Here's my experience with laptops: the first one was a Compaq Armada M700. Biggest (and most expensive) piece of garbage I ever owned. That was back in 2000-2001. Don't know now, but I'll never get a Compaq again, ever! Second one: Dell Inspiron 8200, big and heavy with lots of features. Pretty decent, but I wasn't 100% satisfied. Third (and present) one: IBM G41. Definitely my best unit ever. IBM laptops don't look cool or slick, but the quality level is head and shoulders above the rest. Plus, you don't get all the crappy trialware stuff that comes with the others. Bottom line, I'm very happy with it.
If you travel internationally then ability to have your PC repaired in another country is most important. Having owned 14 laptops and having used a number of laptops through work I have developped a preference for having a computer that has a second hard disk in it. This second hard disk is used for the pagefile and backup, enabling me to shut down, do a restore, resync my data, and restart under 10 minutes. (the actual restore takes me just under 6 minutes....) During the moments that I go sightseeing etc this second hard disk comes out of the bay and goes into the hotel safe. I used to love the old Tecra 500 but after that machine I felt Toshiba went downhill. I next moved to IBM but they have bought up PWC consulting and they now are having some business practices that makes me wonder if they have any brains at all. ( like if you ask for addition memory then they quote you the "spare parts price which is three times the rate of new memory bought with a new laptop. A replacement TFT screen is worth more in spare parts than a total new computer with same specs...duhhh). Am still running 2 IBM A31 laptops, 15" screens 1400 x 1050 and love them. Don't know what to get next, some of these high resolution screens have too much reflection (high gloss screen) and some of the others do not have the world wide service centre's that I need. The Sony VAIO's are nice but I once had one, top of the line and after 1 month it packed up while I was working in another country. Sony did not want to give service and I finished up scrapping a 7K US notebook. Recently we bought some infra red headphones and when we came to look for replacement foam earpads the pads were about 50% of the purchase price of the whole outfit. Outright extortion and I have my principles and won't do business with them anymore. Had some early Dells, when they were still LCD (DX4-75 with 20Mb memory, now that goes back a long way) they were virtually indistructable, since then I have had a number thorugh work and they were the pits. One was so bad that alomst every month something was wrong with it and it became like my grandfather's axe" new handle, new head but still my grandfather's axe. And the rest is so unknown that you wonder if you ever can get a repair if you are stationed in another country for a while or are on the road all the time. I do not need more computing power and am still wondering if I should cough up the money to "refurbish" my existing machines or should get some other brand. No rush, I reckon there is still another 2 years of life left in them. Just my 2c worth. Sherlock
I use both but prefer a desktop because: 1. Bigger screen, 21" v 17" 2. Keyboard fits my hands better 3. Better mouse. 4. Better sound system with desktop. I listen to music all day while trading and the laptop sound sucks. 5. Desktop is faster and has backup drive built in. DS
I have an IBM as well. A T40. I wanted something compact and powerful. It may not be the best for gaming but for business I think they are great. Construction is strong. The fan is quiet. I had an HP before and that one sucked. The fan broke 15 months later. 3 months after the warranty expired. I'm not sure if this is offered with other laptops or pc's, but IBM's laptop has their recovery disk portion built into the hardware. To reformat just push the blue "Access IBM" button.
I use a desktop for trading and have a laptop for backup. Both are Dells. I prefer the desktop because of the larger monitor and the ergonomic keyboard I, not to mention the desktop is a faster computer than the laptop.
Absolutely... Was at beach all weekend. Used laptop exclusively, it does wear on you after a few hours. Bought a mouse a few days ago with a big red ball that you move instead of moving the mouse. Big mistake. Fingers ready to fall off. Going back to old style. I do like the page up/down feature though. Especially helpful browsing ET threads.
I get my warranty throught compusmart, and they do all of the repairs inhouse, no shipping. They are the biggest canadian computerstore, and the best quality. I had a heatsink problem, and they gave me a new high quality heatsink for free. They are very good.
I would think after all these years they would make notebooks more ergomatic and more comfortable to use. They are getting way more powerful then the ones I use in the late 90's but they arent any more comfortable in fact its the opposite. I use an external mouse, whenever possible.