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Which Notebook/laptop?

Nikkijah

By Nikkijah
in IT and Computers

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Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

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Posted (edited)

I'm thinking of getting my self a laptop suitable for travel, I've had a look around but there are so many to shoose from, I would need something small, fairly powerful, with a good battery life but not too expensive.(something good looking, perhaps in IBM matt graphite, no SILVER-look sh!te)

I've seen found a small IBM lenovo Thinkpad X41 here Thinkpad X41

I've also seen some nice Toshibas but a lot of laptops in my price range - £400-600 - are quite big.

Has anybody recently bought a nice little laptop which is good enough for internet on the move, looks reasonably handsome and performs well?

Thanks in advance for your views

Nikkijah :o

p.s. should I buy in the UK or Thailand??

Edited by Nikkijah
penguin Senior Member

penguin

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Lenovo/IBM have a good name and the one you've selected looks pretty good, very portable. You don't really need anything more powerful if internet is your main task and if you can get 2.5 hours battery life from a notebook that weighs only 1.2kg then that's good however check some reviews to confirm you get that in real life. Things to consider about where to buy would be the warranty and if you get Windows pre-installed (in the Thai version). Don't forget you will need an external CD/DVD and top up the memory to at least 1GB.

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

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Lenovo/IBM have a good name and the one you've selected looks pretty good, very portable. You don't really need anything more powerful if internet is your main task and if you can get 2.5 hours battery life from a notebook that weighs only 1.2kg then that's good however check some reviews to confirm you get that in real life. Things to consider about where to buy would be the warranty and if you get Windows pre-installed (in the Thai version). Don't forget you will need an external CD/DVD and top up the memory to at least 1GB.

thanks for your advice penguin, I wouldn't be too bothered about not having a CD/DVD drive, that would push the price from 400 to 600 quid! If this is going to be my portable laptop for only internet and some word processing then I shouldn't need a CD/DVD drive hopefully.

I think a UK warranty might be worldwide whereas the warranty in Thai is for Thailand only, correct me if I'm wrong...

Does anybody actually have a thinkpad on this forum? Can anybody tell me the pro's and cons of having one, or can you recommend something in a similar price range?

Nikkijah

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

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Get a mac ..... saves you worrying about viruses etc ....

Great idea jdinasia, fancy lending me a few hundred?

My original plan was to get a shuttle pc for home use and a little laptop for when I'm on the road, all for under £1000 but the iBook I wanted was about £700 and £300 doesn't buy me a lot of pc unfortunately :o

jdinasia Star Member

jdinasia

Posted
Posted
Get a mac ..... saves you worrying about viruses etc ....

Great idea jdinasia, fancy lending me a few hundred?

My original plan was to get a shuttle pc for home use and a little laptop for when I'm on the road, all for under £1000 but the iBook I wanted was about £700 and £300 doesn't buy me a lot of pc unfortunately :o

with a GOOD laptop why would you want a desktop for home? Get another monitor and a wireless keyboard and mouse and you are set .... (and never HAVE to synch info!)

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

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  • Author
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Get a mac ..... saves you worrying about viruses etc ....

Great idea jdinasia, fancy lending me a few hundred?

My original plan was to get a shuttle pc for home use and a little laptop for when I'm on the road, all for under £1000 but the iBook I wanted was about £700 and £300 doesn't buy me a lot of pc unfortunately :D

with a GOOD laptop why would you want a desktop for home? Get another monitor and a wireless keyboard and mouse and you are set .... (and never HAVE to synch info!)

good point, however, I'M GREEDY!! Seriously though, I want two different things, one small & very portable laptop for my travels plus a large and heavy duty work-horse for my photo editing etc at home with a massive monitor to slowly blind me :o

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

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Macs seem to weigh a ton...

I prefer my Sony Vaio TX but it is a bit delicate...

I have one of these as a travel computer - very nice...

http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...s=bsd&cs=04

Looks nice sfokevin but the price is a bit much really and I'm not sure about Dell, I seem to have heard more stories about Dell than any other manufacturer :o

I've found something interesting Toshiba Portege 2000

The spec is pretty low but all I want it for is checking email and skype and for £230 I might take the chance, I've checked out this guys feedback and most customers of this laptop are happy enough

Any views on these?

alexth Gold Member

alexth

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If mobility is what you need, I'd go for a Sony, those tiny little ones that they released.

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

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If mobility is what you need, I'd go for a Sony, those tiny little ones that they released.

I'm not a fan of Sony, they feel too toy-like... :o

sfokevin Gold Member

sfokevin

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Posted (edited)
I've found something interesting Toshiba Portege 2000

The spec is pretty low but all I want it for is checking email and skype and for £230 I might take the chance, I've checked out this guys feedback and most customers of this laptop are happy enough

Any views on these?

Ebay can get you many bargains and the occasional lemon... You get a used item (Potentially "Blemished") with an old battery and no original software or drive to load more software in (That's extra)

Maybe this HP - New Vista OS, Built in DVD (With pop out remote!) and an integrated webcam for skype :> (The $25 optional Zen imprinted piano top finish that come along with the Web cam is awesome)

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...=dv2000z_series

Edited by sfokevin
Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I've found something interesting Toshiba Portege 2000

The spec is pretty low but all I want it for is checking email and skype and for £230 I might take the chance, I've checked out this guys feedback and most customers of this laptop are happy enough

Any views on these?

Ebay can get you many bargains and the occasional lemon... You get a used item (Potentially "Blemished") with an old battery and no original software or drive to load more software in (That's extra)

Maybe this HP - New Vista OS, Built in DVD (With pop out remote!) and an integrated webcam for skype :> (The $25 optional Zen imprinted piano top finish that come along with the Web cam is awesome)

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...=dv2000z_series

Not available in the UK!! :o

How silly is that!

Gary A Star Member

Gary A

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Does anybody actually have a thinkpad on this forum? Can anybody tell me the pro's and cons of having one, or can you recommend something in a similar price range?

Nikkijah

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a Lenovo T43p that I bought last year. It has a three year international warranty. I wanted it for travel and mainly for the Internet. It has WiFi, Bluetooth, LAN modem and the regular phone line modem. I'm really not much of a techie so I was VERY pleased that when I plugged something in, the computer set it up for me. Battery life is fairly good. About 4 hours with the extended battery. I'm pleased with it but now seldom use it because my Nokia N-80 cell phone is MUCH easier to carry around. :o

autonomous_unit Silver Member

autonomous_unit

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I've had many thinkpads over the years and was always satisifed. I've been carrying around a T42 for the past three years, and my wife has has an X40 for the same time. I had older X-series laptops before (X20 and X22) and enjoyed the fact that you could get a little "portfolio" case that zipped around it like a padded book cover, making it very easy to carry in a small backpack or even just loose in your hand... it resembles a full A4 or US letter sized "day planner", and I can say the X40 fits in the case I had with an X22.

Also, make sure you understand what you are getting. In my wife's X40, the harddrive is a tiny 1.8 inch drive. I am not sure whether the X41 uses the same type of drive or not. It cost me about $180 US to replace her failing 20 GB drive with a 60 GB drive last year, and that was because I was able to order it online and have it shipped to a place I was visiting in the USA. It is not a common part to find at retail stores.

The matte black finish has begun bubbling and peeling off on the bottom of her X40, again probably related to the harsh tropical environment.

DaffyDuck Silver Member

DaffyDuck

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good point, however, I'M GREEDY!! Seriously though, I want two different things, one small & very portable laptop for my travels plus a large and heavy duty work-horse for my photo editing etc at home with a massive monitor to slowly blind me :o
Why not settle for a small and portable laptop able to serve as a heavy duty work-horse for photo editing, etc, at home? That's what the MacBook is all about.

If you shop around, you can pick up a MacBook for under $1,000, and all you would need to add for home is a keyboard, mouse, and larger screen (if you must).

Otherwise, what's your point of wanting to have a laptop and a desktop with nearly identical performance, just to take up space?

Mac laptops and desktops are nearly identically powered, with a Core2Duo cpu, running around 2.0GHz. You're not going to need anything better than that, especially with your budgetary criteria.

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

Posted
  • Author
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good point, however, I'M GREEDY!! Seriously though, I want two different things, one small & very portable laptop for my travels plus a large and heavy duty work-horse for my photo editing etc at home with a massive monitor to slowly blind me :o
Why not settle for a small and portable laptop able to serve as a heavy duty work-horse for photo editing, etc, at home? That's what the MacBook is all about.

If you shop around, you can pick up a MacBook for under $1,000, and all you would need to add for home is a keyboard, mouse, and larger screen (if you must).

Otherwise, what's your point of wanting to have a laptop and a desktop with nearly identical performance, just to take up space?

Mac laptops and desktops are nearly identically powered, with a Core2Duo cpu, running around 2.0GHz. You're not going to need anything better than that, especially with your budgetary criteria.

I've researched macs and unless I spend well over $1,000 I'm not going to get what I want, anyway, I never said I NEEDED a notebook with similar power to a desktop, I wouldn't mind but it's not essential. I'm perfectly happy with a lower range laptop just for internet and email on the move.

I think after spending the whole day yesterday reading up on this and checking many many options I am swaying towards the X41 I originally linked to in my original post, I'm still open to suggestions though :D

I went to bed last night with a dodgy eye, the nerves were toasted, less browsing today I think :D

think_too_mut Platinum Member

think_too_mut

Posted
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thanks for your advice penguin, I wouldn't be too bothered about not having a CD/DVD drive, that would push the price from 400 to 600 quid! If this is going to be my portable laptop for only internet and some word processing then I shouldn't need a CD/DVD drive hopefully.

I think a UK warranty might be worldwide whereas the warranty in Thai is for Thailand only, correct me if I'm wrong...

Nikkijah

You could be wrong, in a likely situation that you have to do something from a CD drive. Say, install some program or rebuild the PC.

FYI, Acer is the same thing as IBM/Lenovo. I had 3 ThinkPads while I was with IBM, they all were from the same factory - Acer in Taiwan.

DELL and pretty much everyone does that.

Nikkijah Silver Member

Nikkijah

Posted
  • Author
Posted
thanks for your advice penguin, I wouldn't be too bothered about not having a CD/DVD drive, that would push the price from 400 to 600 quid! If this is going to be my portable laptop for only internet and some word processing then I shouldn't need a CD/DVD drive hopefully.

I think a UK warranty might be worldwide whereas the warranty in Thai is for Thailand only, correct me if I'm wrong...

Nikkijah

You could be wrong, in a likely situation that you have to do something from a CD drive. Say, install some program or rebuild the PC.

Would I be able to link my laptop with my desktop to install programs?

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