Which do you prioritise in a laptop weight or features;

Do you sacrifice a few hundred grams for the extra features? or do you not use wireless, bluetooth, a burner…enough to justify carrying around the extra weight.

This is why i got a TR3AP2.  That way, I have tons of features that I use (Wi-Fi, CD-RW/DVD), with a nice slim profile and lightweight package.  This Sony TR was the best tradeoff between features and performance that I had seen, and while it was a little more expensive than other notebooks, but worth it.

Hoping it can stick with me through the tough times…

Hi,

I’d like to have both the weight and features if at all possible.  Yet Sony Australia manages to muck it up by “excluding” the bluetooth feature on the domestic TR3.

Originally, there was either the compromise of weight versus features.  I had looked at the Toshiba Libretto (L5 model and up) but given the hassle of going for an external CD-ROM proved to be somewhat a pain when I needed an all-in-one.  Luckily, I waited.

I always had a main desktop for all the heavy duty stuff (i.e. pc games) and just needed something to code web pages or surf the web via modem/lan.  So I guess if it came back to the original question, I would still look at weight.  The TR3 is the perfect machine for all for me .

Cheers,
James

weight was the most important factor for me…thats y I wanted to buy the Dell Inspiron 300m first after seeing my roomie’s. But, after coming across the TR, the inspiron 300m was out of the question. Such a small & light comp. with inbuilt optical drive and other regular features was too hard to resist.

[quote author=“jammer”]Hi,

I
I always had a main desktop for all the heavy duty stuff (i.e. pc games) and just needed something to code web pages or surf the web via modem/lan.  So I guess if it came back to the original question, I would still look at weight.  The TR3 is the perfect machine for all for me .

Cheers,
James

Question then:
If all you want to do is code and surf then why do you need an external drive? Far as i can see once your software is on you dont need it.
I quite happily blaze away on a Libretto L3 to edit webpages, do WP and photo edit in Photoshop 7, with no problems. Once Studio MX, PS, word etc was installed, the only reason i ever hook up my DVD drive is to dump a DivX movie or MP3’s on the hard drive occasionally.
Everything else goes via the USB thumbdrive.

i wanted a desktop replacement that would not make my messed up shoulder any worse than it is, and the TR1 feels like a feather and does it all. my friends would say i am a power user - cause of all this things they see me doing with the tr, and the only thing that seems a little cumbersome so far is rendering video in premiere, it gets slow.  my guess is that a high end powerbook would be noticabley faster.
jigs :xeno:

[quote author=“japaneseimportscomau”][quote author=“jammer”]Hi,

I
I always had a main desktop for all the heavy duty stuff (i.e. pc games) and just needed something to code web pages or surf the web via modem/lan.  So I guess if it came back to the original question, I would still look at weight.  The TR3 is the perfect machine for all for me .

Cheers,
James

Question then:
If all you want to do is code and surf then why do you need an external drive? Far as i can see once your software is on you dont need it.
I quite happily blaze away on a Libretto L3 to edit webpages, do WP and photo edit in Photoshop 7, with no problems. Once Studio MX, PS, word etc was installed, the only reason i ever hook up my DVD drive is to dump a DivX movie or MP3’s on the hard drive occasionally.
Everything else goes via the USB thumbdrive.

Answer:

I use to own a Thinkpad 560 (way back when DSTN/passive matrix existed) and ended up getting an external PCMCIA CD-ROM drive for it.  It was a great little notebook BUT aside from the screen, more of my tools and updates came on CD.  But yes, I agree, install it and forget about the CD.  At one point, I was even just installing software over a shared CD drive on the network.

However, given the added cost of an external DVD/CD drive (as well as the carrying around—the “just in case” factor) on top of the actual “CD-less” lightweight laptop—I would rather buy an all-in-one solution—small, sleek, and functional.  So I only use the DVD/CD drive maybe once a week, at least it’s there for me to use—whether to burn a quick music mix for the car, watch a newly bought dvd,  install some new game/software demo from a magazine, et. al.  I just never know…

Cheers,
James

P.S.  I plan to use my TR3 pretty much for everything if I can; so not only web stuff.

I use a laptop for portability. I don’t expect to be doing video editing at the airport. But I can arrange tracks that I have just recorded somewhere or do my writing. Somehow, I don’t expect to be playing HalfLife or CarRally games on a little TFT screen. It’s a replacement computer for when I’m on the move. Therefore, I don’t need nor expect the full funcionality of my desktop. And plugging it in to an external monitor when I get home is not an option, since I need PCI slots. A USB hub would just not be enough. So for me, size = portability, which is the entire point of a laptop for me.

The smaller the better when I’m on the go…The bigger the better at home.  As long as both run Win XP, data is shared easily and I’m happy.