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Notebook recommendations (1 Viewer)

Newbie

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looking for a laptop for uni

right now im thinking about the Vaio T
anyone else using a cool one and wana recommend it?
 

fatmuscle

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just get something with:

size/weight: quite important if you're carrying it around lots. You'll want one that is light and a size you want. anyhting bigger or smaller and you won't like it. Don't strain your bag carrying around a heavy laptop.

functionality: look for the following (i might miss some out). You may or may not want some features.
USB - I think that's a MUST
Firewire - u might have devices that use this.
Network - Nowadays it's essential to get wired and wireless. If you can, get a Gigabit Ethernet NIC, and one of those b/g WNICs. for more compatibility for now and the future.
Modem - most of them come with modem for dial up.
Bluetooth/Infrared - some come inbuilt, others it's optional. Up to you.
Printer Port - for your old printers
External Video Displays - This is quite important for those wanting to do presentations, or watching movies off your laptop. Having just a normal port to a monitor may sometimes not be good enough. normal vga is standard, dvi if you need it, s-video will be the simplest to connect to a TV using ur RCA (red/white/yellow) plugs.

Harddrive space, monitor resolution, touchpad, ram,sound, processor should all be up to you.
Having hot-swappable drives (dvd rom / cd-burning / floppy) is also handy.

some laptops follow mulitmedia keyboards and have shortcut buttons to make some things more easil accessible.


If you're going for branded laptops, warranty and support is quite useful at times (if something does go wrong).



i guess this isn't a notebook recommendation, it's more of what to look out for if you're getting one. different brands have different features. just depends on what feature you want the most.
 
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I love lugging around a heavy laptop, if anyone tries to steal it there's way more chance of me knocking them out with it than if I used some flimsy piece of crap that's only THREE GRAMS LIGHT :)

and wow Mednez, that's sort of funny :)

Another recommendation that I would add to Ian's list that I would make is to get something with a screen that's a comfortable size, if you're going to be using it extensively. It makes working on it much more pleasant, and is probably doing your eyes a favour as well. Of course with that though you're going to be making trade-offs with weight, so it'll be a matter of preference more than anything else. Best advice is probably to just make sure you read up as much as you can, and make sure that what you buy is going to match your requirements.
 

Newbie

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hmm the vaio screen is 10"

would that be hard for the eyes?
i guess its a tradeoff between weight and screen ...

but the vaio T at 2700 is a bargain i guess
its like 4000 everywhere else
 
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Newbie said:
hmm the vaio screen is 10"

would that be hard for the eyes?
i guess its a tradeoff between weight and screen ...

but the vaio T at 2700 is a bargain i guess
its like 4000 everywhere else
It'll depend what you're after I guess, my sight isn't that great in the first place so a bigger screen helps, and on top of that I tend to use it quite a bit. If you're only after one to use on the go, and you'll have access to a desktop pc with a bigger screen at home or something, then it probably isn't as big a deal.
 

Newbie

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hmm after reading up
turns out 10" is a bit too small
and the general consensus around the world is that the dell gobbles sony in terms of value

the 700m is priced at 1650.... :eek:
 

JimmyK

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As ive said many a time before, ultimately, you need to find a laptop that best suits your needs - feature wise.
Personally, I like the Apple Powerbook (please dont start an Apple Vs Windows thread again), because it has so many features. It's a bit pricey, but I havent heard any complaints from those who have them - I'm getting one soon.
I've never really heard much about the Vios - but a friend has one and I think he likes it. Toshiba are usually pretty reliable.
 

tempco

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Well I just purchased a LG LT20... one of those tablet laptops. New off Ebay for $1900... I would have thought tablet functionality would be kinda important, but maybe that's just me :D

@JimmyK

Yep Toshibas seem to be reliable and at a good price... that's what I gathered from the research I did when looking for a laptop anyway.
 

iamsickofyear12

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I just got an inspiron 6000, its not really meant to be carried around but I wanted a desktop replacement and I don't take it to uni everyday.
 

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hey you should try this one, it's one of the cheapest notebooks out there...
 

tomorrows_angel

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I have an IBM X31.
It's good in some ways, but i get totally pissed off at it in others.
Main positives:
- small and light, 12" screen and only weighs 1.23kg.
- has centrino, which i really wanted.

Main negatives:
- only came with 256mb memory, and xp really needs 512 to run at full functionality. It glitches with solitaire for crying out loud! I'm in the process of fixing this by buying more memory.
- has NO fdd/cd drive. VERY frustrating. It was a compromise i made for the portability, so instead i have a 20gig external hard drive that i burn cd's to from the desktop at home and run off that. Though that doesn't work with cd's that are required for operation, e.g games etc.

Ummm yeah, think about it before you buy it... i didn't really do this, i bought it cos it was small and light and i got it cheap (they normally retail for around 3200, i got it for 1600.)
 

Korn

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You could try Acer, Apple or something, go to DJ's they could help you, especially the Hornsby Store
 

fatmuscle

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far out buddy

$4500 for a laptop. u made of gold or something?

i wouldn't go past $3k for a decent laptop
 

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