New IBM laptop - Is this the right PC at the right price

A

amanbhai

#1
These days we see new ads of new laptop intel centrino, the thing that bothers me is the price since IBM is offering ( less than Dell )very low price less than C$1000 with cd burner/dvd combo 256 mb ram, 40 Gb hard drive, etc.
I want to ask any expert is this is right PC at the right price or there's anything hidden that buyer should know those who have little or no knowledge about computers.
 
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Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#2
To see if anything is suspicious about that price, try comparing it in a line-by-line face-off with similar Dell products. Since the memory and hard drive really isn't that big, I am not suspicious of the price.

I didn't note the laptop model, but you can find reviews on web sites such as ZDnet http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Notebooks/2001-3121_16-0.html, PC World http://www.pcworld.com/resource/infocenter/0,ctrid,5,ic,Laptops,00.asp, and CNET http://google2-cnet.com.com/2001-3121_7-0.html?part=google2-cnet&subj=34184&tag=34184 .

I hope this helps!
 

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#3
Just as an aside - IBM has sold off its PC business (desk and notebook) to a Chinese company. This sale may be clearing out existing stock as part of bowing out of the business.

I'm still shopping for a laptop myself. The price you cite does not seem especially low. Consider for only a few hundred more, you can get laptops with more RAM and hard drives twice as big and with DVD writing drives, not just CD writing drives.

Note that MS is coming out soon with a new Operating System which will make current XP seem obsolete. Note further that some of our Covers make a point that XP Professional is preferred over XP Home for current OS. Be sure to check for wireless connectivity and sufficient USB ports to add printers, camera input, etc.

A big consideration is whether this will be a "replacement" machine for a desktop or whether you will be traveling with it. That factor alone may impact screen size and subsequent weight which will affect your decision.

Does anyone have a link to a good checklist for best features to have on a laptop and the purpose for having that feature? I know I have an idiosyncrasy about using a mouse versus a touch pad, so I need a machine which has an easy way to add a mouse. Another important thing is keyboard size and "feel" because I type a lot of text and some of the tiny keyboards make me feel like I'm wearing 16 ounce boxing gloves.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#4
As Wes pointed out, IBM sold its PC business to the Chinese firm Lenovo earlier this year. You can read about the transaction here: IBM Sells PC Unit to Lenovo
IBM retains a minority share of the business, and the deal allows Lenovo to use the IBM name for five years.

In general, Thinkpads are well-regarded, and the price you cite seems about right, and perhaps a bit on the high side. The laptop market is very volatile right now and prices keep going lower it seems. The equivalent of the Dell laptop I bought a little over a year ago can now be had for about half of what I paid. I lean towards Dell personally, in part because they're the only OEM I know of that still supplies a complete OS installation disk, as opposed to the "restore" disks and/or hidden hard drive partitions that other OEMs use. (Microsoft requires OEMs to provide a means of restoring the hard drive to its as-sold condition.)
My only other advice would be to get as much RAM and disk space as you can afford; the 256Mb you cite should be considered a bare minimum; 512 is much better. Whether or not more than 512 will be advantageous depends on the types of applications you run, and how many of them you have open at the same time.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#5
Wes Bucey said:
Note that MS is coming out soon with a new Operating System which will make current XP seem obsolete. Note further that some of our Covers make a point that XP Professional is preferred over XP Home for current OS.
It will make XP actually obsolete in time. But I recommend steering clear of new MS OSs for a while; MS has a track record for releasing them before they're ready.

Wes Bucey said:
Does anyone have a link to a good checklist for best features to have on a laptop and the purpose for having that feature?
Laptop Buying Guide is a good place to start.

Wes Bucey said:
I know I have an idiosyncrasy about using a mouse versus a touch pad, so I need a machine which has an easy way to add a mouse. Another important thing is keyboard size and "feel" because I type a lot of text and some of the tiny keyboards make me feel like I'm wearing 16 ounce boxing gloves.
I know the feeling. When using the laptop at home, it's possible to connect a standard USB keyboard, but unfortunately one of the tradeoffs involved in portability is the size of the keyboard.
 
J

JerryStem

#6
I wouldn't buy a laptop with less than 512mb Ram myself. 256 is about the bare minimum for the OS itself anymore... Even my 3 yr old Compaq had 512mb, for a decent price at the time (about $1100 for an XP1800+, 512, 40gig, cdrw/dvd rom, USB1.1, 15", 10/100, XP Home, back around 2002).

We can talk about the new OS, but when will we actually see it? I'm not holding my breath, it's been consistently pushed back & losing features at every discussion. So far the biggest thing is the new pretty eye-candy that's guaranteed to warrant a fairly new videocard. The new search feature may be nice.

One thing's for certain, laptops are getting cheaper and feature-packed every day.

Jerry
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#7
JerryStem said:
We can talk about the new OS, but when will we actually see it? I'm not holding my breath, it's been consistently pushed back & losing features at every discussion. So far the biggest thing is the new pretty eye-candy that's guaranteed to warrant a fairly new videocard. The new search feature may be nice.
Windows Vista has just entered Beta testing for developers and is scheduled for release in late 2006.
 
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