best laptop 06?

February 18, 2006 2:36 PM

Best 06 laptop?

Hi,
My employer has given me funds to buy a laptop - I have up to £1500/$2500 to spend. What should I get? It can't be Apple. I'd prefer something not widescreen. Compact the better, but not a silly small keyboard.

posted by A189Nut to computers & internet (11 comments total)

12" convertible tablets are great. My Fujitsu T4000 is the best machine I've ever owned, desktop or laptop. I get 8 hours of battery life too with the extended bay battery.

If you're really bent on portability, take a look at the IBM Thinkpads. Many people would say that they are hands down the best laptops around.
posted by mr.dan at 2:43 PM on February 18, 2006

IBM Thinkpads are hands down the best laptops around.

The T60 and X60 just came out, that's what you want.
posted by kcm at 2:51 PM on February 18, 2006

I am all giddy over my new Lenovo (IBM) X41 tablet. Very lightweight at under 3 lbs, but with a robust keyboard. Wonderful build quality, it feels quite solid. In fact, I am going to go caress it right now.
posted by LarryC at 3:32 PM on February 18, 2006

Thinkpad. It's the gold standard. Seriously. I've had to use Dell, HP, Gateway. Thinkpad. Thinkpad. Thinkpad.
posted by cavalier at 3:34 PM on February 18, 2006

And, er, don't be put off that the IBM Thinkpads are now Lenovo Thinkpads. Same factories, etc..
posted by cavalier at 3:34 PM on February 18, 2006

Why don't you like widescreens? The Sony S series is compact, powerful, and has good battery life, but has a wide-aspect screen.
posted by b1tr0t at 4:28 PM on February 18, 2006

Very slight derail: refurbished thinkpads are significantly cheaper for what I want (I don't care about processing power, just stability & reliability). I'm leary of getting a laptop with only a 3 month (6 month on some) warranty... is it worth the extra money to get the full year?
posted by devilsbrigade at 5:14 PM on February 18, 2006

I would go for Sony or IBM/Lenovo. Avoid Dell, HP and Compaq like the plague.
posted by vkxmai at 5:38 PM on February 18, 2006

I would definitely say the Thinkpads as well. Were I buying a PC laptop, it would be that. The Thinkpad tablet PC is really nice as well.

If you end up leaning toward Dell, stay away from the Inspiron series and stick with the Latitudes. You get more features on the Inspirons for the same price, but they are cheap machines. The Latitudes, though, total stalwarts in my department. I've seen some seriously abused Latitudes that keep on ticking. The best Latitude out there right now is probably the D410. It feels frighteningly just like a Thinkpad.

Sony, OTOH, I avoid like the plague. Unless you yourself are a tech, stay away from the Vaio. I have seen several people in the various groups I work for buy them because they like the looks or the features of them, and every one of them is dead inside of 2 years. I don't know what the scoop is with the Vaio, but they seem to be ONLY for people that are going to be overly careful with their laptops. It's as if they are just too delicate to actually be a laptop or something, and honestly, most "normal" laptop use to me is abusive, and the Thinkpads, ViewSonic tablets, Inspirons and iBooks are the ones that I see holding up best in the field.

And Sony's tech support is really atrocious. Dell's consumer support isn't much better, but their business and educational support is pretty good most of the time.

Of course, at home, well... *looks around at the three iBooks*
posted by smallerdemon at 6:13 PM on February 18, 2006

Regarding the Sony line... I can't really argue about the being "overly careful" because I carry mine in a Zero Halliburton case. Conversely my buddy has the exact same model, bought around the same time... and he abuses the hell out of it. Hard strikes, dropping, spills, etc. Both run fine.

That said... I've owned thinkpads before and they are very very robust.
posted by JFitzpatrick at 4:28 PM on February 19, 2006

That's a lot for a nice laptopl. I love my Acer. It's a pretty fast Centrino. Maybe put some of the money into upgrades and accessories. 1Gb is nice and tests show a 1Gb machine runs about as fast as a 2Gb machine. In reality I find that 512Mb is sufficient. Get a nice long-life battery to and I like Windows XP. Other 'extras' to consider are software, cases, software, yadda, yadda, yadda.
posted by JamesMessick at 9:22 PM on February 19, 2006