dilemma...my sis of 24 will be stepping into the working world soonish and has expressed her fond interest in obtaining a spanking new accessory, namely a laptop/notebook/mobile computer. i've caved in to her sporadic pleading for me to furnish her with such, and just short of moolah, i'm scouting for a unit with a budget of around RM2-RM4k. forget acer, asus, toshiba, nec, twinhead for i've had or heard enough about them to give me the creepies. dell would be nice however not my no.1 choice, fujitsu supposedly stands the test of time, hp is so-so...sony is wow. and by wow i mean $$$ wow. so at one end i love the hp mini, but the processor is blah. sony vaios are sexy but too much out of my league. a mac book has potential but then, i'm not sure i'm ready to devirginize myself with apple as yet. recommends? brand, model, spec-wise, price so welcome.
You can always install WinXP on a Mac if you want to. Is size a big consideration? Must it be 12" or smaller?
We need to know what you need: Size, battery life, weight and also uh... performance. If she's doing basic office work those simple Dell w/ Pentium Dual Core will do more than enough,with 1GB or 2GB RAM.
Dell isn't bad but their key advantage is really their excellent service. Anything goes wrong, just call them and they will send a replacement part. But their notebooks are clunky, cheaply-built and not particularly cheap. ASUS notebooks are actually quite good. You should have been at the ASUS notebook fair at Low Yat Plaza last weekend. Lots of good deals. You can get a better-spec notebook for 15-20% less than an equivalent Dell notebook. Their build quality is at least as good, if not better than the Dell Latitude.
my sis's main requirement is that it's fast. i'm thinking portable, light-weight, screen-size doesn't matter really (can always hook up to an external monitor if need be when not traveling yeh), battery life erm..the longer the better? normal 3 hours or more would suffice i say... core 2 duo over a duo core would be nice. hmm, i do like dell, having bought their LCD's before. for asus, the only experience i had was that my company bought three of them and all turned out having the same mobo problem and had to return for a free fix. i'm down with fujitsu and sony but i guess their too pricy. no one gave any merits to the hp mini yet...not good?
Hmm.. then a simpler C2D notebook will do. I even seen Dell's offering at RM2500 at the minimum budget. I guess that one will do best. Be sure to put 1 or 2GB RAM inside upon purchase. Also, Asus notebooks are good too. You should check out on these while you are in the LYP. Sony and Fujitsu are very high quality but they are very expensive. For casual notebooks Acer, Dell, or Asus is generally recommended. HP Mini - you mean the netbook? Yes - it's cute and small, but it isn't really that fast. Using the VIA C7-M processor, it isn't going anywhere. Some reviews said that it's fast, and some reviews said that it's isn't. It is still a good buy, provided if you don't put Vista inside (too bad they only have Linux/Vista as their default OS).
VIA C7, Atom are not fast. Period. Get a C2D based notebook. 14" should be ideal, not too big, not too small.
aiyo..hp mini so pretty..my preciousss... i heard rumours that there might a hp mini II with better processor, i hope anyway. so it comes down to a dell yeh? too bad xps too expensive. i'll check out their online site for promo's if any. btw, i'm not in KL, can't drop by Lowyat anytime soon. but i did catch the asus thingy (i think) in sept when i was down there.
Please remember that UMPC/Netbooks are not permenant subsitute for notebooks. They are meant for casual surfing in cafe/library and some light work (modification of your documents in the last minute), not your notebook replacement. VIA C7-M, Atom or the Geode couldn't cut it if you multitask. My old Vaio is too heavy to be carried anywhere. It's glued to either of my brother's office table, or on the home desk. That's why, I have to use my EEEPc. But it's not even a permenant subsitute for my notebook/desktop. Still, a casual notebook like Dell C2D models and Acer helps a lot if you need a full-fledged notebook in a lower price.
Netbook will work fine if you are not doing any heavy work. After all, we used P3/P4 running WinXP with even less RAM.
Even without the discount, it's still cheap. One particular Dell Latitude model with corporate discount was going for RM 4200. But a slightly better ASUS model with twice the RAM (2GB) and discrete graphics was going for only RM 3588 (without discount) or RM 3388 (with discount). I would say the ASUS notebook has better build quality than the Dell, so IMHO, if you are looking at the Latitudes or even XPS models from Dell, might as well consider alternatives like notebooks from ASUS. Even Acer cannot offer that kind of value. Plus Acer is really anal about warranty and upgrades.
BTW, the Intel Atom is about as fast as the Pentium M. That's the mobile processor used in the first-generation Intel Centrino platform. So it is really fast enough to use with Windows XP or even Vista.
don't like the benq brand, unfortunately. might consider looking at ASUS, was actually checking out DELL's but with my recent problem and after sales service from them, i'm thinking twice on ever buying DELL ever again.
how bout this Newegg.com - ASUS F6 Series F6V-X1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8400(2.26GHz) 13.3" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR2 800 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 - Laptops / Notebooks
What happened? Frankly, I'm not impressed with Dell's quality control, but so far their service has been quite good. I've replaced my monitor TWICE and my notebook's battery once. All done by the next business day but of course, they expect you to replace the part yourself.
problems i heard/had with laptops Dell: -my XPS M1210 battery died after 1 year. -roomie's Inspiron (the newer series) LCD died. -2 x friend's Inspiron (old ones) LCD problem. HP: -friend's touchpad calibration is was off, had to use a mouse instead. -most of them mainly unstable with stock hp installed OS (too many gadgets screwing around with vista) Acer: -2 friend's motherboard damaged my opinion, if you are getting dell, try the business series one, they shoudl be better than inspiron. or you can try XPS but it is pricey. i don't really like hp mainly because of its design esp the touchpad design. fujitsu, good build quality, but expensive. sony, way overpriced, build quality not as good as fujitsu. dell is probably the best if you want to customize it.
Yeah, Dell is nice if you want to customize your notebook. I love being able to order super-high resolution displays on their notebooks. However, they are really quite expensive and the build quality is only so-so. Buying the business models is better but they are even more expensive and you cannot get any discounts unless you have a company (for corporate discounts). You can get better quality notebooks with better specifications from Taiwanese companies like Acer (not recommended though), BenQ or ASUS. The only problem is they are not customizable. So you may need to compromise on some aspects, usually display resolution. But the good news is you can physically check out the models before buying.
