FOAK: Laptop advice

I need a new laptop, only for basic office stuff, surfing and email
etc.

But need/want something light, and not one of these 15.4 widescreen
bricks that seem to be so popular. Had a Dell Inspiron 600 recently but
that weighed a ton, and battery life was pretty crap.

So what else good is out there? I had a look at the decent Thinkpads,
but they seem pretty expensive, and I only want to spend around £600.
14" screen will be fine, and don't really want a Celeron processor one.
DVD/CDRW ok too, and presumably I'd want 512mb of Ram as a minimum.
Don;t case too much about graphics, as it won't be playing games.

Two that spring to mind are Samsung's X06 and a Toshiba Portege s100.

Any suggestions?

ta

Kiran

 

I might be able to steal him one on my way out.

 

if you can't afford the Thinkpad, get the Samsung.

Though when you knock it off the desk and it smashes to pieces, you'll
wish you'd paid more for the Thinkpad.

Why can't your pikey employers provide you with a work laptop anyway?

Make up some business case, like "need laptop to work from home" or
some such bollocks - worked for me.

 

I'll have one, someone broke into my flat on Tuesday and stole mine. They
must have slipped the lock as they didn't kick the door in. The insurance is
refusing to pay out. Cunts.

 

Ok, so that as many laptops as I can carry, probably take some pens, maybe
the water cooler and a pair of scissors to key the director's car on the way
out.

Anyone else want something?

 

With your requirements above, why not?

 

Post-it's, obviously.

 

elyob wrote:

I'm supposed to be go to Colombia in three weeks time, to gather
material (written and photographic) for a supplement we're publishing
on the country.

Our travel insurers are beefing because I'm taking an iBook worth a
grand and a few grands' worth of camera kit. All my own equipment,
incidentally - not the firm's.

Trying to explain through the company to the insco that journalists do
travel, and that when they travel they habitually carry cameras and
laptops, and trying to explain also that if they nix it and I don't go,
then the (lucrative) supplement doesn't get published is *doing my
bloody head in*.

Inscos are bastards.

 

Damn. I've already wrriten this once but managed to send to to you by
mail rather than the group. Anyway, I can easily afford a £1500
Thinkpad but it seems a complete waste when I won't use its full
capabilities. Oh, and it's pig ugly. The Samsung looked sort of decent
for about £650 IIRC.

Well, I've had a cheap and cheerful Dell Latitude for the last 4 years
and that was fine. This is just for home use btw.

No business need. they pay for my broadband, and we get full access to
work network from home. Would only need a lappy when going abroad, and
even then, I can get IT to give me one. If I said I needed a laptop,
they'll try and throw a Blackberry at me instead, which I've already
refused.

Kiran

 

A cute secretary would be good ta.

--
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Well, you may be right. But Celerons are the budget end, I haven't seen
any light, decent laptops that don't have a Centrino chip.

Kiran

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

Just buy a load of fruit, coffee beans and white powdery substances from the
local shop, then nip up to Kew Gardens and take photos of it all with the
foliage as a backdrop.

You could persuade an olive-skinned acquaintance to put on a wide-brimmed
straw hat and pose with some bananas for added realism.

 

Sounds more like you're trying to get him arrested as a 419 scammer.

 

Well, you may be right. But Celerons are the budget end, I haven't seen
any light, decent laptops that don't have a Centrino chip.

Kiran

 

Still?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Uhmm Kiran, the new Celeron M's do have support for the Centrino
instruction sets, and lower power requirements than the Pentium M.

The main difference is they've got a smaller on-chip cache, which makes
sod all difference, and run at 400Mhz FSB rather than 533.. again no
real issue, cause lower clock speeds help with power saving.

 

It's still got the stain of pikeydom, though

 

The Office Bike will do nicely, Taa. )

--
Greybeard

FLHRCI -01 UK ( 95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy!)
Trumpet Trophy 1200 -96, (The Barge) for rainy days

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk


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The SO has a Samsung (though a lot higher spec than the one you
mentioned), and it's a nice enough piece of kit. Looks far nicer than
my Thinkpad; feels about 10% as well built, though. In fact, even my
pansy-foo-foo iBook feels more solid than the Samsung. But, the
Samsung's about as well made as any other cheap-ass laptop, and well
specced for the price.

What, they let you connect untested computer equipment to your
corporate LAN? Am-a-toires. Please tell me you're going through a
secure VPN, and only have abstracted access to your firm's network
(i.e. Citrix etc.)?

You need a laptop as opposed to a Blackberry when "going abroad" as you
so quaintly put it so that you can be working[1] on the Eurostar/plane
etc.

[1] i.e. watching a DVD in reality.

 

Well, I've got no idea whay all of these things look/feel like. Perhaps
I should actually go to a computer shop and take a look at a few. Of
course, the nearest thing is PCWorld and thay have absolute sweet FA
that looks decent. So that means a trip possibly to TCR, unless there's
anywhere else half decent in the City.

Dunno [1]. I assume one of the 60 "numpties" we employ in IT knows what
they are doing.

Oh indeed. But they can easily give me a laptop when I travel. [2] [3]

[1] Actually, it's via the web and I do have some sort of Citrix login
thang.
[2] Which isn't frequently enough to justify a permanent laptop: say 3
trips to the US and a few to Europe each year.
[3] Even if I did have a work one, it'd be a shity Dell Latitude one.
And the desktop designed for us allows no software that is not
permitted to be installed yada yada. So it's far simpler just to buy my
own one.

Kiran