Considering DV200z/t

But have a concern. Right now I'm in the market for the upcoming school year (Graduate work), and have narrowed down my choices basically to the DV2000z or t, or a Macbook.

Initially I was leaning towards getting a Macbook, that along with a free iPod seems like quite a deal. I was / still am willing to give OSX a try, but it would be much easier just to stick with windows, since its native to me. Both computers are powerful enough (and aesthetically pleasing) for what I need to do (Mainly school work, gaming not required), and are in my price range (Sub $1,200).

My primary concern affecting my decision currently has come down to battery life. From reports on this forum it appears the battery life on the 6cell of the DV2000 isn't that great, and I'm hesitant towards getting the 12 cell as it seems more bulky, and I'm not sure what to think about the raised appearnce of it. Reports on the macbook batterylife, however, seem to be generally 3+ hours. If I could get some positive feedback on this issue, I'd be willing to pull the plug and purchase either a dv2000z or t.

 

Hey Hutch, everybody is going to tell you that the life of the battery depends on what applications you are running.
The other day I timed mine (DV2000T) and it lasted me 3 hours and 5 minutes before it went to 'hibernation' with 6% of battery left. I was surfing the net with the wireless connection and the screen brightness set to the lowest. My bluetooth was turned off.

 

I guess you don't know that you can run Windows pretty much natively on Macbook? If you want to run both Windows and Mac OS X you really don't have a choice: it's either Macbook or nothing... That said, I love my new 2000t.

 

If you still believe those Mac fans' statement that "A laptop is not really a machine to put on your lap" , then nothing can convince you to shift from Mac book. Anyway, I don't want to put a rice cooker on my lap either.

Compare to Mac book, the heat issue is quite obvious. No HP DV or Compaq V user really complain uncomfortable heat.

On system wise, Intel is considered as a platform vender rather just a CPU chip manufactor. So the battery life really comes out of the platform power optimization result, including Northbridge, GMA950, Southbridge, and WiFi chip. AMD can't do much in above optimization.

In system wise, Intel has longer battery life, but the gap is not that huge. For CPU only, I like AMD that runs cooler than Intel if undervolt is considered(You can't do much on Intel, but AMD gives you a better result).

If you are not a DIY person, just go for t. Otherwise waiting for a month or two maybe worthy for more reviews on AMD CPU.

 

Boot Camp is still in beta version, isn't it?

 

Yep, so is XP. Still.