The Law School Laptop

[pulvillus]

FYI, no one I know has ever paid full price for a Thinkpad. 20-30% employee/friend/school discounts FTW.

Credited. I got 20% off (Xmas sale) and found a coupon code online (additional 10%). The x61 has pretty great durability reviews, but the SO just got the t61 (I think) and is quite pleased with it.

After spending a day removing all the shite that came preloaded.

I haven't been able to find them at best buy or circuit city. Are they only available online? It'd be nice to compare the weights and stuff before buying.

Try newegg.com they've got pretty competitive prices and are generally rather quick.

[withasigh]

My brother has a thinkpad and everytime I use it I feel like I'm playing with a dinosaur. Also, after less than 2 years, the battery is shot. Just some anecdotal data, but maybe worth looking into...

I have an X61s with the extended battery and it will last for 8 hours of intensive word processing and internet/wifi use.  It all depends on what kind of battery you get.  If you get an extended battery for the T series you'll get around 4 hours of use out of it.

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

My brother has a thinkpad and everytime I use it I feel like I'm playing with a dinosaur. Also, after less than 2 years, the battery is shot. Just some anecdotal data, but maybe worth looking into...

I have an X61s with the extended battery and it will last for 8 hours of intensive word processing and internet/wifi use.  It all depends on what kind of battery you get.  If you get an extended battery for the T series you'll get around 4 hours of use out of it.

agreed.  i've been using the battery since August and i still get about 8 hours of use.

[K?]

I <3 my MacBook.

But if you're going Windows, don't bother with anything besides a Lenovo.

[R.P. McMurphy]

I recently bought an HP. I love it. Granted I've only had it for 2 months, but it's great. Their customer service is great too. The hard drive was making weird clicking noises and so they are replacing it for free. It was a totally painless process.

[gowi]

I ended up with a Tablet PC and I LOVE the tablet aspect. I can see using it a lot, especially as someone who never used a laptop in class during undergrad. (Heh, back in my day we had these nifty notebooks made of paper. Man it sucked when you ran out of paper in the middle of class or your pen quit working.)

I ended up with the HP Pavilion tx1499us (think that's it.) I found it for $699 at Office Depot this weekend. My only complaint is the 6 cell batter is heavy and sticks out of the back. I may see how much trouble it is to shut it down and then restart for every class so I don't have to have the battery with me at all.

I did not get the Office Depot warranty, rather I looked up how much it would cost to add coverage for my PC's (all of them) to my renter's insurance and it was minimal (the total for the renter's insurance would be about $200/year, not sure how much of that is the PC protection.) It would cover everything, even if I spilled something on it or if it got stolen (manufacturers' warranties usually don't cover theft.) No, it's not next day service, but for emergencies I have another (much larger, but still workable) laptop that I can use while getting insurance to cut me a check for a new computer. (For other claims, it has taken me a week or so to get a check from them, so I probably wouldn't be out of my primary laptop for more than a week or so.)

I plan to get 2 USB drives and my husband has an external harddrive. I plan to backup to one USB and the external HD weekly (I'll use the other USB drive for transferring data or whatever.)

So, I guess this is just one less thing I have to worry about.

PS you can get Office 2007 for Home and Students (I get it through a discount at my work for $87.) It includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote. It can be installed on up to 3 PC's. Try to find someone who can get this discount, that's a huge savings.

[vjm]

For anyone who is considering a Lenovo, I just got an email with the spring coupon code for an extra discount.

When you check out, enter USPSPRINGFLING for an extra 15% off the R series, 10% off the X and T series. Seems to not include the x300.

And BTW, you can special order Lenovos with XP instead of Vista. Lots of schools do not support Vista, so it might be worth your while to hunt around for that option.

Edit:expires April 27, so hippity hop!

[Majmun]

For anyone who is considering a Lenovo, I just got an email with the spring coupon code for an extra discount.

When you check out, enter USPSPRINGFLING for an extra 15% off the R series, 10% off the X and T series. Seems to not include the x300.

And BTW, you can special order Lenovos with XP instead of Vista. Lots of schools do not support Vista, so it might be worth your while to hunt around for that option.

Edit:expires April 27, so hippity hop!

They are going to have to start because MS is pulling the plug on XP on june 30th. Though obviously this could change.

[Ben Matlock]

Lenovo X400 FTW!

http://gizmodo.com/tag/x400/

[difinity]

For anyone who is considering a Lenovo, I just got an email with the spring coupon code for an extra discount.

When you check out, enter USPSPRINGFLING for an extra 15% off the R series, 10% off the X and T series. Seems to not include the x300.

And BTW, you can special order Lenovos with XP instead of Vista. Lots of schools do not support Vista, so it might be worth your while to hunt around for that option.

Edit:expires April 27, so hippity hop!

They are going to have to start because MS is pulling the plug on XP on june 30th. Though obviously this could change.

False.  Support for Windows XP SP2 will continue until at least April 8, 2014.  That's about 3 years after I complete my JD in 2011.  :-)

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=windows+xp