Does this laptop exist?

In My Humble Opinion
1

After years of transferring files and profiles between multiple computers and hauling big towers and CRT monitors whenever I move, I’m sick of it all and I’ve decided I’d rather just have a single laptop that can do everything.

Since it’s going to be a complete desktop replacement, I’m looking for a laptop that would meet a very specific set of criteria. The list is demanding, to say the least, and I haven’t had much luck finding a match on my own so I’m coming here for help. Does anyone know of a current or soon-to-be-available notebook that has all of the following?

  • CPU: Athlon 64x2 OR Intel Core Duo (any speed)

  • Graphics card: Mobility Radeon X800 or above OR GeForce Go 6800 or above (but with dedicated, not shared, video memory)

  • A built-in memory card reader supporting at least CompactFlash/MicroDrive, MemoryStick Pro, and SecureDigital

  • A built-in TV tuner (some laptops that claim to have a TV tuner actually just come with an external USB one)

  • At least two PC Card/PCMCIA slots (ExpressCard doesn’t count)

  • At least one of each USB 2.0 and FireWire/IEEE1394 ports

  • Built-in dual-layer DVD+/-RW drive (speed doesn’t matter)

  • Built-in 802.11 g and b wireless support

  • Built-in Bluetooth support

I would also love to see the following, but they are not absolutely required:

  • Built-in 802.11a support, in addition to the b and g mentioned above

  • EITHER a built-in webcam that can swivel to face the other side of the notebook OR no built-in webcam at all – I just hate that eerie “I’m being watched” feeling.

  • Support for RAID 0 over two SATA hard drives

  • An actual numeric keypad (not just letters that can be turned into a numpad with a function key)

  • A pointing-stick type thing (like the “red nipple” on IBM ThinkPads) in addition to or instead of a touchpad.

  • A Windows key between the left CTRL and ALT keys and a Context Menu key between the right ALT and CTRL keys – I know a lot of people think they’re useless, but I navigate by keyboard a lot and find them indispensable

  • Either a long-lasting battery (3+ hours) or the ability to add an additional INTERNAL battery that doesn’t take away another component like the DVD drive

Yup, I realize that’s a pretty long list. But I figured, hey, if I’m going to have to save for months to buy my dream system anyway, I might as well dream big. So does something like this exist or am I asking for too much?

Thanks in advance.

2

I’m curious as to what the second clause here actually means… a laptop with a big void, ready for another battery?

3

While this is nothing but my humble opinion, I think you are asking for way to much as far as the optional stuff. As far as the required stuff goes though I don’t see any problem except for the dual core processor, which you almost certainly dont need, and the fact that you will be spending in excess of 3000 dollars.

On preview I agree with Mangetout; You would be hard pressed to find a laptop with only one slot for an optical drive, so why not use the other spot for another battery? Also most laptop batterys can easily last 3-4 hours, and some can go as long as 9, although probably not with all that high powered equipment to run.

4

Mangetout:
Basically, I was looking for something with the equivalent of two “drive bays”, only one of which would be used (probably by the DVD drive). All the other components would be built into the non-drive-bay parts of the notebook and there’d be an empty bay for an additional battery.

(As opposed to a laptop with two drive bays, both are which are already used – by, say, the DVD drive and the primary/only battery – leaving no room for an additional battery)

.Tyr.:

Sorry, I’m confused. If there’s a laptop out there with a built-in battery AND a spare spot that’s not already taken up by the DVD drive or one of the other “required” components… great! That’s exactly what I’m looking for. Are you saying this is a feature common to all laptops or did I misunderstand your question?

It’s not really the dual-core I care about, it’s just overall performance. The Athlon 64x2 is only $200 more than a single-core Athlon 64, and I was under the impression that the dual-core aspect would do more for performance (especially when multitasking) than spending the same $200 on the next “rank” of a regular Athlon 64. Same for the Core Duo vs the Pentium M. Is this an accurate impression? If so, I’m willing to pay the ~$200 difference because I plan to be keeping the laptop for at least a few years. Most of the laptop’s price (it IS going to be expensive, as you said) would be from all the other junk anyway.

As for the optional stuff, some of that is definitely hard to find – that’s why they’re optional :slight_smile: I’m having enough trouble just finding the required components: The internal TV tuner, card reader, and 2x PC card slots seem to be the most difficult parts. If you know of a particular laptop model that has everything on the list, please do tell!

5

This Alienware laptop comes close.

It has everything but the 2 card slots, Bluetooth and internal TV tuner (though it does have a TV-in port). It also has Raid 0 support for two hard drives, and you’d have an optical drive slot open (perhaps either for a battery or TV tuner card).

6

Most high end laptops I have see have and internal battery and two drive bays. I haent shopped for a laptop in a while so I don’t know if this is still true.

The thing is that it will really only help you with multi tasking. What it really comes down to is that it seems to be pretty hard to find duel core chips in laptops and I don’t think you will see a difference in 90% of the applications you use.

I’m not trying to be discouraging, just trying to suggest a decent compromise.

7

Not to mention one other fact…this laptop you want is going to be long on functionality, but short on portability. I originally had a list similar to yours but not quite as demanding. So I went to the store and checked out some laptops with that sort of functionality.

All I can say is that if you think an 11lb laptop is portable, then you’re not porting it very far. And after you pack it into a case and add your AC adapter, etc, it’s even less portable.

8

Yeah, and a lot of these super-full-featured laptops end up resembling a dictionary rather than a “notebook” as far as weight and thickness.

9

Basically, these two things will be fairly at odds to your requirement of long battery life. Although the Pentium M has done a fairly good job of lowering the power consumption, while maintaining respectable speed, it remain untested how well the Core Duos will do in this respect. Keep your eye on Apple’s new MacBook Pro in this respect.

If you want a really beefy (read: powerful) processor, it’s gonna cost you in terms of battery life. A high performace graphics card, likewise, draws a lot of power, even in a desktop system.

This can be found in many laptops, but some (like my Compaq) will only have support for one format (SD). High ends like the Alienware seem to have the full range of slots, but you might just be better off with a small little all-in-one USB dongle.

This is fairly rare, though not unheard of. Don’t expect any serious (hardware) capture capabilities, though. Most likely you’re just getting the input.

It’s been an awful long time since I’ve seen anything with 2 card slots. With all this stuff built in, why would you possibly need 2?

Quite common.

Pretty common these days.

Certainly common.

Common, and becoming moreso. Hey if it’s not built in, this would be a good excuse to use one of those PCMCIA slots!

Fairly rare, and probably going to be moreso now the the 802.11n spec was recently approved.

I don’t think you’ll have a problem finding a laptop without a built in webcam. Besides, a little black electrician’s tape would do the trick.

Not sure about this, but many probably possible in many higher-end systems.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen one of these. Would be an incredible waste of space, IMHO. However, there are plenty of dedicated USB numpads you can use.

The nipples are being fazed out as the touchpad seems to have one out (execpt, perhaps, in the super tiny portable notebooks). Doubt you’ll find one with both.

Just about every laptop I’ve seen has the windows key. Can’t think offhand about the context key.

See above. As far as a second bay for a second battery, it’s non particularly comomn. You’re probably better off buying a couple extra high-capacity batteries to carry around as spares.

Whew!

10

Heh, I was about to recommend an Alienware, like Garfield226. This little bastard is what I’ve got (and my husband has one of his own), and what it shows is just the bare bones. If you go down to the configure tab at the bottom of the page, it will show the crap they can add on or build in to your computer.

Pricey, but awesome. Their customer service is superb. They don’t stop until the problem is fixed completely. My video card just died on me (after a year), and they’ve sent a brand new one to us for free. We had to ship the defective one back, but they pay for all the shipping, as well. So basically, my video card went on the fritz, and I get a free one. Just like that. And they’re fast, as soon as they figure out what the problem is. They shipped my card yesterday and it arrived today.

If you have the funds, these guys come somewhat close to what you’re looking for. I highly recommend them.

11

As much as I hate recommending an Acer laptop, the TravelMate 8200 seems to fit most of your requirements:

Intel Core Duo @ 2.0GHz

ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 w/ 256 MB of VRAM

5-in-1 card reader for optional MultiMediaCard™, Secure Digital card, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick PRO™ or xD-Picture Card™

No help for you on this one. I suspect that this will be hard to find on laptops other than the pure “desktop replacement, not so hot battery life” type such as those from AlienWare.

Only one PC Card slot, unfortunately. But you shouldn’t dismiss ExpressCard so quickly (unless you already have the PC Cards that you plan on using), as it is in a position to become the new standard – it’s much faster than PC Card.

One FireWire, 4 USB

Yup

Plus 802.11a!

Bluetooth 2.0

See above.

Acer OrbiCam integrated 1.3 megapixel CMOS camera with 225° rotation

Doesn’t look like it…

Nope

Just a touchpad, unfortunately.

It says 88 key keyboard, but I’m not sure if this includes the keys you’re looking for.

  • Nine-cell - up to 3.5 hours life depending on configuration and usage
  • Optional secondary six-cell - up to 2.0 hours life depending on configuration and usage

On top of meeting most of your demands, it also seems a lot more portable (at 6.6 pounds with decent battery life) than most “desktop-replacement” laptops.

12

This kitchen sink approach is kind of silly. You can get 99% of what you want in a big 17" higher end notebook from several manufacturers and attach additional peripherals as needed via PCCARD, USB2 or forewire.

Quite frankly your best bet would beone of these and attach perpherals as needed.

13

Thank you all for the replies so far.

The reason I’m trying to squeeze so much into one laptop is that I’ve personally tried the other route – portability in a laptop and the rest of the stuff in a desktop – and it’s just more annoying than I thought it’d be.

I often found myself wishing I had just one more PCMCIA slot. I need one for EVDO connectivity and I’d like one open for a GPS card or future 802.11n compatibility or something else that I haven’t yet thought of. I’m not inherently against ExpressCard, but it is a new standard that’s going against a very popular existing one and it remains to be seen whether manufacturers will adopt it for devices that don’t need all that speed. And will they be able to shrink things down to the ExpressCard/34 size that’s seen on most laptops?

As for the card reader, I’d like one that supports most of the formats out there so I won’t have to bring along the external one that I always misplace. SD is most common, but still not the only format in use.

Basically, this time around, I’m trying to compromise as little as possible. I’m currently using a 8 or 9-pound laptop with a battery life of less than an hour on average anyway, so I’m OK with sacrificing in those two areas if I can get the other required things. Maybe it’s not so much a laptop I want, but a semi-quasi-sorta-portable desktop :slight_smile:

Garfield226 and Anastaseon: It seems like the internal TV tuner is available as an option, so that’s good. Real bummer about the PC card slots and Bluetooth, though. About the battery… would an additional battery actually fit into the second drive slot or is it only useable as a spare?

MilTan: That’s pretty darned close! But why don’t you like recommending Acer?

14

Reply: I guess I just don’t have a great impression of them, quality-wise. Then again, my impression of Acer was formed several years ago, when they made nice looking computers, but weren’t known to be particularly reliable.

Take it with a grain of salt, as I’m actually a Mac user, but when people usually ask me to recommend a Windows laptop, I usually default to Thinkpads, or Dells if they’re more price-conscious.

15

It was a close match between the Acer and the Alienware computers, but then I found this Sager notebook. It seems to have almost everything I want at a price lower than Alienware’s, but I haven’t heard much about the company Sager.

Does anyone have any experience with them, either good or bad – especially in regards to reliability and support/warranty services?

MilTan: Somebody else agreed with your thoughts on Acer, so I’ll listen to the two of you and stay away for now. I would love a ThinkPad (had one before), but AFAIK they don’t offer anything that fits the requirements.

As for Macs, the new MacBook Pro is one helluva sweet machine. I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping that it’ll be able to run Windows without too much trouble and that Apple’ll release a version with a PC card slot or an another way of connecting to EVDO networks.