Laptop update #3: Frustration

• The system76 laptops all look great but have terrible battery life.
• The ZaReason laptop has better battery life, but the video card only has HDMI-out, not S-video; I really like the option of plugging it into a TV, but I’d need a digital TV. I don’t have that.
• The Thinkpad T500 is lighter, has superior battery life, and is a Thinkpad, which means it’s rugged and reliable, but the graphics options are ATI (which is useless due to poor driver support) or an Intel X4500 chipset (which is slower but draws less power); but has no TV output of any kind—just a DVI port. Incredibly, the sales representative was unable to tell me what video outputs it had! It appalls me that they have agents selling computers without being able to tell me whether I can or cannot connect them to my TV. The sales agent was trying to Google for an answer.

Laptop update #4: Are you tired of these yet?

If so, I’m sorry—you have only each other to blame for actually providing quality feedback.

I’m currently tempted by a left-field candidate from LinuxCertified.com, the LC2430S Linux Notebook:

• NVidia graphics
• S-video out What the hell is going on here? I go to the specs page and the version in my cache claims it has an S-video output, but if I clear my cache and refresh, it no longer does so. Does it have S-video or not‽ I hope their people can inform me soon, while their $400 sale is still on, or the point may be moot.
• ~3 hours of battery life (9-cell)
• A bit heavy: ~6lbs (not as heavy as last generation’s 7 lbs)
• Linux-centric business

The battery life clearly isn’t up there with the Thinkpad, but on the other hand, it has graphics that will definitely work for me, and it has S-video output. Maybe I should go with this one…?