Now that I’ve had my current Dell Vostro 1500 for 2 years, I’m thinking about its replacement. I’ve already gone through 3 batteries and upgraded it to 500 GB HD and 3 GB RAM. The HD performance and battery life are my primary complaints. I’ve hardly played any 3D games since buying it, so I don’t think a dedicated graphics card will be worth much to me looking forward.
Here are my must haves
- High res LED screen. Probably a 15″ or 14″ 1080p screen. LED backlighting improves image quality and battery life. I might also consider a 13″ 720p display. Ideally, it wouldn’t be glossy.
- Dual core CPU. I’m leaning toward a Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) CPU even though I will give up some performance. I could see an Intel Core i5 ULV
- 6-cell battery might be ok if I go ULV. If not, then a 9-cell. It would be great to have a laptop that gets 8+ hours of battery life.
- 3GB+ RAM
- Windows 7
- 802.11n
- HDMI out
- USB 3.0
- eSATA, hopefully powered
Here’s what I want it to have
- SSD (with TRIM) and a HD in the same machine. I’ll probably go with a 500 GB 7200 RPM HD if I have to buy one, and I need at least 30 GB on an SSD. The idea is if I can get a fast SSD, that will make a slower CPU have less of an impact on how the system feels.
- Thinner and lighter — something less than 5.5 lb.
- Bluray/DVDRW drive (but can be external USB). I have to have a BD drive on my laptop before I’ll spend much money on BDs. I’m still unsure on this one.
- Price in the neighborhood of $600.
This might be my first laptop in 10 years that I won’t buy with an extended warranty. All my other laptops were >$1k so an extra 2 years for $100 made sense (and I’ve always come out ahead in that deal). A lot will depend on how much money I spend and the price of the warranty.
The hardest part will be getting the screen I want. I had thought manufacturers were going to switch over 1080p by now for their mainstream sold-in-Best-Buy laptops, but they haven’t yet. So that leaves Dell, Asus, and few other options.
#1 by John on January 16, 2010 - 9:19 am
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Those are very nice “must” have specs but wanting it to cost around $600 is a little wishful thinking?
It’s been some time since I’ve looked at notebook market, since I purchased my MacBook Pro about 6 months ago. Check out notebookreview.com, they usually have in depth reviews on all kinds of notebooks. Good luck!
#2 by Joel on January 27, 2010 - 2:04 pm
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I don’t think $600 is out of line at all (outside the Apple Reality Distortion Field). I’m not going to get a fast CPU or graphics card, which are the two biggest price bumps.
Check out this machine for an example… I’m basically thinking about an upgraded version of this:
http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5635759
802.11n, USB3, eSATA, and HDMI out are basically free addons. Only USB3 is new enough that most laptops don’t have it, but it’s just a matter of time.
The high res screen and SSD are the two biggest price hurdles. I had hoped most screens would be 1080p by now so that would reduce the price impact, but not so far. The SSD is just a matter of getting another 2.5″ bay or a new micro SATA port in addition to the 2.5″ HD. I don’t want a big SSD so it shouldn’t have a large impact on the price, either.
Realistically, I’m willing to spend more, but I then expect more… niceties like keyboard backlighting, an actual graphics card, and bluray.