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General discussion

Help selecting business laptop primarily for accounting

Sep 12, 2004 4:02PM PDT

I am needing a new laptop that will travel with me to other offices 25% of the time. It should have wifi and not be too heavy. I will be running standard programs, word, excel and working on the internet quite a bit. I am replacing a Dell Inspiron 700 (9+ lbs.) that I have had a lot of LCD and power supply problems with. I previously had a Compaq that ran like a jewel. Any suggestions?

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Re: Help selecting business laptop primarily for accounting
Sep 12, 2004 9:16PM PDT

While the Dells at the office never had a power or LCD issue outside the usual 18 to 24 montb battery life that all vendors will have an issue with, read posts in this forum about the "1000" model Ken writes about often.

We have dozens of the Dells, so the issue must be not a Dell issue with all models.

Bob

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Re: Help selecting business laptop primarily for accounting
Sep 13, 2004 4:31AM PDT

The critical thing is to dedide the LCD size you want and whether or not to get a widescreen (excellent for Excel spreadsheets and DVD widescreen movies).

The Compaq X1000 series I have (same as HPZT3000) has a 15.4" widescreen and weighs 6.5 pounds. It will fit in a Targus or similar student backpack that holds a 15" LCD. If you hurry, they have a $100 instant discount (could be withdrawn at any time -- it is there for the end of back to school promotions) and there is a $100 custom order rebate good through 12/1/04 -- ignore the $50 one posted for the HP or $30 for the Compaq -- you can get $100 by downloading the $100 rebate PDF file from the hpshopping home page mail in rebates link.

Battery life for a Centrino will be at least 3.5-4 hours battery life using wi-fi or longer with it turned off.

A 14.1" LCD will be 1 pound lighter (5.5 pounds or less) and you may be a bit better battery life with the smaller LCD. But that is square (not widescreen) and actually these cost more as the HPnc6000 is a business unit (not subject to discounts above for HPshopping consumer models).

Also, the HPZT3000 and Compaq X1000 just got the HP Briteview screens (similar to Sony Xbrite and Toshiba Trubrite). You can get that for $50 more online over the standard XGA LCD.

See X1000forums.com for details on ordering the best specifications and getting all the discounts (possible 6% student discount or 12% qualified employer discount as well).

Check out the Toshiba M35 series (M35S456 in Circuit City, Best Buy, etc) as that is very similar to the above but 6.2 pounds and it runs a bit hotter.

You can see more about the Toshiba at notebookforums.com

Also, consider the Acer 2025 which is very similar to these 2.

Whatever you do, make sure you get a notebook with dedicated video memory (not shared) if possible. All three of these have it. 64mb only costs $50 more than 32mb if ordering custom online.

The Acer has a 128mb option and many gamers demand this but for business use you should be fine with the 64mb (video memory cannot be upgraded easily later or at all like system RAM, hard drive, etc can).