# Which Laptop (choose one of my 2-3 candidates)?

## CobraX

Hi folks,

I'm gonna buy myself a Laptop. After reading reviews/user comments/searching forums I still can't figure out which brand/model to buy. I have a few candidates though:

1) Dell Inspiron 600m (it isn't available yet in Europe, if it will never become available, then I would consider the Dell Inspiron 500m).

2) Acer TravelMate 800LCi (or the TravelMate 803LCi but that one is a little bit too expensive for me I think).

I'm gonna run Win2K (or XP don't know yet) and Gentoo Linux on it. I've also read the keyboard of the Acer TravelMate 800LCi is a bit curved. Isn't this anoying when you are for instance  playing games? I'm more Dell minded but if I have to believe the reviews and user comments from zdnet then I would have to go for the Acer without a doubt. Things that are pretty important for me are a good and sharp display (with not many or none dead pixels) and a good keyboard (one that doesn't feel very cheap). Can you guys help me out?

Thx in advance

PS: oh my budget is about 2000 euro.

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## eee

For what it's worth, I very much like my 600m.  I say "for what it's worth" because I'm not a gamer and it's been several years since I've owned a laptop, but I am quite happy with the 600m.

I've got the 14 inch, but opted for the SXGA+ upgrade.  As I said, I don't have much of a frame of reference to compare the SXGA+ display with the standard, the 14" SXGA+ is beautiful.  Truetype fonts under KDE and Mozilla are simply a pleasure. 

I've also been quite pleased with gentoo on the 600m.  I stuck with the 1.3 Ghz CPU, but haven't had any complaints with it.  The initial install took a day or two (KDE, mozilla, etc), but since then, updates have been quite easy and unnoticeable as they run in the background. 

I'm not a gamer, but I do have DRM running on the 600m.  From what I've read, I don't think that's possible with the 500m (uses the integrated Intel graphics card as opposed to the radeon 9000 on the 600m).

In case you're interested, my typical uses for the laptop are web development, DVD watching &  MythTV.  I use MythTV streamed over a Netgear wireless card, which works very well - no skipping probably about 30% CPU usage.  I run KDE with 4 desktops, always have KMail, Mozilla Firebird and at least one emacs session running.  I'm usually emerging something, but have no complaints with regards to the system ever feeling sluggish.

Well, that's probably enough testifying for now.  I do have two minor complaints - the power button is somewhat difficult to press and there's no mouse wheel (the alps glidepoint doesn't have an emulator   :Crying or Very sad: )  Even with those two quibles, I'm definitely a satified 600m user.

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## Owiber

A note on the 500m - right now, without a BIOS update from Dell, you will be stuck at 640x480x16bit or 1024x768x256.

Intel says that an updated BIOS from Dell should include their new video BIOS, which will fix the problem... but it's iffy if Dell will actually include the new video BIOS since Windows does not need it to change resolutions.

You can do a search for 500m probably and find more on that.

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## CobraX

Thanks for the info guys. I've read about the crappy colordepth before I started this thread (you see some people use the search before asking things  :Very Happy: ). I'll probably go for the Acer TravelMate 800LCi (I will try to get a Pentium M 1.4 Ghz instead of the 1.3 Ghz though, the 1.6 Ghz is still too expensive for me).

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## snutte

I love my travelmate. It works very nice with Linux.  :Smile: 

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## aurelianis

I've been looking at the 600m and 803LCi too. Just read about this one, you might be interested - Velocity Micro "NoteMagix B50". Pentium-M, up to 1GB DDR333 RAM, 15" SXGA or SXGA+, option to get a 60GB, 7200RPM (!!) HD, Radeon 9000 64MB, up to 5hrs battery life, and they're one of the few companies that'll sell a notebook WITHOUT windows. CNet just put up a review, gave it good ratings - on par with the 803. If people start posting success stories with Linux, it's probably what I'll end up getting.

The notebook arena gets more and more exciting with each passing week.   :Smile: 

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## CobraX

Well I think I've made up my mind folks. I'm going to order the Acer TravelMate 803LCi. The price of the Acer TravelMate 803LCi has dropped by 400 euro today so it "only" costs 1995 euro anymore now (which is within my budget of 2000 euro).

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## CobraX

 *aurelianis wrote:*   

> I've been looking at the 600m and 803LCi too. Just read about this one, you might be interested - Velocity Micro "NoteMagix B50". Pentium-M, up to 1GB DDR333 RAM, 15" SXGA or SXGA+, option to get a 60GB, 7200RPM (!!) HD, Radeon 9000 64MB, up to 5hrs battery life, and they're one of the few companies that'll sell a notebook WITHOUT windows. CNet just put up a review, gave it good ratings - on par with the 803. If people start posting success stories with Linux, it's probably what I'll end up getting.
> 
> The notebook arena gets more and more exciting with each passing week.  

 

Thanks for the info but I'd rather choose a well-known brand with a good reputation + that brand isn't available in Belgium I believe.

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## feffi

Hi, i bought myself a acer 803LCi and it

s running and running and running...

I couldn't get the WirelessLan (intel) working but speedstepping, modem, X, sound (alsa), IRDA, network and USB 2.0 is.

Dell is IMHO too expensive for what you get...

cya

  _kev_

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## eee

 *_kev_ wrote:*   

> Dell is IMHO too expensive for what you get...

 

Got my 600m for $1100 after rebates (gotta love those) and that included an extra $50 for the truemobile wlan instead of the Centrino that's never going to work with linux.

0.5G RAM.  1.3Ghz processor.  Radeon 9000 graphics card.  Similar experience to your travelmate (save the IRDA, which I haven't had a use for yet).

I'm not saying it's perfect, but I am quite pleased with what I got for my $1100   :Very Happy: 

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## tyanni

How about an IBM Thinkpad T40?

Great Reviews, Great Laptop.

Tim

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## Garbz

If you haven't already made ur decisiion final i'd like to try and change ur mind.

I anticipate majore flaming, but DON'T buy ACER laptops.  To me and many others i know they fall under the no-name brand (not noname but weak in the laptop department).

Dell, Toshiba, and IBM are the only way to go (religiously for me and many others) although you do pay a premium but it's worth it.  Here a a few points to note:

1.  The Dell DOES have considerably higher quality parts and better layout than the ACER.

2.  A laptop can not be easily modified so if ur stuck with a cheap part, irq conflict, or some other hardware problem caused by cheap hardware it's a send back job.

3.  Dell replace parts under warranty onsite within the business week,  a friends ACER travelmate (and unfortunatly IBM as well but i think they've changed policy now) sent his away and it was gone for 2 weeks.

4.  Dell's laptops are linked heavily to sevice tag.  I.e. no prepherel purchases without giving them the service tag, and if the tag is reported stolen they will report it to the police if the laptop is located.  (a friend in perth had his laptop returned by the cops with a note from dell).

5.  Dell provides more documentation with their laptop than any other company (i can tell u excatly which screw fits into each hole on any part in the laptop and how to strip it appart, They are numbered  :Smile: : ).  I've done it.

6.  Dell forums are full of friendly people.  And there is a linux forum full of very knowledgable people.

7.  Did i mention part quality ? !!!!!

8.  Not sure about the laptop u are looking at but of 1 battery i get 4 hours, but this depedns from laptop to laptop so disregard this note.

9.  Lots of people on this forum have dell laptops, the hardware is familiar and other than for ATI radeon m6 video cards there is virtually endless support availuable here.

10.  The first 9 points should be enough. But remember dell is the number 1 computer company (this includes a sepearate laptop section although admittedly toshiba make better quality laptops dell has great support service).

All in all the only complaint i can ever make about dell is not regarding the laptop but rather that their central call centre is in tiwan or some other asian country and every so often you end up with a person who isn't that good at english!

That's my rant, dont argue with me my beliefs stay firm, and my experiences (even after my screen was cracked and replaced under warranty the next day) have been none other than excelent, so i won't rethink any future decisions to buy dell again.

end rant.

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## tyanni

I would agree with you on most of those points. However, having done work with Dell laptops and IBM laptops, the IBM's all feel like they are more solidly constructed. Dell's always feel flimsy, and I don't like their case at all. For a laptop that is going to be heavily used, I'd prefer an IBM. 

Tim

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## Garbz

true that but remember if mine breaks it will be fixed the next day   :Very Happy: 

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## kamikaz3

 *Garbz wrote:*   

> true that but remember if mine breaks it will be fixed the next day  

 

The only thing Dell should do is make the 600m available in Belgium (or even europe)

That's why I bought an acer TM 800 and I don't regret it.

I don't really care that it's fixed the next day, that doesn't count for my desktop PC either.

And the money I payed less (about 1000 euro) I save for a new laptop, which means I can upgrade much sooner then you.

Every thing has it's pro and contra, it's only a mather of what you like the most.

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## smiler.se

The TM800 LCi works like a charm under 2.6 with both bluetooth and firewire. To bad on that damn wlan NIC   :Evil or Very Mad: 

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## ScubaStreb

I've ordered a Dell Truemobile 1150 card to try out in the laptop.  They are $49.00 on the Dell site.  I'll let you know how it works when it comes in.

I'm very happy with my 800Xci.  The Xci is the same as the Lci, just with a smaller LCD.

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## Owiber

I got a Truemobile 1150 for my Dell D400 Centrino and it's worked great.  Use the orinoco modules I believe

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