Looking for some advice on a new laptop...

[420sx]

Well, my HP laptop is officially dead. I hated that thing (nc2400 i think?). My school made me purchase it my freshman year of college. Anyway, Im looking for something new. Unfortunately for my old laptop, I'm not always "gentle" with it. It goes where I go, and sometimes thats the garage, or in a backpack that gets tossed around a little bit. So I'm looking for something that can take a beating. Most of my computer useage is internet browsing, but I also would need a basic word/excell/etc package. Although I havent completely decided I want a PC. The notebook I'm looking at is the Panasonic Toughbook, have any of you guys had any experience with it? It comes in four models, any recommendations? My budget is around $1200 max, and I'm fine with buying a refurb. Thanks.

[james_ls]

IBM Thinkpads are some of the most reliable things out there.

[420sx]

Those do look good. Im looking at the R400 and R500. The R400 is a 14" screen that has a cage in it to protect it. The R500 is a 15.4" screen without the cage. The bigger screen would be nice, but if the 14" is more durable, i'd rather do that.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...B4B3178B3B6554

[gary]

IBM Thinkpads were and are still some of the best laptops on the market but when they were sold to Lenovo, some of quality was compromised as I understand. I cannot confirm this as I have never held one in my hand. I have an IBM T41 which I picked up on ebay cheap. Since the purchase I have had to replace a few parts but was still worth it for well under $300 total spent.
The tough books are insane. If your worried about breaking your laptop and can't seem to play nice with it, that will work but you sacrifice features to stay in your price range.

If I were to have to buy a "new" laptop today, I would just search for deals in the paper and pay $400 for a cheap toshiba from bestbuy and buy a hooker with the rest.

[lagos]

Brandon has a tough book. He throws it on the ground all the time, and it works perfectly. its a great laptop if you need something that can take abuse.

[The Captain]

Originally Posted by james_ls

IBM Thinkpads are some of the most reliable things out there.

negative. They arent even ibm anymore, but lenovo. I've had one for 3 years and it's constantly getting something repaired. I have a warranty and under that i've replaced the motherboard(x3), harddrive, screen and a bunch of little things. My school made everyone buy one so i've seen how a lot of them work because all of my friends have them and lets just say mine has worked well compared to everyone else's.

[OutToWinPAHC]

I have work issued tough books, Things are awesome.

[BustedUjoint]

We run lenovo's at work. I have a T61p. I haven't had any issues with mine in the past year. We have everything from T43's up to T61's and are about to jump up to the T400's due to the fact that they stopped making them. We even still have some T40's floating around that are alive and kicking. . just slow as balls. Over all they have proven to be pretty reliable. I would say we have about 100 floating around at our office and about 500 total company wide. I have only had to put in for work on about 4 or 5 lenovo's. Not too bad with all the models floating around. We also run the X61's and the X300. Smaller, lighter. You lose some functionality with the X61. But the X300 seems to be pretty nice. It runs the new Solid State Drives which jack the cost up. . . . anyways. Over all, Lenovo's are a decent way to go. It all depends on what you are looking to do. If your looking for any gaming. . ehh. Although this T61p seems to run BF2, BF2142, Guild Wars, America's Army and a few others with the video maxed out pretty well.

[russiankid]

Originally Posted by james_ls

IBM Thinkpads are some of the most reliable things out there.

I had a Lenovo X60 Tablet for a year, it was a piece of ****. The latch on the screen broke, the screen was loose, the trim around the screen broke, and the stylus got jammed.

[garrettej8]

get a dell. they seem to be pretty reliable. I upgraded my older one for a d600 and it's pretty nice. the only thing that I broke so far was the pcmcia port because I dropped it when I had a network card in it, but that was my fault

[james_ls]

LoL I love how everyone comes at me about Lenovo's.

Lenovo's are pieces of ****. We've thrown out countless ones for mainboard fries, and other RANDOM serious errors.

When THINKPAD was still IBM they made some serious ****.

[gpzjack]

dell=junk don't care what anybody says

[igo4bmx]

Originally Posted by james_ls

IBM Thinkpads are some of the most reliable things out there.

werd buy a t series notebook
i've dropped mine over a dozen times- and its my third one from work and all three have never failed.

[igo4bmx]

Originally Posted by gpzjack

dell=junk don't care what anybody says

dell is complete junk
the touchpad is WEARING off paint WEARING off
cracks in the housing
overheats aka burns the skin and it's not even the battery doing it
makes creaking noises when i pick it up,
DELL SCREEN WOBBLE.

however u can get them for like 500-750 with those huge dell discounts ( i wonder why they discount them.....)

[sean3]

Nothing wrong with dell, just make sure you get an XPS. Inspiron and especially Studio are bargain basement garbage. The only problems with my refurb M1210 is a bit of paint blemish on the screen above the speaker and the battery died after a year. Picked up a new 9 cell for 100 bucks and all is well. Dell outlet rocks. Even with the battery I still paid 400 less than an identical configuration would have cost new.

[gpzjack]

i have 5 laptops...none over $650 6yr old hp, two toshibas, acer, and a pos dell. Dell was the worst money ever spent...all are still in use....dell is a paperweight.

[garrettej8]

my dell d600 doesn't really get hot unless you cover the fan but I will admit that the screen wobbles a little bit but most older laptops do that. it's a beast though.

[420sx]

So... what would the negatives be for the toughbook, aside from higher cost?