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laptop?

gracious said:
these things look really cool, and a much better way of handling the shedloads of reading i have to do for my course. they do support pdfs aswell. that ebay link you sent prob not the way to go. they are cheaper if you buy them direct from sony!!
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They are not released in the UK (or Europe) so you can try, you'll not get far. Can't understand Sony's decision but there you go?

ebay from US side sellers is the only realistic way to get one.

I've been thinking about getting one for a while now.
 
To be fair on Dell, they have seperate lines of notebooks. Inspirons are a bit flimsy, but undeniably offer a good value. Latitudes are built much more like a Thinkpad and cost accordingly. Vostros are in-between the two and would be my personal choice. The XPS line is for gadget freaks.
 
well, 1 friend who does IT support told me that dell's arent built and tested as robustly, especially if you buy the personal ones (inspiron), she said the parts arent as good, and also arent as well integrated. she said thinkpad's are the workhorse of laptops and never break also. she said hp, like dell, personal ones arent very robust and wouldnt reccomend, but if you go for the business ones which are the same as the old compaq makes, they are better.

another friend who does programming, emailed me to tell me that he's bought a thinkpad and its "simply the shizzle", although he did spend a grand or so.

i think im going to spend some time seeing what kinds of discounts i can get on a thinkpad. us students get 25% off, if uk students get the same, i could have the same spec as the dell one, but a better build (dell dont do a student discount as far as i can gather). if not i think ill be looking at the HPs again.
 
if you go for Dell, order it through the small - medium size business section, you can save money. They don't ask deep questions, so anyone can just order that way IMO.

I should be receiving the xps m1330 very soon , i can write a little review if you want.
 
Personal experience, having had hundreds of them about, the Dell and HP business lines (Latitude and Compaq) are the same for durability and both are a smidgen behind Lenovo on that front. They're all worlds ahead of the consumer lines if you're going to beat on them, but if it's not actually going to travel a lot you'd be better off with the cheap stuff.
 
Personally I'm very happy with having chosen to get more back for my buck with the new Inspiron range (1720)... lightning fast, plays pretty much any game, looks lovely, amazing keyboard and screen, and it handles being cycled with 15 miles a day. It probably couldn't handle being dropped anywhere near as well as a Thinkpad, but then you might as well just get insurance and still save money compared to the traditionally robust machines.

That said, if you want a nipple mouse, and performance is less of an issue (which it is, from the sounds of things) then get a thinkpad. They're the laptop choice of proper geeks which can only be a good thing.
 
ChrisFilter said:
That said, if you want a nipple mouse, and performance is less of an issue (which it is, from the sounds of things) then get a thinkpad.
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I must admit I was a big nipple fan ;) and wouldn't contemplate a trackpad having tried them in shops, but after getting a Dell laptop I quickly got used to the trackpad, and I don't think I'd see any advantage in a nipple now.
 
editor said:
Please do. I've been eyeing up that fella for some time.
Are you getting the high res screen option?
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All screens are 1280x800 , there is a choice between

13.3" UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) CCFL Display (220nits) with TrueLife™ with 2.0 MB webcam
and
13.3" UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) White-LED Display (300 nits) with TrueLife™ with 0.3 MB webcam
Click to expand...
 
it handles being cycled with 15 miles a day
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mate, this isnt the same as working from the battery for 3 hours a day 3 times a week. as long as it isnt being dropped/bashed, being in a bag and cycled with doesnt put any strain on the hardware.

i dont know how you are using your dell, but im betting you dont very often create statistical models from databases with a million rows on it and you aren't planning to travel to india for 3 months and use it to undertake research!

i guess you are right, that in the end, these things are more important to me than having a built in webcam, or a top of the range graffics card... the first one is nice to have for sure, the second - i wouldnt use anyway.
 
if it's not actually going to travel a lot you'd be better off with the cheap stuff.
Click to expand...

thats the thing... i am going to travel a lot. performance in terms of speed is important, performance in terms of reliability is even more important... im going to be relying on this thing and i dont have IT support or patience for fiddling when things go wrong.
 
ive just realised that im one of those really annoying people that asks for advice, and then goes with what i was going to do anyway, regardless of advice.

doh.
 
gracious said:
mate, this isnt the same as working from the battery for 3 hours a day 3 times a week. as long as it isnt being dropped/bashed, being in a bag and cycled with doesnt put any strain on the hardware.
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Very true, I could cane the battery a lot more, and the thinkpad battery will be far superior to the Dell's.

As for the cycling thing, it's not so much the bashing more the stress of bouncing around for an hour a day - a good test of the build quality.

gracious said:
i dont know how you are using your dell, but im betting you dont very often create statistical models from databases with a million rows on it and you aren't planning to travel to india for 3 months and use it to undertake research!
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Don't do million row databases, but do play high-end games so it does get a thrashing... different ball game though. And no, wouldn't want to use it as a road warrior for 3 months. I suppose it's a bit like a TVR vs a land rover.. TVR is flashier but you wouldn't want to go off roading with it. My recommendation of the Dell was more for other people reading, not you... hence why I said you should get HP or thinkpad.

gracious said:
i guess you are right, that in the end, these things are more important to me than having a built in webcam, or a top of the range graffics card... the first one is nice to have for sure, the second - i wouldnt use anyway.
Click to expand...

Exactly.. doesn't mean much being able to play Crysis when you have a spreadsheet to complete and the battery is dead.
 
gracious said:
mate, this isnt the same as working from the battery for 3 hours a day 3 times a week. as long as it isnt being dropped/bashed, being in a bag and cycled with doesnt put any strain on the hardware.

i dont know how you are using your dell, but im betting you dont very often create statistical models from databases with a million rows on it and you aren't planning to travel to india for 3 months and use it to undertake research!

i guess you are right, that in the end, these things are more important to me than having a built in webcam, or a top of the range graffics card... the first one is nice to have for sure, the second - i wouldnt use anyway.
Click to expand...

Million rows is nothing. Working in India, however, is another thing altogether.

I wouldn't recommend any of the brands suggested. The reason I wouldn't even recommend a Thinkpad is that the humidity can reach 100% at certain times of the year and location. It can also get to 50C. Both are incredible experiences, but one that a standard office laptop is not designed to cope with in general operation. They may cope, but the chance of it failing is high and if they do, its going to be a DHL operation getting it fixed and all the time wasted and possible loss of data. You get it back and 1 week later it goes again.

Take a look at the environmental spec of my Latitude D820,

Environmental ​
Temperature range:

Operating
0° to 35°C (32° to 95°F)
Storage
–40° to 65°C (–40° to 149°F)
Relative humidity (maximum):

Operating
10% to 90% (noncondensing)

The battery can only operate at 35C max as well. 90% non-condensing. Humidity goes higher than that and 80% would probably break it, even though it says it can take it.

I suggest that you invest in something like a semi ruggedized. If your out in fields, then your going to need a fully ruggedised model. They go to +60C

Panasonic do them, as do others

http://www.toughbook.eu/ENG/fully_ruggedized.aspx

But they aint powerful or cheap, but they will survive.
 
Million rows is nothing.
Click to expand...

depends what you are trying to do with it. row operations in a db program, no problem at all. complex column operations particular those including horizontal+vertical lookups of the offset(match()) variety, not so easy, particularly if you dont do the same sort of calculation over and over again, so its not worth writing a program for it.

yeah... i did think about those supertough notebooks, but the £ per features makes it not worth it, im only going to be in india for 3 months, and am most likely to be in bangalore which is on a plateau and a bit cooller, or in offices (my research is on the use of software in different industries as a stimulant for competitiveness economic growth etc, basically spillover effects of the software industry over there)...
 
OLAP processing might be more appropriate for you, the relational model isn't always a good fit.

Bangalore is both very hot (38C in April when I was there) and the air is so dirty it breaks knives so protect anything you buy.
 
The dell xps m1330 arrives this morning, i played around with vista and the dell media direct, which lets you play or look at/watch pictures, music video, DVDs, or CDs without booting into windows.

I am pretty impressed with it, the 2.0 MB HD webcam is very sharp, some software than can detect facial movement was included and can be used with some amusing plugins that can place different hats and masks on your imagine, when you move, the object moves as if your actually wearing the object, it was pretty impressive.
Vista has since been replaced by fedora :p


I chose the 9-cell battery, it does stick out the back, however it gives lots of extra battery life and its not too heavy.

i have not played with the fingerprint reader or bluetooth yet.

It came with a pouch, headphones and leather book cover than includes the manual and some space for cds and and some other stuff.

The only negative thing i would say is the dvd-drive , its very loud while it reads.
 
Now you can go and put OS X on it!!


lobster said:
The dell xps m1330 arrives this morning, i played around with vista and the dell media direct, which lets you play or look at/watch pictures, music video, DVDs, or CDs without booting into windows.

I am pretty impressed with it, the 2.0 MB HD webcam is very sharp, some software than can detect facial movement was included and can be used with some amusing plugins that can place different hats and masks on your imagine, when you move, the object moves as if your actually wearing the object, it was pretty impressive.
Vista has since been replaced by fedora :p


I chose the 9-cell battery, it does stick out the back, however it gives lots of extra battery life and its not too heavy.

i have not played with the fingerprint reader or bluetooth yet.

It came with a pouch, headphones and leather book cover than includes the manual and some space for cds and and some other stuff.

The only negative thing i would say is the dvd-drive , its very loud while it reads.
Click to expand...
 
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