Help me find a laptop

I'm typing this on an aging Dell Inspiron 8200 that i've used for at least 3 hours a day for the last 2 years or so. As such, it's starting to get a little ragged, and I'm looking into getting a replacement for it. Unfortunately, I'm encountering some real difficulties in finding exactly what kind of laptop I'd replace it with. I haven't found anything thus far that really fits my needs exactly, and I'm a little worried about spending so much money on something that's not exactly as I want it.

What I'd like to see is this:
must be <= 5 lbs
> 3 hours of battery life, preferably more like 4 or 5
512mb of memory and a reasonable amount of processing power
no pointing nipple/stick/whatever. i hate them.
internal 802.11g
a keyboard big enough for me to type on quickly and comfortably (i have kinda big hands)
sxga or better panel. I refuse to have an xga panel that's more than 12".

This is what I've found so far:

Dell Inspiron 600m:
1.8ghz pentium-m, 512mb memory, 64mb video, sxga panel, extra modular battery
pros: Really everything i want spec-wise except for weight.
cons: It starts off at slightly less than 5 lbs, and the extra battery weighs somewhere between .5 and .7 lbs, which puts it way over the target weight. Also towards the expensive side of the machines I've considered. I've also heard questionable things about Dell's current build quality.

Dell Inspiron 700m:
1.8ghz pentium m, 512mb memory, 12" wxga panel, 8-cell battery
is this laptop dual-battery capable?
pros: Smaller and lighter than the 600m, definitely seems like it would be more portable
cons: Panel is just wxga, I don't know how good the battery life would be, or if the extra battery/batteries would put the weight up too high (the 8-cell batteries are 1.02 lbs each), I've heard the keyboard is small, and again the questions about Dell's build quality

Averatec 32XX series:
athlon xp2200-m, 512mb memory, no dvd burner
pros: cheap and relatively light, and I've read great things about these laptops
cons: feels chintzy as hell when i play with it at circuit city, I've heard questioning of the battery life, relateively new company

12" iBook G4:
1.2ghz g4, 512mb memory, 3 years applecare, all for 1200+tax
pros: looks nifty, feels ok when i've played with them, great battery life, built-in unix terminal
cons: foreign operating system, possible difficulties finding applications that will work, extremely difficult to find a review of one that doesn't look like it was written by a !!!!!!, I've heard apple is releasing a new g5 iBook Q2 this year and I'd feel stupid buying this and immediately having apple release a better one

I've also found other offerings by CyberPower and iBuyPower, and they seem to be pretty good, but again I'm not sure about battery life or build quality or customer service, so I've pretty much ruled them out unless somebody can point me towards some good reviews.

Now I've looked into it a bunch, and I'm leaning towards the iBook simply because I'm told it can do everything that I need from a laptop. However, I don't particularly want to learn how to use OS X, nor do I really want to give up the flexibility that I've learned how to create in Windows. The biggest thing about them that makes me nervous is that the only information on them that I can find appears to be written by die-hard lunatics that either think that anything apple is the best thing since the last thing apple released (the sort that would be perfectly happy to be beaten to death, as long as it was with apple products, you all know someone like this), or they think that apples are the spawn of satan and anybody that uses them is utter trash and should be burned at the stake.

And now that I've reached the end of my post, I feel compelled to thank anybody who actually took the time to read all the way through my post, and also more thanks to anybody who can give me any sort of input or suggestions.

Well you have a lot of options at this point. You could wait a while and see what kind of laptops the release of the sonoma chipset would spawn.

ASUS seems to have some very nice laptops, and the price is pretty good too. I don't really like Dells though, as they have cheap feel, being made of plastic.

I have also heard good things about Acer's laptop, I am especially looking forward to the 8100 series.

Sony's have awesome screens, but I don't like them as they are usually overpriced. Usually the build quality is pretty good.

I can look for specific models when I have more time.

The build quality on the 600m is crapola. The screen on the 700m is pretty damn nice, my neighbor just got one and the screen was pretty swanky and high res for the size. Neg on Averatec, those things are built so crappily. And the new 12in powerbook with education discount is pretty nice. I doubt they're gonna release a G5 ibook in the 2nd quarter if they just now did a refresh on the powerbook line. Theres no way the ibook like would get G5's before the powerbooks.

Originally Posted by enelson125

Well you have a lot of options at this point. You could wait a while and see what kind of laptops the release of the sonoma chipset would spawn.

ASUS seems to have some very nice laptops, and the price is pretty good too. I don't really like Dells though, as they have cheap feel, being made of plastic.

I have also heard good things about Acer's laptop, I am especially looking forward to the 8100 series.

Sony's have awesome screens, but I don't like them as they are usually overpriced. Usually the build quality is pretty good.

I can look for specific models when I have more time.

I was seriously looking into the Sony S series for a time, but they are indeed rather overpriced, and I'm again not sure about battery life. Also, they don't have a damned latch for the screen, it just kinda sits there. Not to mention the price. But everything else Sony makes is either too heavy or too small for me.

I have been looking mostly at the Dell and Apple notebooks recently.

I know a few professors that have either the 700m or the Powerbook.

After comparing them I have become supremely frustrated.

The Powerbook is perfect save for the fact that it doesn't run windows. This is really its only grevios flaw. The battery life is about 3 hours. I am really apprehensive about it because I don't know about the availability of drivers for my external devices, there are some software packages I use that are windows only (Adobe Premiere Pro), and even though they hardware is there you really can't game on it.

The 700m is great, save for the fact that that you have no option to upgrade the onboard video. I am told that the battery life is about 3.5 hours (8cell) and that you can only use one battery.

On a side note, I LOVE the nub! How on earth would you use the touch pad while riding in an old truck? j/k

And how's the keyboard on the 700m? I need something that's big enough for me to be able to comfortably rest my hands on it, as I do a lot of typing (I wore the little home row nubbin off of the J key on my i8200).

I own 700m and it rocks. Light, compact and fast. Granted, I didn't try playing games on it, and it prolly won't be able to handle them, but it does deliver solid performance in all other areas (including media encoding).

As for typing, the keyboard on it is a lil small but I manage and I have big hands too

The ASUS S5N is a thin and light centrino notebook. I'm not sure about the keyboard, but i've heard great things about it. The only thing that is bad is the standard battery is crap and only lasts 2-3 hours, but you can buy a larger one that supposedly lasts 7-8 hours.

I'm relatively new to laptops so I don't have much experience of my own, except for trying my friends' laptops out.

Check out this website www.dsn-computers.com

I bought my laptop from them.

Compal CL56
128MB DDR ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro (M11-P) 4x AGP
15" SXGA 1400x1050
1.7GHz w/2MB Cache Dothan Centrino
80GB HDD
1024MB DDR
DVD+/-RW 4x
WiFi b,g
$1550

i vote uniwill 259IA3: http://www.uniwill.com/products/perf...a.php?HL=1&P=1

or Acer 8100: http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/tm8100.htm

Thanks for the suggestions, but they're too heavy for me.

Originally Posted by Darth Bagel

Thanks for the suggestions, but they're too heavy for me.

o come on... slacker.... they help build up your upper body....

someone needs to visit the gym more often.

Trust me, it's not that I'm small (I'd bet I'm bigger than you), it's that I don't want to have to lug around an 8 or 9 lb beast of a machine any more. And I'd like something that doesn't flex audibly when I grab it by one corner.

Originally Posted by Darth Bagel

Trust me, it's not that I'm small (I'd bet I'm bigger than you), it's that I don't want to have to lug around an 8 or 9 lb beast of a machine any more. And I'd like something that doesn't flex audibly when I grab it by one corner.

yea... lighter is always better.... how big are ya?

6'2" ~240 lbs.

And does anybody know who makes the Alienware Sentia notebooks?

Originally Posted by Darth Bagel

6'2" ~240 lbs.

And does anybody know who makes the Alienware Sentia notebooks?

hehe... i win: 6'2" ~270lbs. 14 yrs. old yea, im a big boy.

as for alienware.... i have no idea.

An update if anyone cares or has any final input: I'm very close to purchasing the iBook. And I utterly despise the state of windows laptops.

Another update: just found out that apparently Uniwill makes the laptops for alienware. I found one auction for a barebones version of the 12" laptop for ~620 + ~50 shipping. Given the way everyone is crapping themselves over the Dothan core, I'm seriously considering this thing. I just want to know if it's possible to get an 8-cell battery for it. And I'd like it if it wasn't being sold by someone with 6 bloody feedback.