Flexview or no Flexview T60p arghhghghghhg

I posted this in the choosing a notebook section but now that I think of it, this place is probably better:

I was originally thinking of getting a MBP, but after talking to some people in the Apple subforums, I decided that I really didn't need OSX.

The more I think about it, the more I like the T60p. It has solid quality and build, awesome keyboard, less heat problems than the MBP, and for less money, I can get the same specs (more or less). Plus, it solves the Harddrive configuration problem I was having (how to manage my media so that both OS's could see/use it).

My current problem would be: how should I configure the T60p?
I'm going with the T60p because it has the FireGL card, which apparently is optimized for engineering problems like AutoCad (which I plan on using).

The things I need to figure out is which screen (and screensize) to pick and which battery to pick.

My budget: I can afford the 15 inch with Flexview and the extended battery. My problem is, the more features the laptop has, the more heavy it becomes, and the less battery life it has.

I'm going to be a college student, hopefully majoring in engineering. I plan to use the laptop for quite a while.

1) Is the 15 inch Flexview really worth an extra $215? Seriously. If I'm going to pay another $215 it'd better blow my mind away. Plus, bigger screensize = more power consumption. Is it really worth it to have less battery life? Another problem - size. While the 15in isn't as wide as the MBP, it's thicker, and more heavy. (I think the MBP is low 5 pounds, and the T60p 15 inch + extra battery is like 6.2 pounds.) Weight is a big factor.

Do I really need mucho battery life? Probably not, but who knows where I will be taking it. Maybe I'll take it to the library, and work there. Size + weight determines it's portability too.

What are the benefits to Flexview? Besides being able to look at the screen from just about any angle (within reason), is it worth $215?

2) Extra 3 cells for only $30. Maybe it will extend the battery life by almost an hour. Trade off - it sticks out an extra inch out the back, and it adds to the weight.


So basically, I'm juggling portability and special features. What do you guys think I should do?

Other info that might be useful - I don't plan to play any really high-end games on it. JK2, and maybe Half-Life and Unreal Tournament (original).

If I configure a T60p: 2.33 Core 2 Duo, 2 gb ram, 100 gb harddrive (5400 rpm), no fingerprint reader (do I really need one?), and 14 inch screen (no flexview), extended 9-cell battery, it comes out to be around $2300 bucks.

Upgrade to 15 inch flexview, it comes out to be around $2500 - as much as the MBP.

 

I am switching from a desktop with a pro CRT to the T60 so I went with the Flexview since I do regular serious (although not professional) photoshop work. I took a friend's old 14" laptop on a a trip and on the plane and determined that I could live with the extra inch for the better viewing angles and color fidelity. I did also get the 9 cell for the extra battery life.

Be careful about comparing it directly to the MBP, they are very different beasts. If you seriously plan on using AutoCAD then the T60 is probably the way to go.

 

I say yes flexview. That's what I got anyways...but flexview is great...though I did need to color calibrate the monitor but maybe that's just because I only do color calibrating. Flexible viewing angles are more useful than they sound. Sun glaring? Fold the screen down so it doesn't, and you can still read it whereas on another laptop once you had the screen folded that far down there is no way you could read it. Laptop in your lap? Well, now every time you move your legs you won't have to readjust the screen. Also the color rendition is better than a non-flexview screen (and it accurately portrays contrast and sharpness and saturatoin when comparing to prints...though a non-photo editor might not care). Also, it's a little brighter than the 14" screen.

Do you really need the 2.33ghz? Because I would rather have a 2.16ghz and 7200rpm hard drive than a 2.33ghz and a 5400rpm hard drive.

I do kinda like the fingerprint reader. It's nice not having to type any password ever again (well...you have to type them once, but after that it's in there).

And the 9-cell gets killer battery life even with the 15" flexview. Doing everything possible to save power I can type in Word for about 6.5 hours. Turning on wireless and using the net takes that down to 5-5.5 hours.

 

I am with marlin on the cpu vs HDD speed trade off

 

Well here's the thing, my budget is going to get pretty tight if I don't buy soon. Those prices I listed above, are with the $300 off holiday savings from the site. They end Dec 11. As of now, I doubt my parents will let me buy it before the sale is over, which means I'll have to tack on another 300 bucks to the price tag.

Now that you mention it, there really isn't much difference between 2.33 ghz and 2.16 ghz is there? Besides like 1 or 2 seconds off rending time (or so I've heard.) Also, the memory. I really want to have 2 gb, but if I step down to 1.5, I save myself like 160 dollars???!? Again, I doubt that special will still be around when I buy it though. I think bumping down the processor will save me a lot of money, but not sacrifice a lot of power.

Argh this is so frustrating, having parents that won't let you do anything. I have the money too, been saving for like 4 years.

Woah, you're a genius. I reconfigured by bumping up to the 15 in flexview, and bumping down the processor speed. The processor upgrade itself costs more than the flexview upgrade ?!

2.16 Core 2 Duo - 2 gb ram - 100 gb hdd 7200 rpm, finger printer reader, 15in flexview, 9-cell battery, intel prowireless still just $2,238. It's $2,538 without the sale, which is still in my budget. You're a genius.

I'll have to talk to my parents about it though. They want to get a 4 year warrently which is like another 300 dollars isn't it? Well hopefully they will let me order this before the sale is over, so I can use the $300 savings to get the warrenty. Either that or make them pay for it because they didn't want to take advantage of the sale.

 

I went with 1GB (2 DIMM for +$0) with the plan to upgrade to 2 GB in perhaps a year since I would rather use that cash for things that I will not be able to upgrade as easily.

 

Is the faster spinning harddrive going to eat up more battery life?

 

There is a thread about this and the overwhelming majority of people said it does not.

 

So the Pro of a 7200 harddrive would be that windows starts up faster? Other than that, I see nothing wrong with a 5400... I'm going to search for this thread.

Btw, thanks you guys. You've been of more help in the past hour than anyone else in the past weeks that I've been here.

 

This is what convinced me:

 

Windows, and every single application, will open faster. It makes the whole thing feel more snappy. Yeah, the 2.33ghz costs a lot of money for a small upgrade because it's the fastest processor and the fastest processor is always unreasonably expensive.

On the parents, I know the feeling. When I went to college I went with a real crappy laptop. It wasn't until this year, as a Senior, that I was able to upgrade, and I was only able to because I did it without them knowing. Hey, make them pay for the warranty if they're the ones who want it. Just say you're perfectly fine taking your chances (it'd be a sad day when a Thinkpad can't make it 4 years...heck, even my old POS HP made it 3.5 years until I dropped it - well it fell - from about 7 feet high).