15" Laptop

[LSA]

Originally Posted by foxpaws

Apples are lifestyle kaisen, just like pcars...

They do some things very well, graphics for instance, music for another, handling in mountain roads. However, you are also buying into the cult of fruit... just like when you bought that pcar you were buying into the cult of Stuttgart.

I wouldn't trade any of my apples or my pcar for a lebaron (but, gosh, there is that velour upholstery ) . However, you like your lebaron Pavilion G7, that is fine... it gets you where you want to go.

ohhhhh Velour


In all seriousness I would look for the craigslist special.

I bought my laptop last year from some kid off craigslist. Asus G50Vt for $300 17" screen 4gb ram, 9800m video card, caviar black hdd, upgraded larger battery pack. There's always greats deals on craigslist.

[jyl]

Wife needs a new notebook. Buying her a refurb'd MacBook Pro 13", current version w/o Retina display and w/ optical drive. Will stick in 8 GB RAM and 128GB SSD. Total cost about $1200. You can do the same, w/ the 15".

I have a succession of PC notebooks for work. The only ones I've loved have been the Thinkpads, those are great machines. The HP's have been really disappointing - terrible reliability. My company bought a few hundred HP notebooks a few years ago. Every single one, in my office, died - typically hard drive failure. Talking to IT, they said most of the HPs crashed. I was on my third. Real fun to be sitting in a hotel at 4 PM talking to IT who is trying to get a new laptop built and over-nighted to you. Now we have Dells. Seem like decent machines but the battery life is worse than the HPs. I'm thinking about going rogue with a self-bought MacBook Air or Thinkpad.

[island911]

Originally Posted by RWebb

market price is $1700 but for the difference, I'd go ahead and get the new retina display one for $2200

unless he wants to make a biologist happy...

Wow, just "a biologist " ... why are you selling yourself so short today?

btw, you Still haven't found a laptop with lit keys?

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by kaisen

I bought a 17" Hewlett-Packard Pavilion G7 last month for $350

Why someone would spend $2200 on a laptop is truly beyond my comprehension

I realize that people will have perfectly rational explanations of how they "need" x, y, or z, but they always sound like "wants" to me

light wt. for one - this has to be carried around outdoors & operate while camping recharge from a vehicle battery

the lighted keyboard is for use outdoors in low light levels

one thing that I am starting to find attractive about the Apple computers is that the same entity is responsible for

also, it starting to look like Apple produces comparable machines cheaper than others and a year or so earlier than other manfs. can catch up - maybe not so much for desktops

I am not fond of their high prices on desktops - the ipad & iphone do not seem much more expensive than other manfs. and same for the Air books

I have gone thru several Dell and Thinkpad laptops - always nice, but I am getting very tired of effing around with the BS from MS all the time. If there is a problem hardware blames software & etc. It gets old after a few decades. Apple might -- might - provide some escape from that.

I tried a 13" Airbook last summer but the screen is just too small for me w/o wearing glasses.

I don't play games on computers (well, I have played Spacewar on a PDP-8 long ago) but I spend way too much time in front of the machine working on it to recreate on it. I could edit photos on it I guess, but sitting in front of a computer is about the last thing I need more of.

[Hugh R]

May not apply to you but you can't fully open big laptops in coach on planes and use the tray table

[RWebb]

thx - I avoid flying as much as possible - even drove to La. and back; usually drove down to Ojai many times

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by jyl

Wife needs a new notebook. Buying her a refurb'd MacBook Pro 13", current version w/o Retina display and w/ optical drive. Will stick in 8 GB RAM and 128GB SSD. Total cost about $1200. You can do the same, w/ the 15".

I have a succession of PC notebooks for work. The only ones I've loved have been the Thinkpads, those are great machines. The HP's have been really disappointing - terrible reliability. My company bought a few hundred HP notebooks a few years ago. Every single one, in my office, died - typically hard drive failure. Talking to IT, they said most of the HPs crashed. I was on my third. Real fun to be sitting in a hotel at 4 PM talking to IT who is trying to get a new laptop built and over-nighted to you. Now we have Dells. Seem like decent machines but the battery life is worse than the HPs. I'm thinking about going rogue with a self-bought MacBook Air or Thinkpad.

- John, was this from Apple itself? I see they have a 15" one for $1,400 -- not exactly cheap, but I guess it could be resold again down the line for not too bad a drop in value(?)