Toshiba Lappy purchase?

[Fat Tone]

Work are *finally* getting me a laptop! Woot!

I can have one of the Toshibas available under the Higher Ed agreement - see here for the list from the main supplier. Others such as HiGrade are technically an option, but Tosh are prefered as we know we won't have problems deploying the OS to it.
I do have to justify what I spend though, and it really needs to be one of the ~£1k models. I want it to not be so heavy that I don't take it around much, games aren't really an issue, and I definitely want Wifi. CDRW would be nice too. It'll mainly be web, Office & presentations use.
I'll prolly dual boot, Win2k Pro in the office, Win XP Pro at home.


It seems that the Sat Pro range use the fast Celerons & P4s, but aren't wifi (but they are 'wifi enabled') and that the Tecra range use the Centrino cpus and are wifi.

As I will probably have to buy a WAP for home, would I be beter off getting a Sat Pro and buying a WAP/PC card package separately? Or get the Tosh mini-PCI wifi adapter, or a basic Tecra?

TIA

T.

[Jammrock]

I've been servicing Toshiba laptops for 6 years now and I have grown to hate them. However, I do not know the other brand mentioned so I can't compare (don't think it's available in the US).

One of the batches of laptops were so poorly made that we are still repairing dozens of them on a weekly basis.

They have gotten better in recent years, but I have always found them to be too much money for what you get. Getting one on education discount may get the price down to a reasonable price though.

Satellites are the consumer grade laptops. Not exactly the fines materials and components, but functional and not too shabby on price.

Protege is traditionally the light weight laptops and Tablet PCs. If you want something really light, look at these. The TabletPC would be great fpr class, as you can write notes directly on the screen. They just aren't gaming compatible if you want to use your laptop for anything besides solitare.

Tecra is the business grade laptop, that's what we mainly use at my company (plus some Protege ultra-lights). Theya re more sturdily built, and therefore more rugged for transporting around every day on a campus. They are smaller and a little lighter than the Satellites, but still MUCH larger than the protege's. They also have more options available, like Wi-fi, which is one thing you really want.

If you want to justify getting a Tecra it's pretty easy. Tecra's are:

1) A business grade laptop.
2) More ruggedly built for constant business and schooling travel.
3) Lighter and/or smaller than the Satellites.
4) Have more integrated components standard, saving money on costly PC card upgrades in the future.
5) Are capable of having faster CPU's, thus lengthening the usefullness of the laptop before an upgrade is needed.
6) Have a longer battery life.
7) You can game with them ... though that's not really a business justification.

Jammrock

[Fat Tone]

Thanks, Jammrock, that's really useful info. I'll look closer at the Tecra's then. Intel claim much better clock/clock performance from the Centrinos.

I didn't realise the cpu's were upgradable - that could be pretty handy when we move to Longhorn! Would you recommend getting Tosh ram upgrades, i.e. any bad experiences with after-market upgrades like Crucial? Do you have any experience with the compatability of their wifi adaptors with other others? (I once tried to network a Tecra 9100 with a borrowed Belkin usb-wifi adaptor with limited success).

Cheers

T.

[Jammrock]

CPU's are usually factory upgradable to a point. With any laptop though (with some rare exceptions), you don't upgrade the CPU, you get a new laptop. Getting a Tecra allows you to get a bigger, faster, CPU now, thus letting you use the laptop longer before yo uneed to get a new one.

Centrino Pentium M's are faster than Pentium 4 M's clock-for-clock. A 1.6 GHz P-M is about the same in benchmarks as a 2.2 GHz P4M.

No big problems with after market RAM. Sometime different brands or RAM won't play nice in the system at the same time, but usually there are no problems.

No problems with wi-fi, beyond any normal problem. If work uses a specialty wi-fi security system, like Cisco LEAP, make sure the wi-fi adapter supports it.

Jammrock

[Fat Tone]

Cheers - and the upgrading comment makes more sense now. I have seen upgradable CPUs in laptops before, but not since the early days of 486 laptops.

It turns out that the model I'm most likely to go for is unique to Getech. I guess it's just the base model with their selection of options so warrany and servicing shouldn't be a problem - I hope!

One question for anyone in the know - the only place I've found size & weight has them the same regardless of screen size can anyone confirm this please?

TIA

T.

[Jammrock]

That sounds about right. Most of the models within a product line use the same chasis and screen, which is most of the weight difference.

Jammrock

[Fat Tone]

Forget Toshiba (no delivery date..)


I've got a Ferrari 3000 instead

http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?dau22.oid=3892&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&ctx1=UK&crc=1186406248

XP2500+M, 512MB, 60GB, DVD+/-RW, ATI mobility 9200 128M, 15" 1400*1050, 4*USB 2, 1394, Bluetooth, 802.11g, card reader etc etc and all for the same price as the Tosh

T.

[VJ]

Has anyone got experience with Liebermann laptops:

http://www.go-l.com

(their features seem to leave all the other laptops behind: upgradeable cpu, 7200 rpm harddisk, video in - with optional tv-tuner, ...)

Jörg

[TransformX]

Originally posted by Fat Tone
Forget Toshiba (no delivery date..)


I've got a Ferrari 3000 instead

http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?dau22.oid=3892&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&ctx1=UK&crc=1186406248

XP2500+M, 512MB, 60GB, DVD+/-RW, ATI mobility 9200 128M, 15" 1400*1050, 4*USB 2, 1394, Bluetooth, 802.11g, card reader etc etc and all for the same price as the Tosh

T.

Let me guess, the batteries have an avg lifespan of 30 seconds ?
Seriously, it's a monster

[gt40]

Hey Jam,
off hand do you remember if my Toshiba 49O xcdt is cpu upgradeable.
I bought this unit about 5 years ago (cost me over 5000 cndn) and I luv it - had absolutely no problems wit it, but it is getting a little slow.

[Tjalfe]

Originally posted by TransformX
Let me guess, the batteries have an avg lifespan of 30 seconds ?
Seriously, it's a monster

My Acer Travelmate 730 ( I think .. something along that line anyways) P3-700, DVD drive 15" TFT had a battery life of close to 5 hours. now after 4 years of use, the battery has dropped to around 2 hours.. Acer does indeed know their stuff for batterylife

[Fat Tone]

It's too soon to say as i'm conditioning the battery at the moment - it takes 3 full charge/discharge cycles before full capacity is reached.

It is one sexy looking beast, and I am typing this in my lounge using wifi at 18Mbps. I'm pleased so far

T.

[Paddy]

Go on then, how much did it set you back?

Its ~£1250 on Dabs.

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Fat Tone
It's too soon to say as i'm conditioning the battery at the moment - it takes 3 full charge/discharge cycles before full capacity is reached.

It is one sexy looking beast, and I am typing this in my lounge using wifi at 18Mbps. I'm pleased so far

T.

I want ti to have my children!

Sexy beast indeed!! ')

[Fat Tone]

@Paddy - me personally? Just a few days fretting with anticipation
The Uni got it at a special Education price, which to be honest is about the same as you quote. Acer aren't on the National Laptop agreement, but getting it from one of the approved Tosh suppliers meant it could be squeezed through

I only got about 2 hours use out of the first charge, but it was pretty intensive - mostly downloading and installing OS updates over wifi (the link was 18-54, averaging ~24Mbps) and checking out the DVD player.

I'm charging again now, and the mains adaptor (made by LiteOn!) is buzzing rather loudly, which I didn't notice yesterday, so that is a little worrying.

One other feature - it comes with a special polishing cloth to keep the Ferrari-red top finger-print free

The screen is nice and bright and crisp, but the viewing angle is disappointing.