baying a new laptop what brand/model?

What kind of laptop do u use and do u like it?
Right now i have a Acer Aspire 1362
but i dont like the resolution when i have a big network in step 7 i need to scrool alot to see it all,

if i bay a good one i can give my standalone PC to the kids and i use the laptop.

i want a DVD burner, pretty fast processor and good resoluiton

maybe it´s more that i should thinking about u name it

If the screen works well on the stand-alone PC but not the laptop...
...it sounds like you aren't using the same resolution on both.

Is your laptop limited? Do you know how to change the resolution?

Take a look and see what resolution is available on your laptop.
Don't forget... greater resolution means smaller fonts! At some point, you will have a hard time reading the text on the screen!

I've pretty much settled on the wide screen Dells. I'm typing on a Dell 15" Inspiron 8500 set at 1650x1080, and it works for me. The wide screen really makes a difference when troubleshooting.

I just ordered two new Dells though, and I'll let you know how I like them. I ordered the XPS170 and the 9300, both with 17" wide screens.

I use Dell Latitude with 15' UXGA resolution screen.The high resolution make it different.

This resolution is much better then the most LCD screens on the market.
If you intend to get one of this be aware, because of the resolution every thing look smaller but sharper.
Dont forget REAL RS232 communication port.not all the laptop have it this days.

The acer i got now dont have any real RS232, but i have only tried an usb-RS232 adapter for program an Logo! and it worked good, havnt tryied any S5 yet.

i can only use 1280x800 on 15" i want bigger resulution... wide screen sound good

The last couple of laptops I've chosen are Toshibas. Primarily because I've never had difficulty getting any piece of software to work on them. The current Tecra model I use was chosen for the high resoultion screen and the graphics engine, NVIDIA GeForce, because it supports OpenGL.

The last IBM had I had was nice but I couldn't get Solidworks to run on it. My second choice would probably be a Dell.

I bought myself a Dell inspiron 2200 a few months ago, it's not a top of the line computer but it runs all the programs i use so it's good to me. I like the dell.

I have a HP laptop that i use for work and i don't like it as much as the dell, i've had more problems with my work laptop then my home one.

HP NC6120. SXGA, serial port, Wlan, Bluetooth, but only DVD&CD-RW

IBM T42p: 14" 1400x1050 screen, 2GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 60GB HD, 5.4lbs

Its more than I need to program PLCs, but the high resolution helps with the PLC programming a LOT.

I also do a lot with Photoshop and video editing (DVD authoring) hence the horsepower. Its light enough to take with me everywhere and powerful enough to be my only computer (docking station at the office and the house) so I pretty much have everything I need to have at all times... it helps to have your files and programs on hand when a customer calls your cell phone on the weekend or over Christmas vacation, etc.

I should point out this is my second IBM T series notebook. I used the first one (T23) for 3 years and got this one about a year ago. I also manage the IT side of the company I work for (small biz is that way) and have had several brands of laptop. Below is a list of laptops I've used and what I thought of them (in order of my preference):

1) IBM "T" series - Great computers, built for the "real" world, not industrial strength, but definitely built to be moved around a lot. We've had 7 of them (going back 4-5 years) and the only problem has been a single motherboard failure after about 2 years; IBM was very good about getting it fixed ASAP.

2) Fujitsu - Great computer, needs some TLC (tender loving care) as its not built for an industrial environment. Between 2 laptops we've had for 5 years one hard drive failed after about 3 years and one screen broke when dropped from a guys truck to the concrete.

3) Toshiba - Built well, though not as good as the IBM, but better than the Fujitsu. We've had 2 of them and I liked both; neither gave any problems at all, they just got too old (slow) to be useful anymore. Generally they are too heavy to take it with you (home, site, etc) every day which defeats the purpose of a laptop.

4) Dell - Flimsy build and spotty initial quality. If you get a good one out of the box (probably 70% - 80% chance of a good one) then it will be a good computer for many years as long as you give it a lot of TLC. This is one that won't put up with much rough and tough travel.

5) Acer - Flimsy build but great bang for the buck. If your on a tight budget and willing to put up with a cheap notebook (cheap in quality as well as price) it will be a good fit. They do need a lot of TLC as they are not built to be moved around much.

6) Compaq - Total junk; they were good notebooks up until about 2 years before HP bought Compaq.

7) HP - Total junk.

i have dell latitude D800 for over a year now. overall i consider it the best laptop i used so far. i love high resolution, real com port and other goodies. i've been abusing it a lot and it survived so far. once the spills dust and metal chips got into keyboard, i ordered replacement which came next day and took 5 min. to replace. some people are afraid of high res screens, thinking they will not be able to see small text for example. well if that is concern, try choosing different dpi setting (display properties, settings, advanced, general, DPI settings). this requires reboot but it sure beats low res screens. i used it on occasion when i felt tired but most of time 96dpi on 1920x is what i'm comfortable with.
things to beware:
- laptop itself costs more
- only one PCMCIA slot,
- it seam that only one of three USB ports is high speed (one on side)
- just lost last dot rubber foot, have to order spare and use better glue
- one PSU died (cable shorted after number of twists). fortunately they are only $47CAD (this is about 6-7 times cheaper than what i remember paying for my old Sony vaio).
- biggest laptop bag they had is not big enough for my needs.

things i like:
- excellent screen, very bright, ultra sharp
- fast cpu, lots of ram, big and fast hdd, dvd burner
- MDI/MDX gigabit ethernet plus wireless, bluetooth, firewire, three USBs
- very quiet, very long run time on batteries (i was surprised for such beast), doesn't get nearly as hot as my previous machines (some of them would really fry your lap).
- runs everything, only had one crash in over a year and this was my fault
- can take some abuse
- cheap spare power supplies
- comes with two pointing devices which both work well (on my old laptops this was next to unusable), but i really like the little usb mouse.

S7Guy said:

just ordered two new Dells though, and I'll let you know how I like them. I ordered the XPS170 and the 9300, both with 17" wide screens.

Click to expand...

Have u got the PCs yet? and do u like them?

i did a quick stop at a store and saw a LG LW20-CDMV, it has a 12" LCD real clear one, any one that have tryied out to use something like that to troubleshoting with?
http://www.lge.com/prodmodeldetail....oryId=060103&smodel_display_code=LW20+Express

Yes, I have been using the XPS170 full time for a few days now, and it is incredible. The image is incredibly sharp and easy on the eyes, and is probably the fastest laptop going out there. Step 7 is kind of a memory hog anyway, but this thing flies compared to my Dell 8500. Of course, the 2GB of ram doesn't hurt either.

I also installed Virtual PC software on it and assigned it 500M of ram, and after a little screwing around, I had two instances of Step 7 running and connected to the PLC at the same time. With the new horsepower and the 17" screen, I can see new ways to put this thing to work.

sounds good, this evening i saw this one that a company was selling for the half of price HP NC6220 PM 1.8 512/60 DVD/CDRW WLAN BT 14#XPP
think to bay that one becuese it is so cheap and look great to what i need now,
any one that have try that HP?

I got a new Dell Latitude D505 last year that has been really good. It has a Pentium M 1.6GHz processor, 1.25GB RAM, 60GB hard drive, built in wifi, built in bluetooth, 1400x1050 15" screen, and a serial port. We also got the universal power adapter, for car, plane or wall outlet. We bought six of these and they were about $1450 each, which isn't too bad I don't think.

Has anybody tried a Dell with the new "TrueLife" screens??? I was considering one of those but I am concerned about the glass like screen surface and the problems with glare, especially outside.