Just perusing the Dell and IBM sites; I don't see any build to order options other than external displays for increased resolution screens. Maybe I'm just not digging hard enough, though.
On the Dell site, the display options are usually under the "Select Base Components" section of the website. This should be it for the Inspiron 5100. This is the page for the Inspiron 8600. You usually have to begin with the "Start Shopping Notebooks" button. Choosing any of the featured notebooks skips this part of the buying process at the Dell website. Some notebooks don't have display options, but most of them do. And obviously, one has to know the stupid XGA, XGA+, SXGA, SXGA+, WXGA, WUXGA, WXYZGA+++, blah blah blah coding to know what the resolutions are.
I've never really perused the IBM webpages for notebook computers. So, don't now if they offer display options for their laptops.
The FireGL is a professional card used for high-end rendering. It has no place in a laptop in the first place.
I remember someone saying that no PC ever needed more than 640 K of memory, also.
In addition to my 15 inch PowerBook, I use a Toshiba laptop with a 1600 X 1200 screen. In that case I will honestly say that I don't ever want a screen with more resolution, as my eyes can't handle it. And something else that hasn't been mentioned, reducing the screen resolution makes everything blurry, and harder to read than just simply squinting at it.
That said, if anyone can make high resolution look good on a 15 inch screen I'd put my money on Apple.
on a 14 inch display, is there such a thing as too high res - as you crank up the res every thing gets smaller
-naturaly-
and if the tool buttons in an app are too small to see whithout getting the eyestrain headache form hell then what good is high res?
kinda like a 20 inch HDTV - it defeats its own purpose -
My general experience using higher res screens is that you increase the size of the text and the smaller button generally don't matter; they are graphical which means you can still see what they are easily at lower resolutions. You end up with sharper text, not smaller text. For any sort of graphical display it comes into its own.
My general experience using higher res screens is that you increase the size of the text and the smaller button generally don't matter; they are graphical which means you can still see what they are easily at lower resolutions. You end up with sharper text, not smaller text. For any sort of graphical display it comes into its own.
You could have it either way. Regular-sized text does appear smaller on a higher-res screen, but Windows allows you to bump up the dpi setting to compensate. It scales icons and UI text accordingly. I have a Dell 14" that has a 1600 x 1200 screen - it's fine for me because I have pretty good eyes, but for others, they either have to bump up the dpi setting or it's not usable. And for others, that isn't even enough.
I'd love for the next PB's to have higher res, but it should be BTO only, and with appropriate premiums to cover it. The 12" should stay as is. The 15" and 17" have more headroom.
I've never really perused the IBM webpages for notebook computers. So, don't now if they offer display options for their laptops.
Answering my curiosity about IBM laptops and display options, lo and behold, here is the webpage with display options for the T-series at least. Options for:
This Sony Vaio screen technology is interesting, but really not neccessary. I hardly ever have my TiBook's screen at 100% brightness (usually a step below half). But I guess I really haven't paid attention to the competition's offerings over the past year -- it really has become impressive, and impressively priced. It's quite interesting that Apple can lay claim to such powerful notebooks at prices significantly lower than the competition on most ends.
It actually has less to do with the brightness, and more to do with the crispness. These screens not only brighter, but more like High definition TV. And this is the greatest selling point. Check it out at your local Best Buy or Compusa. (Also see the Sharp Aquous for similar crispness)
Tying in the interesting new thread about our favorite corporation's "reinvention," what if new PowerBooks DO stay with a G4 (albeit not from Moto) for some time?
But I'm completely in the dark about this supposed IBM G3-based variant with the AltiVec unit. Are there rumored to be any significant power consumption and/or heat dissipation advantages? What kind of bus speeds could we see? And how high could it clock?
----Interesting stuff which I have yet to hear much about, so if anybody knows anything further, do tell!
Higher Resolution - to go with Quartz Extreme 2, which will allow for resolution application switching - ie, the ability to alter resolution on a per application basis.
External Antenna plug (with free extender)
On board 802.11G to reduce power consumption
Better arrow keys (sorry, they're just too small)
Better battery life
And something completely different. I don't know what it would be, reversable screen for presentations, free Keynote software, touch screen, something we'd never even think of. I think the ambient light sensor is the perfect current version equivelant.
BTW, I have a new 15" AlBook and love it. I'm hoping it takes a little bit longer for them to upgrade the model, cause I think this is the best Mac out there right now.
Well this one is an impossible dream..there are not any laptop drives this size yet.
I hope to see better battery life..maybe we will see smaller hard drives...in the 1.8" range. I mean if there would be an 80gb drive and Apple bought them from Toshiba...the price of ipods could even get cheaper since it would be the same drive. I would also like to see +/- DVD burning supported on the PBs.
And Bluetooth headset support. And a 500-1000mhz frontside bus.
I hope to see better battery life..maybe we will see smaller hard drives...in the 1.8" range. I mean if there would be an 80gb drive and Apple bought them from Toshiba
Currently, there are no 80GB-Drives with the 1.8" form factor. The most you can get from Toshiba is 40GB, which puts Apple in an uncomfortable position - downgrading the 17" from 60 to 40GB is going to be a tough sell. Keeping the 2.5" form factor on the 17" and moving the 15" and possibly 12" to 1.8" would be a possibility, but likely one causing higher costs.
Hard drive capacities seem to have stagnated over the last year or so - this makes it quite likely 2.5" is about to move to 120 or 160GB max and the 1.8" to 60 or 80GB. Apple could therefore be prepping a Powerbook revision with 1.8" drives where the gained space is used for other parts (cooling?).
But I'm completely in the dark about this supposed IBM G3-based variant with the AltiVec unit. Are there rumored to be any significant power consumption and/or heat dissipation advantages? What kind of bus speeds could we see? And how high could it clock?
There have been discussions in these boards about this processor. A 750VX-exclusive thread exists in the News Comments section:
Why does the smaller model have to have crappier specs? Perhaps I might want the small PB, but want all of the speed. m.
Apple tradition maybe? I just made a lineup that would resemble an Apple one. I actually don't have a problem with the smallest PB having CPUs as fast as the 15 and 17 models. The size of the 12" Powerbook does present some limitations, and I'm not sure if Apple would be able to stuff all of the pro features in though.
1.) Longer battery life! I've noted many times that APple could easily fit a battery of 50-60% greater volume under the battery cover of my 12" PB. Why leave that to third parties? Just spec higher watt hour batteries, the room is there.
2.) MODULAR BAYS.
I was using a Dell Centrino with a 4X DVD unit. It was quite nice, and dropped right out with a secondar battery that fit in the bay. This is a nice feature, but even the PC's that do it, only do it half way right.
Both the bays ought to be the same. Then you could run the machine with one battery and one optical, two batteries, two HDD's and a battery, or even two opticals as you saw fit. Recoup the costs by making the bay standard across the entire PB line-up. Make them hot swappable, have 3rd party HDD options. It's really nice. While firewire does take care of that stuff, there are plenty of uses for that sort of flexibility.
The other thing the could do is build RAm right into the system board on all the models and leave TWO open so dim slots besides. I'm thinking 256MB on the 12" and 512MB on each of the 15 and 17. Then rather than replace any DIMMS at all, you simply add one or two sticks as needed.
The other thing the could do is build RAm right into the system board on all the models and leave TWO open so dim slots besides. I'm thinking 256MB on the 12" and 512MB on each of the 15 and 17. Then rather than replace any DIMMS at all, you simply add one or two sticks as needed.
To my knowledge, several iBooks and the first incaration of the 12" PB had built-in RAM and one additional slot.
1.) Longer battery life! I've noted many times that APple could easily fit a battery of 50-60% greater volume under the battery cover of my 12" PB. Why leave that to third parties? Just spec higher watt hour batteries, the room is there.
2.) MODULAR BAYS.
I was using a Dell Centrino with a 4X DVD unit. It was quite nice, and dropped right out with a secondar battery that fit in the bay. This is a nice feature, but even the PC's that do it, only do it half way right.
Both the bays ought to be the same. Then you could run the machine with one battery and one optical, two batteries, two HDD's and a battery, or even two opticals as you saw fit. Recoup the costs by making the bay standard across the entire PB line-up. Make them hot swappable, have 3rd party HDD options. It's really nice. While firewire does take care of that stuff, there are plenty of uses for that sort of flexibility.
Comments
Originally posted by Rhumgod
Just perusing the Dell and IBM sites; I don't see any build to order options other than external displays for increased resolution screens. Maybe I'm just not digging hard enough, though.
On the Dell site, the display options are usually under the "Select Base Components" section of the website. This should be it for the Inspiron 5100. This is the page for the Inspiron 8600. You usually have to begin with the "Start Shopping Notebooks" button. Choosing any of the featured notebooks skips this part of the buying process at the Dell website. Some notebooks don't have display options, but most of them do. And obviously, one has to know the stupid XGA, XGA+, SXGA, SXGA+, WXGA, WUXGA, WXYZGA+++, blah blah blah coding to know what the resolutions are.
I've never really perused the IBM webpages for notebook computers. So, don't now if they offer display options for their laptops.
Originally posted by Smircle
I am waiting to replace my aging Titbook 400 for about half a year now, but the current crop of Powerbooks just don't thrill me.
Originally posted by StealthRider
The FireGL is a professional card used for high-end rendering. It has no place in a laptop in the first place.
I remember someone saying that no PC ever needed more than 640 K of memory, also.
In addition to my 15 inch PowerBook, I use a Toshiba laptop with a 1600 X 1200 screen. In that case I will honestly say that I don't ever want a screen with more resolution, as my eyes can't handle it. And something else that hasn't been mentioned, reducing the screen resolution makes everything blurry, and harder to read than just simply squinting at it.
That said, if anyone can make high resolution look good on a 15 inch screen I'd put my money on Apple.
-Gator
Originally posted by a_greer
stupid question for a pc guy:
on a 14 inch display, is there such a thing as too high res - as you crank up the res every thing gets smaller
-naturaly-
and if the tool buttons in an app are too small to see whithout getting the eyestrain headache form hell then what good is high res?
kinda like a 20 inch HDTV - it defeats its own purpose -
My general experience using higher res screens is that you increase the size of the text and the smaller button generally don't matter; they are graphical which means you can still see what they are easily at lower resolutions. You end up with sharper text, not smaller text. For any sort of graphical display it comes into its own.
Originally posted by Stecs
My general experience using higher res screens is that you increase the size of the text and the smaller button generally don't matter; they are graphical which means you can still see what they are easily at lower resolutions. You end up with sharper text, not smaller text. For any sort of graphical display it comes into its own.
You could have it either way. Regular-sized text does appear smaller on a higher-res screen, but Windows allows you to bump up the dpi setting to compensate. It scales icons and UI text accordingly. I have a Dell 14" that has a 1600 x 1200 screen - it's fine for me because I have pretty good eyes, but for others, they either have to bump up the dpi setting or it's not usable. And for others, that isn't even enough.
I'd love for the next PB's to have higher res, but it should be BTO only, and with appropriate premiums to cover it. The 12" should stay as is. The 15" and 17" have more headroom.
Originally posted by THT
I've never really perused the IBM webpages for notebook computers. So, don't now if they offer display options for their laptops.
Answering my curiosity about IBM laptops and display options, lo and behold, here is the webpage with display options for the T-series at least. Options for:
14.1" XGA (1024x768 ) TFT
14.1" SXGA+ (1400x1050) TFT
Originally posted by fred_lj
This Sony Vaio screen technology is interesting, but really not neccessary. I hardly ever have my TiBook's screen at 100% brightness (usually a step below half). But I guess I really haven't paid attention to the competition's offerings over the past year -- it really has become impressive, and impressively priced. It's quite interesting that Apple can lay claim to such powerful notebooks at prices significantly lower than the competition on most ends.
It actually has less to do with the brightness, and more to do with the crispness. These screens not only brighter, but more like High definition TV. And this is the greatest selling point. Check it out at your local Best Buy or Compusa. (Also see the Sharp Aquous for similar crispness)
But I'm completely in the dark about this supposed IBM G3-based variant with the AltiVec unit. Are there rumored to be any significant power consumption and/or heat dissipation advantages? What kind of bus speeds could we see? And how high could it clock?
----Interesting stuff which I have yet to hear much about, so if anybody knows anything further, do tell!
G5 chip
Bigger HD (120-160 GB)
Faster Superdrive
More RAM standard
Higher Resolution - to go with Quartz Extreme 2, which will allow for resolution application switching - ie, the ability to alter resolution on a per application basis.
External Antenna plug (with free extender)
On board 802.11G to reduce power consumption
Better arrow keys (sorry, they're just too small)
Better battery life
And something completely different. I don't know what it would be, reversable screen for presentations, free Keynote software, touch screen, something we'd never even think of. I think the ambient light sensor is the perfect current version equivelant.
BTW, I have a new 15" AlBook and love it. I'm hoping it takes a little bit longer for them to upgrade the model, cause I think this is the best Mac out there right now.
Originally posted by memevirus
This is what I'd like to see:
G5 chip
Bigger HD (120-160 GB)
Well this one is an impossible dream..there are not any laptop drives this size yet.
I hope to see better battery life..maybe we will see smaller hard drives...in the 1.8" range. I mean if there would be an 80gb drive and Apple bought them from Toshiba...the price of ipods could even get cheaper since it would be the same drive. I would also like to see +/- DVD burning supported on the PBs.
And Bluetooth headset support. And a 500-1000mhz frontside bus.
Originally posted by jade
I hope to see better battery life..maybe we will see smaller hard drives...in the 1.8" range. I mean if there would be an 80gb drive and Apple bought them from Toshiba
Currently, there are no 80GB-Drives with the 1.8" form factor. The most you can get from Toshiba is 40GB, which puts Apple in an uncomfortable position - downgrading the 17" from 60 to 40GB is going to be a tough sell. Keeping the 2.5" form factor on the 17" and moving the 15" and possibly 12" to 1.8" would be a possibility, but likely one causing higher costs.
Hard drive capacities seem to have stagnated over the last year or so - this makes it quite likely 2.5" is about to move to 120 or 160GB max and the 1.8" to 60 or 80GB. Apple could therefore be prepping a Powerbook revision with 1.8" drives where the gained space is used for other parts (cooling?).
Originally posted by fred_lj
But I'm completely in the dark about this supposed IBM G3-based variant with the AltiVec unit. Are there rumored to be any significant power consumption and/or heat dissipation advantages? What kind of bus speeds could we see? And how high could it clock?
There have been discussions in these boards about this processor. A 750VX-exclusive thread exists in the News Comments section:
IBM PowerPC 750VX finalized, sources say
Rumors say that this chip is going to power the iBooks; no indication at present about Powerbooks.
Originally posted by THT
A hypothetical Powerbook G5 needs to be like a miniaturized 1.6 GHz PowerMac G5
15.2" and 17" Powerbook G5:
1.6 to 1.8 970 CPUs
800 and 900 MHz processor bus
Dual channel PC2700
4 SO-DIMM slots
SATA notebook drive
Display options
15": 1280x850, 1440x900
17": 1440x900, 1680x1050
13.3" Powerbook G5:
1.4 GHz 970 CPU
700 MHz processor bus
Dual channel PC2700
2 SO-DIMM slots
SATA notebook drive
Display: 1152x768
And lots of I/O in both. Bluetooth, WiFi, Firewire 400/800, USB, etc.
Why does the smaller model have to have crappier specs? Perhaps I might want the small PB, but want all of the speed. m.
Originally posted by Merovingian
Why does the smaller model have to have crappier specs? Perhaps I might want the small PB, but want all of the speed. m.
Apple tradition maybe? I just made a lineup that would resemble an Apple one. I actually don't have a problem with the smallest PB having CPUs as fast as the 15 and 17 models. The size of the 12" Powerbook does present some limitations, and I'm not sure if Apple would be able to stuff all of the pro features in though.
Powerbooks need two things besides G5's.
1.) Longer battery life! I've noted many times that APple could easily fit a battery of 50-60% greater volume under the battery cover of my 12" PB. Why leave that to third parties? Just spec higher watt hour batteries, the room is there.
2.) MODULAR BAYS.
I was using a Dell Centrino with a 4X DVD unit. It was quite nice, and dropped right out with a secondar battery that fit in the bay. This is a nice feature, but even the PC's that do it, only do it half way right.
Both the bays ought to be the same. Then you could run the machine with one battery and one optical, two batteries, two HDD's and a battery, or even two opticals as you saw fit. Recoup the costs by making the bay standard across the entire PB line-up. Make them hot swappable, have 3rd party HDD options. It's really nice. While firewire does take care of that stuff, there are plenty of uses for that sort of flexibility.
Originally posted by Matsu
The other thing the could do is build RAm right into the system board on all the models and leave TWO open so dim slots besides. I'm thinking 256MB on the 12" and 512MB on each of the 15 and 17. Then rather than replace any DIMMS at all, you simply add one or two sticks as needed.
To my knowledge, several iBooks and the first incaration of the 12" PB had built-in RAM and one additional slot.
Originally posted by Matsu
No insano resolutions.
Powerbooks need two things besides G5's.
1.) Longer battery life! I've noted many times that APple could easily fit a battery of 50-60% greater volume under the battery cover of my 12" PB. Why leave that to third parties? Just spec higher watt hour batteries, the room is there.
2.) MODULAR BAYS.
I was using a Dell Centrino with a 4X DVD unit. It was quite nice, and dropped right out with a secondar battery that fit in the bay. This is a nice feature, but even the PC's that do it, only do it half way right.
Both the bays ought to be the same. Then you could run the machine with one battery and one optical, two batteries, two HDD's and a battery, or even two opticals as you saw fit. Recoup the costs by making the bay standard across the entire PB line-up. Make them hot swappable, have 3rd party HDD options. It's really nice. While firewire does take care of that stuff, there are plenty of uses for that sort of flexibility.
something like the pismo?
with up to 10 hours of battery life?