Greetings: Could anybody suggest which is the best laptop for traders on the move ? I plan to use it when traveling outside of the US in Europe and South America. Could I fit four charts in any of the sizes available ? The one I have is obsolete and the new ones all seem to be too rectangular and don't think plotting 4 charts will look well. Will probably have to look at one chart at a time. Any ideas much appreciated. Thanks !!!!
You can fit 4 charts on any screen size, or you should be able to I should say, as long as they are windows based apps you can resize them as large or small as you want. I would get a wide screen lap top with a very long battery life and good tech support should you have a problem. You may want to check cnet.com for objective reviews.
Thanks guys ! and dandxq thanks for the link. Will check it out. I have tried to fit 4 charts into a screen and found out the when the screen is wide perspective is lost. Isn't that your experience? Meaning the wider the screen the worse it gets. I use 19' screens at home and they work fine, but read in another thread that buying a screen of similar size is like carrying a desktop . Any suggestions ?
I have for years travelled with a laptop. Have three charts up accross the top and Interactive Brokers' TWS across the bottom. It is an IBM A31, 15" screen 1400 x 1050 resolution. Anything with higher resolution will make the icons of the "ordinary" applications too small. Ideally I would have gotten the 1280 x 900 but they were no longer available. Make sure not to get one of these new glossy screens, regardless what they tell you the reflection of lights behind you gets after a while extreemly annoying. This machine has two "bays" that can be used for a floppy, CD/DVD, second HD or a second battery. Found it a lifesaviour to have a second HD - it keeps all the backups and goes into a hotel safe (not needed all the time). Am not sure what to replace it with, it is three years old now (the longest I ever had a laptop, normally replaced them every 10 - 12 months) and am running out of CPU power for other things that I want to do. Have been looking at the new Toshiba Tecra's with same screen resolution. One thing to watch out for is that when you travel you will want international warranty and that it is serviced in the place that you are in. The only two brands that I found satisfactory were Toshiba and IBM. The others were return to base which is impractical and some of them the local outfit would not even touch it at all, even if offered to pay. (Sony Vaio, NEC) I did have some problems in the past with the plastic casings of the Toshiba but further they were reliable. The IBM's used to have as advantage that they have a superior websupport for drivers, software download. But I am not impressed with their offerings since IBM has sold their PC business off to Lenovo. Hope this helps Maria
Thank you Maria for your detailed reply. Appreciate all the tips you mentioned. I looked at the 19' Samsung but they are not available in the US it seems. Will keep looking.
You are welcome. One last thing that I forgot to mention. I do not know where (and how) you are travelling to but my late father put me onto this after his Dell was broken for the x-th time (crushed in the overhead luggage): Use a Pelican box to put your computer in. It is water proof, air proof (if you lock the airvent - good when you are close to the sea / at sea and want to keep the salt out) and it can withstand 400+ lbs. In addition it will even float with your computer in it (when you are travelling by open boat then this can be very usefull). See the www.pelican.com website for some amazing stories on this! Maria
Go to an aapl demo room and try out the new imacs powerbooks; robust and very well built, plus quality of materials and screens are really exceptional.......they are flyin' off the shelves since they have been available.