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atlmba2009
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The great Laptop discussion forum 14 Jan 2009, 12:35
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Yeah, I am definitely going to hold off until late Summer in hopes of an early release of 7. The early feedback from the Beta testing seems to be overwhelmingly positive...
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The great Laptop discussion forum 14 Jan 2009, 13:03
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atlmba2009
Yeah, I am definitely going to hold off until late Summer in hopes of an early release of 7. The early feedback from the Beta testing seems to be overwhelmingly positive...
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doh! oh well, I'm not even using vista though it came with my laptop. I'll see how Windows 7 works out and maybe switch over sometime. I know many people who work for MS. :)
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The great Laptop discussion forum 14 Jan 2009, 13:10
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kryzak
atlmba2009
Yeah, I am definitely going to hold off until late Summer in hopes of an early release of 7. The early feedback from the Beta testing seems to be overwhelmingly positive...

doh! oh well, I'm not even using vista though it came with my laptop. I'll see how Windows 7 works out and maybe switch over sometime. I know many people who work for MS. :)
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Ha, yeah, I am still using XP, so I will be basically skipping over Vista. I am actually weighing waiting for Snow Leopard too, in case it sways me to switch to Apple, but I doubt it is worth the trouble/added cost if Windows 7 proves to be stable.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 14 Jan 2009, 13:23
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same here, no Vista for me now that Windows 7 is coming out. I'm an XP user right now.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 16 Jan 2009, 14:37
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kwam

As for the netbooks, I could use for a week one, and they are very limited as far as performance, don't expect too much from them, especially if you will do spread sheets with several data inside it, seriously, running windows already take too much from it.
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Is that really true?

Right now I'm running an AMD Athlon 900 MHz with 384 MB of RAM. It runs XP just as well as the Lenovo T61 I have at work. Of course when you start to load it down with Photoshop and Firefox (with 15 tabs open) and try to run a video it will really bog down, but for 90% of the stuff I do it works just fine.

Most of the netbooks I've read about have the Atom 1.6 GHz processor and you can put up to 1 GB of RAM into it. I know it won't compare to a Duo-core 2.6 GHz processor, but it can't have a serious problem running XP, can it?

RF
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The great Laptop discussion forum 17 Jan 2009, 01:33
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I think I have the top end one, 2.4GHz dual core. Zero performance issues. It runs very fast. Battery life if you're actively using the computer (word, internet, etc...) is roughly 6-ish hours for a 9-cell battery, using level 5 brightness (out of 15).
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Last question: How bright is the screen? I know the x200 isn't LED backlit which is a huge bummer... but is it bright enough? If you've used/seen a macbook air or new generation macbook pro (which are REALLY bright), how does it compare?

Thanks in advance!
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The great Laptop discussion forum 17 Jan 2009, 06:36
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Are all of the Lenovo Ideapads considered to be netbooks? The U-Series looks like it might be a traditional laptop...

The Lenovo products are my top choice for durability and performance -- my old Thinkpad T40 survived almost three years of consulting work travel, in contrast to my current HP laptop, which breaks if I touch it. :lol: Still, the Ideapad seems to have better multimedia features (a weak point on my T40) and looks better as well. Plus, I prefer a touchpad.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 17 Jan 2009, 07:46
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Are all of the Lenovo Ideapads considered to be netbooks? The U-Series looks like it might be a traditional laptop...
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I agree about the Lenovo quality. I've got an old T21 and a T41 that I've traveled with for years and no problems whatsoever.

The U and S-series Ideapads are netbooks (both around 2.5 lbs). The Y-series are not, they start at 5 lbs.

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The great Laptop discussion forum 17 Jan 2009, 08:40
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the screen for X200 is plenty bright for me, but then again, I don't know what an LED back-lit screen looks like (at least I don't notice the difference), so if you're very picky, you might want to find an X200 to look at first. For me, the brightness is more than enough unless you have the sun shining right on the screen.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 29 Jan 2009, 00:29
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Kryzak and Ninkorn,

I have a dilemma - X200 vs Vaio SR Series. My pros for X200: IBMs are just unkillable, very professional, employee discount (hope kryzak will share :) ) - but trackpoint.... My pros for Vaio SR Series: Very nice, functionable, super portable, no trackpoints whatsoever, 10% student discount - but very fragile....

https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... ryId=16154

https://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... 4481A943A4

What could be the breakeven point for buying this or that? Need your help, guys...
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The great Laptop discussion forum 29 Jan 2009, 01:18
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I'm biased towards the trackpoint (can't stand touchpad, sorry), so the Vaio would be an automatic no for me. The durability is quite important as my laptop goes through lots of punishment every day in and out of the backpack. I love how I never have to worry about it. The keyboard is also the selling point of Thinkpads. I can't type on any other laptops for long periods of time now that I'm used to the Thinkpad ones.

The X200, especially with the 4cell battery is quite portable. Maybe not as much as a netbook (the IdeaPad S10 is gaining popularity), but I'm quite happy with it.

Not sure how much more I can help with this decision.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 29 Jan 2009, 07:33
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I second Kryzak.

Vaio SR series is as portable and superb as you've mentioned but, it is still over 4lbs and battery lasts about 5 to 6 hrs.

I think Thinkpad X200 outperforms vs Vaio SR series.

Now if you want to upgrade to Vaio TT series like I did, that's a whole different story....
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The great Laptop discussion forum 29 Jan 2009, 08:32
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The Vaio SR is 4 lbs? My X200 is under 4 lbs (with a 9-cell) and lasts 6-8 hours. I guess I was thinking of the TT model.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 30 Jan 2009, 00:21
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Thank you, guys! That's very helpful. So, LONG IBM, SHORT SONY :) I looked at IdeaPad S10 - it is pretty nice and insanely cheap ($350) although it can be limited in functions but all I need is typing, talking and exceling. Looks like a good deal. Any flaws? ;) - https://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... 9B91F3AF15
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The great Laptop discussion forum 30 Jan 2009, 01:08
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Thank you, guys! That's very helpful. So, LONG IBM, SHORT SONY :) I looked at IdeaPad S10 - it is pretty nice and insanely cheap ($350) although it can be limited in functions but all I need is typing, talking and exceling. Looks like a good deal. Any flaws? ;) - https://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... 9B91F3AF15
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Those are netbooks. If you look at various testing sites, they compare the performance of Intel Atom processors to Intel Pentium III level. In some cases, it is slower than even Intel Celeron.

If you want to buy netbook, wait until they come out with Dual Core version of Intel Atom.

Netbooks are really for LIGHT word processing, internet browsing, and etc.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 30 Jan 2009, 07:38
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Under 4 pounds and 6-8 hours of battery? My work-issued HPaq is about 5 pounds and has a battery life of 2.5 hours.

For B-School, I'm strongly considering picking up a Dell 13" XPS Studio. The Lenovo's just seem to be a little pricey when similarly equipped (I need to go X300, as I am a touchpad user).
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The great Laptop discussion forum 30 Jan 2009, 17:09
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i mention the S10 because a classmate of mine just went from the T61 (which was way too big and heavy) to the S10 and is loving it. He just uses it for school stuff (internet, word processing) and does the rest on his home computer (with dual screens).

X300 is pricey, but if you're a touchpad user, then yeah, it's a deal breaker. The XPS have gotten a lot of complaints (durability, quality) from my classmates... I don't use one, so just passing along what I've been hearing.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 01 Feb 2009, 20:33
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kryzak
i mention the S10 because a classmate of mine just went from the T61 (which was way too big and heavy) to the S10 and is loving it. He just uses it for school stuff (internet, word processing) and does the rest on his home computer (with dual screens).

X300 is pricey, but if you're a touchpad user, then yeah, it's a deal breaker. The XPS have gotten a lot of complaints (durability, quality) from my classmates... I don't use one, so just passing along what I've been hearing.
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Thanks for the tip on the Dell. It may be worthwhile to spend a bit more to have a dependable laptop. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to unsuccessfully fire up my laptop before an important group session.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 02 Feb 2009, 17:47
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MeddlingKid

Thanks for the tip on the Dell. It may be worthwhile to spend a bit more to have a dependable laptop. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to unsuccessfully fire up my laptop before an important group session.
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Dell's unreliability is almost now legendary. Especially their laptops. For example, my employer is currently giving all employees Dell issued business laptops. Due to high MAINTENANCE COST and etc, there's a serious discussion to switch back to Thinkpads....

And in this economy where every penny counts, the fact that we are considering to pay little premium and switch back to Thinkpad??? That should tell you the whole story.
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The great Laptop discussion forum 02 Feb 2009, 19:18
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You guys might find this interesting... I ran a couple benchmark tests using Wprime32 and got the following results (lower score is better):

AMD Athlon 900MHz/384 MB - 194 sec
Intel Pentium M 1.6GHz/1GB - 116 sec

The S10 got the following score:

Intel Atom 1.6GHz/1GB - 127 sec

So that puts the Atom processor performance between the two, but much closer to the Intel Pentium M. Consider my 900 MHz Athlon runs Windows XP no problem at all (along with MS Office), I don't think the S10 will have any problems.

Of course this benchmark doesn't take into account the harddrive or graphics card, but it gives you a general idea of CPU performance.

The S10 is coming down in price too! The best deal I've seen now is $319 + sales tax (free shipping) directly from Lenovo!

RF
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