T43 or Travelmate 8103 or E8020D - Please help me choose

[balashome]

Hi everyone,

I recently got my new T43 from Lenovo. Altogether it was a good experience. My model is a 2686D7U and is quite fast (though i havent yet played games on it).

Since i am still within the 30 day period, i kept on looking and found two business oriented laptops which seemed to be better than the T43. The main problem with the T43 has been that the underside gets too hot too fast. However i am not bothered by the fan noise at all - it is almost constant but it is not intrusive in any manner.

Just so you know my main needs are business but i will use it for entertainment as well. Multi-tasking is going to be the major issue here with the machine being able to handle RDBMS as well as ERP front ends among other applications. I plan to be fairly mobile but not too much so. The laptop is going to come to office with me and back to home for the most part.

The Acer Travelmate 8103 packs in a lot of extras for about the same price as the T43 and is posing as a real teaser for me - its got a DVD burner, 100GB hard disk and a whopping 128 MB of VRAM. On the flip side its about a pound heavier than the T43.

The Fujitsu E8020D is an even more interesting choice. I can configure a 1.73 Mhz processor with 512 MB and SATA hard disks for about the same price as well. These hard disks supposedly increase the performance more than even the 7200 rpm upgrade (correct me if i am wrong there). Its also got bluetooth, Atheros ABG WLAN and a plethora of ports and connectivity options. I must say the T43 lacks in this regard. On the flip side in this case, this is the heaviest among the three - almost 7 pounds. Interestingly, the E8020D comes with an X600 with 64 MB VRAM and will easily outdo the IBM.

I would be interested in hearing what the community has to say about this and i would be grateful for any recommendations.

Thanks,

Bala

[sugo]

If I were you I would spend a day or two researching what end users have to say about the Acer and Fujitsu. I learned it the hard way: specifications and C/P ratio are far from the whole picture. For starter, do the Acer and Fujitsu run cooler than your T43?

At the end of the day, what actually makes it a pleasure laptop to work with? Answer can vary from person to person. I would say, it's rarely the extra 100MHz or extra ports that one never gets to use.

[balashome]

I completely agree. I have tried browsing through the Acer and the Fujitsu forums at notebookreview.com but have not come across any mention of the T43 there.

Thats the reason why i thought posting here would help me get a better perspective on things. I do so love my new IBM but ultimately i want the best laptop there is for the money involved (between $1400 and $1650).

I would love to hear some thoughts from people who have either seen or owned or evaluated the other two models mentioned. Or even if that is not the case, i would still love to hear from people as to why i should stick to the T43 (or not, as the case may be!) and not go for these options.

Thanks,

Bala

[erb]

hi ya, I stumbled across this review of the fujitsu you mentioned and am also in two minds.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=17625
this guy previously owned a thinkpad and compares the two from time to time.
looks v nice though.

[snife]

Well I think us ThinkPad enthusiasts will be biased here but ThinkPads are the best notebooks on the market. I don't have either an Acer or a Fujitsu but all the other notebook manufacturers I have access to do not even compare in terms of build quality and support.

The keyboards / pointing device on ThinkPads are superior and this make s a big difference in day-to-day usage of a machine.

I think its a good choice sticking with the T-series but given that the Fujitsu looks larger it may be fairer compairing prices with an R-series.

[simscitizen]

If you plan on bringing your laptop places, save your back and go with the lighter model...(Fujitsu also offers a laptop in the T's size/weight class, the S-series, which you may wish to check out...)

[erb]

and a P series...