I’m looking to get myself a laptop… just provisional looking, at the moment - but I am interested. I’d like to be able to code on it, do some basic mobile photo editing, watch movies, etc.
So, these specs are a minimum:
- Core 2 Duo Processor @ 2Ghz
- 2GB RAM
- 15.4″ Screen at 1280×800-ish
- 802.11g WiFi
- 80GB HDD
- DVD-RW
- At least 3 USB Ports
- 2Hrs battery life, with reasonable usage.
- 2 Year Warranty
- Decent dedicated video card, with dedicated memory (none of this shared memory crud)
- Decent soundcard (one that doesn’t pop and hiss with every movement of the mouse)
- Vista Home Premium Licence
Preferred, however is the above with:
- 17″ Screen at 1920×1200
- 802.11a/g WiFi
- Bluetooth (2.0)
- 120GB 7200RPM HDD
- ATI Radeon X1600 or NVidia 7600 video card.
- 3 Year International Warranty
‘Course, I don’t particularly want to spend a huge amount of money (which means the 17″ screen starts to look a bit rocky).
I was looking, for a moment, at the few different “convertable” laptops which convert into a tablet PC for drawing/writing - but they seem to be limited to 13″ or there abouts, with 1024×768 screens.
Both Dell and ASUS are looking pretty good at the moment - The Dell Inspiron 9400, with a few modifications - or the ASUS G1, with an additional 1GB of RAM are both candidates at the moment.
6 Comments
You need to post the budget, sjeez
March 11th, 2007 at 10:13 am. Permalink.
$2k - $3k-ish.
March 11th, 2007 at 10:31 am. Permalink.
buy a macbook!!!
Get the best graphics!
March 11th, 2007 at 11:54 am. Permalink.
A MacBook only has a 13″ Display.
Even with the discount I get from Apple through work (yeah, Apple, along with Acer and Dell have “staff discount” codes/deals for us) - A MacBook Pro is still way too expensive. They _start_ at $3199 - that’s not even with a Vista licence or 2GB RAM - you’re looking at $3500 or more.
March 11th, 2007 at 12:00 pm. Permalink.
As far as Dells go:
- Inspiron 6400UMA (15.5″), E-VALUE CODE : Q540339 - has most of what I wanted, above - about $3,051. - See Saved Cart 15840197
March 11th, 2007 at 12:04 pm. Permalink.
I think the Asus G1 would be your best bet. (Or the A8JS if you want 14.1″)
17″ won’t give you all that good battery life, especially with a dedicated video card.
However, Dell’s Inspiron 9400 would be my 17″ choice (saved cart #15841269).
The only downside is it hits a bit over $3K if you include a non-shared system ram video card (7900GS instead of X1400, which is half half I believe).
Using EPP codes gets (the above cart) to $2,941.68
March 11th, 2007 at 1:44 pm. Permalink.