M50 vs M40 vs A70

I am in the same boat as well. Going to Uni in September.
I am going with the m50.
The m40 I have heard has terriable battery life. It is also a bit heavy.
The m50 has reasonable battery life. It is lightweight. Only problem with the m50 right now is that there are not that many reviews on the web.
The A70 is a p4HT. I believe that that is the worst of the battery lifes compared to the other two.

The reason I am thinking about going with the m50 is that it has reasonable battery life, its lightweight, good speakers, large hard drive space, has wireless capabilities, and more goodies. It is $1699 at futureshop and best buy.
Hope this helped

the m50 will probably yeild the best battery life.

for performance in gaming the m40 is best, the intel graphics in the m50 is just not up to serious gaming these days. the a70 is about the same as the m50 cause it uses older graphics that although dedicated are likely on par with the integrated on the m50 simply because of their age.

judging speed is difficult really cause what are you wanting speed in. the P-m in the m40 and m50 is better at some things than others, while the p4 ht in the a70 also is better with some things than others. if you are gaming they are about equal, but in rendering the p4 is better by a small margin.

yes the battery life on the m40 is not super great but you have to factor in that it has a very powerful graphics card which uses more power than the solutions in either other machine. also if you are at university like me you wont be needing battery all the time, many schools now offer power plugs in classrooms for such things are laptops, and in the library it isnt hard to get one at my university either. also you can remember that in your room (assuming you live in the residences) you are going to have plugins.

also think about what you are going to do with the machine, is it going to be a laptop for workign only or are you wanting to watch movies and play games on it too. if you are wanting to game and do movies you are going to want a bigger screen than a 12 or 14inch... cause if it is your primary entertainment center in your room its gonna have to do some of everything, meaning a 15.4inch would be a better choice.

i would really recomend not getting a laptop in first year thinking you are going to do all your notes on it becuase simply put you wont. it is hard to type as fast as some profs talk and even if you are trying there are often diagrams that cant be easily or quickly drawn on a laptop. i do find havin a laptop useful, especially when you are typing reports between classes or even in the library doing research.... but dont count on taking it everywhere with you and using it all the time. a pen and paper is much more realistic for classes.

really you have options but the best bet for you is either an m40 or m50 in my opinion.... just think about the things you want and get the one best suited to your needs.

BTW.... what universities are you two heading to? major/minor?

m50.

I like the size and the portability...

stay away from the a70 as it sucks on battery life and is older technology.

m40 is what I use, but will be switching over to an M50 shortly.

yp5 man, what you doing with the m40 when your done with it? is it a company machine or personal?

University of Guelph Biological Science. How about yourself?

A70 is really a fat notebook. The battery of my friend's one last around 75 minutes while doing msn. Imagine when doing CAD. It is so heavy he keeps complaning about it. And just a last thing, it is ugly. I just hope he will not read this. The only advantages of the a70 is its price.

Go with the M40 or 50.

I agree that a pen is still the best way to take notes. Bring your notebook in class if you can dowload your courses online. It is often more simple to read on your computer than one a huge screen.

werd....what about a TABLET... the Satellite R10. Lots of battery life and ideal for school.

Fidget..the M40 I have will likely go to my GF...i will let you know if that changes.

m50 kinda has some funky backlighting from what i see in the stores.

it is different from screen to screen even within a series...

as for me it is university of alberta political science and history.

m40 also has option of dedicated graphics, unless your getting an overseas m50

Think of how many yrs u are going to have this comp. Dont let the price turn you off. Think also of the long term benefits for your needs. Hope this helps

I agree on teh M50 for all the same reasons mentioned by YP5. I'm in thee same boat, but deciding between the Tecra A4 and the A5, which are basically the M40 and M50.

Werd: If it's battery life that you are concerned about, Toshiba also offers a 12 battery you should look into. But I would get it as a secondary battery becasue it sticks out alot from the back of the laptop.