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Basic laptop with decent res screen?

K

Khanmots

Gawd
Joined
May 12, 2007
Messages
905
Does such a thing exist? I'm looking for a laptop for my mom. She's an engineer, so while she won't be gaming or such, she will be doing some number crunching in spreadsheets and models and the like. So she really needs a decent resolution to be able to see enough to work in. However, none of it is exactly hard on hardware... so if I spec the rest of the laptop to meet her needs then 1366x768 seems to be what everything comes with. And it looks like to get any sort of decent resolution you have to have way more computer than she'll need for way more price.

Do you really have to spend twice as much to get even 1440x900? Are there even any 4:3 displays left? I remember my old ~14" back in like 2001 was 1440x1050 and only around $600. How can we have devolved from that? :(

Any suggestions? Or do I tell her that she either pays through the nose or she'll need to carry an external monitor around with her? (kinda defeating the point of a laptop...)
 
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Check out Dell's Latitude E5420 and E6420. They offer 1600x900 as a $50 upgrade.
 
Yep. This issue is driving me nuts. My wife's 4+ year inspiron has a 1680x1050 15" screen...now, only thing out there is 1366x768 (which looks like crap IMO). Seem I have no choice but to tell her "dear, your new screen is worse than your old one" or "dear, i'm going to donate sperm and plasma so you can have a better screen".

Inspiron = 1366x768
Vosto = 1366x768
IdeaPad = 1366x768

Only way to go up is drop another $300+ (lattitude, thinkpad, sager, etc). I serioulsy wish there was a list of laptops that WEREN'T 1366x768 that didn't destroy your wallet.
 
Although a little over your budget, if you want a higher res screen, i would consider Sager 5160 $740 + upgrade to a 1080p screen for $65
 
Try older thinkpads like T60(15" 4:3 flexview with 1400x1050 or 1600x1200, 15.4" wide screen 1680x1050) on ebay or craigslist?
 
Another option is to check outlet stores, for example Lenovo Outlet has a ThinkPad T410 (New) $809 1440 X 900, to me it should be a little cheaper, but keep checking to see if you find something. Lenovo and Dell usually have discount cuppons, i think atm there are 10% off on the new T420s, and with 1600x900 screen are going around $850.
 
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The Thinkpad L520 is another option - it offers 1600x900 as an option. However definitely wait for it to go on sale first.
 
Second getting an old Thinkpad. I still use an old R40 with 1440x1050. It's only 1.5Ghz so I need to upgrade, but I can't bring myself to do it because its still runs flawlessly and going to 1368x768 is such a massive step down. I don't know why people put up with that crap.

I've been looking at the Sager models myself - they are a little more expensive, but aside from a better resolution you also seem to get much better processor & GPU than you would get in the mid-priced models of the major brands. But if she doesn't need that much horsepower, an old thinkpad should really fit the bill. You can also get them *cheap* now, like even $100-150 for an R or T41/2, etc. Can't really go wrong at that price, and 1.5 or 6 is more than enough to do spreadsheets. These were built for business in mind, after all.
 
I got my used T60P with a 2.3GHZ Core 2, and old FireGL card and a 1440x1050 14inch 4:3 screen. for 375$
 
Wound up finding a L670-BT2N25 configured as follows for $540 + tax with free shipping

Intel® Core™ i3-380M Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB Cache)
Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
6GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM (4096MB+2048MB)
500GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial ATA)

And most importantly 17.3" 1600x900

Not the 1920x1200 or x1080 I was hoping for, but it's affordable and a bump up from her current res.

If any of y'all are interested:
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/ebtext.to?page=OnAd
It's the Desktop Replacement for $599.99
Note the Coupon: L670616 for $60 off.

Deal ends tomorrow, and the # of coupons is limited (370ish atm I think)

Hope this helps someone else!
 
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