Laptop choices?

[YYZ]

Hey all,

My trusty Dell laptop has finally died; therefore I now require a new one.

I am wanting one for both business and pleasure, some game playing, lots of music playing and as little business as possible, not to bothered about the traveling requirements.

Now, I have just been to PC world to try to get an idea but this has just confused me more.

What I would like is recommendations from fellow Pruners, what’s the best processor, minimum memory I need etc?

I am willing to spend between £600-£800, so would expect to get something reasonable?

Any thoughts...

YYZ

[BOZZATO]

Hi there!

I've just purchased a laptop that has been reduced from £800 to £500. I'm not sure if it'll be any good for playing games, saying that my atc simulator works fine, it's awesome. It's got an athlon turion 64 1.6gig processor. 256 ddr ram and apparently you can buy another 256 from pc world for about £50! It comes with xp and works and has a fantastic screen, it's huge!!! It has a modem and loads of other stuff that i'm yet to explore:}

I bought it from currys, it a compaq laptop and is silver!

It's pretty good and i'm well impressed with it!

Hope this helps

Regards

Bozzato:ok:

[spannersatcx]

A couple of people I know have recently brought ACER laptops, and are pretty happy with them.

[airborne_artist]

I'd go back to Dell - and spend to your budget and pay (or perhaps it's free on some models) for XP Media Center (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx) which should deal with your music reqs.

Spec should include a HD of 60 Gb, at least 512Mb RAM, and a wide screen. As luck would have it Dell can sell you all of the above in the form of an Inspiron 9400 for £799, delivered.

[Farmer 1]

Don't buy Toshiba, unless you can manage without internet support, and are prepared to pay 0870 call rates.

[potkettleblack]

I would 2nd the vote for ACER. Think I read somewhere that they are the top selling laptop in Europe at the moment. You get a lot of bang for your buck by avoiding the big names that charge a premium which I guess is why their market share is so big. Definitely go for the widescreen WXGA and cystalbrite if they still do that as the quality is great for the price.

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/

[SyllogismCheck]

I have my reservations about the build quality of Dell laptops. I'm using one now and it's all a bit flimsy feeling. It's brand new but the keyboard is rattly and feels cheap and nasty in use. Also, if you push, even very gently, on the back of the lid you can make the screen do nasty looking things. I wouldn't rate its chances if even moderate pressure were to be applied to it accidentally. In the past I've had IBMs, and currently have an HP-Compaq laptop, both of which are in a different league in terms of physical construction. Dell serve a purpose in that they'll do what's expected of the one I'm using now; provide a reasonably priced, bulk buy solution, intended to last a year or two until they're routinely replaced, but by which time they will likely really need replacing.

I looked around for a laptop for someone recently and whittled the choice down to a suggestion of two, an HP and an Acer. In spite of my leaning toward the extra quality likely to be found in big-name brands, in the end for the budget of £500 inc. VAT, the Acer won.
Both were around £485 inclusive and had the prerequisite of built in WLAN, but the Acer was impossible to ignore for having a 1.5GHz over a 1.4GHz Celeron-M processor, a 15.4" widescreen over a conventional 15", 512MB of RAM over 256MB, an 80GB over a 40GB hard drive and a DVD-RW drive over a CD-RW drive. The only downside being that it comes pre-loaded with XP Home rather than Pro, but that's easily sorted.
Reviews suggest the build quality to be more than adequate also.
It arrives with the buyer today and I'll have a chance to look at it over the weekend.

You'll no doubt need something with more processing power and graphics capability for game playing than is provided by that model, but I shall report back with regard to the overall quality of the brand. If it's good, then I imagine they'll be hard to beat on a spec' versus price basis.

[BOFH]

Third (or is it fourth?) vote for Acer. Goes like a scalded cat.

One thing to watch for is if you think you will want a docking station, get a model that supports it - some do not.

BOFH

[YYZ]

Thanks so far guys/girls,

I look forward to SyllogismCheck report..

I await any & all knowledge.

YYZ:rolleyes:

[hobie]

A buddie of mine recently purchased a Dell 1300 .... nothing really fancy ... required for email ... googling .... photos etc ....

She asked me if she should get the 3 year warranty? ..... it was an extra at 133.00 euros as I rem ... well, 3 years at 133.00 euros is less than 1.00 euro a week or say 1/4 pint per week :confused: .........

my advice to her ... take the warranty and sleep easy ........ :p

[boeingbus2002]

I bought a Gericom laptop from Aldi!
Naturally was a bit apprehensive aboout buying from a "cheapo supermarket", however the specs and reviews I found were impressive.
1 GB RAM
100 GB HD
Intel Centrino 1.73Ghz
NVidia GeGorce 6600
Bundle of some basic software, MS Works Flight SIM!!
Has 6 in 1 card reader
Firewire port
etc tec
At the time it had a higher spec than most typical high street brands.
All for £999

[SyllogismCheck]

The update as promised. It's a big thumbs up. :ok:

I'm using said Acer laptop to type this and it's spot on. I actually rather want one. Fantastic screen, Crystal Brite or somesuch trade name.

The build quality knocks Dell's into a cocked hat, it's easily on a par with HP and other big name brands I'd say. Not quite IBM space-age-alloy-casing standard, but then not much is and you pay a fortune for it.

All told, I can't fault it. If you can find one with the spec you want and it represents a saving for the same spec' or higher spec' for the same money over a big name brand, don't hesitate.

Oh, one small foible. Touchpad scrolling refused to work in Firefox initially. A quick Google cast light on this being a common Synaptics/Mozilla problem. After a little bit of messing about downloading drivers from Acer's website so as not to risk losing custom functionallity I took the plunge and downloaded the generic driver from Synaptics. Reboot - problem solved - no functionallity lost.

[HughMartin]

I agree with boeingbus2002. I bought a gericom from Aldi about 20 months ago and it has been great.

I had never heard of gericom but I am told it is a popular German manufacturer.

I don't know much about laptops but several people I know who use laptops a lot have said it is one of the most impresive they have seen for the price.

The battery is beginning to struggle a bit now after heavy wireless use but a new one from Watford Electronics cost me £50.

Don't know what gericom after sales service is like but I couldn't have faulted Aldi's store manager who sold it to me, he was extremely helpful.

I have used Dells at work and they are very poor compared with the gericom.

[bladewashout]

I've always used IBMs: T-series are the best combination of functionality and wieght, but at a price.

The T43 is (I think) the latest & greatest.

You do get what you pay for with these.

BW

[ChocksAwayUK]

A powerbook and a games console... see the light!

[FunkyMunky]

I've got a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M3438G arriving on Tuesday. Various specifications available, but for around £900 you could get :-

Pentium M 1.83Ghz
1024mb DDR2-533Mhz
256Mb nvidia Geforce 6800 Go
100Gb SATA 5400rpm hard drive
17" Widescreen WXGA/WUXGA screen (1280x900 or 1920x1200 i think, depending on the model)
All the usual wireless, remote control, media player etc


We ordered ours through an NHS employee home computing initiative thing, so the prices may be different at retail to what we are paying for the lease.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Acer Aspire 5020 for me. ATI X700 graphics and a widescreen all for £740 delivered. Its done me for 9 months now without a glitch and appears to be excellent value for money.

WWW

[YYZ]

Looks like im gonna have to pop to PC world to look (only look not buy from these over priced dogs) at the Acer laptops, sounds like they are a bit of a winner?

Thanks guys/girls
YYZ
:ok:

[BOFH]

YYZ,

a couple of posters have mentioned Gericom. They are well regarded in Germany as being an affordable brand.

Bladewashout mentions IBMs. I have a T43 here (a work machine), and they aren't bad. A mate accidently put a glass of red wine through one, and three days later, it fired up again. He cannot get rid of the smell, though :} .

Acer does have a drawback in that the partitioning schema can be a bit bizarre - I think they put FAT32 on mine, which was promptly dismissed!

BOFH

[Helen49]

Steer clear of MESH........after sales service is non-existent. Once they have your money, the service stops.
H49

[YYZ]

BOFH, I cannot find the Gericom in the usual places, only the Acer ones which appear to be getting quite popular, therefore they are out of the picture, Aldi did do a special on them but that's it from what I can see?

Any info as to where in the UK they sell them is welcome..

Cheers
YYZ

[BOFH]

Yes, Aldi is the only outlet I know of on this side of the Channel. Many more to be seen in the Fatherland, places like Saturn.

If you do not wish to speculate, I suggest you go Acer - it seems there are a few of us who are really happy with them.

BTW IBM is rebranding its laptop range as Levono or something like that. Sounds like a contrceptive pill!!

BOFH

[Final 3 Greens]

Have a look at ASUS.

They used to sub contract the manufacture of Sony VAIO.

I have a 1.5kg carbon fibre framed notebook, which is brill - more than your budget, but you will find they offer a selection in that price range.

Worth considering.

[Final 3 Greens]

BTW IBM is rebranding its laptop range as Levono or something like that. Sounds like a contrceptive pill!!

Not rebranding, they sold the laptop business - still fine computers and worth a look.

[Fair_Weather_Flyer]

I'm using an Acer Aspire 3003LCi and it feels very light but sturdy. I'm not surprised these things are top sellers. It cost about £330 from a store in the USA. I've seen them at Tesco for about £400. Before that I had two Toshiba laptops. Give Toshiba a miss. Reliability was hopeless on both machines and the customer service was real "spit in your face" stuff.

[BOFH]

Final 3 Greens,

I did not wish to disparage their machines - they might well prosper, as Hitachi did getting rid of the DeathStar image. However, IBM led the way in corporate security and sturdiness, and with their pricing towards the end, were extremely competitve (unlike the 486s we were buying ten years ago at 8,000 quid a pop when a Compaq was about 3,000).

I just rue the passing of an icon. Distinctive black cases, unlike the cream Compaq upstarts, and their nipples - a great innovation. I used to have one of those IBM luggables with the CRT. I believe they even made an S/370 luggable! :uhoh:

BOFH
(we had it toof)

[redsnail]

12" iBooks are tough.
Mine was in a protective cover and in my nav bag. My nav bag was on top of my carry on case. The whole lot toppled over and crashed into the ground.
iBook was fine. :D