Choosing Laptop- Assistance Appreciated.

[RBphoto]

i find using macs much better,NO crashing problems,NO freezing,etc.and the programs i use,need a lot of memory,etc...

Lucky you. Almost everyone who uses a Mac that I came across in my field laments that the Mac can't take pressure and they spend a lot of time shipping their mac back to apple for support. Even some professiional photographers who came from the states to do do some work from us could not shoot video in some format (HD, XD or something) because the new Apple software that they installed on their mac could not work when they upgraded it online. Cause them to lose a lot of money. The mac OS is not bullet proof.

[benko]

skylinechild you are actually wrong about Dell they have excellent local service (you may have to transfer warranty to carribean if you purchase from outside TT site area or unauthorized model/vendor for this region.. their service model is different, Fujitsu has service provider status along with a few other resellers, however, you simply purchase directly form them and call Dell for service, they will send relevant parties as provided by your warranty if you try to contact sp directly they will charge you their rate.

HP has alot of work to do on their warranty for this region, even from local authorised reseller you cannot get accident protection, if you purchase it online .. it will not be supported by local SP

most laptop batteries from anywhere are only warrantied for 1 year despite period of machine warranty, and their life span is usually determined by usage, proper discharge schedules, exposure to heat, overall power usage when on battery..life could be between 1-2.5 years with almost full charge capability. -- I would recommend the upgrade

highend video is an issue especially if you don't need it, and will inevitably shorten the lifespan of certain components, eg fans may be used more and extra heat may cause other component failure.. don't upgrade video unless you need it, and if you do, you should cater for supplemental cooling like a cool pad at some point, the battery runtime also takes a big toll 1/2-2hrs less just for having the video upgrade and the higher amount for using it (on-battery). Software will play a big part in this.

I love the IBM brand but we are barely breaking in some new Lenovo machines, and begun changing parts already in first year of warranty, some old x series laptops still going strong here after 8 years though.

I would give all brands equal odds these days with exception of "entry level" Acer notebooks, just get a good warranty that can be supported locally

in most cases you can select the base amout of ram and save money by purchasing a upgrade online from someplace like crucial (keep in mind there are only 2 slots in most notebooks though),
larger/faster harddrives may use more battery power as well.... large hhds will have higher latency when they become fragmented and also my generate more heat, 160gb 7200rpm is fairly good tradeoff you could allways get an external drive with huge amounts of space later prices are falling, Lenovo offers highend antishock drives on even basic machines as an option, consider carefully if you need options like fingerprint readers, webcameras, or audio upgrades (laptop audio can be notoriously bad, but usually cureable with good speakers to some extent, or even an express card addon later if you really need it, so type of addon card slots should be considered, also s-video out: especially if it can take rca adapter, firewire, hinge design has improved allaround except a few manufacturers,

8 cell batteries from dell DO NOT last long. I maintain a few in my office; they fail after the 1 year warranty, and need replacing. hence the reason why the 3 year warranty is necessary.

also another problem is that the 'high-end' video cards for their laptops cause overheating issues, compatibility issues etc... i had users complain about their laptops shutting down when working with AUTOCAD due to overheating, or the computer screen just turning white.

it really is a disposable computer.

good value, good service (under warranty) for max of 3 years.

if you want a good laptop, and can afford, it go Lenovo. it is a better investment.

[RBphoto]

SSD's ftw!!!

[Slow Poke]

get a mac bro talk done

[Smokey]

Firstly, overall my experience with Dell laptops has been better than HP, which tend to have plenty problems.

Another thing about Dell is that they use such a wide range of manufacturers for different components, such as the LCD, Batteries, trackpads, RAM and HD, that if you order one today and I order one tomorow with the same config, our machines could be different despute being the same, say Studio 15 etc.

Go on the Dell USA site, and config a Dell XPS 1530 Laptop with the following Config:


Use this coupon code 'J$TM0G$K3CNRLT' and you will get 20% off (minimum price before coupon has to be $1299, so if you configure it to be $1300 exact, you only pay $1040)

You can get the following XPS

SYSTEM COLOR Tuxedo Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1 edit
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE No Microsoft Office edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis edit
LCD AND CAMERA High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LED LCD (1440x900) & 2.0 M edit
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms) edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 320GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card edit
BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate) edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
EXTERNAL MODEM Dell External Mini USB Modem XPS M1530 edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition edit
FINGERPRINT SCANNER Finger Print Reader XPS M1530 edit

Price $1110 US after coupon.

Just ship it your skybox, I paid about $250 in shipping (no tax on laptops). Plus u can transfer the warentee to Dell Trinidad (Fujitsu i believe) for free, no hassel at all.

[Hammy Bolo]

see if you like anything here http://forums.trinituner.com/forums/vie ... p?t=178302

[skylinechild]

Firstly, overall my experience with Dell laptops has been better than HP, which tend to have plenty problems.

Another thing about Dell is that they use such a wide range of manufacturers for different components, such as the LCD, Batteries, trackpads, RAM and HD, that if you order one today and I order one tomorow with the same config, our machines could be different despute being the same, say Studio 15 etc.

Go on the Dell USA site, and config a Dell XPS 1530 Laptop with the following Config:


Use this coupon code 'J$TM0G$K3CNRLT' and you will get 20% off (minimum price before coupon has to be $1299, so if you configure it to be $1300 exact, you only pay $1040)

You can get the following XPS

SYSTEM COLOR Tuxedo Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1 edit
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE No Microsoft Office edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis edit
LCD AND CAMERA High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LED LCD (1440x900) & 2.0 M edit
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms) edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 320GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card edit
BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate) edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
EXTERNAL MODEM Dell External Mini USB Modem XPS M1530 edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition edit
FINGERPRINT SCANNER Finger Print Reader XPS M1530 edit

Price $1110 US after coupon.

Just ship it your skybox, I paid about $250 in shipping (no tax on laptops). Plus u can transfer the warentee to Dell Trinidad (Fujitsu i believe) for free, no hassel at all.

that's your experience.....and u sending him on dell usa site....? why not send him on dell trinidad site.....?

hp is better than dell.....lots of ppla i deal with prefer HP to dell laptops..... but they prefer dell desktops.....

[Smokey]

skylinechild, because dell trinidad's site do not allow certain configurations and in most cases is more expensive.

Plus u can not use coupons....which if you read the above post, would have saved about $300 US.

Once you buy your laptop you can transfer the warenty to Dell trinidad, no hassel at all.