I finally have the time to write about this topic.  I am finally getting myself a new laptop.  I currently have an Inspiron 700m and am wanting a new laptop.  I spent about a week's worth of researching for another portable laptop and I have finally decided on the Dell XPS M1330.  Reasons for getting the M1330?  Here are my criteria:

Portability:  I love portable laptops.  I am a CS student at WSU, and if you've been to this campus, it's rather hilly and large.  I sometimes have to walk across campus, and I do not like to carry something heavy.  On top of textbooks (if I buy them…and need to read them…and bring them to school), I don't want to lug a 5lb+ machine around.  That's the weight of two decently sized textbooks.  I see my fellow students lugging around those 17" laptops around, and my back aches for them.  That's exactly why I don't see them carry it around that often, thus defeating the purpose of having a laptop.

Speed/power: Although I want my laptop to be portable, I don't want those new ultra-portables that uses ultra-low voltage processors.  My main concern for speed is software development.  The ULV processors just won't do it for me.  As of the moment, I am a big fan of Core 2 Duos, so no AMDs.

Battery Life: It's almost an oxymoronic thing to want a fast computer with long battery life.  You really can't have one without the other.  I want to be able to stay off of AC for a while as I find it too cumbersome to lug the AC adapters around, especially when I need to plug my laptop in.

Diskspace: I wanted a lot diskspace.  Anything below 200GB is too small.

Price: Below $1700.  I do not have money for anything more than that.

Essentially, with my personal requirements of a laptop, we can see that it limits quite a bit of choices.  My laptop choices are now constrained to screen sizes ranging from 12.1" to 13.3".  Anything more than 13.3 would weight too much and anything below 12.1 would be too small to develop applications comfortably.  It now comes down to who makes what I want and within the price range that I want.  Essentially, the laptops within this category are the Sony SZ series, Apple Macbook, Dell XPS M1330, and the Toshiba Tecra M9.  I had wished that HP/Compaq had a portable laptop that was configured with Core 2 Duo…sadly, they don't.

Essentially, looking at this list, I immediately crossed out the Tecra for a few reasons.  I looked at its detailed specs and the weight started at 5.4lbs.  Too much weight!  The next reason is their keyboard layout.  They have the backtick/tilda key (`/~) where the Alt button is supposed to be!  WTF mate?  I was slightly disappointed with Toshiba's choices for their "Thin & Light" category.

Although I can't distill all of my research and finding in a short article like this, I will mention why I eliminated them.  It came down to Apple, Dell and Sony.   This was a hard choice to make, I went back and forth for a while until my next elimination of the MacBook.  One of the many reasons why I was interested in the MacBook in the first place is because of VMWare Fusion and its Unity View.  Since this was to become a development machine, I needed RAM.  On top of that, I need to upgrade to the 250GB drive.  This put the total to $1674, very close the mark which I had set.  In addition to the high price, I have to buy a mini-dvi cable to connect the laptop to my external monitor…not cool.

The elimination of the Sony SZ series was in for the same reason as the MacBook, the cost was too high.  Compared to the M1330 (and discount), it just wasn't going to be as competitively priced.  What it boils down to is that Dell has much better deals than all the other laptop makers out there.  This is what I got for my M1330.

2.2Ghz T7500, LED 13.3" screen, 3GB RAM, 320GB hd, 6+9 cell batteries, Bluetooth, and all that other audio, biometric stuff.  In addition to this laptop, I also got a 20" external LCD monitor!!

All of this came out to about $1550!  I know I sound like a dell rep right now, but that's a sweet deal!  All the other laptops spec'ed out to the same were ranging in the $1600-$1800 (with shipping and tax included) and it didn't even include an LCD screen.  I will write about the M1330 when I get it, and we will have to see if there's anything wrong with it!