What does everyone think about the current selection of Laptops?

[jankerson]

With all the updades and selections of CPU's in the new laptops along with the different brands what do you think about them?

We are seeing larger wide screen displays and real gaming cards on some of the high end models.

[grover]

I think there needs to be more low-end; very few people need a 2 or 3GHz-class laptop when a 400MHz is more than enough for web browsing, MS Office and watching a DVD. I'd love to see more ultra-portables with (cheap because they're small) 12" screens and extremely power miserly sub-1GHz procs that let the battery get smaller (cheaper & lighter) or last longer. Priced, of course, at under $300.

[DanceMan]

I'd love to see more ultra-portables with (cheap because they're small) 12" screens and extremely power miserly sub-1GHz procs that let the battery get smaller (cheaper & lighter) or last longer. Priced, of course, at under $300.

I'm surprised that Via's C3 went nowhere. ECS made a notebook with one, but it wasn't priced low enough relative to what you were getting. It makes me suspect the cpu was too expensive.
To get what you're suggesting would require a cpu not merely sub 1GHz, but cheap enough. Then it would need a major manufacturer like Acer or Dell or HP to make the things in volume.

[jankerson]

With the current quality of the lowend LT's I dunno if I would want to see even cheaper ones.

The lowend ones are very bad.

[Martin_89]

My 800MHz PIII-M is more than fast enough for me with 256MB ram and 20GB HDD is overkill for me too, i could live with a 10GB.

woud be good to see laptops like this now.

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

My HP rarely goes over 500Mhz and Ive seen it as low as 250-280Mhz, so there really is litle need for 3Ghz lappy being used for office tasks and even watching movies.

Also I dont like those big bulky 6800GO equiped lappys. I think they are quite unergonomical and rather useless in anything but lanpartys. And even with lanparty one could go with something like Shuttle thin LCD and well hate to say, couse I dont think the two mix, but anyway, Shuttle gaming rig. Weight wise there wouldnt be much difference anyway.

As for the flood of cheap laptops, I think thats good, but not when they start putting expensive video cards with inadequate cooling in them and not when they "forget" something as essential for true laptop use as track point.

Mind you people who work exclusively with laptop as a desktop replacement should really take a second look at normal PC, couse its almost impossible to sit well at the table and use a lapptop, unless you have one of those laptop stands.

[ThreeOnTheTree]

I like the 14" widescreens. They are the perfect size for a notebook, IMO. You get a bigger keyboard thanks to the extra width, too. 15.4"s and bigger are too much for a true portable, but they don't make too bad of a DTR. Of course, this is all coming from a 12" iBook owner...

[jankerson]

I have mine setup at a desk with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

It works quite will really, but then it is somewhat heavy @ 8 lbs.

[CenturionStrategy]

I much prefer thinner rather than faster laptops. I've got a IBM Thinkpad T41 (P4 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM) which is nice and light and easy to cart around as well as having a decent battery life. I don't use it for gaming, so it copes easily with everything I need it for.

Nick

[MuFu]

I think the "middle ground" manufacturers such as Acer should start trying to differentiate more on build quality instead of features.

I'm lucky enough to have a T41p for work, which is ridiculously priced at £3500 and of decent but not incredible spec (1.7GHz P4-M, 2GB RAM, FireGL T2), but the feel of the thing is awesome. It's just so solid - cheap laptops seem so plastic and bendy (!) in comparison.

[chetmichaels]

i luv my laptop
3.2 ghz p4 but i usually adjust it to run at 1.8, 512 ram, 80 gb hd, and some kinda ati 128 mb video. and i mostly use it to play gunbound haha
but its friggin heavy and i didnt get that high of a score on that super pi tingy

[jankerson]

That is a nice one.