Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 10:07:49 +0930 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> To: Jesse Guardiani <jesse@wingnet.net> Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Choosing a new laptop Message-ID: <20030708003749.GD7437@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <becij7$5e2$1@main.gmane.org> References: <20030703011407.GM29066@wantadilla.lemis.com> <becij7$5e2$1@main.gmane.org>
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--MAH+hnPXVZWQ5cD/ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Monday, 7 July 2003 at 15:45:20 -0400, Jesse Guardiani wrote: > Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > >> I've decided it's time for a new laptop. In the past I've been >> relatively happy with Dell, but their web site is driving me to >> distraction (want info about Latitudes? Tell them you have a home >> office and they'll give you Inspiron instead). Questions to you: >> >> 1. Which brand? > > IBM, if you can afford it. They're not overly expensive. >> 2. Which model? > > I hear the T series has pretty good battery life. I had a T22 until about a year ago. The battery life was terrible, much worse than my Inspiron 7500. > I personally have an A30p. Battery life sucks (1 hr avg), The T22 was better than that, about 2 hours. > but I've got good power (1.2Ghz PIII), 1600x1200, and an excellent > keyboard. I got mine used for $1,350 on ebay. I don't like the keyboard. As I say below,=20 >> I also want a keyboard which I can remap and a touchpad which >> works; a third mouse button would, of course, be a good idea. I was thinking specifically of the T22 when I wrote that: the bottom left key is Fn, and you can't remap it. Is that different on your machine? Also, the T22 only had this damn silly eraser head "mouse". >> I use laptops when travelling and for presentations. For the former I >> want long battery life and high resolution (preferably 1600x1200). >> For the latter I need something that will feed run-of-the-mill data >> projectors at 1024x768 and with enough grunt to run an increasingly >> lethargic Acrobat Reader without noticeable delay. > > My A30p has TV out and an external VGA port. Projectors are no > problem. The T22 has a feature which looks like a bug: it has separate video for the external output and the LCD screen. Although I was working at IBM at the time, we weren't able to get it to display the same thing on both screens, but I always used my Dell for presentations. I hear they've since fixed the problem. With the correct software, this feature could be quite nice (display the presentation on the projector and an annotated version on the LCD), but I don't know of any such software. > Lots of grunt too, but again, crap battery life. T series is good for > battery life. However, the larger the screen, the shorter the battery > life. Grunt doesn't seem to be the problem nowadays. Hot laps might be. >> I'm suspicious of the new wide screen versions because of potential >> problems with the data projectors; > > I'm suspicious because I don't think I'd get the same # of square inches > on a wide screen model. I think it's a marketing trick. 17 inches of wide > screen isn't the same # of square inches as 17 inches of a normal aspect > ratio. Basically it comes down to the number of pixels. It's nice to have two normal-width xterms side by side. >> if people can allay these concerns, I'd be quite happy to have a >> wide-screen model. I also want a keyboard which I can remap and a >> touchpad which works; a third mouse button would, of course, be a >> good idea. > > Thinkpad's trackpoint shows up as a normal PS/2 mouse. The trackpoint is ugly. I won't buy a laptop with it. But I think the newer Thinkpads also have a touchpad. > Three buttons. Yes, that's an advantage. > Fully working keyboard. Nope, see my complaints. Is that different on your model? Anyway, I've bought an Inspiron 5100, which looks like being a reasonable compromise. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers --MAH+hnPXVZWQ5cD/ Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.0 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE/ChJdIubykFB6QiMRAlDlAJ0SAUPJ2uoRain+fASx817AjoXfoACgrZjW r2Wa7DR7nHm8VDsIuqYSe5c= =pKcP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --MAH+hnPXVZWQ5cD/--
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