Best Laptop of 2005?

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Michael Gartenberg thinks the best laptop of the year is the Lenovo X41. How about you? What’s your favorite laptop?

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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54 thoughts on “Best Laptop of 2005?”

  10. Although it has great functionality, when will IBM update their notebook design? It looks like I’m playing with a Lego set!

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  12. Although it has great functionality, when will IBM update their notebook design? It looks like I’m playing with a Lego set!

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  13. I’d love to nominate an Apple laptop since I’m a Mac fan, but I both the iBook and the Powerbook I bought during the last two years have broken down after little more than a year (battery, hard drive, and/or display failures). Both very pretty pieces of hardware, but slow and with questionable build quality.

    By the way, does anyone actually use tablet PCs?

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  14. I’d love to nominate an Apple laptop since I’m a Mac fan, but I both the iBook and the Powerbook I bought during the last two years have broken down after little more than a year (battery, hard drive, and/or display failures). Both very pretty pieces of hardware, but slow and with questionable build quality.

    By the way, does anyone actually use tablet PCs?

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  17. Jacob: I do, especially in planes where Macintosh users look at me jealously cause I can actually use my computer in coach while using a standard laptop is really painful.

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  18. Jacob: I do, especially in planes where Macintosh users look at me jealously cause I can actually use my computer in coach while using a standard laptop is really painful.

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  19. Excitedly purchased first Tablet in August, a Tecra M4, but the performance was terrible and the construction not to my satisfaction. I replaced it with HP’s nc8230 and how glad I am to be back on HP/Compaq. Easily the nicest laptop I’ve owned (considering my 12″ Powerbook, previous Tecras and HPs).

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  20. Excitedly purchased first Tablet in August, a Tecra M4, but the performance was terrible and the construction not to my satisfaction. I replaced it with HP’s nc8230 and how glad I am to be back on HP/Compaq. Easily the nicest laptop I’ve owned (considering my 12″ Powerbook, previous Tecras and HPs).

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  27. I ordered an X41 (first-generation) from Lenovo and have, sadly, not regretted a single computer purchase more. Lenovo service was a disaster, from the disastrous “you’ll-get-it-when-we-feel-like-it” fullfilment of the order to the awful service when it arrived with a faulty inverter board. The HDD is incredibly slow, and the digitizer seems to have a mind of its own when wireless network access is peaking.

    As for the tablet interaction itself; it proved useful a couple of times, but not enough to warrant the increase in weight. The handwriting recognition is surprisingly good, but not good enough (why doesn’t it learn?) for writing email. The limited screen resolution makes it hard to use for graphics or note-taking applications (you run out of space for notes really quickly). I found myself using the tablet aspect for reading on the go and not much else. Once I swung the unit into laptop mode, I yearned for the sleeker (and faster) X40 models.

    I think I’d give my vote for best laptop of 2005 to the X40, with the recently released 15″ PowerBooks (which is what I’m now using) as runner up. The X41 gets an honourable mention, but until they get a better HDD and screen resolution, they’re not yet ready for the podium.

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  28. I ordered an X41 (first-generation) from Lenovo and have, sadly, not regretted a single computer purchase more. Lenovo service was a disaster, from the disastrous “you’ll-get-it-when-we-feel-like-it” fullfilment of the order to the awful service when it arrived with a faulty inverter board. The HDD is incredibly slow, and the digitizer seems to have a mind of its own when wireless network access is peaking.

    As for the tablet interaction itself; it proved useful a couple of times, but not enough to warrant the increase in weight. The handwriting recognition is surprisingly good, but not good enough (why doesn’t it learn?) for writing email. The limited screen resolution makes it hard to use for graphics or note-taking applications (you run out of space for notes really quickly). I found myself using the tablet aspect for reading on the go and not much else. Once I swung the unit into laptop mode, I yearned for the sleeker (and faster) X40 models.

    I think I’d give my vote for best laptop of 2005 to the X40, with the recently released 15″ PowerBooks (which is what I’m now using) as runner up. The X41 gets an honourable mention, but until they get a better HDD and screen resolution, they’re not yet ready for the podium.

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  29. I’ve got an HP Pavillion ZA8000 Media Center Edition Laptop and it’s the best computer I’ve ever had. It has a huge 17″ wide screen, dual TV tuners, Harmon Kardon speakers, 3.4 Ghz processor and 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X600 card. It’s not for airport jockeys though, the thing is HUGE.

    I like it because I can edit video or play Battlefield 2 anywhere and I’m not on a crippled laptop, this thing screams.

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  30. I’ve got an HP Pavillion ZA8000 Media Center Edition Laptop and it’s the best computer I’ve ever had. It has a huge 17″ wide screen, dual TV tuners, Harmon Kardon speakers, 3.4 Ghz processor and 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X600 card. It’s not for airport jockeys though, the thing is HUGE.

    I like it because I can edit video or play Battlefield 2 anywhere and I’m not on a crippled laptop, this thing screams.

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  33. I keep hearing about how the Tablet is on the cusp of success. But I don’t see it. In fact, the only time I see Tablets are when I’m over in Redmond at Microsoft for a meeting. I don’t see them in the coffee shops downtown. I don’t see them on the Sounder Train and none of my non-Microsoft friends own a Tablet. The majority of laptops I see at the coffee shops in Belltown are Powerbooks.

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  34. I keep hearing about how the Tablet is on the cusp of success. But I don’t see it. In fact, the only time I see Tablets are when I’m over in Redmond at Microsoft for a meeting. I don’t see them in the coffee shops downtown. I don’t see them on the Sounder Train and none of my non-Microsoft friends own a Tablet. The majority of laptops I see at the coffee shops in Belltown are Powerbooks.

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  35. Brett: I’m seeing more and more non MSFTies have Tablet PCs. But, yea, they are about as rare as PowerBooks in Europe.

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  36. Brett: I’m seeing more and more non MSFTies have Tablet PCs. But, yea, they are about as rare as PowerBooks in Europe.

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  45. Robert: I’m in the process of purchasing a number of workstations and laptops for our small company. We are a Microsoft shop and MS partner. Would Tablets be good for certain individuals at our company? Maybe so, but I have no way of knowing that unless someone can take the time to help me understand the reasons. The other issue is that all our servers/workstations are from Dell. So unless the Dell rep has the time to educate me about the Tablet’s virtues, it’s going to be a hard sell to my manager.

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  46. Robert: I’m in the process of purchasing a number of workstations and laptops for our small company. We are a Microsoft shop and MS partner. Would Tablets be good for certain individuals at our company? Maybe so, but I have no way of knowing that unless someone can take the time to help me understand the reasons. The other issue is that all our servers/workstations are from Dell. So unless the Dell rep has the time to educate me about the Tablet’s virtues, it’s going to be a hard sell to my manager.

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  47. Brett, isn’t Dell promoting Motion Computing (www.motioncomputing.com) when it comes to Tablets?
    Honestly, when using a laptop without pen input I feel handicaped.

    Currently Dell only has them “in the labs” and will releases them once the market is big enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if they come out with their “own” Tablets next year.

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  48. Brett, isn’t Dell promoting Motion Computing (www.motioncomputing.com) when it comes to Tablets?
    Honestly, when using a laptop without pen input I feel handicaped.

    Currently Dell only has them “in the labs” and will releases them once the market is big enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if they come out with their “own” Tablets next year.

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  51. Stefen, I looked on Dell’s website and didn’t see anything from Motion. I remember testing a motion at Microsoft a couple of years back and they were really nice but expensive.

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  52. Stefen, I looked on Dell’s website and didn’t see anything from Motion. I remember testing a motion at Microsoft a couple of years back and they were really nice but expensive.

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