I am looking into a new laptop for my wife since she is going back to school for another degree this fall. I like the way storagereview.com organizes their hard drive reviews in a way that you can sort all the data by specific variables. Anything like that out there for laptop reviews?? If anyone would like to recommend one, the criteria in order of importance:

battery life
lightweight
possible built in wifi?
keyboard/mouse ergonomics

As you can see processing power isn't really a requirement since she will mostly be taking notes and keeping track of email and appointments. Playing games and crunching numbers is not a priority here.

I don't know any review sites, but I can tell you that I'm very happy with our new Dell Latitude D800. I get a little over 6.5 hours of life with both batteries, reasonable size (although a tad large), built-in wifi, and a pretty comfortable keyboard (to me anyway.) With it being a widescreen, I also like the ability to put two page size documents side by side, and the extra desktop real estate.

I manage a fleet of about 150 laptops - I'd stick with Dell or IBM. And stay as far away from Sony Vaios as you can.

Both Dell and IBM have a variety of models that could meet her needs. The Thinkpad X series are fab - under 5 lbs, good antenna for wireless, 12" screen.

-jk

Having used to support a bunch of laptops, too, I'd also stay away from Compaq. Of course, are their laptops these days the old Compaq ones or the old HP ones? The HP ones were better....

Either way, while the laptop itself wasn't that bad, getting support for the Compaq we had was like pulling teeth. Even though Dell has spaghetti support lines and it takes a while to get to the right person, you can eventually get what you need.

About the Compaq laptops, they are still sold as Compaq, and made seperatly from the HP ones.

Also, I will tend to agree that many of the "Presario" line laptops aren't that great. But, the Evo line (used to be the Armada) is actually pretty decent. They are made by a different manufacturer, and in my experience have been very durable. I have had an M700 for the past 2 years, and it still runs great. Many of my coworkers also have company granded Armadas, and none have had any real problems.

I've owned two Viaos and dearly loved them both. However your not the first I've heard make this statement. Does everyone dislike them BECAUSE they're Sony or are people having actual issues with them?

Actually, I think it was the Armadas that I had problems with.

I remember one problem where the fan or something developed a weird loud clicking sound, and once we got someone to acknowledge it at all, they told us that that was expected and they wouldn't fix it. Under warranty.

Hi,

I'd go with the IBM T series. I'm using a T40 now - avoid the centrino version though, as Intel has severe problems with software vpn's and the adaptive netcard switching thats built in their chipset. Other than that my IBM is sofar the best portable that i've had sofar (i've had alot)

Btw. Does anyone remeber the GOOD old Digital portables. I still got a Digital Ultranote 2000 at home in working conditions, although a little slow today (233mhz) it one of the most impressive portables to this day. It's still one of the slimmest portables i've seen - exelent quality, it's just sweet. I miss digital!

Tada,
Kaare

battery life
lightweight
possible built in wifi?
keyboard/mouse ergonomics

Not sure if you're ruling out Macs, but this meets those criteria.

i've owned a couple of different sony vaio laptops, too, and they've been pretty good machines. you'd better hope you never have to call their customer support center in new jersey, though. they are the surliest, most unhelpful group i've ever dealt with. for that alone, i doubt i will ever buy another.

--dan.

I've packed two of the boss's daughters off to college with Vaios as well as set up another boss's wife with a Vaio (both bosses are the owners of the Co.) and haven't had a complaint or problem with any of the three. Very light & stylish.
-Zeke

I've owned two Viaos and dearly loved them both. However your not the first I've heard make this statement. Does everyone dislike them BECAUSE they're Sony or are people having actual issues with them?

From my experience, their support is very weak (and support costs in an organization frequently outstrip the purchase costs), and they tend to change parts specs way too fast. They all say "specifications subject to change without notice" - Sony means it. We like to use disk images to rebuild computers, but we can't, even with supposedly identical Sonys (Sonies? Whatever. Don't hit me, Bitt.), because the parts (and respective drivers/settings) have changed. I only had that happen once with HP Omnibooks, never with Compaq Armadas. IBM Thinkpads frequently will use the same image across several models within a "series".

-jk

And how were the laptops?

Boom Boom

And how were the laptops?

The Vaios look nice. A couple performed well. But we did have to call service, and sometimes more than once, for the others. Sigh. Less than helpful service department, and a weak web site.

The best laptop issue I had was the cup of coffee spilled into the two day old Thinkpad. We cleaned it off as best we could, and sent it to IBM for service. It still smelled faintly of coffee, but they fixed it under warranty anyway. Maybe the techs drank bad enough coffee that they didn't notice the additional aroma of cooked coffee. (And then there was the beer spilled into our CEO's college aged daughter's computer that we were told to fix...)

-jk

I agree. They're not what I buy for the Co. employees (they get Dells). I bought them for the weight & integrated 1394, 100bT, Modem & VGA output. I just bought a couple of Dell Latitues with the 1.3Ghz Pentium M. I haven't used them extensively, but they seemed well built with a good # of integrated components (ethernet, modem, wireless).

-Zeke