And is the thinnest also the lightest or are they two separate laptops?



Are there any big updates in a top of the line 17" laptop expected this fall?

one time bump. no one here has any idea??????? come on guys, you are the one's i brag about

any thoughts on this machine as a poker laptop?

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-32254_1-20026905-283.html


anyone know the weight?


somehow me just getting #$$@# and dropping 11 bi's at 1/2 has me feeling like the cost of this beast is meaningless!

Adamo XPS or the macbook air i imagine

17" or more.

17" MacBook Pro probably, all of the MacBook Pros are about the same thickness. The aluminum material they are made out of feels and look really nice too.

I don't know man but after 4 months looking (and across multiple forums) you should be an expert on 17" notebooks by now.

Pretty clear this won't be among the thinnest or lightest at 18+ inches, but nobody's going to know until specs are published or the thing gets a hands on review. You want a guess? It weighs a lot and will make great poker machine, well past the point of excess.

You're going to have to make a compromise at some point. "Big" and "mobile" work against each other. You ever consider getting a main laptop, and a smaller thing (maybe even a netbook) to run around with?

This.

Truth is that no matter what 17" machine you get, it will weigh something significant. My advice would look similar to Wade's, except I cut out the need for both a bigger and smaller laptop by simply having a very small laptop to use on the go (Alienware m11x rev 1, so like 7-8 hours battery!) and having a powerhouse of a desktop at home. My lappy is super portable, with netbook-like size, and still powerful enough to power large external displays when it needs to emulate a larger laptop.

The only objection to this would be if you can't afford both a decent desktop and portable laptop. Still, I really believe that if you can afford to throw money down on a laptop that is 17"-18", you can find a way to fund a similarly equipped desktop for less money and tack on a small notebook that is for portable use, perhaps even a netbook as Wade mentioned. In fact, with some of the stuff that is coming out at CES (AMD Fusion comes to mind), this might not be as lethargic an option as it has been in years past.

tx. the problem with all things small is that if you plan to play serious poker, even 4 tabling on a small laptop can suck.

I understand, and I'd like to offer something more helpful, but after a year-plus of window-shopping laptops and not finding what you need, it's probably time to adjust your expectations. Or maybe adjust your usage - for example, maybe try stacking tables instead?

As it is today, a good option for all the features is still a 17" MBP. It's pretty light and thin for its size, comes with 1980 x 1200 resolution also. It's not cheap but it covers really all the bases I've seen you ask about.

Still, if won't consider that and can't find a lighter 17" laptop that has everything you want, then maybe just suck it up and deal with a couple extra pounds. 4 or 5 years down the road they'll drop in weight a bit.

Wait for Sandy Bridge. Either HP Envy or Lenovo ThinkPad W Series will bring an laptop that is superior to the mbp in every aspect, besides the one being cool.

But if you don't want to spend at least 2k, with decent hardware 3k for it, forget 17" right away.

The MBP is pretty far into its life cycle, and from what I understand they've been stuck with C2D chips in part due to the Nvidia issue. They have to upgrade hardware next refresh and everyone knows it - I would not be surprised if MBPs are SB based soon. Most likely I'd think that you'd see that happen in late Feb/early march when the SB i3's come out.

Pretty much every laptop on earth is going to run cooler and be more efficient on batteries with SB implemented though. Link on Sandy Bridge mobile.

I anticipate the MBP refresh to have no optical drive which means lighter and/or bigger battery.

Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet. I don't care for those drives and it would be a space saver, but still need to use mine here and there. I could get by with an external probably, but killing it built in optical drives at this point seems premature to me.

Maybe Mac people use their optical drives a lot less than PC people? No CDs, DVDs, and I guess this means no Blu-Ray ever. Good for the Apple download store I guess. Just seems too soon.

I just bought a beast of a laptop (18.4in, 12 cell battery etc). It weighs about 10lbs with the brick, but I have a backpack to carry it and it sits on the desk when I use it.

I'd say get something nice and not worry about the weight.