Re: Laptop recomendation?
User Mark M wrote::
Hi, Apologies if this is OT.
I have never bought a laptop before and was hoping for some
recomendations.
[...]
There were some of the Linux-Magazine articles (in 2001 and 2004) about
notebooks and linux tests.
Here is what I found in the archives (in german only):
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2001/01/Notebook/notebook.html
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2001/04/Notebook-Test/notebook.html
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Service/Listings/2001/04/Notebook-Test
I the Polish version of Linux-Magazine notebooks test was published in
Oct 2004, No 9.
They tested following notebooks:
Acer Travelmate 662 LCi
Asus M6700N
Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S7010
IBM Thinkpad R51
IBM Thinkpad X40
Sony Vaio VGN-A 115S
LG LM50
Here I pasted the test results in short (plus/minus) published by
Linux-Magazine Polish Edition:
Acer Travelmate 662 LCi
Plus:
+ longest time or battery life from all tested notebooks (about 4:43 h,
but Acer says it will work 5 h)
+ Great screen with 1400x1050 res, but it works best with max. 1280x1024
Minus:
- not comfortable or strange keyboard, it is hard to learn it
- smart cards reader is not working under Linux
- AC adapter plugin blocks DVD-ROM and it is hard to open it when AC is
plugged in
Asus M6700N
Plus:
+ great screen with 1280x800 resolution
+ price
+ SpeedStep works OK
+ 4h battery life
Minus:
- height weight
- CPU Throttling does not work
- Linux hangs after using standby, suspend to ram, suspend to disk
- Mandrake Linux is not working (installer does not even start), Fedora
& Suse works great
Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S7010
Plus:
+ nice look and solid case
+ long life battery
+ 3:45h battery life
+ new way of battery charging which starts when the battery mAh is about
20%, that prevents for the situation called "charging till death" which
causes the battery dies after 1-2 years because user uses AC adapter
when battery is in the notebook what kills battery. So, it is nice
feature which saves your money ;-)
Minus:
- too soft keyboard (I don't know that does it mean ;-)
- problems with WLAN and ACPI, temp indicator and CPU Throttling do not work
- price
IBM Thinkpad R51
Plus:
+ reach equipment i.e. povides trackpoint along with touchpad, so you
can use what fits your needs better
+ 4:20h battery life
+ very well ACPI support (suspend to ram, temp. indicator, CPU throtl.
and speedstep work great)
+
Minus:
- problms with suspend to disk and standby (no hang, no reaction)
- case seems to be not very long life
IBM Thinkpad X40
Plus:
+ very small (maller than A4 paper sheet), only 1.3 Kg !!!
+ case made with metal covered by something like thin rubber, so no
fingerprints are visible ;-)))
+ Thinkpad X40 easily boots from USB 2.0 drives
+ 3h battery life (it i possible to use double size battery)
Minus:
- price
- no optical drive (because of its small size)
- no FireWire
- docking station is required for optical drive for about 230 Euro +
200Euro for DVD, or you can use USB optical drive as an alternative
- suspend to ram does not work
Sony Vaio VGN-A 115S
On plus the rest are minuses ;-)
Plus:
+ DVD recorder
Minus:
- screen light reflections
- low resoluton screen
- very height power usage, low battery life
- hard to extend
- DVD drive may not be exchanged with additional battery as it is
possible in the tested notebooks above
LG LM50
Plus:
+ rich equipment
+ long battery life
+ solid case
+ price
Minus:
- not well working ACPI
- touchpad is not working under Linux
Best regards
--
Mateusz Łoskot, mateusz (at) loskot (dot) net
Registered Linux User #220771, Debian (Sarge)
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