The great Laptop discussion forum

I was tentatively planning late-summer china travel. If/when I go I will take my old $450 japanese laptop. It is ~5lb and generally works ok if you have time. It would be enough for email and downloading pictures/burning them to disk. Not sure i would take a nice shiny new one to a country where it is worth 6 months the average persons salary... (at least not until i got a *few* months use out of it)

yeah, that's what my mom told me... and she said there were internet cafes everywhere now, so that's a good thing. HAving the laptop just allows me to find flights and hotels in the next city I'm going to easier (in my room) instead of sitting at an internet cafe with 2nd hand smoke and kids playing Quake 14 or Half Life 20...

I just really want a laptop to play with right now, haha.

Few things a 27 year old male wants to hear more than how much he is starting to sound like someone else's mother

LOL! you're getting there... once you're 30, it's over (like me)

So here's my 2-day out report on my laptop. I got everything transferred over today and yesterday, and I'm using it full-time now. Giving my 7-pound loaner back tomorrow.

In case you aren't tracking from above:

Lenovo X61
12" screen
<3lbs
80G Hard Drive
2.1Ghz Duo Processor
2 G RAM
Windows XP

I got almost all of the standard features, but I did pay about $30 to double my RAM and also opted for XP (I'm not up for helping Bill Gates de-bug Vista). The total came to about $1050, before shipping. There's a big sale going on until April 7, which is why it's so cheap. I looked at the same model last year, which was running about $1600 for comparable features.

I've only been really playing with it today, but so far so good. It's so tiny it feels like a big remote control or Gameboy or something. I like the nubby and don't really miss the touch pad. Heat seems fine and it's super-quiet. Battery is what I expected. I was also pleased that it didn't come with a bunch of pre-loaded junk software.

My complaints:

While the tiny keyboard is mostly ok, the side keys are definitely smaller and some are not where I am used to. I'm sure I'll quickly get accustomed though.

What I do miss about the track pad is the integrated scrolling. This sort of has that with its middle button, but it's not quite as nice. I'm already getting used to it, though.

I also wish it had an integrated optical drive. The Lenovo option was stupid-expensive, so that was out. You can buy one for fairly cheap, but I just copied my Office CDs onto a computer with an optical drive and then copied them to my MP3 player and then installed from there.

Finally, the most annoying part is that this doesn't have a wide screen. I really like those and regularly am looking at two windows, so that's going to be a bit of a drag.

Oh, and I wish it were cuter. I appreciate the engineering and reliability that Lenovo offers, but do I have to look like an engineer when I'm using it???

Overall, things look good. I can throw this baby into an oversized purse and manipulate pivot tables to my heart's content.

casbroker, I just got a macbook pro. I think it is much better than the macbook coz I wanted the extra screen size and I just think the keyboard is cool.

I bought it off amazon (so no taxes ) for $1674 - $150 mail in rebate
This obviously is the old 2.2GHz pro and not the new multi-touch 2.4GHz pro

That isn't too much of a premium for the pro over the macbook (once you factor is sales tax)

Anyone who wants to get the pro, the time is right

Honest question for those of you in b-school:

Will I be at a disadvantage if I use a macbook (with bootcamp and vista) for doing school stuff?

I have office 07 installed in my windows partition, so I will be using that for school-work. I think I should be fine, but I want to know your opinions. I still have a week to return this laptop and get an IBM if that is better for business school.

Will probably depend on the school. There are some not-100%-necessary applications that don't work that well with Macs (our VPN, I think, plus add-ins for Excel), but Mac people manage to thrive at Fuqua. We've got desktops in a lab and in team rooms, so everyone manages.

But if I'm using Windows on my mac through bootcamp, I shouldn't have any issues with Windows specific apps right (VPN, add-ins etc.) Right?

You're talking to the wrong girl. I've just heard my friends say, "So i had to go the lab 'cause ____ wouldn't work with my mac."

I'd recommend waiting until you get back also. I don't know exactly where in China you are headed, but most hotels that I have stayed at charge $20-30/day for internet access in your room. Definetly not budget friendly.

Plus, that will force you out of your room more often and open up more opportunities for making "friends" .

Great review AAu! You've convinced me to get one (even though you weren't trying).

Priceless quote about it being cuter. I actually quite like the "design", but then again, I'm an engineer... hee hee. I don't like a lot of the "fluffy" designs out there. Mac actually got it right too, very simple and plain (though more "curvy").

forcefeed, good point. I'll get it after China then. Maybe they'll come out with a widescreen X series with optical drive... I can only dream.

I am playing with my new HP tx2000z right now. The price is awesome, but as I mentioned before, a bit heavier than other options-this being said... the first few hours have been pretty promising. In fact I wrote this post using tab-mode. My handwriting is either like a disabled 5 year old or a doctor-depending on who you ask. still I am able to write at full speed and it recognizes it. VERY impressive!!!

i'm SOOOO tempted to get a tablet PC... but I dont' like to write that much (prefer typing), so the uses are limited other than the cool factor.

I actually plan to type mostly... but I think it could be useful for marking up slides distributed electronically. That is why i was hesitant to spend the extra money for x61 tablet - not sure my use would justifythat cost. why oh why couldnt the x61 tablet be $1100?!

um, with the recent discounts, I think I can get it for about $1200 (x61)

Do you know if there are any reliability concerns with the tablet PC's? I am very weary of the hinge and rotating mechanism not handling the abuses of b-school.