Need advice on which laptop to buy.

[woodwizzle]

I'll be purchasing a laptop very soon. If it were a desktop I'd know just what to buy, but its not and I don't =). I'm looking to spend $1500 or less. I would like to have a "thin and light" (although all I really care about is thin, the weight isn't important to me) with a 11-13 inch screen. Any smaller than that and the prices seem to go up exponetially and the performance and features decrease inversly. I don't however want or need a "desktop replacement" although I'd be willing to settle on a 14-15 inch laptop in the interest of affordability. I also really dig those widescreens. Here is what I need out of it.

1. G Wireless.
2. DVD/CD-R combo drive at the least (dvd-burner would be awesome though)
3. Sufficently sturdy and rugged chassis. I'm a college kid after all.
4. NIC and modem. I have ethernet at school, but my parents, and most everyone who lives out in the boonies near them can only get dial-up, so a working modem is important.
5. Lots of battery life
6. At least 512MB ram.
7. At least 60GB of space, I don't need a FAST drive at all though.

Here is what I really want if I can afford it.

1. 3D acceleration. (preferably nvidia). I hate chips that steal system ram for video, and I'd love to run xcomposite visuals =)
2. Gigabit Ethernet for future use.
3. Bluetooth would be niffty because my phone has it as well and I could use it as an XMMS remote and such.
4. DVD Burner
5. Ridiculously excessive battery life.
6. Expandability Room for more ram later down the line and maybe even a swappable HDD.

I've been looking at a LOT of laptops. Here are my top contenders, however I'm completely open to other suggestions.

1. IBM Thinkpad.
I really really really like these. They're kinda outta my price range though. I'd have to saccrifice the small form factor and get a 14 or 15 incher. and I'd also have to saccrifce on ram and HDD space. I'd actually have to sacrifice a LOT since these are way outta my range =) Also, the 3D acceleration is ati only and no widescreen. =(

2. Toshiba Tecra M2. (or other Toshiba)
Little bit lower price and I get a lotta battery life, nvidia chip, faster processor etc. I really am leaning this way although I'd still be getting a big hunker and no widescreen.

3. 12-inch Powerbook
If this were a PC I'd already have it! This lil' sucker has just about everything I want and is just *barely* outta my price range. (I can get them discounted at the capus store). I'm just a little nervous about installing gentoo on PPC issues etc. Also, I'm not a mac man... at all. And I'd have to find a way to make the apple light on the back look like tux. I could also get an Ibook I suppose, however I hear that the powerbook is leaps and bounds better not just in performance, but in quality too.

4. Averatec
These are much more in my price range and have most all the features I want. I'm also a bigger fan of AMD than Intel. However these are notorious for bad battery lives, and most arn't expandible at ALL.

Hmmmmm.. decisions decisions!

Maybe it would be helpful if I sate what I want to DO with this laptop. Like I said its not meant to replace my desktop, just lemme compute while I'm out and about. I'll be running the new XFCE4 (which hopefully will be out by the time I get the computer). I'll be editing webpages mostly. so that means I'll have the gimp running. I'll also be using open office quite a lot for classes. And I'll almost always be online with gaim, xchat, and firefox. I'll have a couple misc. games with me (Wesnoth, Adom, etc.) but 3D gaming performance isn't big important. I'll have a large chunk of my music collection with me too which will probably always be playing. Nothing really processor intensive, but I'll definetly be multitasking.

Sorry for the big post. I'm just totally stuck here. I'm not sure which one is gonna give me the least troubles in gentoo. Thats whats most important I guess. Any input is appreciated! Especially if you can knock one or two contenders outta the way for me =)

[dkaplowitz]

[moomin-papa]

I got a Mesh laptop, the one that won the reviews in PC-PRO in September.
Great features for the price:

3Ghz P4, 512Ram, 60Gb Hd, 128Mb Radeon M9700, 15" Screen, Dual Layer DVD burner, Lots of other nice stuff to. All for just over £900+vat

Im sure you could get a better spec now for the same money.
Id definitely recommend them to anyone.

Jim

[gspr]

I have the Toshiba Tecra A2. Can't be all THAT different.
What I can say is that everything (except perhaps the modem, I haven't - and probably never will - try that) works flawlessly under GNU/Linux.
To list some:
- Centrino WLAN with the free drivers.
- Sound (through the i8x0 drivers).
- Speedstepping (as of 2.6.10-rc2, earlier kernels can be patched easily).
- Suspend-to-RAM (not thoroughly tested, I just tried it once, and it works).
- Control over LCD brightness.
- Combining the latter three should mean a nice battery life, although I've rarely even used the computer without power.
_________________
"People said I should accept the world. Bullshit! I don't accept the world." -- RMS.
"We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances." -- Newton.

[woodwizzle]

Thanks for all the advice! Meshs look cool but I bet shipping to America would cost a lot! I've decided against macs as I just don't want to deal with a new architechture. I'm glad to hear the toshiba setup was cake because I've gotten a little extra cash togethor and I think I'm sold on the Toshiba Tecra M2. Couple final questions though:

I've never had any troubles with nvidia drivers under linux and ATI drivers have given me nothing but! However I've obviously never delt with laptop chipsets. Am I gonna have issues with the GeForce FX Go5200?

I can get Intel® Wireless LAN (802.11b/g) Centrino® compliant or for $30 bucks more I can get Atheros® Wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g). I don't think I'll ever need a wireless, however which of these chipsets is gonna be the easier to setup in linux? I'm willing to throw in an extra 30 bucks if it means the setup will be easier =)

My choice of processors are: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 725, 735, 745 or 755. Are these all pretty much the same with different clock speeds? I'm leaning twoards teh 735 since its only 50 bucks more than the 725. Are there any minor details or snags here I should know about? Will I get substancially more battery life if I select a slower processor?

Thanks again!

[liber!]

I just ordered a Laptop from promedion (www.promedion.nl), has all what I want:
Intel Pentium M 715
12.1" Widescreen @ 1280x800(odd and high resolution, hope it works on xorg)
5hour battery life
Dual Display support (the ibook doesn't have it)
512ddr
DVD writer
USB2/Firewire
Webcam (not planning to use it much...:p)
WiFi 54Mbit
60Gb HD with 7200rpm...

With a extra battery it costed 1530€ (euro), VAT included.

My second choice was the Powerbook 12" 1.33Ghz.