Re: lazy saturday notebook comparo (long)
On Sat, 18 Aug 2001, Andrew Sharp wrote:
> I can't resist wading into this silly discussion. If you care about
> MacOS or Windows, my opinions are worthless, just hit delete now.
>
> The thing is, x86 laptop prices capabilities are far in excess of
> apple's meager offerings. I just went to dell.com and configured an
> inspiron 4000 with:
>
> * 1GHz P3
> * 512MB memory
> * 59Whour battery
> * 30GB hard drive
> * 1400x1050 14.1" screen (sorry tibook)
> * aty128 w/8MB memory (agp4x I think)
> * combo dvd/cdrw drive
> * modem and ethernet 10/100 built in
> * free lexmark32 printer, or palm m100, or umax 3400 USB scanner
> $2926.00USD, $2876.00 after $50 mail in rebate.
does the dell have wireless ethernet and firewire built in? really, im
just asking...
the thing that turns me off from dell, sony, and other intel laptops is
their miserable battery life and fans. they all have fans, as far as i
can tell, and they all seem to run more or less ocntinuously. my tibook
fan never comes on unless i compile xfree86 with the machine sitting on
shag carpet. battery life on the intels is usually pretty terrible. i
was talking to a guy at the bay area wireless users group, and he said
with two batteries in his machine, he can watch a dvd movie that is under
two hours. keep in mind that this machine wieghs at least 9 pounds with
both batteries installed.
compare that with the tibook. i once watched 'the thin red line' on an
airplane, and that move is almost or more than three hours.
oh, did i mention that the widescreen tibook is way better than a
square-screened laptop for watching movies? there is less wasted space on
the screen, and therefore a larger picture. an anamorphic dvd on a 4:3
screen looks positively skinny, but on the tibook it looks pretty natural.
anyway the real cinch for me with the tibook is the battery life. i don't
think any intel laptop can touch it, even with two heavy batteries
installed.
you're right about the ibook2, it rocks.
later,
jeffrey
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