Recommend a notebook and PDA please

[pokerjo22]

Assuming that money is no object, can you guys recommend me a notebook and a PDA? Here are the things I'm looking for:

Portability - it has to be small and light.

Screen - Preferably 1280 x whatever the other number is resolution or above. Oh and bright.

Memory - 1 GB RAM minimum. And something not too shabby on the processor.

Oh and it needs to be a touchpad, not that pointy thing (I've never been able to get the hang of it).

I'm thinking of a Sony Vaio? I want something I can work on unobtrusively on either the BART or in a boring meeting, and so I find most notebooks too big. Plus the VAIO looks pretty. But if anyone has any other suggestions I'd be interested to hear them.

As for PDA I have no idea where to start. I'm not even sure I need one, but my boss recommended it. I guess keeping track of meetings is pretty important, and I may switch to doing my email from it, I'm just worried I won't be able to type properly or use that little pencil thing.

Any advice?

[astroglide]

thinkpads are the best pc laptops bar none. a t42 with 1440x1050 resolution will fit the bill. very thin/light as well, peerless build quality.

pda i would suggest looking at a treo and get your work to pay for it. most people that get pdas who aren't hardcore outlook junkies stop using them after so many months. you can get unlimited data plans from sprint pcs and use it for email/etc as well.

[sfer]

If you're going to live in the Bay Area you're going to have to say BART without the article in front. Mmmmm-kay?

[ScottyP431]

www.alienware.com (http://www.alienware.com) , you want the sentia

vaios are like the beach, they are for fa...

[pokerjo22]

That's going to be hard since I've spent my entire life catching 'The T'.

[Boris]

History will remember PDAs as just another piece of dot-com kitsch. I'd go with the Blackberry. It's the best for email.

[Ulysses]

Check out the Sony S270 and Dell 700m for the laptops. I bought those two recently and they both fit the bill. They were the best I found in terms of price/performance when looking for light laptops.

Both Dell and Sony have all sorts of deals going on all the time that will save you a few hundred bucks off list. You can find out about them sometimes on the Internet forum here and at deal sites like fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net. notebookforums.com was also a very helpful site for me in finding the best laptop at the best price.

[partygirluk]

You can get keyboards for PDAs. I got one for £50 from ebay, and it folds to cigarette pack size.

[pokerjo22]

Hmm, it looks very nice, although I'm not sure a pair of glowing alien eyes is really 'unobtrusive'.

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
That's going to be hard since I've spent my entire life catching 'The T'.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I can go from saying MUNI and BART sans "the" to referring to the 6 and the NR I have no doubt that you'll make it. I have faith in you.

[pokerjo22]

Does it do meetings as well?

[ScottyP431]

you can turn them off, they are fancy like that

[pokerjo22]

That's cool - any idea what upping the memory, processor and HD would do to the weight?

[pokerjo22]

I looked at the thinkpad, but it always seems sort of ugly and heavy.

[ScottyP431]

the sentia's have the centrino processors, i think they all way the same,its only the differant hard drives that weigh differant amounts (i believe)

i think ram only effects the wieght if you get 2 DIMMs

it starts at 3.85 pounds

[pokerjo22]

Well, frontrunner at the moment for me is a Sony T270.

The Dells in the office are OK, although I'm not too keen on the screen. They seem a little less bright, and maybe even a little blurry. Althought maybe its just my eyes.

[Popinjay]

Thinkpad is not heavy at all. Any other laptop with similar specs is way way way way heavier.

[BusterStacks]

Sony is overpriced and underqualified. Go with a Dell. If you aren't paying for it, go with an IBM.

[pokerjo22]

Whoops I was looking at the T series, I've just seen the X series.

[jakethebake]

I love my Dell 700m. It's very small and light and works for everything I need it for. No problems at all.

edit: I had a vaio previously (one of the small models). It was also very nice, but my 700m has more memory, is faster, etc. AND the 700m has an internal DVD at about the same weight.

[pokerjo22]

OK I'm having trouble with working out the thinkpad site. Are they all pointy things or do they use touchpads - the X series seems to be all pointy things? And the resolution says 1024 on one page, but then under specs it says max resolution is 2048. I don't think I've ever seen a resolution that high. Am I misunderstanding? Would anything even be legible with it that high?

[Jurollo]

[ QUOTE ]
the sentia's have the centrino processors, i think they all way the same,its only the differant hard drives that weigh differant amounts (i believe)
it starts at 3.85 pounds

[/ QUOTE ]
You going to take computer advice from him after that response? /images/graemlins/grin.gif Athough I agree alienware is nice, I have had an HP for 2.5 years and never had a problem with it, and some of the new widescreen HP laptops are very nice.
~Justin

[ScottyP431]

yea, well.. your brain has the candy shell

[BusterStacks]

Better yet, you're going to take advice from someone who would recommend Alienware? I tell you what, if you can provide one logical reason for buying an Alienware, I'll buy you one. When searching for a laptop, two brands that should never come up are Alienware and Sony.

[chaas4747]

My thinkpad, the T40, has both.

[ScottyP431]

are you kidding?

1, they have won more awards in the last few years than any other
2, they offer top of the line everything
3, they are so good component manufactureres make special components just for their computers
4, they are so hot right now you often have to wait months just to get one of thier computers like an ALX
5, aesthetically they are the coolest looking computer available, immitated by just about everyone (poorly i might add)
6, if u game at all, no other option is even close
7, they lead the industry- first to offer upgradeable mobile graphics, first to offer dual paralell video cards
8, they have their own customizable windows desktop theme manager that makes things WAY easier on the eye and better to use
9, i dont know of anything similar to their automated computer driven support system (alien autopsy) offerend by another company
10, Alien-respawn- you can have them set up your computer exactly how you want it, even loading programs, and then they create a DVD restore system to return you to that point if something goes wrong instead of having to restore windows and then re-load all drivers/programs etc

its starting to sound like i work for them, but you get the point. the only possible downside is cost, which is normally negligable, and well worth it

edit- i suppose i could of saved time
http://www.alienware.com/standalone_pages/aw_difference.aspx

[Popinjay]

No.. I was talkin about the T series too. T42 is an awesome laptop.

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
Assuming that money is no object

[/ QUOTE ]

dell and sony are not the best choices given the above quote. buying anything other than a thinkpad t42 would be pretty much retarded.

[BusterStacks]

[ QUOTE ]
are you kidding?

1, they have won more awards in the last few years than any other
2, they offer top of the line everything
3, they are so good component manufactureres make special components just for their computers
4, they are so hot right now you often have to wait months just to get one of thier computers like an ALX
5, aesthetically they are the coolest looking computer available, immitated by just about everyone (poorly i might add)
6, if u game at all, no other option is even close
7, they lead the industry- first to offer upgradeable mobile graphics, first to offer dual paralell video cards
8, they have their own customizable windows desktop theme manager that makes things WAY easier on the eye and better to use
9, i dont know of anything similar to their automated computer driven support system (alien autopsy) offerend by another company
10, Alien-respawn- you can have them set up your computer exactly how you want it, even loading programs, and then they create a DVD restore system to return you to that point if something goes wrong instead of having to restore windows and then re-load all drivers/programs etc

its starting to sound like i work for them, but you get the point. the only possible downside is cost, which is normally negligable, and well worth it

edit- i suppose i could of saved time
http://www.alienware.com/standalone_pages/aw_difference.aspx

[/ QUOTE ]

1) This is only ONLY for performance, it was a marginal win at best, and if you factor in rewards on build quality and customer service especially, this is not true.

2) So does Dell, for cheaper. See the XPS-2.

3) Yes a company makes a video card cooling system just for them. Wooo, who cares. This did not provide them with any type of edge in the industry.

4) You have to wait so long because they are custom built. Many companies are this way.

5) They are cool looking, however the "coolest" is a matter of opinion and thus will not count in your argument. I personally think Sony computers look nicer. Also, if you're referring to Voodoo computers as imitators, don't flatter yourself. None of the major brands would do this.

6) Purely False. The Dell XPS, which is significantly less expensive, scored neck and neck with the the Area-51 in a PC Gamer review. Neither was a clear victor. The XPS2 currently offers longer battery life, cooler operating temps, and uses the same graphics card as the best alienware. (i.e. - will perform the same).

7) Yes, technically the did offer upgradeable graphics. Unfortunately for them, before they could even develope an upgrade, the Sonoma chipset with PCI-e came out and squashed that platform. Now you are left with proprietary garbage. Also they were not first to offer SLI. You're just wrong. You could buy the motherboard at the time of Alienware production with SLI.

8) Anyone can do this, it's just eyecandy and NOT made my Microsoft. Check out www.themexp.com (http://www.themexp.com) and you can do this too.

9) I don't know what that is, but Alienware customer support is among the worst in the industry.

10) I'll go one better on this one, HP/Compaq and Dell have the restore partition built in to the computer so you never have to worry about losing your discs.

[ScottyP431]

I don't even know how to argue with you. So many of your facts are wrong, a small amount of research would demonstrate that to anyone. In a recent smart computing test they received the only A for customer support, dell got a b. If you are gonna tell me that a dell that is thrown together in 2 hours is as well built as something assembled by hand and then put through a 200 point quality control process that takes the better part of 2 days, then "logic" is not a faculty you posess. Companies like dell will not load programs for you before creating the restore point. I had dell first, now alienware. I would neer go back. I've had a few friends switch based on trying my computer vs their dells. to each their own i guess

[pokerjo22]

Well, I think I'll go with the Sony. I'd have gone with the X series thinkpad if it had a touchpad (the T series is too big). The Alienware wouldn't really be appropriate for work, and I'm not sure I like Dell screens.

As for the handheld I'm still not really clear why I need it, so I may continue with my current system of yellow post-it notes /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[BusterStacks]

Instead of regurgitating crap off of Alienware's own website, why don't you do some real world investigation. Head on over to www.notebookforums.com (http://www.notebookforums.com) or www.anandtech.com (http://www.anandtech.com) and tell me what you find in regards to alienware's customer support. Additionally, if that't the only point in my argument you can refute with something other than a vague reference about research, then I still believe I have been very convincing. Dude, I appreciate that you like Alienware, everyone likes different stuff. Unfortunately for you though, I keep up on computer technology and know my stuff. In the end, personal preference is all you have, because Alienware is not a superior machine in any sense of it.

[B00T]

Buster time and time again all over these boards has demonstrated a great knack for computers and comparisons. I wouldn't be too quick to refute or challenge his comments.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
Buster time and time again all over these boards has demonstrated a great knack for computers and comparisons. I wouldn't be too quick to refute or challenge his comments.

[/ QUOTE ]

I heard he had sex with his DVD-ROM to try to make Buster-Cyborgs that can run all over the forums, correcting people when they are wrong.

Freakin

[astroglide]

the T270 is certainly light, but 1280x768 on a 10 inch screen can be brutal in terms of usability

[pokerjo22]

You think it will be too small? I used to use a 10" Sony screen a couple of years ago, but I can't remember what the resolution was. I may try and check it out in a store and see what it looks like.

[astroglide]

most 'small' laptops have 12" 4:3 screens (seldom go above 1024x768)

[VBM]

[ QUOTE ]
thinkpads are the best pc laptops bar none. a t42 with 1440x1050 resolution will fit the bill. very thin/light as well, peerless build quality.

[/ QUOTE ]

hey 'Stro,

how do you get that type of resolution? I can't seem to customize the screen (https://www-1.ibm.com/products/hardware/configurator/na/ui/launchTopLevelConfig.wss?base=2379R8U&cntry=840&la ng=en_US&launch_type=newconfig&ratetype=D&real_tim e_c1=USD&real_time_t1=false&site_type=public&displ ay_availability=true&display_leasing=true&cancel_u rl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-132.ibm.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FGe nericApplicationError%3F%26storeId%3D1)...lookin in the wrong place?

[Sporky]

i've done 1024x768 on a 10" for extended periods of time. it was ok as long as you have good eyesight, but not very comfortable. the thing i hated most about the small sony i had was the keyboard. i hope you don't plan on ripping out any notes or anything. the smaller footprint and mis-arranged keys led to a ton of typos with me. things like very small shift keys etc droves me nuts. it's all personal preference of course. i'd roll with at least a 12" screen though, and a 14" if you plan on having this as a sort of mobile desktop where you can have a nice screen and keyboard. you can get some very light and very mobile laptops with 12" and 14" screens.

[pokerjo22]

Well its mainly going to be for word processing and email, so I could always turn the resolution down to 1024 (I assume?)

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
You think it will be too small? I used to use a 10" Sony screen a couple of years ago, but I can't remember what the resolution was. I may try and check it out in a store and see what it looks like.

[/ QUOTE ]

You should go to the Sony store and check out the laptops. Big difference between the S series and T series. Some people find the high-resolution on the T series screens too small. Others love it. Also, you should check out whether or not you like the XBRITE screen. It is extra reflective (Dell has the same thing on their 700m) and extra bright. I personally don't like it. If you don't like it, you can get some Sony models without that screen option.

[astroglide]

if it's for word processing the keyboard is probably going to make you want to blow your brains out. cranking the resolution down is more of an issue on widescreen displays, something like 1024x640 is going to be a pretty big loss of real estate.

[astroglide]

start with the next model up. there's also a 'build your own' option on the site.

also note that as a rule of thumb, don't ever buy thinkpads online from ibm. spec them out and call their salespeople and you'll get a healthy discount, even on custom builds. you can also get standard models at places like buy.com.