As I have mentioned before, I am starting law school in a few weeks and I need to get a new laptop. My first choice would obviously be a PowerBook, but exam software doesn't run on it and I may be force to get a windows laptop. That being said, I am looking for LONG battery life, not too heavy, and a fast enough processor and video graphics to play some games when I am not stuck briefing cases. Another thing I like about the Power Book is that I can buy a model with low RAM and add RAM myself for much cheaper. Looking for a deal like that also. I'm also wondering what version of Winblows I should get... NT, XP, ? BTW: Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I am staying away from Dell. Had friends that worked for Dell in Austin and they even said they suck.
where are you going to law school, mulder? i've had Dell laptops and loved them. i've heard to buy Dell laptops...but stay away from Compaq laptops.
The best PC laptops in the world are IBM Thinkpads. They're a bit pricey, but you're about to drop a boatload of money on law school, so I say they're worth the money. Those things are bulletproof. Other than the IBMs, check out the corporate lines of HP, Dell, Compaq, and Toshiba. Sony's are cool looking but they're consumer grade machines. If you're going to be hauling a machine to school everyday, you don't want a consumer-grade laptop. Think quality over quantity. Hot videocards and DVD burners are cool in laptops, but they're not that useful and way overpriced. Get a 3 year warranty no matter what laptop. You might want to check with your school and see if you can use a powerbook for notes and check out a PC laptop for test taking. Powerbooks are amazing machines if you have the cash. I've got a 12" G4 iBook and love it.
Sorry you can't use a powerbook - I just got mine and it absolutely rocks. I had a Dell previously though - worked quite well and the warranty was nice (they come to your house and make the repair - very conveniant!). The only thing that sucke about the Dell was it weighed too much and it only ran windows (well and Debian - but what good is an ATI Radeon Mobility if you have no games to play? ) I actually will be selling a windows laptop (HP) in the near future - if you're interested I'll email you when I am ready to part with it.
If you go with Windows XP, I recommend you get XP Pro. I don't know how widespread this problem is, but I remember reading about some people having problems accessing a campus network with XP Home. That was just after XP was released, however, so I don't know if it would be a problem or not almost three years later. If you can wait, I'd put off buying a machine until after SP 2 comes out. Can't say that I recommend Compaq. I have one, and it works fine for me. But I mostly have it attached to its docking station, with the occasional trip to the couch or out of town. My friend has an IBM that was provided by his company. I never really understood why they were so much more expensive until I played with it a little bit. I've also heard some good things about Toshiba, although that was a few years ago. A lot can change in that amount of time. Whether it has or not, I don't know. Have you checked any online reviews? You can usually find some customer reviews that might be a little more helpful.
Depending on how much you want to spend and what you want it to come with. Celeron/Pentium 4? Speed? Memory? HD Space? DVD Drive/Writer? Network card? Screen size? USB ports?
Yeah, if you have next day repair on them. We've got a couple of Inspiron's in the department. Not the weapon of choice for a serious road warrior or student. So many things break on those machines. Now, Lattitudes are a different story. But even those have started to become flakey. Dell ships more than it's share of lemons.
Since I need to get a new laptop myself, let me ask...what is so much better about the thinkpad vs. dell (or toshiba)? is it just the durability when you travel with it or will the machine crash less frequently and perform better? also, if you know, what is the best brand (and model) of external monitor to get? I was considering a 17" IBM or NEC. Many thanks..
Durability, portability, and usability are the most important things on a laptop. Speed doesn't really do much good when comparing laptops, because they all perform relativley the same. Laptops all have slow hard drives, so you need lots of RAM or they're all going to bog down running Windows XP. IBMs are nice because they have good power management, great keyboards(often overlooked feature), and they're super-reliable. They're heavily tested on Windows so they have good compatability, and they don't use lots of generic parts to keep the prices down. They also have a high resale value compared to other laptops. Dells are hit and miss. You could get a huge, heavy, poorly built laptop if you go cheap and you aren't careful. It'll do the job, but it won't have the refined design of a Thinkpad or Powerbook. Don't get me wrong, Dell has some nice laptops, but not at 800 bucks. Except for the high-resolution screens they have, you can get a better laptop dollar for dollar from IBM than Dell if you go mid to high-end. Toshiba's are middle ground. Probably better than your average Dell or Compaq, but lagging behind a nice HP or IBM. As far as external monitors, you almost always get what you pay for. Go for name brand if you can afford it. If you're talking flat-pannel, I wouldn't buy sight unseen because of dead pixels. CRTs are safer mail-order, and make sure you buy the biggest and best you can afford, because a good monitor will outlive your computer by many years. Sony, Panasonic, Mitzubishi, Viewsonic, Samsung all make amazing monitors. Cheaper monitors like CTX and the like aren't bad either, but don't expect them to compete with the big boys.
yeah you are!!! no...it will work out fine. good school. beautiful library overlooking Minute Maid and Toyota Center may make it hard to study there! would for me! congrats and best of luck!!!! let me know if you need anything. i threw away all my old course outlines, but I'll see what i can do.
I have used my crappy HP laptop over the last 2 years of law school. Here are a couple of observations that hopefully may help some. If you have a laptop its a bit of a waste if you dont take exams on it. Those things can get really long(25+ pages doublespaced) and you handwriting turns to almost complete gibberish towards the end. This rules out a powerbook unless you can figure out how to make it work. Keep in mind the school tech people dont support this and you may get screwed if you have a problem during a test. Durablility seems to be the most important thing. If you laptop breaks you will have to take notes by hand while its geting fixed (this really sucks). Aslo when you carry it everywhere you go it really gets beat around quite a bit. Unless you school has power outles at every seat battery life will also be pretty important. So dont get a giant screen or one of the p4 desktop processors. Also being really compact and lightweight isnt that big of a deal when you are already carrying around an assload of law books. I have never used one personally but from what i have heard the thinkpad is the perfect laptop for law school. They supposedly really tough.
I just purchased an IBM T42. It works great. If you can purchase it through an educational deal, I definitely recommend it. BTW, I ordered system with 40G harddrive, however it shows only 32G on C:/ and only 26G free space avaible. I've been told the missing 8G is used for hidden partition and system backups, but I can hardly believe it takes that many space for that. Is that normal for laptops? Anyone know? Thanks.
michecon -- you WILL BE SO HAPPY with that laptop. I've just worked on two of them and they are great. I want one I've worked with two IBMs and two Dells (all brand new) just now, and IBM is so much better, it's not even close.
I think new thinkpads have a secret partition that does an instant restore at the touch of a button. If you don't want that feature, you can always reformat the harddrive and reclaim the space.
