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Help/Suggestion needed to buy a new laptop

 
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I prefer

  • Stylish and Light weight (Glossy Black) (Do you have any suggestion?)
  • Processor (2 GHz,Core 2 Due or something.I don't have any idea .)
  • OS(Bound to use Windows XP or Vista because I ain't familiar with Linux/MAC)
  • Good HD capacity [160-320 GB]
  • Memory[Greater than or equal to 2 GB]
  • Very Good quality WebCam[1.3 MP or more]
  • USB2.0 [Nowadays this is obvious but IBM T30 (that I have)doesn't have that]
  • Internal Optical Drive(CD&DVD R&W)
  • Wireless Card
  • Bluetooth
  • Video Card (what is preferred?)
  • Sound Card (It's OK)
  • Login[Finger Swipe or Face Recognize]
  • Long Battery Life(3-4 hours when full charged)
  • Price[less than or equal to 800$]

  • Anything else? And yes If this all come in Tablet PC then I would love to buy it.

    [PS : I surfed the internet for the same but, it gives gazillions of options (Dell Website experience). Id there any better way to approach, I can give it a try? ]
     
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    go 4 lenovo T61..
    its nice..
     
    Rancher
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    Glossy black is a terrible color. It looks great when its clean. That lasts about 30 seconds. Then it shows all the fingerprints, grease, smudges, etc.

    Get mat black or some other non-glossy color.

    I've been using a Lenovo T60p for years. Great machine. I spent about four times your budget, but computers do get cheaper with time.

    p.s. you are a geek, if you post to this forum. Be a geek, get it with Ubuntu. Or at least dual boot. Real geeks use something geekier than Windows.
     
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    A laptop depends upon your intended usage. If you ignore certain quirks then any decent laptop would do.As far as windows vista is concerned, a friend of mine downgraded to xp on his Rs.50K laptop due to performance reasons.
    As Pat said, go for dual boot with Ubuntu, it is quite easy to use and you'll be surprised by the hardware support/performance that newer versions(8.1) are giving.
    Also, if your requirements are not demanding, you could consider energy effecient processors like atom, but consult with any friend beforehands.
     
    Vikas Kapoor
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    Sumit Bisht wrote:A laptop depends upon your intended usage.


    It would be exclusively and extensively used for Java application development in my office.

    Pat Farrell wrote:I've been using a Lenovo T60p for years. Great machine.


    I don't have any experience with lenovo but I looked at T60p,T61 and SL500. But they don't look stylish.And regarding Linux, I will surely try it on my present laptop(IBM T30 thinkpad).
     
    Pat Farrell
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    Vishal Pandya wrote:I don't have any experience with lenovo but I looked at T60p,T61 and SL500. But they don't look stylish.


    They are not stylish. They are workhorses. They are solid machines that you can use to do serious development 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for years.

    You have an overly constrained problem. If you want a serious developers machine, it won't be stylish. If you want style, and great looks, it won't be smart and hard working.
     
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    Pat Farrell wrote:If you want style, and great looks, it won't be smart and hard working.


    Unless, of course, you go Mac.
     
    Pat Farrell
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    Bear Bibeault wrote:Unless, of course, you go Mac.


    Wise guy. What powerful Mac meets the OP's price requirement: "Price[less than or equal to 800$]"?
     
    Bear Bibeault
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    Just pointing out that you can have style and power. (MacBook starts at $999, fwiw.)
     
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    A little over a year ago I got an HP dv2000 with a 14.1" screen on sale for $650. I liked it so much I got one (with more memory, 3GB, and larger hard drive, 250GB) for my daughter for her graduation last summer (for the same price I paid for mine) and she is more than happy with it. It has an nVidia 7150 graphics card with which she is very pleased when playing WoW. It came with Vista, but mine is now running Windows 7 Beta (both 32- and 64-bit) and Ubuntu 8.10 (32-bit). It has most, if not all of the specs you are looking for, including the shiny black fingerprint-collecting finish. It even has a remote which has come in handy for speaking engagements.

    I would happily buy another low cost HP 14.1" laptop. Many of the latest ones I have seen advertised (Best Buy, Office Depot, etc.) use Core 2 Duo processors (mine has an AMD Turion) and are in the price range you are looking for.
     
    Vikas Kapoor
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    Pat/Bear,

    Guys, Since my birth I know you are MAC fan. . But, but , My would be project (hope we get it), is very very tight scheduled and I ain't familiar with Linux/Mac so I can't even take a risk to be a dual boot laptop. Because i need to look for all the softwares for linux/mac which I use for windows and configure them, get used to them and what not. but as I have already mentioned I will give a shot to linux on my present[IBM T30] laptop.

    Peter,
    Thanks. You have given a good option.

    I wrote prize instead price. I'm sorry about that.
     
    Sumit Bisht
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    Vishal, considering the price, you can get a mix of the two(style/power).My cousin brother bought a Lenovo for his wife 6 months ago in Gurgaon for less than INR 20K. Alternatively, you could consider brands like HCL, I purchased one for my friend at INR36K with 2G ram, 800mhz fsb, a decent dual core processor, 2 yr warranty, etc. However, it lacked the extra features. Due to your schedule, I presume you would be running windows XP, so don't worry about performance concerns.
    Also, do look for a machine with additional ram capability as you could increase that in future(same goes with hard disks)
     
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    Let's say you can get a Mac for $1000 and some windo$e PC for $800. How many times does windo$e have to crash before you've lost the $200 you thought you saved?

    In other words, if you put any value on your time, you should look past the initial price tag and look at the longer term value.
     
    Pat Farrell
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    Bert Bates wrote:Let's say you can get a Mac for $1000 and some windo$e PC for $800. How many times does windo$e have to crash before you've lost the $200 you thought you saved?


    Even if you make only $20/hr, it adds up quickly.

    But, and this is a big but to Bert's argument, a laptop with Linux, say Ubuntu, will run Eclipse and Netbeans just as well as one running Windows, and you save not only Bert's time calculation, but also the $100 that a copy of XP costs.
     
    Vikas Kapoor
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    Guys,
    I gave below options to my boss,
  • Dell Inspiron 15
  • Dell Studio 17
  • Dell XPS M1530
  • Lenovo X400 and X500.

  • All above were customized to accommodate my requirement. But my boss said they are too costly, ranging from 700-1000 bucks.
    And picked up (by himself),
  • Dell Vostro 1510 [600$]
  • with Intel core2 duo 2.0 GHz T series, 3GB memory, 250 GB HDD.
    And I am happy.
     
    Consider Paul's rocket mass heater.
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