Laptop Search

[time]

Looking for a laptop for someone.

Must be able to display text for fading eyes, have decent battery runtime and be not too heavy.

The task seems to be incredibly difficult. She currently has a 13" 1024x768 Asus with claimed battery life of up to 5 hours from a 6-cell battery. Weighs about 1.6kg (from memory).

The main problem appears to be the proliferation of "shallow screens". Obviously, a 13" 1280x800 wide screen has smaller pixels again than the old one. Such is progress?

So any ideas? I'll consider virtually anything at this stage, even S*ny, HP or Dell.

 

[Mercutio]

Acer Aspire and Gateway notebooks tend to have very bright screens, at a cost of battery life.

Latitude and Thinkpad notebooks have screens that tend to be much less bright, presumably to offer longer battery life.

I can't think of any notebook that reasonably offers long battery life, a bright screen AND reasonable weight. I am presuming that a person with failing eyesight is an older person, which makes netbooks unappealing. They tend to have kind of poor screens anyway. :\

 

[Fushigi]

I suggest a model that supports replacing the optical drive with a slide-in second battery. I get at least an extra hour or so out of my Latitude when using the second battery.

 

[time]

Erm, I shouldn't have used the word "failing'! I meant, she can't deal with small text. Sorry ...

 

[ddrueding]

In the past I've ended up getting higher-res screens and running them at 1/4 resolution (1920x1200 into 960x600) that ends up pretty bright and very clear. Even bad pixels become less relevant

 

[P5-133XL]

If the machine runs Vista, changing the screens dpi can also help.

 

[Mercutio]

The problem with using a notebook with a 1920x1200 screen is that it's going to be a large screen, and therefore both very heavy and with a short battery life.

The new 17" Macbook Pros have 1080p screens. Apple says they have a seven hour battery but review web sites say it's more like 3 hours, which isn't any better than any other business-type notebook. Apple is probably measuring from a minimally bright screen and with no network or USB functions active.

... and that's the best case I can think of for a 17" notebook with a high resolution screen. And it's US$2500.

New Thinkpad T-series use OLED screens that are supposed to be very bright and power efficient. I haven't had the opportunity to order one yet, though.

 

[time]

At least it manages 3 hours. S*ny claims "up to 2 hours" for most of their lineup.

I notice that some manufacturers no longer state expected battery runtime, which is incredibly cynical.

Only one I've found so far is a Panasonic Business-rugged Toughbook. Weighs about 1.4kg, 12.1" screen that has the older aspect ratio of 1024x768 - so text is bigger than you would otherwise expect, and battery runtime is a claimed 7 hours.

 

[Handruin]

New Thinkpad T-series use OLED screens that are supposed to be very bright and power efficient. I haven't had the opportunity to order one yet, though.

I was pricing out a Thinkpad T400 and T500 today and they offer LED back lighting as an option, but they didn't mention OLED panels anywhere.

They offer:

• 15.4 WXGA TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
• 15.4 WXGA TFT, w/ LED Backlight
• 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight

 

[Mercutio]

I could have sworn I saw a press release about OLED tech in upcoming Thinkpads.
I read a lot of Engadget. Maybe it all ran together.

 

[Handruin]

I was only quoting what I read on Lenovo's current selection and it was just coincidence that I happen to be looking at one to buy when I saw your post. I was discussing the LED back lighting with my boss at work because he was looking into this model also and he had found somewhere online that selecting the LED back light option delays the order for several weeks.

Maybe they're coming out with a new model soon? I think the T500 came out mid last year, I don't know how long they run a model for. I would love to see an OLED screen from them, I bet that would look incredible.

 

[Mercutio]

The T400 and T500 are much newer than that. I bought a T61 from Lenovo in late November of last year. I think they refreshed the lineup in January or thereabouts.

 

[Handruin]

I was reading full production reviews marked with dates around 8/19/2008 last year on the T500. I figured it must have been out at least since then...or at least coming out soon. Even Engadget previewed it in august. Not that it's a big deal, but that's why I thought it had been out for a little while.

 

[Handruin]

The only consistent complaint I've read about the T400 & T500 is the keyboard isn't as firm/solid as the previous generation. They reduced the solidity of the metal backing to reduce weight at the sacrifice of the normal firm keyboard response associated with Thinkpads. From what I understand you can swap it out with the older T61 if it bothers you that much.