Laptop (and bag) for Bschool...

Hey all, after several months in school (with a Lenovo X60s) I can say that the most important factors are:

1) Weight.
2) Battery Life.
3) Reliability / warranty / service, etc.
4) Performance (RAM, HD speed, etc.)
5) That it runs Windows XP (not Vista yet).

Screen and other issues are really not that important, unless you have any vision problems and need to see really big characters. If you can't live without a big screen for your simulations (ehem, 3D games) you can always buy a bigger monitor or a TV to double as monitor and TV.

My screen is 12.1" and it's just fine. Because of the screen's size I get about 4 - 6 hours battery life without any extra batteries. My buddies with bigger screens get half that and need to lug around a charger or extra batteries on top of their already higher weight.

L.

Great review lepium!

Though these days they stopped shopping laptops with XPs... grr... I don't want to use Vista yet.

Hey L.,
one thing that bothers me about Lenovo X-series is the lack of a touchpad. Do you always carry a mouse with you. To me, this stub of a joystick on a keyboard is just not working.
Thanks!

I am almost decided on a macbook pro. I say those extra pounds plus recharger will be great as a workout since we wont have time for that during the first year of business school, right?

I would wait until you decide on a school and see what their requirements or deals are. I know Kellogg has a package deal that comes with everything you need for school on it. They also are cheaper than you can get on your own since you get a nice big discount.

BTW, I personally cannot stand the touchpad. The reason I want the lenovo is that it has that joystick thing. All the other ultraportables uses touchpad and I would go nuts if I had to only use those.

For Macbook pro's I would toy with waiting for the back to school offer, though buy early in it as they always sell out pretty much everywhere near the start of school (this year they claimed it was the backlit screen or something causing delays)

You will never have a problem though. Well, here we have a citrix server so I can get at the PC only apps without using bootcamp / parallels. You can get a mini version of XP that fits on a pen drive now, which may be useful.

depends on the laptop brand. If people have employee purchase discounts, it will almost always be cheaper than buying it through the school with a package deal. Maybe Kellogg gives better deals (I hope I can find out), but so far the employee discount has been consistently $200+ cheaper than the school's student price for Lenovo.

Sure, Kryzak. I was on the Mac tip though, and most companies don't do deals on Macs really. they look at you as if you are some crazy arts kid instead.

I kinda like the joystick better than the pad. I use a mouse only at home (when the laptop is plugged to the docking station).

L.

The alternative is to buy the parts and build your own laptop.

which laptop meets these requirments ? folks offer your suggestions

The one I got on a school deal pretty much meets the requirements. I could have opted for a larger HD or more RAM to meet the performance criteria (right now I'd say it's average). It's a Lenovo X60s.

L.

You're obviously right when you say that. Now that I got into Tuck, this has become even more prominent.

There goes the MacBook Pro style factor. Darn. Thought I could impress the undergrad hotties. But at Dartmouth they probably are so loaded, they pimp their laptops with diamonds.

Oh the undergrads at Dartmouth are loaded alright...

There was a girl in the class I sat in on at Tuck who put an apple sticker on her thinkpad to make it look like a MAC. Dartmouth isnt the really rich kid school. You are better off finding a med school student than undergrad.

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