Considering a new laptop

[Bob]

Currently I have a Dell Inspiron XPS which is two years old (yes, it's the one I couldn't bring to the last October lan, due to the gfx card said goodnight). It is a 2.13GHz Pentium M with 2048GM ram, 80GB hd and a 256MB 6800 Ultra gfx card.
It is a great laptop, and together with my docking station, 24" wide screen and various other accessories, I really have what I need. However, I would like to start using it more for what it really is - a movable desktop computer. For bringing to school, I have been thinking about getting something smaller, lighter and with more battery capacity.

For this semester, Dell has through my university come up with two very good offers - a Latitude D620 and a Latitude D830. They are almost the same really:
(linky for those that can read Norwegian)

D630
Intel® Coreâ,,¢ 2 Duo T7100 (1.8GHz/2MB/800MHz) with nVidia Quadro NVS 135M        
14.1 WXGA+ (1440 X 900 resolution) Wide Aspect Ratio display    
2 GB, 667 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM-minne (2 x 1024 MB)
120GB 7,200rpm SATA Hard Drive
8x DVD+/- RW Drive with Windows XP, Vista Home, Vista Business compatible software
Core 2 Duo - Intel 3945ABG Wireless Card
Internal Dell 360 Bluetoothâ,,¢ Card
6 Cell 56WHr Primary Battery

Price: NOK 8937.50, about GBP 760

D830
Intel® Coreâ,,¢ 2 Duo T7100 (1.8GHz/2MB/800MHz) with nVidia Quadro NVS 140M        
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) DellSharp Wide Aspect Ratio TFT display        
2 GB, 667 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM-minne (2 x 1024 MB)        
120GB 7,200rpm SATA Hard Drive        
8x DVD+/- RW Drive with Windows XP, Vista Home, Vista Business compatible software        
Core 2 Duo - Intel 3945ABG Wireless Card        
Internal Dell 360 Bluetoothâ,,¢ Card    
9 Cell 85WHr Primary Battery

Price: NOK 9970.00, about GBP 848

The university provides the same software package for both of 'em: MS XP prof or Vista Enterprise,  MS Office 2007, F-Secure, Clue and Nero. The also give free software support and upgrade for three years, and in addition Dell gives 3 year on site next work day service.
We've also been told that this is over 40% discount from the normal price of these laptops.

Stuff I think about:

• The 830 has a bigger screen and resolution, and could thus be better to work on (my school work will be mostly programming, with some report writing etc) - but as I'm used to the 17" 1920x1280 on my XPS, it'll be smaller than what I'm used to anyhow
• The 630 is lighter - 2.3kg vs about 0.5-0.6 more for the 830 (I think) - and a bit smaller, and will be easier to carry around
• I've read that the 630 can last well over 5 hours if I get a 9cell battery for it (this will stick out a bit in the front, making it a bit deeper), whilst the 830 only does a bit above three
• The 830 only has 3 usb ports, against the 630's 4 - but to compensate (I guess) it also comes with and s-video port

Has anyone any experience with any of these two?
Or does somebody perhaps have any other points I should offer some thought?

[delanvital]

I have of couple of friends studying their master in computer science and they all say one thing - get the biggest possible widescreen to have as much desktop as possible for in-program menues and windows besides the main coding window. I can't really relate, only pass this on. I am using a 12" and honestly don't feel the need for more. I came from a 13.1" and didn't feel the swap at all.

This is prob. due to me having different requirements than you. For me maximum mobility, so I use the X60s laptop from Lenovo and I'm extremely pleased with it But, what I've learned is that 8 hours on a battery is great. At uni there are quite a few plugs for power, but with 8 hours (7½-9h depending on brightness on screen and use of WLAN and BT) I just bring the laptop with me in the morning and can sit in the green area outside with a cold beer and work. No need for the power cables. Point being, without strong battery it really isn't portable... I also have the standard 4h battery I can charge and bring for a long day as a supplement. It is so incredibly small and half the thickness of the charger.

500-600g is quite a difference. My recommendation: Get the 630 and the better battery. Have this battery as a supplement to the other battery and do like me. I mean, you have a desktop arrangement at home. So this is the portable supplement. So go light and truly portable.

Other recommendations - get a good slimfit bag for it. That way you can protect the laptop well with your current bag of use. No need to get a special, expensive large bag for it.

And yes, the 8- or 9-cell batteries do stick out a bit. This makes the laptop about 200g heavier and makes it stand a bit higher. No problem - but be sure to get the slimfit bag that fits the laptop with the large battery

My 2 cents.

[ghoule211]

as your wanting to take it to school and basically have it to compile progroms etc....

I would personally go for the lighter of the two basically you dont want the extra weight.. by this i mean if you get yourself a bag (anysort for the test or use an old lappy bag) then put ure school/college books in the bag allong with the weight of the laptop (subsitute i.e bags of sugar tinned goods) then walk with this bag and contents for 10 to 20 mins as this is the weight that you will be carrying abou with you... also as this is a work laptop you dont really need the bigest and fastest book about also look at the price if you went for the cheaper one you could afford an external hard disk (2.5 inch host powered one) to back up that all important work over the semester/year as from experience i went out (this is back in 98) and got myself the top of the range sony vaio a nice PCG-735 with a whoping 2.3 gig hdd and 32meg of ram cost of this was £1800 plus the bag only to have it for nearly a year and a half to get it stolen with all my coursework on it obvioulsy the laptop was insured but it still didnt get my coursework back and i spent six months doing 2 years of work (about 14 hour days)....

not saying yours will be stolen but then you have to prepare for it going tits up (HDD's are mechanical and like cars breakdown)....

these days my personal laptop is a sony vaio PCG-SZ2XP/c i have always personally stuck with sony (6 of them for me in 7 years and another 6 for the wife) and all but the one that was stolen is still in operation today.....

although saying that if anyone has a power supply for a Zennith 286 luggable (old style laptop) the one with the red screen i could probably fire that beast up with its 10meg HDD

[Bob]

Thanks for the input Delan and Ghoule

Re bag/backpack: I forgot to mention, but in that deal we get, a rucksack from Dell is included. However, I have this one from Bergans laying around - bought it just before I got my XPS, which of course was too big to fit in it (bloody monster machine) - it's full of brilliant solutions, like a padded removable laptop case, many smart pockets/rooms etc, so I really look forward to be able to use that one again.

As I'm used to carry around my XPS (which is somewhat over 4kg :blink:), the weight difference between the models ain't my biggest concern.

What I think I will end up being what I choose between, is the screen size/resolution on the 830 vs. the battery time on the 630. I am a bit tired of having a computer I barely can watch a whole movie on (on my XPS, I can't even that...) before it goes out, and this laptop will definitely be something I bring around when I go places.
But on the other hand, I also know how great it is to work on big screens - nothing beets the 24" I have at home (except perhaps TL's 30" ). But I have only been working on screens with 1600x1200/1920x1200 for the last 4-5 years, so I really don't know just how much "worse" it would be with 1680x1050 or 1440x900...

The offer is open until the 30th of September, so luckily there is no rush to make up my mind. I'll have to think a bit more about it I guess - and more input is welcome as well