So…he’ll have to wait and see :)
To recap :- The three notebooks that I was now considering were the D600/800, the 15″ Apple Powerbook and the IBM Thinkpad T42. Let me start off by saying that it was a difficult choice. None of the notebooks I considered were universally applauded. There were many different tales about heat issues, dead pixels, poor design, poor quality, lemons. The list goes on. As you can imagine, I was quite disturbed. Imagine my situation. I’m about to put down over $3000 CDN on a laptop and I can’t even be sure that the model I’m going to buy is without defects. Is it just me, or has the tech industry’s commitment to quality declined in their pursuit of ever lower costs?
But, I digress.
I’ve already covered the Powerbook, so I’ll step right ahead to the Dell D800 and the IBM T42. Those who know me know that I’ve always considered Dell the value leader in the marketplace. With their agressive pricing, strict assembly-line mentality and the ability to squeeze out ever more from their suppliers, its no wonder that Dells have been eating away at every other computer manufacturer’s marketshare. It was with this attitude in mind that I considered the Dell D800.
What’s interesting to note before I go any further is that I managed to enter the market _just_ at the time Intel revamped their Centrio lineup by releasing the Dothan (built on a 90nm core w/ 2MB L2 cache…what a processor…). Now the question I have to ask myself is – buy now, or wait for Calexico to come out?
Specifications (as configured) Dell D800:
Processor: Pentium-M 1.7 Ghz
L2 Cache: 2MB
Bus Speed: 400 MHz
RAM: 512MB DDR (333 MHz) 1 SODIMM
Display: 15.4″ WSXGA+
Video: GeForce FX Go 5200 (AGP 4X) w/ 64 MB VRAM
Hard Drive: 60 GB 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: CD-RW/DVD-ROM 8x DVD (r) 24x CD-RW (w) 24x CD-R (w) 24x CD-R/RW (r)
Wireless: 802.11b/g + Bluetooth
Ports: Modem, 10/100 ENet, 2 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE1394 (FW400), line in, headphone out, serial, parallel, VGA, S-Video, 1 PC-Card slot (Type I/II), IrDA, Dell D-Bay, SmartCard reader
Input: Trackpoint + Trackpad
Casing: Tri-Metal Chassis (w/ plastic overlay)
Weight: 7.0 lb
Dimensions (HxLxW) 1.5″ x 14.2″ x 10.8″
Battery Life: 5 hrs
Price: 2544 USD + tax
Wow.
First thing to notice – the price is cheaper than the Apple for better hardware specifications. I’m purposely ignoring any added value the OS brings. However, the Powerbook had a few big advantages – namely its size and casing…
[sighs]
I’m very tired, so I’ll continue this tomorrow. Suffice it to say however, that now I was leaning heavily towards _not_ buying the Powerbook.