Man, what a difference 6 months makes in the world of computers. I had been looking for the ‘perfect’ laptop for almost 6 months to upgrade my old one, but tech had moved so slowly that there wasn’t a clear win.
My old laptop: Gateway M505XL, 1.5GHz Centrino, 1GB RAM, DVD-RW, 15.4" 1280x800, Radeon 9600 w/ 64MB, 4200 RPM HDD, ~6.5 pounds.
For over two years after I got that basically there were moderate changes to processor speed, maybe a little weight loss, and faster drives. That’s it. Then in the course of the past 4 months a flood of significantly better laptops have hit the market (coinciding with the Core Duo).
Even so, I was finding that I was getting my same machine but w/ Core Duo and that was it. What I REALLY wanted was a system that was clearly better – smaller, faster, DVI output, etc. Nothing like this existed, except the MacBook Pro, but it suffered from two major problems – single mouse button (the control-click and two-finger tap hacks aren’t acceptable for me) and underclocked X1600.
FINALLY Asus released their A8jm in the US like a week or two ago. This is what I ended up getting:
2.0GHz Core Duo, 2GB, 100GB 7200RPM HDD, 14.1" WS 1280x800, GeForce 7600 w/ 512MB dedicated VRAM (no shit), DVI output, DVD-RW, and 5.25 pounds. Integrated Web cam and microphone even, along with 5 USB ports evenly distributed around its exterior (2 on right, 2 in back, 1 on left).
So – smaller, WAY faster (faster graphics, CPU(s), and HDD), and battery life about the same. SWEET.