Osnabrueck

Wow. I didn't know about this thing. 20 Inches!? Thats crazy. At that point the level of portability is seriously encumbered. Although I have to admit, that I'm turned on by the prospect of even more screen than I normally have... Just not with that kind of ridiculous footprint.

Osnabrueck

This may surprise you, but it would be well worth checking out Apple before you make the jump. Even if you're not interested in running Mac OS X, you're now able to install Windows on any new Mac (Since they all run on Intel processors).

Apple has a reputation for being a pricey bang & Olufsen type of company when it comes to hardware but, pound for pound, their laptops are a competitive value, come backed with a well-regarded service guarantee and are about as good at it gets when it comes to construction and industrial design.

For connecting media with your TV and stereo you may want to give Apple TV a look:

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

BMW_Dude

That 'laptop' is seriously impressive, can't see anything there that I'd want better, although I'm sure it's very pricy!

That would be great for people who move their laptop occasionally, but in the car so it doesn't matter abou the size!

I like the way you can tilt the screen!

Centurion

For you who haven't seen a 20 inch laptop IRL I can tell you that they are monstrous. I saw my first one a year ago and was blow away. The 20 inch widescreen is gigantic. It completely dwarfs my laptop the way it dwarfs a 14 incher.
I remember that I grabbed a hold of the right corner with the laptop unfolded and I could see how the whole computer was quirking. It was a wiggly as a Saab 900 convertible. This was an Acer laptop for you who wonder. Real life battery time? Around 40 minutes, but then again this is the type of laptop which isn't manufactured to be used on the go.
It was also dead heavy although the battery wasn't in it. Weighing 8kg which is more than twise as my computer with even has powerful graphic card, Dual Core CPU and two harddrives. With that being said 20 incher are really movable laptops rather than portable computers, and good luck with finding a case for it.


Ever since the introduction of intel Macs, Apple's laptops have become so much more competitive and have a much higher value than the G5 and G4s. Still one problem remain. Apple don't have any proper gaming laptops. The Macbook is completely worthless when it comes to gaming. The Macbook pro on the other hand has a proper GPU but is still not powerful enough to satisfy an occasional gamer.

As for the Apple TV i don't think it is a good product and i would want it to control med media library. Apple imposes to many stupid technical and format limitations on their products in oder for them to tie you to all their products. Apple TV doesn't support MPEG-2 and can't even properly stream 720hp because of it's 5Mbit bandwidth limitation. Worst of all it doesn't stream Divx or Xvid, making it almost useless for anyone who doesn't spend an hour or two at the iTunes store everyday. Heck one is even better of with a modded Xbox or even an Xbox 360 which syncs seamlessly with computers equipped with Vista Home Premium.

Osnabrueck

Hopefully the introduction of the Santa Rosa chipset will alleviate some of the gaming woes. I know there's some fancy stuff with regard to driving video that's leg-up with the new gen (now Centrino Pro I think) stuff.

Our IT guy at work brought in a MacBook Pro running Windows some time ago and it just knocked my socks off. He almost never even uses Mac OS!


I think you're right Lu - I'm almost embarrassed for mentioning it. Nice thing about Apple TV is the ability to stream wirelessly - but on the other hand everything is done under the strict supervision of iTunes, if I'm correct. Which means... well, no fun I guess.

I think Apple has formulated a very effective and public-friendly way of organizing music, but not video. iTunes, the iTunes store and the iPod all mesh together in a way that's pretty logical and still alternative-friendly (for instance, I use eMusic.com). When it comes to video, however, I'm not anywhere near convinced that Apple has an effective vision for the future, nor is capable of delivering content in the way that's sustainable and responds to the demands of consumers now, or in the not so distant future.

If Apple is going to dominate video, they need the ability to manage and play video files of all sizes, shapes and colors just as iTunes is able to accommodate .mp4 .mp3 .wav .aif and a multitude of other sound files.

There's also the issue that people, by and large, aren't using iTunes as a hub for their video consumption. For me, all my movies are bought using Video-on-demand with my Digital Cable service. I don't even have a DVD player - don't need one. My only gripe with Video-on-demand is that the library is limited to recent releases.

Anyways, I'm getting way off topic here. But yeah - you're right Lu. Apple TV is much too restrictive as is. Either it needs to play friendly with other software (which it certainly won't) or iTunes needs to be seriously retooled to play better with many, many more formats and codecs (wich, I'm sure for licensing reasons, it won't anytime soon).

Choleric

I too have a 17inch Intel MacBook Pro, which I've had for about a year, I have no complaints. And like Osna, when on any smaller screen I feel extremely cramped. My MBP and 500gb hardrive are all I need for all my needs.

Oh and for games, well I am not a big computer gamer, so I can't comment on that, but I do play Civ4 on my MBP, and I have no complaints there.

Oh and to watch all my 350gigs of burned DVDs on the TV, I just hook it up with a dvi-Svideo cord wich is also nice, good quality too.

Giannis

Osna: I will look at the Apple laptop, but i think i'm sold at sony. Note that Apple computers are not very popular here, so i guess it won't be in stock or it will be much more expensive.

Luw: This laptop you posted is scary, talking about the specs. It must be kick-ass. But the design is not my cup of tea. It doesn't appeal to me. Yet this thing with the screen, the way it opens is very interesting. It must be very helpfull!

PS. The model's name is Veyron? No thanks
And i think that i will have to sell the whole car to buy this laptop

Choleric

Giannis, You use Autodesk/Autocad a lot dont you?

If so I wouldnt recommend an Apple MBP, I tried using it through bootcamp on mine, to pretty lackluster results, especially when rendering things.

Definately go for a Windows machine if you use Autodesk.

Gene

Guessing you've worked out what Santa Rosa platform is already . Put simply, Santa Rosa is the new Intel Centrino mobile platform, i.e. motherboard/wireless card etc. I know alot of people have been recommending Sony/HP etc. Personally I go against everyone and say Dell is the best. I know alot of people knock Dell, but for me they represent best value per performance, particularly the XPS range. I've personally owned about 15 notebooks of all brands and I've worked with lots and lots of notebooks of different brands since I work as an IT administrator at a software firm. Basically the only major notebook brand I've never owned or thoroughly tested is the Macbook.

If anyone cares to note here are my opinions of the brands:

Sony: Very good looking, generally reliable but average performance, but so overpriced for what they are.

IBM/Lenovo: Probably the most reliable, trusty, business notebook out there. Good keyboard with good performance. If I needed a trusty notebook it would be a IBM. But overpriced for what it is. Lenovo-branded notebooks are pretty good and well priced though.

Toshiba: Most of their notebooks seem to be really flimsy. They look good, with average performance. Overpriced for what they are again.

HP/Compaq: Personally I never liked HP notebooks, even though I've owned 3 of them. They don't offer anything amazing IMO, and on average they are more expensive than the equivalent Dell. For example, Dell has had the M2010 out for a while well before HP released their 20 incher. Plus most of my work HP notebooks have had issues (about 10 HP notebooks at work).

Dell: Best performance for price in my opinion. Not the most sturdy of the bunch, not the most reliable, not the fastest, not the cheapest. But the best combination of all the above, compared to the other makers. Service can be crap, but good thing is that if you know what your talking about you can trick the service again. Case in point, I spilt water all over my keyboard accidently. Obviously this isn't covered by warranty, but I tricked the service agent into believing the keyboard stopped responding. They replaced the keyboard no charge. I've over 7 Dell notebooks. My work is using Dell notebooks.

Acer: Shit.

Asus: Pretty good performance-wise, price-wise, reliability-wise. They offer a really good combination of these features. I just feel Dell offer a better combination. In particular Dell are far cheaper in New Zealand than Asus. Asus would be my next choice after Dell.

Panasonic: Bloody tough notebooks. Pretty average to low performance. But man can they take a beating.

Sharp and Samsung: Actually these notebooks are rather impressive. Too bad they are not widely sold.

Packard Bell: Haha. On paper they look good. Paper lies. Its like a car that has the same specifications as an M5, but drives like a Holden Vectra.

Fujitsu: I like Fujitsu laptops. They are quite trusty. Too bad they are expensive. They are like Sony's, just more expensive in NZ.

Well hope that helped you out. If you want a 17 incher/20 inch, I would look into getting an Dell XPS M1710 or M2010. In my country they would be the cheapest per performance.

Giannis

Yes, Choleric i use those programs at work and i have a new pc there, and i rarely take work home, but for the times that i have to, i want to be able to work easily. Thats why i want the 17inch monitor!

About Apple notebooks, as i said earlier, there are difficult to find here, since only a few sell them, and i guess that i have to get it straight through apple! This means that service is not easy. Very important reason IMO

Other than that, i have absolutely no experience with Apple's products, so i better stick with Sony!