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Need Help Picking Somona Laptop...

post #1 of 7
3/13/05 at 3:17am
Thread Starter 
I'm helping a friend find a laptop but unfortunately I'm not much of an expert in the areas he's interested. Because battery life is a really big deal for him, Centrino's have been what I've been looking at because of the size and battery requirements.
Here's what he wants:

12" - 15.4" screen, no larger, preferably towards smaller
lightweight (less than around 7.5lbs)
Good battery life
glossy screen
X700/6600 go or better
Budget: ~$1500

I've seen a lot of posts on the new somonas, but do people have suggestions from either personal experience or things they've heard for something that meets these requirements?

Thanks for any help!
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post #2 of 7
3/13/05 at 3:58am
You're going to have a hard time finding a new sonoma lappy with those specs @ 1500.

Your choices for those specs are:

Acer Travelmate 8104 - ATI X700 - $2200
Asus Z71V - Nvidia 6600 - $1950 to $2100
Clevo C400/Sager 4880 - x700 w 256mb - $1800? - Pctorque.com

Hope that helps.
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post #3 of 7
3/13/05 at 4:02am
You know... now that I think of it... you might be able to snag a specced out Dell 9300 for that price. About the same specs as you said.
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post #4 of 7
3/13/05 at 4:22am
Asus Z71V

1.86 Pentium M (533)
512 mb 4200 ddr2 (1 stick)
80 GB 8mb buffer 5400 rpm seagate HD
intel 802.11 b/g wireless
8x dvd/24x cdr/w optical drive (Modular, you can slap a second battery or second harddrive in there)
Nvidia Go6600 128mb
15.4 wsga (1680x1050)
8 cell battery
Carrying case

1507.

priced at Intergrated Systems Technologies.
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post #5 of 7
3/13/05 at 4:37am
That glossy screen requirement actually kills most of your options. As far as I know, the only sonoma with a glossy screen not larger than 15.4" that you could get for $1500 is the Toshiba Tecra S2. The Acer, Asus, and Sager models do not have glossy screens, and the the Dell is too big for your specs. All of them look like good notebooks, but they do not fit your requirements.
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post #6 of 7
3/13/05 at 2:43pm
Actually the Toshiba S2 is a nice laptop. The only sad part is the no DDR2 support. Otherwise it rules.

But in comparision, i would go for Toshiba Tecra model because

1) They are very well built and reliable
2) They offer the full protection plan where if you step on your laptop, they will fix it
3) They have drop off zone and service center almost everywhere
4) They have 1 year no interest no payment option
5) The laptop design is very nice and conservative. It will fit in most environment since it was built as a business class laptop
6) Tecra series are the flag ship of Toshiba. They are built quality built to handle travel usage well, unlike consumer model which tends to be more bulky and cheap quality built.
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post #7 of 7
3/14/05 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Are you sure the Tecra has a glossy screen? It doesn't seem to say anything about it on Toshiba's site.
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