I've just gone through several months of poring over laptop specs, screens, prices, etc. First off the punchline: I bought a Fujitsu S6231. Now for the rest of the story. I have used IBMs in the past and they are very nice machines. My old T40 held up well and performed just fine but I had to give it back to the job I quit! I thought about getting a new one. However, I was a bit put off by the cost of new T-series models. So, I started poking around forums, review sites, etc. In the process of this, I started thinking about an "ultraportable" because of the weight savings. I also wanted an integrated DVD burner. This led me to the Fujitsu P7010D. It's a wonderful little machine with a bright crisp WXGA (1280x728) screen. With the DVD drive in the bay, it weighs about 3.1 pounds. It also has a built-in Compact Flash slot. While looking at this litte gem, I was introduced to a company called PortableOne. They are the largest importer of Fujitsu notebooks in the U.S. In addition, they custom-configure Fujitsu notebooks and warranty them. However, to get a P7010D configured with a faster hard-drive and more RAM would have run the price up outside my budget. Note that Fujitsu also sells them on eBay (refurbs and closeouts) for good prices, though they come with 4200 rpm drives and not that much RAM. Also, the keyboard on the little thing (screen is only 10.6") was uncomfortable for me (big hands). So, I bounced back to looking at IBMs until I discovered that PortableOne markets their own line of laptops. They have one called the MX that is about 95% as good as the T-series but much less money. The MX has gotten great reviews and has a much better screen (in SXGA+ resolution -- 1400x1050) than the T-series. In almost all other respects (except price) it is very close. The MX also has a nice feature in that PortableOne offers Ultrabay hard drives up to 100GB if you'd like to have that option to swap them out with the optical drive. Fujitsu also makes a competing model called the S7010 but I think the MX is a better buy. If you are seriously considering a T-series IBM, you should do yourself a favor and look at the MX. But back to my story. I was almost sold on the MX, mostly because of the bright high-resolution screen, but I was still stuck on getting something a bit smaller. I was almost lured by large rebates and coupons into getting a Dell 700m but couldn't get over the fact that it was a Dell, that it had horrible battery life unless you got the bigger battery, and that it weighed almost 5 pounds even though it was a 12" laptop. Finally, I read about another model in the Fujitsu line, the S6231. Instead of a 14.1" screen, it comes with a 13.3" screen. The screen is very bright and is one of the Crystal View ones (shiny but very contrasty). It didn't have some of the bells and whistles (no bluetooth, no fingerprint scanner, screen only available in XGA(1024x768)), but it had a decent processor, used inexpensive RAM (unlike the P7010D) and weighed, with the DVD burner installed, a grand total of 4 pounds, two ounces (I know because I weighed mine!). I had PortableOne install a 60GB 7200rpm hard drive (great upgrade) and send it to me with the 512MB of RAM in one slot, vice 256x2. I ordered a 1GB stick of RAM from newegg (price now something like $139) bringing the total up to 1.5GB. I got the machine about three weeks ago, installed the extra RAM (took about two minutes) and really like it. For me, it was the best compromise available and PortableOne threw in a three-year warranty for free. I should also add that every time I called PortableOne, a person answered the phone quickly, suffered through my questions and offered relatively helpful advice (all the other retailers I talked to just tried to push a sale on me and/or get me to add options). From all reliable reports, their after-purchase service is really good as well. I also looked into the Sonys (they have a model with a 13.3" widescreen) but decided that Fujitsu just made a better product and stood behind it better.
Hope this helps!
Mike
