I need a laptop.

[OneOfMany]

I also picked up an Acer Iconia tab for my daughter. Has a dockable keyboard, plus all of the LAN, HDMI, USB, SD stuff. Of course I'm a MS fanboy and love using Placeshifter and Client on it. She also is using the obligatory MS Office suite, Photoshop, and all those other PC apps lol.

Also played with the ASUS Eee transformer. Same idea but Android 3.0 based. Nice unit, but I'm not a fan of apps in the new app sense.

Lenovos are also nice, however some of the entry-level ones we've sold lately have had some RMA issues. Higher-end are generally rock-solid

Grant

[panteragstk]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I didn't even think about the whole student discount thing. I'm going to need to check into that.

[OneOfMany]

Brought my daughters tablet to work today. Just fired up Placeshifter and listening to some tunes, want to watch a couple of live shows today.

Grant

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by OneOfMany

Brought my daughters tablet to work today. Just fired up Placeshifter and listening to some tunes, want to watch a couple of live shows today.

Grant

You've got me interested in that acer tablet. I'd love to have a tablet due to the fact that I have a crapload of math to go through (and relearn, 4 years of no college will do that), but none of them except a very expensive Asus tablet has a decent writing interface. What about that acer?

EDIT: Just looked at a review on amazon and I think I may have changed my plan. You can write on this tablet with a capacitive stylus so I'll use it quite a bit more than I thought. Thanks for pointing it out. I just hope the AMD APU is decent.

[gplasky]

Samsung just announced some accessories for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 like:

The $80 Ultra Productivity Tool, meanwhile, also charges the device and includes a full-sized keyboard with Android shortcut keys. The $150 Premium Protective case turns the Tab into a makeshift notebook with a full-size Bluetooth keyboard and a hinge that lets the user adjust the tab's viewing angle.

Also a stylus.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 accessories

Gerry

[panteragstk]

Interesting. I wonder how well it will work when trying to write with the stylus?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Interesting. I wonder how well it will work when trying to write with the stylus?

As long as you're not a doctor it should work fine.

Most people can type faster than they can write legibly. I think it also tries to guess the word as you write.

Gerry

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by gplasky

As long as you're not a doctor it should work fine.

Most people can type faster than they can write legibly. I think it also tries to guess the word as you write.

Gerry

The writing aspect would actually be used for math. It is either that or take notes and write equations on paper with pencil like I used to. Some of those equations can be pages long. Maybe I should just get a giant chalkboard?

[VCRUser]

I'm a big fan of Lenovo Thinkpads I just got an x220 for a project at work, and so far so good. I particularly like the trackpoint (eraser-head) that can be used instead of a track pad, which always cramps my hands. With the ThinkPad, you get both, and can enable either or both, or plug in a mouse when convenient. Ultra-light weight is a must for me (mine is about 3 pounds), because I can't lift very much. (It also seems to do well as a PlaceShifter client).

[stevech]

I put a 64GB solid state disk in my laptop some time ago.
Wow.
Boots fast now.
I don't worry so much about bumping the spinning hard disk and crashing the heads.

Battery life improved greatly.

I then bought a 3rd party gizmo permitting me to slide in/out a 2.5 inch hard disk in the DVD bay, replacing the DVD when needed. I put that drive in as needed.

You'd think 64GB is too small. But I used this professionally, have MS Office, lots of documents, Visual Studio, an ARM C compiler, blah blah and it's only half full after all this time. (I also have the same SSD in my tower computer at home as the boot drive. I'm careful to put all my downloads and junk on the eSATA drive.)

[rgroves]

Lenovo all the way.


What ever you get watch out for the warranty if you buy from Staples, Best Buy, or other Big Box Stores.... all their models are Depot ONLY warranty which means you have to contact the manufacturer and then sent it to them (you pay the shipping), they keep it for 3-8 weeks for repairs) and then they send it back to you.

Get a manufacturer ON-SITE, Next Business Day Warranty. This way somoene has to get parts to you or come to you with parts to fix it within 1 business day. This will cost you a little more but it's worth it. If you have to be without your laptop for several weeks you'll be hating life.

Also, if you plan on being rough on it, you'll definitely want an Accidental Damage Warranty. This will save your a$$ if your drop it and the screen cracks, or you spill a drink in it, it gets hit with lightning, run over, punched by a stree thug, etc... It'll run you an extra $200-$400 but pays for itself after one major repair.

Just a quick run down of estimated replacement costs on most 15" laptops...
Windows PC:
Screen - $150-$400+
system board - $$150-$500+
HDD - $50-$400
RAM - $15-$200
Laptop chassis (tops case, bottom case, screen bezel, or back) - $50-$200
keyboard - $20-$75
optical drive - $40-$150

Estimated MacBook/MacBook Pro repairs:
LCD - $400-$800 (If it's a Unibody MAC, you're looking at the light end maybe over $800).
System board - $400-$1500 (Not kidding, some sysbd's are as espensive as a new system).
Keyboard - $75-200
optical - $50-$200
RAM - $20-$200
chassis - $80-$400

These are mostly parts only prices I have figured on some recent repairs (I work for a repair shop authorized in Apple, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, ASUS, HP and other manufacturers for warranty work), we'll work on anything if it's a non-warranty repair. Most shops will also charge $75/hr for non-warranty, and $0 for warranty (of course).

Additional notes - Most all Dell's are Depot warranty UNLESS you upgrade the warranty.

DO NOT GET THE BIG BOX STORE WARRANTY. It's cr@p, they WILL NOT repair your laptop in shop, they'll send it off and you'll be without for 6-8 weeks.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by rgroves

Lenovo all the way.


What ever you get watch out for the warranty if you buy from Staples, Best Buy, or other Big Box Stores.... all their models are Depot ONLY warranty which means you have to contact the manufacturer and then sent it to them (you pay the shipping), they keep it for 3-8 weeks for repairs) and then they send it back to you.

Get a manufacturer ON-SITE, Next Business Day Warranty. This way somoene has to get parts to you or come to you with parts to fix it within 1 business day. This will cost you a little more but it's worth it. If you have to be without your laptop for several weeks you'll be hating life.

Also, if you plan on being rough on it, you'll definitely want an Accidental Damage Warranty. This will save your a$$ if your drop it and the screen cracks, or you spill a drink in it, it gets hit with lightning, run over, punched by a stree thug, etc... It'll run you an extra $200-$400 but pays for itself after one major repair.

Just a quick run down of estimated replacement costs on most 15" laptops...
Windows PC:
Screen - $150-$400+
system board - $$150-$500+
HDD - $50-$400
RAM - $15-$200
Laptop chassis (tops case, bottom case, screen bezel, or back) - $50-$200
keyboard - $20-$75
optical drive - $40-$150

Estimated MacBook/MacBook Pro repairs:
LCD - $400-$800 (If it's a Unibody MAC, you're looking at the light end maybe over $800).
System board - $400-$1500 (Not kidding, some sysbd's are as espensive as a new system).
Keyboard - $75-200
optical - $50-$200
RAM - $20-$200
chassis - $80-$400

These are mostly parts only prices I have figured on some recent repairs (I work for a repair shop authorized in Apple, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, ASUS, HP and other manufacturers for warranty work), we'll work on anything if it's a non-warranty repair. Most shops will also charge $75/hr for non-warranty, and $0 for warranty (of course).

Additional notes - Most all Dell's are Depot warranty UNLESS you upgrade the warranty.

DO NOT GET THE BIG BOX STORE WARRANTY. It's cr@p, they WILL NOT repair your laptop in shop, they'll send it off and you'll be without for 6-8 weeks.

I appreciate that. Having worked at a big box store I'm well aware of what to get and what not to. The accidental warranty is the only thing I'd even consider. I've been repairing computers longer than I'd like to admit so any issues with it aren't a problem. I usually don't buy any type of warranty, but the accidental has saved people I know more than once.

Thanks for all the advice guys.