Question for you Laptop experts...

..

I have no experience with Dell laptops but I know people who hate them. The best advice I can offer is to use a centrino processor. This is probably the #1 important factor as it includes wireless and more importantly doubles battery life.

I have been very happy with my HP compaq nx7000 with a 1.6GHZ processor, a 60GB HD, 512MB RAM (the minimum amount I recommend) with a 15" wide-screen, a cd burner, 64meg of video memory (not shared), 3USB ports and one fire-wire, etc. It's a great machine for around 2 grand.

I've been very pleased with Dell notebooks, and just purchased 25 of them at the office. I've probably purchased/installed 100 in the last 3 years.
The Inspiron, and the Latitude line are both very good units.

The problem I see with the 5100 is that it doesn't seem to have the option of the Pentium M/Centrino processor.
As Greg mentioned, it's fairly important for battery life issues.

..

Funny that, just took delivery of a Dell Inspiron 500m yesterday.
1.4 ghz, centrino, 512Mb ram, 40gb hdd 14.1" screen. So far so good. All i need know is a wirless receiver on my lan and i'm laughing

I love Dell notebooks and the support can't be beat from my personal experience. For maximum battery life, excellent performance, and wireless connectivity I recommend a Centrino based system. centrino is a chipset that is designed to work optimally together including a Pentium M processor, a memory controller, a system controller and a wireless radio. Together they operate at a performance level that is about 30% faster than one would expect from the processor clock alone. For example I have a Centrino 1.5GHz system and it is faster in many tasks than my Pentium 4M 2GHz laptop.

If you don't want a Pentium M/Centrino unit, the next choice would be a Pentium 4M unit which is a mobile processor also. Stay away from Pentium 4 (without the M) processor based laptops. these are desktop processors that the system manufacturer has adapted for a mobile application. These systems tend to run very hot and have poor battery life in general.

Got to be negative. 1) Tired of Dell tech support in India 2) Dell welshed on an extended warranty because the metal on the floppy case rusted in a salt air environment (warranty problem was unrelated) If the prices would come down, I'd sure look at a tablet PC, but right now, way to high.

I endorse "all of the above!"

Seriously, there are people who swear BY Dell and those who, justifiably, swear AT them.

I do 99.9% of my travel by air. The only time when battery life is an issue for me is when I am on a plane; otherwise, I have access to AC, even in the rental car thanks to my inverter.

I just bought, but have yet to use, an HP with a Pentium 4, an 80gb hard drive and it still has a floppy drive!

For my travel I have a Toshiba Satellite model I bought 1 1/2 years ago. While I will ultimately switch over to the HP for field work, I will keep the Toshiba for editing and for presentations. The video output on the Toshiba when fed through an XGA LCD projector seems much better.

Also, Sam's Club here has a 160bg external hard drive for $179. Great deal!

George:

I am currently on my second Dell laptop--an Inspiron 8600 1.6 Centrino. The computer is fast-the battery life is excellent. So far I am really happy with the machine. My old Inspiron 8100 still works despite being worked hard. I recommend the Inspiron 8600!

I have never been unhappy with Dell Tech support-It is the non-technical "customer care" division that has driven me nuts.

..

Geo wrote:Just hoping that the 1D2 comes in at $3500

3,800-4,000 € street is what people got as price info from various CPS dealers here in Germany, at least this is what they keep saying over at dforum.de

As for a laptop, go with the one recommended by Greg, I use it and love it, killer screen, phantastic keyboard.
notebooksbilliger.de is a good source, nx7010 is the current model

My personal experience with Dell laptops has been great, and with HP/Compaq has been TERRIBLE.
Dell support is ok - you just need to accept that the frontline person on the phone will try to ask all the "obvious" questions to save sending out the hardware support person with a replacement part. If you're prepared to talk your way through that frontline person then it's good to have access to that hardware support person.
Buying the extended 3yr international warranty is worthwhile, especially with the no-question-asked replacement option ("Did a kid throw up on it? Did you drop it? So what? Here's a replacement"). BTW, the warranty is transferrable if you sell the machine before the 3 years are up...

The Pentium M processors are good, but on the Dell pages I note that the battery life of the 5150 (non-M, but "Mobile Pentium 4") is the same as the 600m (with an M processor).
I'd have to ask why you were looking at the 5100 with a 15" XGA screen when you can get an "UltraSharp" screen on the 5150 for not much more money. If you're going to be doing any image editting on this machine then you'll love the UltraSharp.

The support isn't quite as comprehensive as Dell's (and the screen aren't as good as an UltraSharp) but I'd also recommend looking at an iBook or PowerBook (unless you're married to Windows already).

If cost is not a factor I would take a look at the IBM thinkpad T41p with the three-way wireless radio (802.11 a/b/g)

Best laptop I have ever had!

I'll add another vote of support for Dell. I picked up an 8500 a few months back. The only concern I had regarding it was the huge resolution on the Ultrasharp (1920x1200), but I asked a few questions here and also saw one in action, and so finally bit the bullet. There is just sooo much screen space and it's sharp as a tack - not sure how I lived without it beforehand. I'll also add a vote for ensuring it's an Centrino or "M" Pentium.

..