[LAU] buying a new laptop

[Chris Cannam]

On 2 September 2011 13:23, Jeremy Jongepier <jeremy at autostatic.com> wrote:
> My 2¢ if you'd buy 2nd hand: Dell D430.

I have a D420 and, while it's an excellent machine with satisfying
ergonomics and is very well built, it also has an appallingly slow
hard drive (a 1.8" model similar to that in an iPod classic).

I also have a 1400x1050 Thinkpad T60 (mentioned elsewhere here).  It
lacks Firewire but is otherwise the apotheosis of the real-work-first
laptop -- excellent 4:3 screen, dual core and quick enough to feel
like a contemporary machine, good keyboard etc.

I dislike the trackpoint, but I just pull it off -- the T6x and T4x
have excellent touchpads. Configuring the X server to treat Caps Lock
as an extra Ctrl key mitigates my other big complaint about the
keyboard (the useless Fn key occupying the bottom-left spot).

I actually slightly prefer the ergonomics of the T4x series, but the
T60 is substantially faster and has a brighter screen and is almost as
cheap nowadays.

The Thinkpad X-series are also very fine machines, but you do have
more to think about with trackpoints (they don't typically have a
trackpad) and screens (not such high resolutions available).


Chris