Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Toys

Journal handsomepete's Journal: New (and first) laptop 14

Journal by handsomepete
So, for whatever reason, the girlfriend and I lost our minds and decided to go purchase a fancy shmancy laptop (on which I'm typing right now). For the time being, it's mostly a toy although it'll be used to take to client sites for both of us later on in life (hopefully). We got what could be considered a pretty ridiculous laptop from the Toshiba Satellite P25 series (the newish p25s477 to be exact). These guys have 17" WXGA screens, Pentium 4s and Nvidia GFG 5200s in 'em (which a lot of people seem to think is junk, seems fine to me). Everything about it is great except for what's apparently a horrendous battery life (~4 - 4.5 hours by my guess). Oh yeah, and it weighs on the order of just under 10 pounds. We looked at a few other smaller models, including a similarly spec'd Sony and Compaq, but in the end just couldn't resist the beast.

The first thing I did with my turn on it? Loaded up a copy of mame and played Burgertime. Oh yeah. The things I'm having the hardest time dealing with? Lack of a scroll button (or the whole touchpad thing in general), picking it up and being afraid of dropping it. All things I will get used to in due time I'm sure. Neatest thing? My first exposure to 802.11 technology/autodiscovery. Cooooool.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

New (and first) laptop More

New (and first) laptop

Comments Filter:
  • ...just for burgertime? ;-)

    The way I stopped worrying about dropping my work PC is only moving it in its case. Unless you are moving it from your desk to the couch, just throw it in the carrying case which is usually padded to take a good fall (though I wouldn't throw it off a 3rd floor balcony).
    • Unfortunately there's no money left for a case at this point. Fortunately we have no pressing need to remove it from the confines of the home. Once I get a case I'll probably feel better. In the meantime I'll continue to wrap it up in two thick sweatshirts surrounded by a blanket of marshmallows tied together with my special "pillow rope" when I move it anywhere.
  • My wife has a toshiba portege (which she is now bequeathing to me)- slim lil' bugger. If you unix, you need a usb 3-button device (I like the marble trackballs, but whatever's clever). That'll also give you a scroll wheel, too.

    For Mame (or in her case 'meka' (I know, I know, they misspelled it! ;) ) you need a usb gamepad pro. Very nice business.
  • I know, I know, sounds like a rip.

    But I dropped my wife's laptop TWICE. Needed a new hardrive one time, and a new motherboard. MOTHERBOARD. That $300 extendo warranty was the best money I ever spent. Ever.
    And the place I went to was AWESOME- "Drop it off today, we'll have it done by tommorrow" for the motherboard. (Richards Computers in VA for those in my area. They are kool. I said "I need a new xxxxx" and they take my word for it!)

    I agree- keep it in a case- that should take care of 90% of the ills. A
    • Thanks for the advice. I skipped out on the Circuit City warranty if only because I saw how things worked at Best Buy with those things and I'm a little weary of them. I'm sure I'll regret it when the time comes, but what can ya do. I believe Toshiba offers extended warranties but I haven't quite looked into that yet...

      Already had the cat jump on to it (she loves keyboards) so we're in turbo-caution mode right now. Planning out allowable places to put it within the home, cable watching, that sort of
      • no- fuck-a-damn Circ-City and Compusa-
        I got a TOSHIBA warranty!! I wouldn't trust anyone at Circ nor Compusa with ANYTHING technology related!

        Sure- Toshiba has some COMPUSA's as repair affiliates, but SCREW THAT. I found a toshiba recommended repair place about a half hour (on a good day) from my house- good spot.

        Speaking of which- the case I got for my portege had some velcro on the inside and came with velcro stickers- so your laptop would stick inside the case- thus providing constant "padding"-
        ma
        • "I got a TOSHIBA warranty!! I wouldn't trust anyone at Circ nor Compusa with ANYTHING technology related!"

          Ah, that's what I like to hear. I assume that somewhere in KC there's a Toshiba repair place. And you don't have to get them immediately, right? If you don't mind me asking, how much did it set you back? Actually, I should do my own damn research. :) I'll do a little case and warranty research and all will be right in the world.

          Feeling better all the time.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I'm not sure anyone has a *need* for a 17" laptop. It's pretty silly. After playing around with it a lot, I estimate that it gets about 3.5 - 4 hours of battery life under heavy load (surprisingly not much less on a lesser power saving mode) and runs pretty much every game I've thrown at it at decent speeds and high resolutions. It is nicer than my nice computer in pretty much every aspect. I also found out today that it weighs more than my (admittedly underweight) cat.

      All that said, it's exactly wha
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • "Well, if *my* experience is any indication, after a year you'll be getting less than an hour."

          Now this is interesting. These batteries don't have a good overall lifetime? I didn't know that - I thought it was one of those "battery-you'll-have-forever" kinda things. I just went to check it out on Toshiba's site and, lo and behold, direct a new battery is $150 (where they print an average battery life of 2 hours under "normal mode"). You know it's a bad sign when beneath the price of a battery it say

Slashdot Top Deals

Never trust a computer you can't repair yourself.

Close