A laptop survey
2 min read

A laptop survey

A laptop survey

Several weeks since the anouncement of dual cores, and more and more vendors pop up with interesting machines... The latest with reviews would be Sony. The FE series would be (from sonystyle):

  • Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2GHz,2MB L2 Cache)
  • DVD+R Double Layer/DVD+-RW Drive
  • 1GB RAM and 120GB hard drive
  • 15.4" Widescreen5 LCD with XBRITE-HiColor Technology

The bright screen is lovely, but I wonder why there's no resolution higher than WXGA. You can practically see the squares on a 15.4 in screen...

ASUS is another contender with lots of laptops (engadget says so). The V6J looks like a dream: thin, light, and 15 in. However, the 15" SXGA+ TFT (1400x1050) makes it a bit odd in watching movies... One site says there's a wide version too. Hopefully they'll pop in a higher res screen.

Gateway has also jumped on the bandwagon with one (the NX560XL). Pretty big from what I see (not what I'd call "thin and light"), but the addons (WSXGA) and the possibility of MCE is excellent (approx 1600 USD). Unfortunately, I have no details on how the screen compares with "x-black".

Dell has a couple. The 9400 is the high end desktop replacement and it's huge (both size and weight). The other one, is a little lighter, but it still bears the "DELL fingerprint" and after not receiving anything back from their support when I've had a problem, I'm advising against it (any of them). Given that the technology is new, prices are close between manufacturers anyway.

Apple has come with the MacBook Pro (name hated so far by bloggers (?!?)).nice one, great design, but is trimmed down (lower res, no dual layer, unknown battery life at this time). When other vendors published battery lifes, imho is a big boo-boo for apple to hold on to values now. I'd wait for the REV B ones.

Lenovo has the X60. Great indestructible laptop, but if it's anything like the other T series, it's heavier than a brick :). Otherwise, my sister has a T40 and she's very happy. The screen is not too bright though and I've understood that this one is the same. Pitty.

Acer, My favourite so far, just because it has the 8204 laptop, with all the goodies. Of course, the lower end 4000 series is good too, but no design awards there :)

As a conclusion for my fav... The apple very close to the Asus A series so far. But the issue is still open on the battery life...

-- This is a really old post published originally on my blogspot blog