Originally posted by: VinDSL
Originally posted by: illusionm8
good points, however i plan on doing travelling. specifically plan on living in australia, europe, southamerica, for 3 months at a time or whenever my visa expires or whenever i get bored. a suitcase and backpack is all im planning on, so i dont know how practical it is to ship a monitor and keyboard as well! keyboard might make sense...
Gotcha!
Well, what I did was go to brick and mortars, and play with every lappy I could find - try to break the keys off, and so forth...
I noticed this is much easier if someone else has already broken off 4-5 keys! And, that was usually on Lenovo Thinkpads.
My theory is this... Thinkpads have this 'tough guy' stigma attached to them (before Lenovo bought IBM) and everyone wants to try to bust the keys (and they do). I'm here to tell you, it ain't that hard. Try it for yourself!
Having said that, flex is also a problem! Some keyboards flex WAY more than others, and this is rather disconcerting. Plus, the %$#& trackpads/touchpads always cause problems when your typing - at least for me. Somehow I always manage to tap the touchpad with my thumb when I hit the space bar, sending the cursor halfway up the screen...
All I can tell you is - go to your favorite brick and mortar, try to bust the keys off, twist the displays until they go goofy and see if they recover when you let go, try to bust the hinges, put all your weight on the center of the keypad to see how much it flexes, et cetera. That's what B&Ms are for. Some sucker will buy it off the 'blowout table' after it's been repaired...
If you find one that suits your purposes, go for it! Don't worry about what everybody else thinks...