As usual Intel is making a big deal about one of their newer CPU chips. If the truth were told most people don't not care, just as they don't care who manufactured the engine in their autombile.

One of their claims for this chip the Internet from anywhere already upon us.

“Centrino” is Intel speak meaning your notebook includes: a Pentium-M, is of the 855 chipset family, and it has a Wi-Fi chipset.

This means you can connect to the Internet without wires. However, this must be from a hot spot. These are not universal and are found today in airports, coffee shops, people have set them up in their homes, universities, etc. It will be years before it is universal.

Centrino also means slimmer, lighter notebooks with longer battery life, which is truly the biggest improvement we will see from this chip.

It delivers better performance at a lower CPU speed and draws less power. Less taxing on power consumption and hence you will get improved charge time from the same battery technology.

Don't despair hotspots are starting to catch on. Here in Mountain View, CA Google has is building a city-wide wifi hot spot for the city. Recently, a group in Silicon Valley has let out a bid for wifi for the entire valley. The say it will be here in a few years. So, eventually this built-in wifi chipset in Centrino will be of benefit to all who happen to live in one of these major metropolitan areas that has wifi.

If you want to know how long your specific laptop's battery will last go to the power setting in control panel and change the parameters so the display is bright and won't turn off and the hard drive won't turn off. This will somewhat simulate the battery under real use. Plug it in and leave it plugged on overnight. Then the next day boot it up and keep track of how long it goes until it dies.

This is a new lightweight 4 pound laptop with a 12.1" display, that is 1.25" thick, the battery lasts 2.5+ hours with the usual great IBM keyboard. There is an internal DVD drive and a built-in touchpad that makes the unit great for Road Warriors.

When considering buying a laptop, the first thing to do is to determine what your needs are: word processing, e-mail, browsing web pages, moving it around (size and battery life will matter), gaming (a very fast CPU, graphics chip and lots of RAM), on-line shopping, a database application (fast CPU, big hard drive), personal finance, photos (big hard drive), music (big Hard Drive).

Once you have figured out what you need decide how much you can afford to spend. Then check out IBM (Lenovo), Dell and Toshiba or HP. IBM and Toshiba make the best laptops and Dell spends the most on advertising, so has the best name, but perhaps the worst customer service reputation.

So, the question of new vs. used … depends upon your budget, battery needs and how much you will be using the unit. If you only have $300 to spend the only choice is refurbished. If you want a brand new battery then you will rarely find them in used laptops. As a matter of fact the battery might not even work. If you use the laptop a lot then seriously consider upping the budget and get new, as over 2-3 years the cost will be less.

So, once you have shopped around and narrowed it down to two choices then search google for and see who has the best deal. But remember the best price may not much matter if they have poor customers service, should you have a problem.

When considering buying a laptop, the first thing to do is to determine what your needs are: What do you want to use the laptop for? word processing, e-mail, browsing web pages, moving it around (size and battery life will matter), gaming (a very fast CPU, graphics chip and lots of RAM), on-line shopping, a database application (fast CPU, big hard drive), personal finance, photos (big hard drive), music (big Hard Drive).

Once you have figured out what you need decide how much you can afford to spend. Then check out IBM (Lenovo), Dell and Toshiba or HP. IBM and Toshiba make the best laptops and Dell spends the most on advertising, so has the best name, but perhaps the worst customer service reputation.

So, the question of new vs. used … depends upon your budget, battery needs and how much you will be using the unit. If you only have $300 to spend the only choice is refurbished. If you want a brand new battery then you will rarely find them in used laptops. As a matter of fact the battery might not even work. If you use the laptop a lot then seriously consider upping the budget and get new, as over 2-3 years the cost will be less.

So, once you have shopped around and narrowed it down to two choices then search google for and see who has the best deal. But remember the best price may not much matter if they have poor customers service, should you have a problem.