dv2000t, dell 31405, sony vaio VGN, dell D620-HELP ME DECIDE

hey guys, I own a dell e1505 and i started to realize how big and heavy it was to carry around. Though I enjoyed the 256 MB NVIDIA graphics and the truelife screen, as a college student, more and more I realized I need a more portable laptop. SO i decided to sell my e1505 and buy a more portable laptop.
So here is what I was looking for my new laptop.

-Centrino Duo
-Screen size of 13.1~14.1
-Good battery life
-Solid and sturdy
-And mostly importatnly a maximum price of $1200

I did a little research of my own, and I narrowed down my future laptops to
dv2000t, dell D620, dell E1405, sony VAIO VGN.

As I was reading expert reviews and user opinions of these laptops (thanks to notebookreview.com) I had to admit the fact that I couldn't find an ideal laptop I was looking for with my budget. But these are the ones that I came up with.

Dell D620- This is dell's business laptop and I really like this one because it looked really sturdy. Graphics upgradable to 256 MB. This was also my top candidate along with Sony VAIO VGN till i found out about the LCD screen problem how WXGA+ LCD had horrible horrible verticle angle view and horribly blurry and dim screen. There is a whole forum on this issue. And mostly importatnly the mono speaker just really turned me off.

Dell e1405- I mean this one is just a smaller version of e1505 I own and what I didn't like about e1505 was that it felt really cheap. The plastic hinges and the white outline makes 60 year old staircase squeaking sound. Except the weak design, everything else on this laptop is great.

Sony VAIO VGN- This laptop was my top candidate before i found out about the "electric shock" of this latop. Enough said.

Dv2000t- This is a great laptop. Hp has really got it going. I have never seen a laptop as stylish as this one except Mac and Sony. The only problem with this laptop is that it has a really short battery and it seems like HP put too much time glossing the whole laptop and even the touchpad glossed making the touchpad unusable.

So I just don't know what to do now. I mean these are great laptops if they were made the way they are supposed to be made. But VAIO VGN releases electric shocks, Dell D620's got lemon lcd screen, dv2000t's attractive looks is just a cover for its below-average battery life.

So I was just wondering if you guys could help me decide which one I should buy out of these laptops or recommend me any other laptop along these models.

And also i'm just wondering if anybody has an update on Dell D620 LCD screen? I heard a rumor they fixed the problem, please let know if anyone has an update on this issue.

 

What abt an XPS M1210 with 256 Graphics samw as ur current one

 

The HP Pavilion dv2000t seems to be a god choice. Its a stylish well-built notebook.

 

careful with the D620... From what I understand, the quadro gpus are garbage for gaming.

I'm not sure if you considered Asus as a possible computer, but the A8Js and W7J are 14" and 13.3" respectively. They both have dedicated GPU's and have excellent build quality. They are slightly above your budget however, the build quality and overall appearance is definitely worth it when compared with Dell.

 

well, what do you want to use it for?
I went for the Latitude because they are built to withstand abuse.
I'm not getting mine to play games on.
Also, I undertsand that the regular WGXA screen is the way to go. I would think especially so with a 14" because otherwise things just get too small.

 

need more of your replies guys, still don't know what to get.

I am feeling towards D620. Does anybody know about any updates on the LCD screen issue on D620?

 

I don't know about the VGN electric shock, but no one should buy the VGN-TXN15 (about $2200.00) without spending an extra $350.00 at compUSA to buy a 2 year extended warranty to cover the screen. Sony will say it's accidental damage and charge $750.00 to repair it, no matter how new it is and you never did drop or damage it.

 

I was in basically the same situation you were. I ended up buying a D620 with the Quadro card, 80gb 7200rpm drive, 1gb DDR-533, and a 9-cell battery. My girlfriend had family that worked for HP and got a dv3000z (pretty much the same as the dv2000t but with an AMD processor and the Compaq label)

Overall I like my D620 a lot. It's very light, sturdy, much moreso than the E1405 I sent back. The extended battery sticks out an inch but really isn't noticable, but it lasts 4-7 hours depending on the screen brightness. The computer itself performs well with no problems so far. The Quadro isn't "garbage" for gaming, but it isn't top of the line. It is identical to a 7300 consumer card and uses the same drivers. I was playing Half-Life 2 earlier at 1280x800 with everything on but HDR and framerates were fine. I haven't tried anything newer because I don't play games much anymore.

I've seen posts on the LCD issue. However, I have a panel model that isn't listed in the giant Dell complaint thread (LG/Phillips LPL00E0 "Unknown Model", the one in the thread is a LPL0000). This coupled with a Dell rep in the thread saying there was a new panel manufactured in response to complaints leads me to believe I have a new panel. The screen isn't as bright as my girlfriend's machine, and the vertical viewing angles are slightly less, but the colors are slightly better. I think it's fine for educational use plus the occasional game.

The speaker isn't great, not gonna lie, but it's adequate for the occasional YouTube video or MP3. Most of the time I'll use external speakers if I'm home or external speakers at home, so that doesn't matter to me.

 

Don't forget. The D820 comes with the 3 years onsite warranty.