Web work and future plans − 18 August, 2005
Well, I finally did it. I managed to scrape together a job working in PHP, and it actually pays pretty well! A lot more than my current job anyway. With some extra money coming in, I'm thinking of getting a laptop so I'm not tied to a desk while I work. I like insanely high resolutions, so when I stumbled on some laptops with WUXGA screens (1920x1200) I knew I had to get one. So far I think I know what I want, but it's gonna be a little while until I can afford , so I think I'll just post it here instead. This is the Clevo D900T, an ODM I've found sold by a few of the more out-of-the-way retailers.
As you can see, it's quite nice. It's a 17" screen, and unlike most 17" laptops, it takes full advantage of that extra space by offering a separate numeric keypad, which has always been a big pet peeve of mine about laptops. That's shown in the left picture, but also notice that it's got a scroll feature next to the touchpad, to better imitate an actual mouse.
The center pic is a good view of the 4 massive fans on the bottom of the unit, a feature I'm not real keen about, but I suppose it's necessary. It just means a laptop can no longer be placed on the lap, but must be used on a flat surface in order to cool properly. However, notice the one labelled subwoofer? That's right, it's got an audio system unlike I've ever seen on a laptop. 8-channel audio, including that built-in subwoofer and two decent-sized speakers (since it's such a large unit). It's even got an external LED for displaying track info while playing back tunes so it can be used as a jukebox while closed.
The third pic is a neat one too, it's so thick that it's got space for two optical drives stacked on each other. It's also got space for two hard drives, which is something I've never actually seen in a laptop. It's a bit pricy, being about $2400 configured the way I'd want it, but it's certainly better than the $3000+ I'd pay for some other models to get similar features. I don't really need all the bells and whistles like the audio system or the LED display, but they're nice to have anyway, and since I can't seem to find a decent WUXGA model without all the features I do want, I'd be willing to "settle" for having them included as well.
As you can see, it's quite nice. It's a 17" screen, and unlike most 17" laptops, it takes full advantage of that extra space by offering a separate numeric keypad, which has always been a big pet peeve of mine about laptops. That's shown in the left picture, but also notice that it's got a scroll feature next to the touchpad, to better imitate an actual mouse.
The center pic is a good view of the 4 massive fans on the bottom of the unit, a feature I'm not real keen about, but I suppose it's necessary. It just means a laptop can no longer be placed on the lap, but must be used on a flat surface in order to cool properly. However, notice the one labelled subwoofer? That's right, it's got an audio system unlike I've ever seen on a laptop. 8-channel audio, including that built-in subwoofer and two decent-sized speakers (since it's such a large unit). It's even got an external LED for displaying track info while playing back tunes so it can be used as a jukebox while closed.
The third pic is a neat one too, it's so thick that it's got space for two optical drives stacked on each other. It's also got space for two hard drives, which is something I've never actually seen in a laptop. It's a bit pricy, being about $2400 configured the way I'd want it, but it's certainly better than the $3000+ I'd pay for some other models to get similar features. I don't really need all the bells and whistles like the audio system or the LED display, but they're nice to have anyway, and since I can't seem to find a decent WUXGA model without all the features I do want, I'd be willing to "settle" for having them included as well.
