Hi Marilyn,

I've worked with a number of them, and I have my personal favorites as well
as ones I will stay away from at all costs.  The top of my list is Toshiba.
When I purchased a laptop, this was the brand I was looking for first.
Price was a consideration, and that's an area that Toshiba works hard to be
reasonable in.  I was lucky to find one that would do what I needed it to
do, and was reasonable in price (I actually got a refurbished laptop).  I've
never had a moment of trouble with it, and the battery has held up rather
well considering the abuse I put it through.

Second on my list is IBM.  Where I used to work I had an older Thinkpad, and
it worked amazingly well for the small amount of memory it had (32MB) and
the slower CPU (166Mhz).  I have watched these machines get dropped from a
desk with no more damage than scratches on the case.  Everything else was
completely unhurt.

Tied for third would be Dell and Gateway.  In my previous job I probably
configured and delivered about 100 Gateway Solos.  I was most impressed with
the ones that had DVD players in them.  We stress-tested one once (I want to
say it was a 2500, but I can't remember for sure now) and actually got it to
play a DVD for three hours without being plugged in.  Keep in mind that this
was right out of the box (minus the 24 hour first-time charge on the
battery), so mileage may vary on this.

I have also configured and delivered about 20 Dell laptops.  One of my
favorite features about the Inspirons is that a lot of them came with dual
mouse controls, i.e. an eraser mouse and the touch pad, both usable at the
same time.  They also seemed to have the fastest boot time of the ones I've
worked with.  Earlier this year I flew back East for some training and my
current employer gave me a Dell laptop so I could install and work with the
software I was training on and bring it back configured the way we wanted.
I had to get up at 4am to catch my flight, and in a rather foggy state of
mind I managed to forget that I had leaned the laptop case up against the
back of the van while loading my other luggage.  As I backed out, the driver
side of the van all of a sudden raised up about a foot in the back.  To my
dismay, the laptop was the unfortunate victim of my indiscretion.  The
screen was cracked beyond repair.  However, after arriving at my destination
and plugging the laptop into a monitor, the laptop still worked perfectly.
The only problem was a slight wobble when I typed because the case was a
little warped from the pressure.

The ones I would stay away from would be the HP's and the Compaqs.  The HPs
apparently have some problems with battery life, and replacing them ain't
cheap.  I must admit I am basing this on the experience of some of my peers.
I have had very little hands-on experience with them.

The Compaqs are a different story all-together.  I've had to deal with about
ten of them over the years, and have yet to meet one that hasn't had one
problem or another.  Hard drives crashing, mouse controllers going bad,
modems going bad, screens quit working, and one time I worked on one that
had a bad transistor on the motherboard.  I've never really had anything
good to say about ANY of Compaq's products, however, so my opinion in this
area may be a little biased.  Pretty much, the laptops I have had to deal
with I only saw because the owner came to me with problems.  I would NEVER
sell or recommend a customer buy one.

There are a lot of second and third rank brands out there.  Some are good,
some are bad.  I just haven't had any experience with them, so some of the
other listers will have to help you there.

As far as the hook-up is concerned, you just need to make sure you have both
a network card and modem in the system.  The easiest way to do this is to
buy a Type III combination card (assuming the model you purchase does not
have both internally).  DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, get one with an X-Jack.  It
sure sounds like a great idea, but I have seen so many cards with X-Jack's
that have been broken that it's not funny.  I would recommend a 3Com or
Xircom card that has direct plugins (dongle's are such a hassle).

Also, get one with a TFT screen.  The one regret I have from buying my
laptop is getting one with a Dual-Scan screen (usually the specs will
specify a TFT screen, so if it doesn't say, it probably has a Dual-Scan).
It still does what I need it to do, but if I want to play any type of video
files on it, the motion is very blurry.  Also, it's so much easier to lose
the mouse pointer on the screen.  You're going to pay about $75 to $150 more
for a comparable system with a TFT over a Dual-Scan, but it's really worth
the extra.

I would also suggest at least 128MB of RAM and Windows 2000 Pro.  I've
actually installed Win2k on a Dell Inspiron XT 233Mhz machine with 64MB of
RAM, and it performed real well.  Refresh was a little slow sometimes, but
other than that it worked great.  Plus, I've probably done about 20 upgrades
to Win2k on laptops, and have never ONCE had to install additional drivers
to get something to work.  That would probably not happen with an
off-the-shelf model today, but Microsoft sure seems to have done a good job
of covering their bases with 2k on a mobile system.

Hope this helps!

Kyle Elmblade
Distinct Computer Solutions
Installation - Sales - Upgrades - Training
[log in to unmask]

From: "Marilyn Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 1:55 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Which Laptop to Buy


I'm going to buy a laptop to take between office and home and to use as my
primary computer at the office.  It must hook up by cable and dial-up.
Programs to be used are Word, Power Point and Quicken plus accessing the
Internet.  It will not be used for heavy graphics or games.  Since this will
hopefully last for a number of years and laptops are not easy to upgrade, I
want to do it right.  Does anyone have any specific recommendations re the
different brands, repairs needed etc.  I've looked on the web but find it
very hard to make comparisions so any personal experiences would be most
welcome.

TIA

Marilyn

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