Rtech, lets take it one by one.
1. 30 GB Hard-disk. It should more than suffice for your intended purpose though my personal laptop has a 60GB Harddrive (of which 15 GB have been used for professional purposes and 15 GB for car videos
)
2. 256 mb Ram- Windows recommends a minimum of 128 mb for the XP, but I strongly suggest you invest toward 512 MB here. Multi-tasking will be great if you want music, explorer, office and adobe open with still some memory in reserve. If you dont want to right now, please make sure that your existing memory will be upgradeable.
3. CDR/RW - CD-RW is a must, and I would suggest a wait on the DVD-RW. Firstly, of the four formats currently available in DVDs (DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW) not all are universally accepted by too many players. Second, burning speeds are yet in the nascent stage. Third, the prices will crash much much more - same thing that happened with CD-RW drives which are now as low as $20 for external.
4.
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Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]Needs decent battery life
Preferably lightweight and resistant to rough use |
You have yourself specified some of the biggest benefits of a Centrino. I use a Centrino while my sister uses an IBM P4 laptop bought around the same time with similar configs. My laptop is far lighter (despite a bigger screen), runs much cooler (the IBM laptop gets H-O-T and has a family petname - LapBurner) and the battery life on my Centrino is close to 4 hours (IBM is two). Performance of both is lightning fast but she cant multi-task as easily due to 256MB ram only.
The Centrino does not heat up as much, and lower power consumption leads to smaller and lighter batteries. Just go for the Centrino. P4's were actually designed for desktops not laptops.
5.
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Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]
Good warranty/service backup |
Go with a strong brand. IBM (the best), HP and Dell all offer great customer service. I have had bad experiences with the Zeniths in my office.
I dont recommend unbranded laptops at all and there is hardly any price differentiation now for the quality and assurance you get with the big 3.
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Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]Does anyone know of a good reliable dealer in Mumbai, south if possible? |
Consider this, I got my fully loaded Compaq X1000 lappy for $1300 (Rs. 65000) last year from the US. HP/Compaq was selling the same laptop out here for 1.5 lacs. Even after the recent customs duties cut, prices surprising havent fallen how much I expected them to. *
Warranty is not an issue since they are now international and my own Laptop has received full support at the local HP service outlet.
A neighbour of mine (close buddy and Team-BHPian) can source a Laptop for you at American prices. Your choice of brand. Extremely reliable and honest chap.
GTO