Then there were two.
May. 28th, 2011 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI'm unable to decide between two laptop options.
With the same processor and the same memory and the same other options (where configurable), the unknown weight (but supposedly lighter variant) 420s 14" screen is ~$1300ish and the 15.5" 520 is ~$1300ish. Obviously if they weigh the same, I should get the bigger one? That's with the sale and the coupon but not including the "save 10% on your first order" and there's some wibbly in the numbers about tax and fees and whether I'm really buying the docking station, but I have comparable costs that are indistinguishable.
The parameters I'm using include Intel i5 2.50GHz processor and 4Gb 1 slot SODIMM memory and a 360Gb 7200RPM regular harddrive.
These are IBM Thinkpad T series. The 420 came out in March and has, with the expanded battery and probably ridiculously limited usage, a 30 hour maximum battery life. It's one of the best battery technologies on the market according to all the reviews. The 420s gets about 2/3 of that span, but is supposedly a pound lighter. The 520 gets much worse battery life because the screen is that much bigger... and because it appears to be a different battery.
So I'm going to be calling Lenovo tomorrow. I wonder if, when you call, they can tell you what your configured laptop weighs. And if you have two carts (you can save a whole cart, which is convenient since they don't add in the shipping (currently free due to the sale) tax or fees until after the cart is set.) whether they can give both numbers.
I have absolutely no idea what computers are supposed to cost. I see ads for $400 computers and I paid about $750 for my last one, I think. I know laptops cost more. I know Lenovo doesn't bother selling leftover dreck no one should waste their time buying.
Simon tried to convince me to buy a 12" one because it would be "lighter" but they don't get lighter by more than 2 ounces until you devolve into the netbook realm. The X1 is a lot lighter but it costs more and the battery life is significantly worse. And they wasted a lot of space having a [insert cursing here] touchpad right where your hand goes when you're typing when they could have made the keys normal size instead.
I'm talking myself out of buying something again.
Simon thinks it's too expensive and says he spent hundreds less on his laptop more than 3 years ago.
[edited to remove ranting about CapsLock key which is redundant and actually irrelevant.]
With the same processor and the same memory and the same other options (where configurable), the unknown weight (but supposedly lighter variant) 420s 14" screen is ~$1300ish and the 15.5" 520 is ~$1300ish. Obviously if they weigh the same, I should get the bigger one? That's with the sale and the coupon but not including the "save 10% on your first order" and there's some wibbly in the numbers about tax and fees and whether I'm really buying the docking station, but I have comparable costs that are indistinguishable.
The parameters I'm using include Intel i5 2.50GHz processor and 4Gb 1 slot SODIMM memory and a 360Gb 7200RPM regular harddrive.
These are IBM Thinkpad T series. The 420 came out in March and has, with the expanded battery and probably ridiculously limited usage, a 30 hour maximum battery life. It's one of the best battery technologies on the market according to all the reviews. The 420s gets about 2/3 of that span, but is supposedly a pound lighter. The 520 gets much worse battery life because the screen is that much bigger... and because it appears to be a different battery.
So I'm going to be calling Lenovo tomorrow. I wonder if, when you call, they can tell you what your configured laptop weighs. And if you have two carts (you can save a whole cart, which is convenient since they don't add in the shipping (currently free due to the sale) tax or fees until after the cart is set.) whether they can give both numbers.
I have absolutely no idea what computers are supposed to cost. I see ads for $400 computers and I paid about $750 for my last one, I think. I know laptops cost more. I know Lenovo doesn't bother selling leftover dreck no one should waste their time buying.
Simon tried to convince me to buy a 12" one because it would be "lighter" but they don't get lighter by more than 2 ounces until you devolve into the netbook realm. The X1 is a lot lighter but it costs more and the battery life is significantly worse. And they wasted a lot of space having a [insert cursing here] touchpad right where your hand goes when you're typing when they could have made the keys normal size instead.
I'm talking myself out of buying something again.
Simon thinks it's too expensive and says he spent hundreds less on his laptop more than 3 years ago.
[edited to remove ranting about CapsLock key which is redundant and actually irrelevant.]
no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 07:26 pm (UTC)If you're not carrying it around places (outside your home), it seems to me plausible to get the larger one. Sometimes a bigger device can be annoying to put into a bag even if it weighs the same as a smaller one. I would always go for the smaller one, for this reason. :)
12" isn't automatically lighter.
$400 is generally dreck, yeah.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 08:24 pm (UTC)Obviously those marketing-oriented weights are going to be misleading. It's just unclear on whether they're misleading the same way, such that one can compare those numbers directly.
One of the things I've talked about hobby-wise with other people is how to convince yourself to buy something that has a capacity you do not currently have by estimating how much use it will get. The coffee woman dithered about buying a toaster because she didn't make toast. I suggested that not having a toaster generally caused that to happen and it was unfair to measure the amount of toast she made at home currently as an estimate of the usage a toaster would get. When buying a spinning wheel, it's completely unclear whether one will take to it and use it enough to make it worth buying compared to kicking in a hundred bucks toward a generous friend buying one in exchange for handspun yarn. The loom buying was the same way.
And what I'm trying to get at is, I can't take my computer with me anywhere now, so I have absolutely no idea whether I would want to take it places if I could. I was surprised at how much use I get out of the Kindle. I figured I'd mostly use it here at home, but the reverse is true, I mostly take it with me places and read physical books at home. (It's the privacy you mentioned once last year. No one asks me what I'm reading because the cover is lurid.) It'd be nice to have my computer when we take trips, I guess, but maybe I'd only take it between the bedroom and the sofa.
Simon says with his 3-ish pound laptop that he can hold it in one hand and type on it with the other. (Not for long, but enough to do something quick.) And it's definitely true that if I was putting it on my lap, the weight would matter fairly fast.
If it's honestly 2 pounds lighter, I'm going for the smaller one. Unless I talk myself out of buying anything, which is possible.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 09:46 pm (UTC)I went for the Thinkpad X220, which is rather decisively expensive; with battery it is supposed to weigh 3.6 lbs, but it is smaller than any of your options (12.5" display) because I don't mind watching video occasionally on a small display and really need to have something light. I mean, aside from the fact that I buy one laptop every 5-6 years, it's going to go to/from the office some days, which means that (once daycare starts) I'll be carrying it with an increasingly heavy child (until she's able to walk 1.5 mi confidently, which'll be a while) (I don't expect the laptop to begin walking).
no subject
Date: 2011-05-30 08:51 pm (UTC)Second. I laughed really big with the last line about who you expect to do the walking.
Second-and-a-half... it seems insane to plan to walk 3 miles a day with a child you must carry... maybe they'd let you store your mini stroller there during the day?
Third, I appreciate knowing I'm not the only one who waits until the bitter end on buying stuff even if it might be helpful sooner than that. 4-5 years is probably beyond the best lifespan for most computers. I'm certainly finding it so.
Today's the last day of this sale. I'm pretty decided that I like the T420s best of all the options. It's faster and lighter than the plain 420 and negligibly more expensive. But I am not convinced I should actually order it. I'm still dithering. Simon's wrong about it being more expensive than his laptop though, my total includes the docking station and tax. He wasn't remembering the with-tax total on his.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 05:15 am (UTC)2. :)
2.5. I can carry her now, and if i continue carrying her regularly, it shouldn't be hard. We may well take a bus back to the train in the afternoons, however. (In the morning there's another alt plan, which may or may not work.)
3. I like not putting things into landfill if I can help it, also.
Good luck with final deciding, if you haven't settled the issue yet.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 05:44 am (UTC)I'm looking at the Thinkpad T series.
The 420 says ~$750 but it was $1100. The 520 ended up being ~$1150. The 420S is ~$1200 but is thinner, lighter, and has higher monitor resolution and "starts at" a weight 2 full pounds less than the 520. I'm sure it will weigh more than the one you've chosen, but a lot more optimal than a laptop that "starts at" 5.5 pounds.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 08:41 pm (UTC)Size and weight
Height:
0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Width:
12.78 inches (32.5 cm)
Depth:
8.94 inches (22.7 cm)
Weight:
4.5 pounds (2.04 kg)1
no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 08:46 pm (UTC)Have you used lighter or heavier ones and does a half pound really make a big difference?
the 15" version is wide-screen, like movie shaped. I'm thinking if I'm watching a movie for real (not just as filler while waiting somewhere), I'd probably want to dock it to my giant monitor.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 09:54 pm (UTC)