Ultra-portable Notebook Computer Recommendation?

[Dave Noble]

I agree completely. I have used Thinkpad Trackpoint for many years. Last year I was using a Dell D820 for about 6 months and could not use its inferior trackpoint at all and had to resort to a USB mouse. Now I am back to Thinkpad (T60) and have not connect the external mouse at all and have disabled the touchpad.

I cant use the Dell equivalent of the trackpoint on the Dell POS that I have for some work and have to connect a mouse to it in order to use it

I have had T21, T41 and now T60 and love my Thinkpads. Mrs NM now has my Dell and I too would avoid unless you just cannot afford the Thinkpad. My D820 has been mostly reliable. I had a minor hardware issue (the Infra-red port failed) and Dell service was fantastic (way better than IBM) and sent a tech out to my home the following day and replaced the mother board. But I still believe the thinkpad is the best made laptop on the market.

That does depend on the warranty that you have taken... anyway, it is Lenovo not The Big Blue that provides the service these days

Dave

 

[simongr]

If anyone can find a way of disabling the touchpad on my Dell - without admin rights of any sort on the computer - please let me know.

I liked my old IBM T40 but for power/kilo I am very happy with the Dell 410.

I will however be trying to negotiate managing my own technology in my next role and will go for a macbook pro for home integration and more control over my own machine. I spend more time with this than I do mrssimongr...

 

[NM]

That does depend on the warranty that you have taken... anyway, it is Lenovo not The Big Blue that provides the service these days

Both were standard warranty provided with the system. I was impressed with the Dell warranty service, but not the computer. Now the Dell support for my Axim X50v is another story altogether .

 

[Commuter]

Thank you all. I have been tempted to at least give Lenovo a go in a shop, but I now have a major problem. Where I am, I only managed to actually see and feel Sony Vaio range, because I haven't found anyone stocking the X-series Lenovo (X-series is the light range, I think) or Toshiba Portege R range. I do like the sound of Dell D430, but again not being able to see it and feel it is a bit problematic for me (yes I'm antiquated, I know...).

In any case, I have to confess to having fallen in love with the screen on Sony TZ series. I was very wary about it being 11.1", but it does have an amazing clarity that makes me think I might have no problem with it being so small.

Mate, try and use one for a few days, and you will find it is much better then touch pads etc. You will never go back!!

The thing is... I did use it for a while and continued to dislike it (I have problems with my joints and it's probably due to that, rather than any fault of the 'equipment'). I do feel a bit like an outcast for disliking it

 

[Dave Noble]

Thank you all. I have been tempted to at least give Lenovo a go in a shop, but I now have a major problem.:

I don't think that lenovo uses many outlets where you can actually go and play with them; perhaps a call to them and see if there is anywhere

Dave

 

[Evan]

Never seen X series on display i dont think. But if your in a large city somebody like harris technology may have, also anoybody who sells to large companys may be able to pull one out of a box for you. But really i have never heard anybody dissapointed by the IBM/Leveno X series, a good honest robust work machine.

The Sony is much more sexy ! but for me atleast also a huge amount more money. The X series can usually be had at better rates due to the business market buying lots in AU. (I dont know of any company except a small one that uses sony as std equipment, not becuase they are bad usually just because companys get discount on PC gear if they buy servers etc)

E

 

[Mal]

Yeah agree about visiting Harris Tech. Probably the only place that may have them on display I can think of. You could try the Lenovo find a dealer site to check and see if someone local stocks them : Dealer Locator for Lenovo Asia Pacific

Keep in mind that the X Series is one of the laptops that don't have an inbuilt DVD/CD drive unless you dock it. They have a mobile docking base that you can carry around with you, but that will add to the weight and dimensions.

Here's the Australian Lenovo site where they discuss the X series.
Lenovo Australia - ThinkPad X Series

If you can sneak a purchase under a corporate contract, that's probably the best option. Corporate prices for the laptops are a huge discount over the retail prices.

 

[markis10]

Protege R Series can be had for around $1000 at Graysonline with 1 year Toshiba warranty, very nice and not paying full price, off course if you are not salary sacrificing a notebook then you are crazy in the first place!

 

[dot]

That does depend on the warranty that you have taken... anyway, it is Lenovo not The Big Blue that provides the service these days

Actually - service and repairs are done (in Australia anyway) by Solectron and have been since before Lenovo bought IBM's PC business. I have only had good experiences with them - no onsite visits, but on the rare occasions I have needed to get service involved - they have been extraordinarily fast - for instance the power input in my T41 was damaged - 2 days later, I had it back in my hands fully repaired under warranty including shipping from Melbourne to Solectron (in Sydney) and back again - they must have been waiting for it to arrive and told the courier to wait while it was repaired...

I've had a range of Thinkpads (648, 390, T20, T21, T40, T41, T60, T60P, X41Tablet, R31 - most of which are still in use apart from the really old ones) over the past 10 years and only needed service twice. I also am in favour of the pointstick - I never use a mouse these days except on my home PC and I always disable the trackpad. The pointstick gives me full control over the pointer without having to take my hands off the keyboard and without the miscues from my thumbs brushing against the trackpad.

Having used the X41 Tablet, I would have another (esp the X61 version) in a shot. The machine was light and flexible. The new top end X61's (Tablet or Conventional) have the dual core same CPU as the T61P an both can be expanded to 4Gb of RAM, just in a smaller form factor - if my company would let me, I would change my currently main PCs from a T60 and T60p to a X61 Tablet and T60P. (The P models are the perfomance models with faster CPUs, more memory and HDD as standard).

Lenovo have a much greater retail presence throughout Asia (I've seen Lenovo branded shops in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan) because IBM's PC Group in Australia elected to target corporate business and pulled out of the retail business (I think Harvey Norman were the last ones to stock IBM PCs a number of years ago now). Since the Lenovo takover, there has been greater retail presence and I have recently seen ads for mainstream chains offering Thinkpads - so, if you are in Asia, you could head to a Lenovo shop, if in Australia, hunt around, it will be much easier to find them in retail outlets now than it was (say) two years ago.

 

[Mal]

Actually - service and repairs are done (in Australia anyway) by Solectron and have been since before Lenovo bought IBM's PC business. I have only had good experiences with them - no onsite visits, but on the rare occasions I have needed to get service involved - they have been extraordinarily fast - for instance the power input in my T41 was damaged - 2 days later, I had it back in my hands fully repaired under warranty including shipping from Melbourne to Solectron (in Sydney) and back again - they must have been waiting for it to arrive and told the courier to wait while it was repaired...[/FONT]

Can only agree. Had to ship my T42 off to Solectron recently to have the main fan replaced. Living in BNE, I logged the call Wed arvo about 4pm. They picked the laptop up on Thursday morning, shipped it to SYD to arrive on Fri, it was fixed and shipped back to me on Fri and I received it first thing Monday. So lightning fast (excluding of course the weekend). I could pay extra $ and get onsite, but not really worried.

I have had earlier thinkpads, T40P, T42, T60 and other plays with IBM Thinkpads (and Lenovo) and have found few issues. Another good things about Lenovo service is that the call centre is based in Australia and the warranty claims I've had through them have been pretty good.

 

[NM]

Can only agree. Had to ship my T42 off to Solectron recently to have the main fan replaced. Living in BNE, I logged the call Wed arvo about 4pm. They picked the laptop up on Thursday morning, shipped it to SYD to arrive on Fri, it was fixed and shipped back to me on Fri and I received it first thing Monday. So lightning fast (excluding of course the weekend). I could pay extra $ and get onsite, but not really worried.

In my view, that is the only area that dell wins. My D820 came standard with 3 years on-site warranty. And when I needed to call upon it, there was a technician at my door the next day and I was going about an hour later. No need to pay extra for the on-site warranty.

But I still choose to use this T60 and let Mrs NM use the D820 .

 

[Yada Yada]

If anyone can find a way of disabling the touchpad on my Dell - without admin rights of any sort on the computer - please let me know.

You may be able to disable it in the BIOS, if you can get into it at boot up.

 

[simongr]

You are a genius!!!!!

I have been wanting to kill that touchpad ever since I got the computer... only downside is that the nipple does not now work at all so if mouse is not plugged in I cant do anything (e.g. when in flight) - I need to reset it - bit more tweaking and I might get there.

Thanks so much for that

 

[Soundguy]

Tweaking the nipple..... what sort of computer geek talk is this?? :shock:

 

[simongr]

That is as close as the geeks get - talking about it and they are only talking about a laptop...

 

[Commuter]

Because I really liked the screen of a tiny little Sony Vaio, I ended up ordering it. I am, however, thinking of getting an X60s through work. (I need a personal one and work one because I can't load any of my own software onto the work laptop).

 

[serfty]

You are a genius!!!!!

I have been wanting to kill that touchpad ever since I got the computer... only downside is that the nipple does not now work at all so if mouse is not plugged in I cant do anything (e.g. when in flight) - I need to reset it - bit more tweaking and I might get there.

Thanks so much for that

I don't have a DELL available to test this on, but the "Mouse" Option in the "Control Panel" may be your friend.

Open it up and select the "Hardware" tab and highlight the Touch Pad device. (This should be something like "Synaptics PS/2 port Touchpad".)

Click on the "Properties" button and when the properties windows appears look for "Device Usage" near the bottom.

If it is highlighted, select "Do not use this device (disable)". Click OK in the properties window, then OK in the Mouse window and you should be set.

If you cant see or change the "Device Usage" setting, then close the properties window and look for the "Touch" tab beside the Hardware Tab(?). Click on that and there may be an check-box to "Disable this device". If so, click it ensuring it remains 'ticked'. Click OK in the Mouse window and you should be set.

Hopefully this will disable the touchpad without affecting the "pointing stick" (nipple).

Failing this, perhaps upgrading your drivermay assist. Assuming you have a Synaptics touchpad then try this:

1. Download and install the Synaptics driver Synaptics :: Drivers
2. Restart
3. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings Tab
4. retry the above

Cheers (and good luck) ...

 

[simongr]

Sadly I can't access properties in the control - these are severely locked down machines - cant even run disk cleanup... another reason for managing my own IT in the future if at all possible...

 

[browski]

Getting back on topic, I am also in the buyer's market and have narrowed it down to:

Lenovo IBM Thinkpad T61
Dell Latitude D630
Dell XPS 1330
Sony Vaio VGN-TZ11XN
Dell Latitude D430

I am leaning towards the Dell Latitude D630
Though not "ultraportable" , it is still reasonably light (starting at 2KG, 14.1" screen) but retains full power:
2.4 GhZ Core 2 Duo Processor
4GB RAM
160 GB hard Drive

More importantly if like me, you travel to the developing world, it still retains options for now redundant ports such as 9-pin serial ports, RJ-11 (Telephone line - old school!), Floppy disk drive option!
It also come with 4 x USB ports and a DVD burner, Docking option, Spare battery, Spare Powers supply AND an AUTO air power adapter.

So maybe a cop out becasue not technically "Ultra Portable" but pretty tasty nonetheless with lots of bang for the bucks.

 

[Yada Yada]

No-one has mentioned Fujitsu yet so I'll put my $0.02 in...

I've been using Fujitsu notebook computers for the past 5 years and have been very happy with them. My previous two were the "S" series which is not the smallest they have (that is the "P" series) but combines a relatively small form factor with decent processing power. They are really very compatible computers, meaning that they don't rely on lots of customised vendor-specific drivers.

My latest Fujitsu is the T4215 which is a Tablet enabled notebook. I've had if for approx 4 months and is the best I've had. I selected to take it with WinXP Tablet Edition but after installing the latest Microsoft patches for that version of the OS it became very unstable and I had to rebuild it a few times. I eventually gave up on that and upgraded to Vista Business edition and it's been running beautifully ever since. A lot of people knock Vista but I have found it to be much better than XP. Having 2Gb RAM on board helps.

Specs include:
- Intel Core2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB)
- 2Gb DDR2 667MHz RAM
- Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG/3945BG network connection
- 12.1-inch XGA TFT display, 1024 x 768 pixels, transmissive with active digitiser
- DVD/CR-RW combo drive
- 80GB Hard Disk
- Weight Approx. 1.98kg (with weight saver option)

And importantly, it has a light grey coloured keyboard. I've had notebooks in the past with black keys - on a dimly-lit plane I struggle to read the lettering on the keys!

More details here.