Dell Laptops suck...I want a Mac ;)

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Towards the end of the Mac/Windows discussion I mentioned I'd be getting a Dell laptop. No fault of mine; my company's doing an "Employee Purchase Program" which gives me $1000 to spend at Dell. The rule is that I must buy a system, then use the remainder on whatever I want from Dell or spend more $$$ and get a better system.

I chose path #2. I bought an Inspiron 8600 with a big HD, lots of RAM, WSXGA+ LCD, Centrino 1.4 GHz, blah blah blah. $2600 before rebates! $2150 after. Haven't sent in for them yet, because...

I got the thing yesterday and it is A PIECE OF *****!!! The build quality is the worst I've seen of any laptop--ever--and the materials are absolute crap. The case is seemingly built from recycled soda bottles. Or perhaps imitation Tupperware. It feels like it's about to fly apart faster than an over-revved helicopter that was maintained by someone who disdains thread-lok.

Now, as for performance it was pretty damn quick. So's a supercharged Daewoo. I paid for a C32 AMG and got shipped a Daewoo, goddammit!

I've initiated a return and will be buying the cheapest box I can and some peripherals that I don't really need to come in under the $1000 limit. I don't need another desktop computer but I absolutely refuse to buy another Dell laptop.

So help me out here, guys. Especially you Mac people. You know you want me to buy an iBook or something. I've got $1150 to play with. Hell, I'd be willing to go as high as $1300.

Here's what a laptop has to do to be acceptable:

1) Play DiVX avi
2) SVideo out
3) 802.11b wifi networking
4) NOT BE BUILT LIKE A PIECE OF EXCREMENT

Suggestions?

[Bill Douglas]

(Said with a Japanese accent) Ah Toshiba, Toshiba good.

[id10t]

I've never had a problem with Dell laptops, but then we only use the Lattitude ones (business line, not home consumer line). As a bonus, they take Linux really easily

For a Mac laptop, check into the 12" powerbook.

[Adam]

Toshiba make very nice laptops, so do Acer. I've had both. The Toshiba Satellite I had was a very, very nice, well built unit. I had an Acer (Celeron) a few years ago and I had a great run with that, too. Reliable, quiet and fast (for the technology of the time).

[BlueSkyJaunte]

The Acer stuff is OK? I always got the feeling they were a "bargain brand". Not sure why.

I've got an IBM T23 for work, so I guess I'm spoiled. The thing is a freaking tank. Goes anywhere, does anything, is fairly light, and takes a LOT of abuse. I accidentally dumped an entire bottle of iced tea into it....tea was coming out of the DVD drive, audio ports, vents...I turned it off, let it air dry, and it worked fine. Amazing.

I just wish it was a little faster (and not owned by my employer!).

[rcecale]

Originally posted by BillyPilgrim
I’m impressed with the quality of the ThinkPad T30 I have at work..... If I was looking for a laptop, I’d be looking at Sony, Toshiba, and IBM.

The T30 is a nice piece of equipment. Light-weight, but built pretty solid. The next in line for ibm is the T40, which we are now issuing to our users at work. Built-in Wi-Fi is nice. Their only drawback is that they come with NO floppy drive. May not be an issue for some, since it does have a CD-RW/DVD drive you can use as a mega-floppy. But for us, imaging them over the network is a pain. You can order an external floppy drive, but it's just something else to have to carry around.

Randy

[cowtown]

Just got a Compaq/HP Presario 3000 with a 16" LCD screen, and it's really great. 2.4 GHZ Pentium 4. Does DIVX, NTSC video out (not sure about s-video though). Wireless B and G built in.

$1200.

Highly recommended

[ronin]

ditto on the Stinkpads. I bought a 2621 back in the day and it worked like a champ.. until my ex-wife tossed it out of the window one day it was in the targus case, dropped from two stories and landed on grass. only broke the screen, everything else worked.

o.k. so the dvd quit about a year later but hey... a real testament to their build quality. I liked the thinkpad enough to consider rebuilding it even though it's already four years old. anyone sitting on some old 2621 parts they wanna get rid of??

as for other suggestions, bought my g/f a toshiba earlier this year and it appears to be a solid performer. the Vaios are nice too

[nostatic]

You can do Divx on a Mac with a free codec available. The other stuff isn't a problem. You could get a new iBook, but I think you're better off with a G4 machine unless you just want to do basic stuff (ie, I wouldn't edit/render video or audio on an iBook).

If you have access to educational prices, you could get a 12" G4 that is a very nice (and extremely well built) for $1399. That is with 256MB of ram...I'd bump it up to at least 512, and an 812.11 card is another $100.

Yes, more expensive than many of the PC laptops, but the industrial design is amazing. And the OS doesn't suck. And 10.3 is *very* fast...

[1fastredsc]

www.alienware.com

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by nostatic
You can do Divx on a Mac with a free codec available. The other stuff isn't a problem. You could get a new iBook, but I think you're better off with a G4 machine unless you just want to do basic stuff (ie, I wouldn't edit/render video or audio on an iBook).

OK, tell me more...

Whatever I get is going to be used for
a) wifi surfing
b) video playback (DVD and Divx)
c) goofing off when I should be working

I'll still use my desktop for any serious content-creation tasks (video, MP3, etc). This is going to be purely a toy.

I love the look of the 17" PowerBook but it's WAY outside my price range.

Would an iBook suffice for this? What kind of battery life do these things get? A decent Centrino notebook can pull 4+ hours in some cases.

Also, will I be able to plug my "Windows" iPod into an iBook? Or am I screwed on that one?

[Icemaster]

Having been playing the stereotypical IT geek road warrior for the last 4 years, here's what I've found - take it as feedback only and make your own decision:

Dell - Still my preference, however go with the Latitudes they are designed SPECIFICALLY for business portability, stay FAR away from the Inspiron's - home/consumer grade crap at best. NB - I'm currently on a Dell Latitude C640 (no longer made...) and am quite happy. BTW, I can always stick a second battery in the other bay without turning the unit off - gives me enough time to get from SF to Atlanta and then about another hour or two in the airport.

Toshiba - Sucks. Had three Tecra's, sent them all to the great hardware Recycle Bin in the sky. Poor construction, poor service history HORRIBLE about getting parts to me for repairs. Parts were always 4 week lead time - not a good thing if you need a new LCD or system board like now!!!

Compaq - Had a M700 and M300 and had excellant reliability, minor spotty problems, but might have been attributable to the dual-boot way I had them set up.

IBM - Tough as nails, but similar problems with parts, and very very moody. Seemed like the one I had was always PMS'ing or something.

Sony - Cool. A lot of bling-bling but pretty neat machines nonetheless. Not sure I'd spring for it if it were me though.


My advice get the best you can afford, you don't necessarily need the bleeding edge for mobility (Centrino processor) as you can always add a PC card to the unit.

Look for expandibility - some of them have expansion units (Compaq IBM) rather than bays (Dell) that you HAVE to have if you want to use the CD-ROM, floppy, or plug in an external mouse.

It's still a personal decision bottom line. What do need to have and what would you like vs. what can you afford...

[Moses]

Once you get a Mac, you will fall in love with the operating system.

Don't feel compelled to get a new one. Anything that will run OSX and has the hardware you need will be great.

[toman]

where's a good place to shop for used notebooks, macs in particular?

[nostatic]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/oct/22ibook.html

This could solve any budget issues...

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I've seriously massaged my budget and decided I'm going w/ a new (non-Ti) 15" PowerBook. It's the lowest end machine with SVideo-out. Or am I missing something?

Win2K puking on my desktop (again) sealed that deal. Who would've thought un-installing Nero Burning Rom would blow away all Explorer-based apps? My machine is soundly f*cked. It's going to become strictly a Linux box. I'm tired of getting "microsofted" (insert penile joke here).

[cassisrot]

Nostatic, what add ons would you suggest for the 14" ibook? Do you think they will release the 17" is an affordable ibook? We want a laptop to do a running picture show at (alpaca) shows and keep an inventory of registration and histogram documents as well as pics. We also would use it for word processing and occasionally surfing. I've never used an apple product but I've about had it with ms.

[nostatic]

I believe the 12" does S-video out, as do the iBooks (I think you need a dongle/adapter though for those). If you can afford the 15" it is the way to go...

I haven't seen the new G4 iBook. I don't think you'll see a 17" iBook for quite some time, as it is a different target market. The only downside to the new G4 iBook is it maxes out at 640MB of RAM. That will run most everything, but I like lots of ram (although I've had machines running OSX on 512MB for some time without incident).

As for add ones, not sure what you mean. They are ready to go right out of the box. You have all your basic apps (mail, web, photo, music, video), and the only thing most people need is Office for word processing and spreadsheet (although you can use AppleWorks).

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Well, I ordered a new 15" PB. 1GHz, 768 MB of RAM, 60 GB HD, ComboDrive, AirPort, and the 3-year warranty.

It cost me a pretty penny, but I've lost at least that much (time-wise) just *****ing with my stupid Win2k box trying to keep it from crashing. Linux here I come. Now I just have to decide which distribution will be most user-friendly (my wife is the primary user of this machine).

[Moses]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Well, I ordered a new 15" PB. 1GHz, 768 MB of RAM, 60 GB HD, ComboDrive, AirPort, and the 3-year warranty.

Sweet!