laptop buying - the more expensive end

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yes, i know there's this thread already:

but i think this question is sufficiently different. i have a grant at work to buy a computer, and i'd like to get a laptop. ideally i don't want to spend much over £2000, but this seems to be near the higher end of the market anyway. it has to be a PC, and i'd like it to have a dvd-rewriter. it won't be used for playing games, just watching dvds/p2p/latex, so doesn't need to be particularly high spec. i'd like it to be as portable as possible and not too easily damaged, because i'm clumsy.

so, what should i be looking at? i always like the look of vaios, but i don't really have a clue if they're any good or just look nice.

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 6 August 2004 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Vaio X505 is a wonder of thiness and lightness, however the VGN-S1VP might be more up your street. Surely a Linux/OS X laptop would bemore appropriate for LaTeX?

― Ed (dali), Friday, 6 August 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Vaio's may be wonderfully thin and light, but they are flimsily built and full of crappy hardware that breaks as soon as you try and use the things in anger.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 6 August 2004 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

actually i think windows is better for latex these days ed, e.g. http://www.winedt.com/

the X505 does look gorgeous, and it's tempting, but not a very sensible investment i feel.

ricky - is that definitely the case? what would you recommend instead?

and is there an obvious shop to go and take a look at all of these in, given that i won't actually be buying there?

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 6 August 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

and how about the IBM X40?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?head=36&page=1150

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 6 August 2004 13:18 (twenty-one years ago)

X40 is very nice if a little dull looking, very solidly built if the ThinkPad I took to Pakistan is anything to go by.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 6 August 2004 13:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Does Dell have a UK website?

― Jimmy Carter, History's Greatest Monster (Leee), Friday, 6 August 2004 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

If I was going to buy a PC laptop, I'd get the IBM T40

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 6 August 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

If you can afford them, the Thinkpads are the things to go for. They may not look like all that, but they are extremely robust and have v.high quality hardware.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Saturday, 7 August 2004 01:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Elvis T OTM. I've had a T40 as my work machine for almost a year now (well, actually two T40s, as the first one got stolen out of my office) and I'm very happy with it. As others have said, there are many nicer-looking machines out there, but I'm more of a 'what's inside doing the heavy lifting?' type.

If I had to buy one with my own money and couldn't swing a ThinkPad, I'd probably go Dell or Compaq.

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Saturday, 7 August 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

thinkpad is the shit. i've had this t21 for about five years and i've NEVER had a problem with it. and i've dropped it like 50 million times, i use it when i'm taking a bath, etc. well, except if you leave it on continuously for a long time eventually your battery will peter out to shit but that goes for all laptops i guess.

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 7 August 2004 03:33 (twenty-one years ago)

and it goes without saying that no i didn't pay for this myself, it's from a corporate benefactor.

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 7 August 2004 03:34 (twenty-one years ago)

eight months pass...

i just got my t42! she's a beauty.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10385992&loc=101&sp=1

― jody von bulow (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 7 April 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

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