Laptop gurus, speak to me

[DeepIron]

Glad to be of service...

[Blacklight]

I personally reccomend HP or Compaq (with a heavy leaning toward HP). Their laptops are pretty decent in quality. IBM Thinkpads are also pretty decent but you end up paying much more for them.

I will echo.. stay away from Dell or Gateway.

[Etienne]

I have a Dell XPS M1730. It's all kind of awesome, but it is not very portable. Which is to say, it's effin gigantic - the power converter alone is the side of a dictionnary. And the weight of one.

It's good for people like me who move their laptops once every three months (It's hard to go up a ladder carrying a desktop is all I'm saying) but there's no way to use it on a plane. Stay away from the XPS line if you need to move. (But man, are they awesome)

The cell phone card in mine keeps slipping out, so I have to bang the laptop to get it to work again. It's a PITA, but it's the only problem I've had with the laptop so far, it will be easily fixed once the warranty runs out... Oh, and I might be keeping my laptop in an environment that vibrates more than the common house.

Anyway, the point of this is the EVDO. Be careful what plan you get - there was a mistake with mine at one point, and they ended up charging me 3$ a megabyte. Nothing like a 700$ phone bill to wake you up... (They credited me and fixed my plan, thank god) But I'm still at 3$ a MB when I get an american signal, and the Dell EVDO card software doesn't have an option for home only, so it requires constant vigilance. Make sure you get a decent plan. Once the signal goes on 1X, you're back to the days of dialup, btw.

It's also too slow to play COD4 on line. Just thought you'd want to know :-D


Sorry for the rambling; I just started my vacation and, well, you know.

[lesrae]

Originally Posted by Blacklight

I personally reccomend HP or Compaq

Aren't they the same company now? I thought HP had bought Compaq.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Etienne

I have a Dell XPS M1730. It's all kind of awesome, but it is not very portable. Which is to say, it's effin gigantic - the power converter alone is the side of a dictionnary. And the weight of one.

It's good for people like me who move their laptops once every three months (It's hard to go up a ladder carrying a desktop is all I'm saying) but there's no way to use it on a plane. Stay away from the XPS line if you need to move. (But man, are they awesome)

Wait, what? The Dell I ordered is not an XPS, right?

Anyway, the point of this is the EVDO. Be careful what plan you get - there was a mistake with mine at one point, and they ended up charging me 3$ a megabyte. Nothing like a 700$ phone bill to wake you up... (They credited me and fixed my plan, thank god) But I'm still at 3$ a MB when I get an american signal, and the Dell EVDO card software doesn't have an option for home only, so it requires constant vigilance. Make sure you get a decent plan. Once the signal goes on 1X, you're back to the days of dialup, btw.

It's also too slow to play COD4 on line. Just thought you'd want to know :-D


Sorry for the rambling; I just started my vacation and, well, you know.

What's EVDO? What's COD4? Where's my glossary?

[CCIP]

EVDO = Extremely Vicious Door Opener, an appliance for old fridges where the door keeps getting stuck

COD4 = a mutated fish

[DeepIron]

Neal, I believe you purchased the Inspiron, not an XPS. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don't Panic.

EVDO: EVDO or Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized (often abbreviated as EVDO, EV-DO, EvDO, 1xEV-DO or 1xEvDO) provides fast wireless broadband (3G) internet service directly to your laptop. You take the internet with you and surf the web in your car, on the train, in the airport, at a convention, on the road in your RV...

As you already have a cellular account, I doubt you'll have any issues. You're not buying an EVDO service as part of the laptop package.

COD4: Call to Duty 4.

[lesrae]

Originally Posted by DeepIron

COD4: Call to Duty 4.

Call Of Duty 4?

[DeepIron]

Originally Posted by lesrae

Call Of Duty 4?

Oops! heh...

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by DeepIron

Neal, I believe you purchased the Inspiron, not an XPS. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don't Panic.

EVDO: EVDO or Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized (often abbreviated as EVDO, EV-DO, EvDO, 1xEV-DO or 1xEvDO) provides fast wireless broadband (3G) internet service directly to your laptop. You take the internet with you and surf the web in your car, on the train, in the airport, at a convention, on the road in your RV...

As you already have a cellular account, I doubt you'll have any issues. You're not buying an EVDO service as part of the laptop package.

COD4: Call to Duty 4.

Whew! Thanks. I do not have a wireless plan yet, just my cellular phone, so I need to learn about this EVDO, it sounds good. I do want the capability to surf from anywhere: car, train, beach, Seawolf Park, Alaska....

[Blacklight]

Aren't they the same company now? I thought HP had bought Compaq.

HP did indeed buy compaq, but the two still remain separate as far as the manufacturing of computers go. Consider the Compaqs as the cheaper budget laptops and the HP ones as the tough ones with the chrome. Both are actually good and decent qualtiy but the HP's tend to be physically sturdier and their keyboards have a more solid feel. But you do pay more for an HP laptop than a comparable Compaq one and the difference is in the sturdiness and I believe they use somewhat better brand parts (But don't quote me on that part.) HP's also are a little heavier than the Compaqs.