Best notebook computer?

by philg

More than three years ago, I started a thread here on the ideal laptop configuration: http://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2004/02/14/ideal-laptop-configuration/

What has changed in three years? Apparently not that much in the hard drive realm. I wanted 120 GB and this is apparently still a stretch (though bizarrely some Toshiba models (A205?) claim either to have a 200 GB drive in them or two hard drives plus a DVD drive and yet they are not especially heavy).

What do I want? Mostly the same things:

  • Windows operating system (aviation software is Windows-only and, without that software to keep databases up to date, a plane will become illegal for instrument flight)
  • Medium-sized display, 14- or 15-inches (with medium resolution; I don’t want to be straining my eyes on tiny fonts)
  • TrackPoint pointing stick or similar (the nub in the middle of the IBM Thinkpad; I can’t use a trackpad)
  • big hard drive(s) for storing digital photos
  • built-in socket for CF cards and possibly SD and other cards
  • built-in Webcam and microphone for video/audio conferencing
  • reasonable quality playback of DVDs, ideally from the built-in speakers
  • built-in mobile phone-based Internet radio (my pet idea of having a universal wireless 802.11 network in the U.S. is apparently not going to happen within my lifetime)

What are the best laptops on the market that meet most of these specs? As far as I have seen, Toshiba is the only company that claims outsized hard drive capacity. Dell and Lenovo are the two with pointing sticks. The built-in Webcam/microphone idea does not seem to have become universal.

18 thoughts on “Best notebook computer?”

  1. Oddly, your laptop is getting harder to find. Trackpoints are very hard to find now, it’s almost all touchpads. Thinkpads at least still have them. CF slots are vanish (too big, even for laptops) so we will be stuck with USB adapters for that, or pc-card adapters if they still have pc-card slots.

    Thinkpad Z61 looks very appealing to me. You can get just about all that in it but no CF slot any more. And 4.5lbs. I have not yet seen one in person or I would have bought it by now. The Thinkpad x60s has the verizon radio built in, you might want to check that out, but no DVD drive on that except in the base, and the screen res is small, except on the very expensive tablet model. No webcam either (the z61 has that)

    You can get by without the DVD — just rip your movies to the hard drive. Probably handier anyway and might even use less power unless you turn off the hard drive while playing a movie, I guess. I mostly want to move tv shows from my mythtv box rather than movies, a collection of shorter stuff is better than a long movie which you might not finish on the plane.

    You can also run linux and then run a virtualizer on top of it to run your windows software if it won’t wine.

  2. There are other reasons to rule out Apple, not least of which is that it won’t meet your various other requirements (built in phone-based Internet radio, CF slot, trackpoint), but Parallels on a Mac will let you use all your aviation software. I update my GNS530 and 430 using my Mac and the SkyBound USB card writer with a bluetooth 3G phone to provide internet connectivity. Works perfectly.

  3. The laptop you want is a 15 inch MacBook Pro. Seriously. Starts at 1999.00.
    Boot to windows or run windows in Parallels. 15 inch display. Track point not available but it is a multi-touch trackpad. I bring along a logitech mouse. 120, 160, and 200 gb hard drives. No built in card reader but you can use an express card that plugs in and stays in the computer or use the firewire 800 port to suck the files off a CF card with a Sandisk reader as fast as your card is able to put out. Built-in Webcam and microphone. SuperDrive 6x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). As to the networking Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11n) Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) I’ve used the bluetooth with Sprint and my Treo 650 with mixed results. YMMV.

    I use a 17″ MacBook Pro and run Parallels on it for the must have Windows only apps. I have no regrets.

  4. I have a Toshiba Tecra S3 bought 12/’05 with a 90 gb hard drive and close to the specs you are seeking. Overall, I’m not that happy with it for two reasons: 1) it runs really hot, compared with several previous Dells I’ve owned. My brother left it running on a carpet for 30 minutes and that killed the video card. 2) the hard drive is slow, as it’s CPU bound. Any significant disk activity occupies the processor so much that it can’t be used for multitasking. I wish they would have put in an intelligent disk controller. If you want, I’ll bring it when I see you on the 15th.

  5. There are 200GB 2.5″ hard drives available, but they’re 4200RPM. It is really better to have a 120GB drive at 7200RPM if you don’t have to have the additional capacity, because the higher transfer speed will make a huge difference.

  8. Mike: I visited an office today with some brand new $2000 Macintosh laptops. We wanted to copy the contents of a CF card (from a digital camera) onto one of the hard drives. None of the Mac laptops had a CF card reader (a standard item on a cheapo Dell laptop that I bought a year ago). And none had a pointing stick. So it would seem that the Macintosh products are missing two of the items on my specs. I was hoping that I could get them all!

    Rob: I haven’t looked too much at the Foleo. It doesn’t have hard drives, does it? So it can’t replace a desktop for people who collect photos, music, videos.

  9. I wonder if the Foleo would work with one of Western Digital’s passport HD’s. They are USB powered and I know are available at 160 GB.

  10. Check out the Sony Vaio VGN-FZ145E/B – it’s got a 15.4 inch (1280×800) display, 120GB hard drive, 2 GB RAM, memory card reader, webcam-microphone, Windows Vista Premium loaded and weighs 5.75 pounds. Don’t know about the Trackpoint thing though.

  11. hi,

    I never tried Sony VAIO but the VGN-SZ440 CTO series seems to have most of the list except the pointing stick and begins at $1196

    for $1900
    200gb (doesn’t say speed), intel core duo t5500 1.66ghz, motion eye camera, dvd rw, 13.3 wxga br, windows vista business, Integrated Biometric Fingerprint Sensor, from the picture does look like it has card reader

    http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=20007001

  14. Isaac: External HD? I’ve reached the age where I can barely find my ass with both hands. How am I supposed to keep track of which extra boxes I need to cart around with a laptop? I bought a Toshiba Tablet PC last time, out of boredom with my old Thinkpad, and the external DVD drive was a horrifically bad idea. You ended up needing to lug around an extra drive and an extra power adaptor just to watch a movie in a hotel room. Then the external drive failed due to being thrown into my daypack. Then I ordered another one from amazon.com and it showed up, weighing nearly as much as the tablet itself. I want everything in one box so that I can throw it all away in three years.

  15. My first filter when picking a laptop was TrackPoint/eraserhead availability. I’ve tried the Dell D610 and ThinkPad T42p (after having a T21 and 600X). The D610 was fine, in the completely average sense of the word. Using it for 3 months, replete with not-quite-solid screen hinge and not-quite-firm keyboard, made me appreciate T-series engineering all over again. D610 is like the Hertz ads: “ThinkPad? Not exactly.”

    When an eraserhead is a must, go IBM T/X series and upgrade or adapt.

  16. Phillip,

    The Sony VAIO BX Series of notebook computers might be your best bet. The BX series DOES come with a trackpoint device and has a built-in video camera. It doesn’t have a CF card slot, but it does have a SD card slot (plus a Sony memory stick slot).

    Here’s a link to one of its 15.4″ WXGA model on the CDW website (that has a photo confirming the trackpoint device on the keyboard):

    http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/specs.aspx?EDC=1039673

  17. I’ve only been a MAC semi-user for less than a year (unless you count a little time back in 1986), but I’m sold. My primary every day machine is a Mac Mini running windows XP and driving a 24″ monitor at 1920×1200. My next laptop is definitely going to be a Macbook pro, also dual-booting Max OS X and Windows XP. You can think of Intel Macs as true PCs with a free Mac thrown in. BTW, I used to be a track-stick-only man but my bulletproof 3.5 pound, nearly 6-year old Dell C400 has converted me to the trackpad, even though it has the track-stick as well. Once you configure all the neat features of the track pad (hot corners, tap-and-a-half for dragging, scroll edges), there’s no going back to that little eraser thingy;-)

  18. BTW, even though I have some cameras that use CF cards, all my new ones use SD. Anyway, my monitor at home has slots for every kind of memory card in the side, but when I’m out and about, I simply use the camera’s USB cable to transfer pictures to my laptop(or any other computer). I really like that a lot of devices are standardizing on the USB-to-mini-USB cable. I usually carry just one USB cable with me and it allows me to connect either my Blackberry or my camera to my laptop and I can also charge my Blackberry using the same cable plus use that very same cable to use my Blackberry as a broadband modem. I also carry a Verizon PC card, which gives me two networks (Verizon with the PC card and Sprint with my tethered Blackberry). If I’m on a trip with someone else doing the driving, I can usually work from the passenger seat the whole way with about 80% of the efficiency of sitting home at my desk. All that with a 6 year old laptop, one PC card, my phone, and one cable. One of the things I’ll definitely miss when I retire my present laptop is the “big battery”, it’s an optional thing that doubles the thickness of the laptop, but lets you go about 5 hours even with a perpetual wireless connection. It’s a nice feature that the big battery can be charged separate from the laptop, too. Sure, it becomes a 5.8 pound laptop then, but it’s pretty super if you’re out camping or just sitting out anywhere on a beautiful day. If I know I’m not going to need my laptop for more than 4 hours while I’m out, I don’t even bring an A/C cord with me.

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