Re: Opinions on Presario laptop?

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "phillipalder"  on Tue, 13
May 2003 20:37:21 -0400


> When I bought my next ThinkPad, this generosity had been reduced to twelve
> months, but whenever I have called tech. support, even after the one-year
> period, my questions have always been answered with no hassle.

Just got a T40 for my daughter to take to college. 3-year on-site "EZServ"
service warranty (although she better squeeze 4 years out of it).

> The snags are: ThinkPads cost more, they weigh more and, as Jordan
> mentioned, the batteries do not last that long.

The T40 battery runs 9 hours nonstop. Weight 4 pounds. Cost USD 2300 "special
Net price". 80 gig hard drive, 15 inch 1400x1050 screen, 1.6GHz Pentium-M,
Bluetooth, wireless Net, CD-RW/DVD, great graphics card -- the works.

I was just this moment using my wife's Dell Inspiron 4000. Ugliest screen
expansion I've ever seen in DOS full screen mode. But here's my major
complaint (true also of my son's Dell Inspiron 7500): the keyboard just
doesn't work right with old DOS programs like XyWrite. I have to hold down the
Shift key to get it to Backspace, Delete, Insert, PgUp/Down, Cursor any
direction. The video is cruddy too: when I run XyWrite full screen, then
shift back once to the desktop, then try to return to my fullscreen session,
XyWrite is frozen. Lousy network cards. I think Dell is garbage (and of
course I was trying to save a few pennies too -- but it isn't that much cheaper
than IBM, in fact).

Dells also have the loudest goddamn fans I ever heard in notebooks. Bloody
things keep turning on and off. Drives me crazy to be in the same room with
them. Whereas I literally cannot hear this T40 -- I have to flatten my ear
against the machine to hear anything at all.

Personally, I'm addicted to an optical mouse. Carry one around with me
everywhere. They're just great -- the only M$ product I've bought for years.
Intellimouse Explorer. I even tried the wireless one, but it's a PITA because,
to preserve the 2 AA batteries in the mouse, it times out (sleeps) after a very
few minutes, and takes forever to "wake up" when you want to resume work --
very annoying. I don't much like the TrackPoint thingee on Thinkpads either --
but the T40 also has one of those touch screens, where you slide your finger
around, or tap it to "click", as a duplicative alternative to the button gadget.

A minor irritation with TPs is that they're distributed with preloaded
operating systems, plus a hidden partition that contains a restoration copy of
the preload for emergencies. If you have to use it, it wipes the disk and
returns the machine to its initial unconfigured condition -- you lose your
added programs and settings. So you need to adopt another strategy for backups
(a firewire drive is the best option, because cheap and huge). Plus they
deliver the machine with one single gigantic (MBR, non-dynamic) partition, so
the first thing you need to do is get out Partition Magic, and break the disk
down into smaller (primary and logical) drives. Other manufacturers probably
do the same thing (deliver a single partition) -- really stupid.

I've been accused (mostly by Annie) of being an apologist or shill for IBM.
Actually, very little of my hardware is IBM. But I've always considered them
to be a class act. My travel machine is a loaded T23 -- a real soldier. I
lost my hard drive (through my own abuse), they replaced it. The phone support
is first rate, and the web support is superlative. They're activists about
updated drivers, BIOS, programs -- all of it identified and uploaded
automatically. Meticulous instructions. A genuine interest in compatibility
with Linux, DOS, OS/2 also. All in all, if you want a powerful, reliable
notebook, Thinkpads deliver.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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