Notebook buying advice

[timwhit]

I'm ordering a notebook for my parents, they are in the process of retiring and plan on taking many roadtrips around the country. They want to be able to get wifi access to the internet in different cities so that they can check their e-mail, surf the web, etc. They will also use the notebook around the house for similar things. They are not computer savvy by any means, so they don't need anything that is top of the line; however, they don't want a POS that will break on them.

I'm looking at IBM Thinkpad R series 2883 with a 1.5 GHz Pentium M processor, 30GB 4200rpm hard drive, 256MB RAM (will probably add more later), DVD, XP Home, 14.1in screen (1024x768), Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 802.11b/g LAN Mini PCI card, an AC/DC car adapter, a simple nylon carrying case, and a 3 year depot repair warranty service.

Is there any point in having an 'a' capable wifi card? They offer one for $30 more. Anyone have any reason why this notebook would be a bad decision?

Any idea about how plentiful wireless access is around the country? This would include hotels, truck stops, and anywhere else they might be. How hard is it to setup wireless access at a place where they charge you for it?

Anything wrong with getting the depot repair warranty service instead of onsite? Onsite service costs an additional $111, which wouldn't be worth it for them because the notebook isn't mission critical or anything.

How are the speakers on this model? Will they work for watching an occasional DVD?

 

[Pradeep]

I can't help you with the notebook itself, but re: the Internet connection, do they happen to have a cellphone of some description? For example with Verizon you can get a data cable, and get data using your minutes of use on your plan. Therefore unlimited nights and weekends. Speeds in many areas is plenty faster than dial-up. Way more coverage than Wi-Fi could hope to achieve. Anyway just another option.

 

[timwhit]

I can't help you with the notebook itself, but re: the Internet connection, do they happen to have a cellphone of some description? For example with Verizon you can get a data cable, and get data using your minutes of use on your plan. Therefore unlimited nights and weekends. Speeds in many areas is plenty faster than dial-up. Way more coverage than Wi-Fi could hope to achieve. Anyway just another option.

My dad does have Verizon, but his phone is a few years old. Do you need a special kind of plan to get data or does any normal plan work? How much does the cable/any other equipment cost? Does any newer phone work with this?

 

[MaxBurn]

Some of the verizon plans allow you to upgrade your phone after two years to something new. Was told I could do this when I got mine....

Verizon also has air cards. PCMCIA card with an antenna simmilar to a WIFI card only it works on the Verizon cell network. I have one for work, it's about the same speed as dialup 56k I guess.

 

[Mercutio]

Unless you know of a place that has 802.11a, there's probably not much point. It seems to have lost the battle for widespead adaptation, and 802.11n hardware will probably be out Real Soon Now.

 

[Pradeep]

I can't help you with the notebook itself, but re: the Internet connection, do they happen to have a cellphone of some description? For example with Verizon you can get a data cable, and get data using your minutes of use on your plan. Therefore unlimited nights and weekends. Speeds in many areas is plenty faster than dial-up. Way more coverage than Wi-Fi could hope to achieve. Anyway just another option.

My dad does have Verizon, but his phone is a few years old. Do you need a special kind of plan to get data or does any normal plan work? How much does the cable/any other equipment cost? Does any newer phone work with this?

Any plan should be fine, you need to ask Verizon to add "National Access MOU" to it. Cable can be had for bugger all off ebay, or more from Verizon. Almost all the newer digital phones have National Access capability. Personally I use it witt a Samsung A530.

The PC Cards do cost a fair bit, can't be used for voice, and they tend to require a plan that is $80 bucks/month for unlimited usage.

 

[Tannin]

With notebooks, you absolutely, positively want to do two things:

• Buy a quality brand: IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC.
• Take a three-year factory warranty. Don't trust third-party warranties: many of them are little better than scams.

On-site warranty sounds like pointless extra expense. For the little extra it would cost, though, I'd add another 256MB of RAM. Finding the correct RAM for notebooks that are no longer current models tends to be surprisingly difficult and can be astonishingly expensive, so do the RAM now.

I'd suggest a 15 inch screen, and unless there is nothing they ever want to keep safe (digital photos?) a CD burner. DVD read ability may or may not matter (depends on your parents likes and habits - wouldn't matter at all to me but YMMV) and DVD write ability probably doesn't matter at all.

You might also consider a Celeron-based unit, but only if it is offered at a substantial discount, performance is unimportant, and you don't care about battery life.

I'm happy with my current IBM, which is a couple of months old now, but despite Merc's love of them and the substantial extra cost, I'm not convinced it's really any better than the equivalent Toshibas. (Except for the keyboard light: that keyboard light is really useful.)

Of course, it all depends on your budget. A 14 inch screen, despite being a little smaller, is generally a freaction sharper and clearer than an equal-resolution 15 inch one. Same number of dots, after all.

Overall, a good choice, I think Tim.

 

[Fushigi]

Depot warranty could be an issue if they travel a lot, i.e. if they'll be moving frequently enough that they could have moved between the time the unit was sent off for repair & the time it's expected back.

To echo Tannin, a burner should be considered essential. But I would get a DVD burner as the capacity on CDs just isn't sufficient any more. DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drives are generally a modest bump in price over the base optical.

Dunno about the speakers that are built-in, but a decent set of travel speakers shouldn't be much of an expense & can be connected to a walkman, portable TV, etc. Will they be travelling in an RV or car? If an RV I'd suggest getting decent speakers installed & just plugging in the PC.

Pentium M chips seem pretty nice. I like the performance of my P-M 2GHz.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the slowness of the HD. What's the $ to bump to at least a 5400 RPM unit? 30GB is fine unless they will store their music/video collection on the unit. If considering that route, 30GB is still fine if they burn the collections to DVD-R & use the laptop for playback.

No point in 'a' wireless. As Merc said, it's just not widely available.

Free wireless is around. Some Panera Bread places, more & more Starbucks, etc. In hotels, if it's fee-based, it can usually be set up via browser (home page goes to sign-up screen, enter credit card, go online). Public & hotel wi-fi is not typically secured so config is easy (but I wouldn't recommend they send any sensitive info unless it is SSLed).

Sprint has the same cellular modem capabilities as Verizon, although the plans differ. An unlimited plan based on a PC Card runs $70-90. Cel phones that can be used as modems, though, tap into the $15 unlimited access (on top of monthly phone charges) Vision plan. Cheapest overall unlimited data available. Data rate is 70-110Kbps. Of course, using the phone as a modem technically is not covered under the terms of service, but Sprint doesn't seem to mind as long as monthly bandwidth is under a couple of GB. Bluetooth can (if PC & phone are so enabled) make the phone - laptop connection wireless.

 

[Tannin]

DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drives are generally a modest bump in price over the base optical.

Except when the notebook in question is an IBM. Then the DVD-R costs around $400 extra. Nobody else does this, not Toshiba or anyone else, only IBM. I have no idea why. Probably because it takes them six months to fill out the forms required to get a sales conference underway. When everyone else had CD-R as standard, IBM only had CD drives. When everyone else switched to combo drives, IBM finally discovered CD-R. Now that everyone is switching to DVD-R, IBM only have combo drives. Except for the extreme top end of their range, at prices such that it would be cheaper to buy a video rental shop in the first place.

 

[Fushigi]

So maybe an external drive...

 

[timwhit]

I might get them a burner for getting pictures off of the notebook, but it will give me an ulcer to teach them how to use it. I doubt that a 15in screen will make all that big of a deal to them. I'm not going to worry about the speed of the hard drive at all. My parents are not all that concerned with speed. As long at hotmail or gmail come up quickly is all they care about. I will be adding another 256MB of RAM, but I will order it from Newegg or Crucial. I'll check the price on the Celeron unit, they are budget conscience because of the whole retirement thing.

 

[timwhit]

Pradeep, how much extra is "National Access MOU"? I just looked at the Verizon site, but don't see that listed. It seems like most of the phones have National Access capability though, which is good.

 

[Fushigi]

Of course, using the phone as a modem technically is not covered under the terms of service, but Sprint doesn't seem to mind as long as monthly bandwidth is under a couple of GB.

Updating myself... In Sprint's case, it appears they're allowing it as they've explicitly stated the new Treo 650's BlueTooth will have DUN support.

Before committing to Verizon, I'd encourage you/them to compare over all costs & plans between them & other carriers. Not that I'm a huge fan, but Sprint has been good for me and they are generally regarded as having the cheapest internet access plans among cellular users.

Will their travels take them international? If so, consider a GSM phone over CDMA and be sure to see how the plans work beyond the border.


On the burner, I'd probably suggest RW discs and let them just drag n drop.


If you need a gmail invite or three for them, let me know.

 

[Pradeep]

Pradeep, how much extra is "National Access MOU"? I just looked at the Verizon site, but don't see that listed. It seems like most of the phones have National Access capability though, which is good.

Chekc out this thread:

http://howardforums.com/showthread....811&highlight=+verizon++national++access++mou

Safest thing is if you decide to buy a new phone from Verizon, make certain that when they print out the plan etc, that it mentions NationalAccess MOU. If they say it's not available/extra cost you could always take it home and try the above, and if it doesn't work take it back within 14 days for a refund.

 

[timwhit]

I am finally getting around to ordering this notebook. I'm getting the 1.5GHz Pentium M, because some of the WiFi adapters weren't available with the Celeron. I also decided to go with the 15" screen, because my parents are old and can't see small things very well. Everything else is basically the same.

There is something horribly wrong with the IBM site. It took about 20 minutes for the checkout screen to come up and now it is taking forever to change the shipping method. If someone has time can they try to go through the process of ordering an IBM notebook to see if it's just me or if IBM's checkout system really is f'ed? Damn it, I just changed the credit card type to Visa and now it is going to reload the page, which will take another 20 minutes.

 

[timwhit]

Finally got it ordered completely. Also ordered another 256MB of RAM from Crucial. I think 512MB should be plenty for light use. Total cost with tax and shipping is about $1660. A little more than they wanted to spend initially, but should be a good notebook. Now, I just hope that they use it enough to make it worthwhile. Well, I guess if it just sits around then I will use it.

 

[timwhit]

Got the New Verizon LG VX-6000 phone and a data cable and was able to connect to the internet using the phone very easily. Connection speed was around 115Kbps from my house. My parents are supposed to be driving to California in the next couple weeks and they will be trying it out along the way. Hopefully, it will work pretty well while on the highway. I have a feeling that 800 minutes will be eaten up rather quickly when surfing the internet.

 

[Pradeep]

As a matter of fact when I used to use NationalAccess they never billed me for the minutes used. Day or night Of course now I have cable, but it would be worth keeping an eye on the billing.