I finally ordered S10 with 160GB for $411, and it will be delivered in a couple of days. The only thing that sucks in this machine is 3-cell battery. They offer additional 6-cell battery for $89. But well, the price then jumps to $500... Anyway, 3 hours of battery should be enough to find the plug To sum it up, I saved $1000 and my nerves - in case I would be able to somehow break $1.4K X200

For those of you considering netbooks:

$200 Deal on Sony’s New Vaio; That Was Fast
It’s not been quite a month since Sony, with some heavy-duty fanfare at the Consumer Electronics Show, unwrapped its $900 “Lifestyle” P series Vaio portable. Bullet-proof it wasn’t, in terms of performance and features, and I carped about its display, but the P held promise.

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/200 ... -was-fast/

Another price drop! You can pick up an Ideapad (512MB/80GB) for $299+tax (free shipping) directly from Lenovo!!

Link

RF

Looks like the X series are also getting discounted - the X200 has a 25% discount and the older X61s has 40% off. Guess there's a silver lining to this recession.
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Perhaps I'll go X300 eventually. I don't know anybody who works for IBM, though. Any tips for obtaining the magical discount? I probably won't get anything until summertime, though.

Do a google search on X300 forums. I found a forum for the Ideapad S10 and people post the latest deals each day.

You might not be able to get the employee discount, but you can access the contractor discount which can sometimes be cheaper (sometimes you can use coupons there that you can't use on the employee site).

RF

I went to a mac almost three years ago when I bought a MacBook Pro. It's easily the sexiest thing I own, and more importantly, it works far better than any PC I've ever used. I laugh at my friends/parents who are pulling their hair out about Vista, and I suspect that Windows 7 will be a disaster as well.

I don't mind being a part of the Mac Minority at school, even if my school's tech folks frown on it. But I've never used BootCamp. Anyone care to share their experiences with this? Is XP noticeably better/slower? Other applications?

I would be tempted to eschew Windows altogether if I didn't want to play HalfLife 2. Currently I just use my work-supplied PC, but that goes away come May...

I actually purposely ordered my new Vaio in Vista Home Professional.

I like Vista for 2 things:

1) ReadyBoost
2) Annoying confirmation when installing any software (prevents spywares or other malwares from installing automatically)

I know I am a minority on this one.

Any thoughts on the Lenovo Ideapad U-Series? There seems to be one model that is similar in size/weight to the X200, and the Ideapads IMO have a better design, and may have better multimedia features.

BTW, what's the difference between all these processors? Is Core 2 better than Core, and is Duo better than Extreme? The last time I knew anything about Intel processors was probably the days of the Pentium II...

P.S. If anyone wants to know what the current employee price is for a specific Lenovo model, let me know and I'll post it here. I'm an alum of IBM's consulting practice and can check prices for you. For example, the X200 right now is starting at $951.15.

It depends on how much memory you have. If it is an older MacBook with less than a couple gigs of RAM, it is probably not going to run very smoothly. The newer, more powerful models should be able to run it without much trouble.

So hopefully Mr P won't ding me but....

It's a long story but I suddenly find myself owning two X61s. I LOVE this laptop - it's fabulous for school. Super-portable, but unlike the netbooks, it's got real computing power. So one is for sale:

post569514.html#p569514

cheerio
aau

good article on Lenovo laptops.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/thin ... em-rugged/

What do B-School students usually lug their laptops around in? When I was visiting, I unfortunately didn't pay attention to what most people favored. I currently carry my work laptop around in a soft leather briefcase, but I wouldn't want to carry it around all day. Not to mention, it looks a bit too formal for a school setting.

I currently carry my laptop around in Kenneth Cole carry on like the one in the picture below. It also comes with a shoulder strap so when i don't feel like carrying it around, i can wear it on my shoulder.


Other times, I just carry them around in a laptop sleeve. Then I just put it in my messenger bag.

I also currently use a soft briefcase for carrying my laptop to work, but am planning to use a laptop messenger bag for school. I got one from Manhattan Portage as a gift so I'll use that:

http://www.manhattanportage.com/catalog ... 0bb63bd834

I used one of their non-laptop messenger bags during undergrad and loved it - comfortable, durable and more than big enough to carry books and notebooks.
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backpack with a laptop area. I throw my laptop in a Waterfield Designs sleeve (it's soooo nice)

http://www.sfbags.com/

and carry it in my backpack all day. Most students do that at Haas.

Thanks for the ideas, everybody. I'm probably going to pick up one of those sleeves and get look for a messenger bag this coming weekend. Back to the topic of the actual laptops, I'm fairly certain I'm down to either an IBM X300 or a Dell XPS Studio 13. I know Kryzak mentioned that Dell's have questionable reliability, so I'll have to determine whether the increased liklihood of failure is worth the increased performance and lower cost.

I was also familiarizing myself with the great HDD vs. SSD debate last night. The SSD seems attractive, with the faster access times and dependability due to the lack of moving parts. The cost will drop a bit by the time I'm ready to buy this summer.

Go with Lenovo! (especially the X-series). They passed as a semi-rugged laptop with a price tag below those of panasonic toughbook's : http://i.gizmodo.com/5159091/lenovo-thi ... -mr-freeze

Good deal on a reliable laptop. Rhyme can vouch for it too
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/leno ... ng-or-649/

Hilarious take on the netbook, ultra portable, laptop mess in the industry:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/13 ... eld_guide/