New Laptop

[astral]

My old Acer notebook is on its last legs and is not worth repairing, so I need a new laptop.

What do you suggest? Specs, brands and models.

I need lots of disk space, well 120Gb.

I am a heavy internet user.

Occasional photo and video editing.

16:9 format

DVD-RW

Wireless

No games.

Budget 40-50K baht

Thanks

[autonomous_unit]

I've always appreciated Thinkpads, though my latest one was bought three years ago, before IBM sold the business. On the other hand, Lenovo was making them for IBM already, so maybe the quality is still there...

I noticed the US pricing for the newest T61 is very attractive. It is based on the newest Intel chipsets that were just talked about the other day here, and for around $1500 USD you can get Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, a large drive, WXGA+ LCD (16:10 widescreen), 802.11a/b/g/n, bluetooth, and DVD writer. I am not sure what the local prices are in comparison, but it might be worth checking! They even have sub-models with the new Intel graphics or NVIDIA, depending on your preference.

My older T41 has been very durable considering the beating its taken for the last three years. And it has about half those specs in every regard and cost me a lot more...

I always prefer a faster 7200 RPM laptop drive, but you can get either that or 5400 RPM. The slower ones are cheaper so you can get more space for your money, if you don't care so much about the last bit of disk speed.

If you do go with a Thinkpad, and you plan to keep it for a long time, I highly recommend getting the upgraded international warranty service. For a few hundred dollars, you can get 3 year coverage to just bring it into the service depot and have failing parts replaced. I had a motherboard replaced this way, and that would not have been cost effective to pay for after the regular 1 year warranty expired.

[britmaveric]

I'm bout ready to get an Asus G1, might take a look at that model.

[Wolfie]

I've just got a Dell Latitude D620, Core2 Duo with 1gb Ram and 80gb HDD - very pleased with it so far

[nikster]

Whatever you do, if you can wait for another 1 - 2 weeks or a bit more, do so. All major laptop manufacturers have announced new Santa-Rosa based laptop lineups. These are in the process of being released. I saw an Acer TravelMate 4xxx with Santa Rosa (and the new design) recently in Chiang Mai pantip plaza, I think it was well within your specs, 120GB HD (or 160..? not sure), 14" wide screen, 1GB RAM, TM7100 @ 1.83 GHz for 36K Baht.

I am not recommending Acer because of lots of quality problems in their budget lineup. That said, their redesigned TravelMate is at least looking a lot better than the older models. And Acer service in Thailand is excellent too.

Recommended are ThinkPad and MacBook/MacBook Pro though Apple of course has not even announced new machines. They should be coming soon though.

Asus also has a pretty good reputation for quality.

Edited May 15, 2007 by nikster