Perfect Laptop: Avoid the Virtual Goose - IBM ThinkPad vs. Gateway Solo
Nov 29 '00
Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean . . . Welcome to the nursery rhyme entitled, “Laptop Solution for Business Travelers.” You want all the goodies that you’re accustomed to at home to make you the technological Road Warrior. 19-inch monitor, CD-RW, DVD, 1GHz, 20 GB, 128 MB!! The only thing that’s stopping you are the psychological dangers of having this recurring Mad “Cyber” Max fantasy and the grump at customs browbeating your pathetic mouse and hardware show.
Let’s face it – you can’t have it all, especially when you are travelling. I learned the realities of Laptop 101 by submission – corporate issue. I will pit two of the leading laptops on the market today to help you arrive at the best solution for your business travel needs.
The first concern is weight. Those shoulder straps can wear you down quick with a heavy computer and a plumber’s bag full of swappable components. Lighten the load and consider these options. Look for a laptop with a swappable drive bay or the DVD/CD-ROM built in. A swappable drive will also allow versatility for diskettes, hard drive, Zip drive or lithium-ion battery. Peripheral devices that can share a USB port will go a long way. An internal modem is a must. An extra, back-up, battery is an unspoken. Shh!!
Compromise is the issue at hand. Know what your intended laptop uses will be. Will you be giving presentations? Using MS office applications such as Word and Excel? Communicating via e-mail and doing report entry? Or watching DVD movies in your hotel room? Web conferencing? Photo storage? Consider which features and components that you feel are necessary and trim the fat.
Here is a comparison of two of the leading notebooks today:
IBM ThinkPad X20
750 MHz Pentium Processor
13.3” display
128 MB RAM
10GB Hard Drive
24X-10X CD-ROM
56K V90 Modem
Windows 98
Cost: $3,199
Gateway Solo 1150 CL
550MHz Intel Celeron Processor
12.1” display
32MB RAM
5GB Removable Hard Drive
24X-10X CD-ROM
56K V90 Modem
Windows Millenium
Cost: $999
Is this a fair comparison? As the intended user, you tell me. The half-full side of me sees it as apples to apples. After all, they are both laptops. The half-empty side of me sees it as apples to oranges.
Clearly the ThinkPad is enriched with better graphics, a bigger viewing area, faster processing speed, more memory and more storage space. The Solo is more than $2,000 cheaper. Finding the better built, laptop, mousetrap is in the intended applications of the beholder. Hopefully, this comparison has clarified important laptop purchasing decisions and provided you with some pertinent guidelines to better aid you in your search.
What did I get stuck with?
IBM ThinkPad
133MHz Intel MMX Processor
12.1” display
32MB RAM
3GB Hard Drive
CD-ROM
56K V90 Modem
Windows 95
Cost: Free
Thanks for asking. Good luck with the hunt and remember the thrill is in the chase!
. . . and so, betwixt them both, they licked the platter clean.
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