like!

currently I'm in no rush since I have the employee discount ordering site. I wanted to get one before I left on vacation, but I'll wait until mid-June when I'm back...

Sitting here at work looking longingly at hte x61 box on my desk. trying to come up with a reason to leave work early so i can try it out!

Can any current b-schoolers tell me how prevalent is Vista?

I was just at the Sony store (no I'm not buying a Sony I was looking at screen sizes...lol) and they have a computer with an 11 inch screen. Now that is small! It is light though (as well as a fortune)......

Where do I find information about the battery life of the X61, X61s and the tablet version?

Basically I'm choosing among:

- MacBook (13" 2.4GHz, 4MB and 250GB): MSRP - U$1800 (Portability)
- Macbook Pro (15" 2,4GHz 4MB and 250GB): MSRP - US$2450 (Performance)
- one of the Lenovos (kind of the same price as the Macbook for the configuration I want).

Leaning towards the the MacBook, BUT, it's kind of very annoying using the excel version for OSX.

go Lenovo!

Here are some reviews that touch upon battery life. Make sure you compare it directly with the other laptops your looking at within the same website, as the testing methods differ between the different sites. These are full on power drains (DVD playing, running at full speed the entire time, etc...)

https://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3765
https://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=896
https://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13650 ... ticle.html
https://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/lenovo- ... 62794.html

Heh, it looks like Kryzak and I are the Lenovo fanboys of the GMAT Club! There's two main considerations for why I'd stay away from the Macs and get a Thinkpad:

- Operating system: I know, there's boot camp, MSOffice for OSX, etc., etc., but in the end, the vast majority of people (including GSB tech support) will be using Windows-based platforms. And although I'm certainly no MS nut, for compatibility/ease of use purposes, I'd strongly recommend a PC. Unless you're planning on doing intensive graphic applications...in which Macs are fantastic.

- Durability: Macs are gorgeous when they come out of the box. However, I challenge you to find one as well-sorted and solid as my work-issued Thinkpad after two years of getting stuffed into bags, taken on planes, and exposed to every kind of (office) environment imaginable. The thing is a tank! After having Compaq, Dell, and HP laptops from work, the Thinkpad absolutely wins, hands down. As a caveat, I've never owned a Mac...I've seen several of them used by friends, and they seem to suffer from many design-related problems: cracked cases, broken hinges, scratched fascias (if this can be considered a problem, apparently to Mac users it is), inoperable touchpads, and nonworking keys...but AWESOME displays.

Nuked my machine's (lenovo x61) Vista (bought it with the cheapest version) and installed vista ultimate($45 - wife works at microsoft) via my LG external drive($90). Things went perfectly. There was not ONE glitch with booting from the external drive. I would highly recommend this as an alternative to the dock-based drive. it is super-light, runs purely off usb power (with a 2nd usb power cord if needed - hasn't been yet)

Let me know if anyone wants details on any of the above.

HOLY CRAP. $1,000. Lenovo, Tablet. Even with the ram upgrade you would have to do aftermarket... still super cheap!
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/defaul ... _-Main+Tab

that is pretty cheap... I can barely get that even with an employee discount!

I have checked this issue for our local specifics. The $ 400 delivery through Fedex + 20% of price (customs fee) seem a little bit prohibitive for buying Lenovo ThinkPad outside the states. This dilemma could be solved if somebody flew from the states to Moscow on vacation