Which Laptop?

[621andy]

Hi all

I'm looking for a laptop to replace this museum piece(3 1/2 years old:rolleyes:)

I need a good WLAN connection, ability to edit and store a fair few 10MP pics and my missus likes watching and recording DVDs.

I work a lot here in Asia, where the internet connection is dodgy to say the least, and a quick connection makes the difference between getting an e-mail away or not:hmm:

I travel a few times a year from Europe to Asia by air, and move around Europe a couple of times a year by car, so weight is not my prime concern but I don't want either a tiny screen or a huge one.
My HP Pavilion has given good service, but compared with newer models used by other pilots here, it's positively ancient and sloooooow....

I seem to find something that fits my needs, then find a report that says it's sh1te for whatever reason- memory, finish, WLAN connection etc etc etc.

Help!:{

[airborne_artist]

Budget, and which country will you buy it in? Are you happy with XP, or do you fancy taking the roller coaster ride that is Vista?

[TwinAisle]

Just been through this process myself, I had to replace an Acer TravelMate (possibly the worst bit of junk that I have ever spent coin on - it lasted just over a year before falling to bits, my previous Compaq lasted five times that, and had a much harder life).

Finally settled on a Toshiba Satellite Pro - amazing bit of kit, well inside your budget, built like a tank, nice keyboard, clear screen, 2MB RAM and a huge hard drive... model is A200HD-1U4 CORE 2 DUO T7500P, 2GB RAM, 200GB HD, HDDVD (that bit may have been upgraded a tad now, since Tosh have given up on HDDVD and gone to BluRay).

New model looks like this (http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/jsp/productPage.do?service=UK&PRODUCT_ID=149155&toshibaShop=false)

Just get XP for it, and take off Vista, which just eats hard drive space and slooooooooooooooows it down....

Hope this helps!

TA

[Rightbase]

Just bought 50+ HPs for the school about 400 Euro each (ex VAT). Only 2 USB sockets so staff get a 20 Euro bluetooth mouse. Intel dual core, !Gb RAM, Enterprise Vista. Can't remember the HD capacity.

The special features - 802.11 a/b/g wireless and the option of a matt screen. We have a few high gloss screens which are trendy at the moment but staff don't like them much. After the initial 'wow' they find that reflections make them tiring to work at. So unless you always wear dark clothes and work in dark corners, I would steer clear of 'crystal clear' or 'extra bright' or 'hard glass' screens.

For personal use consider an upgrade to 3yrs warranty, 2Gb RAM and make sure you get a model with a DVD burner.

Within your budget, you should be able to get Mrs 621andy one of her own so she can watch and record DVDs while you are on the road with yours.

[flowman]

3 kids at uni, one has a Sony Viaio thingy, rubbish. The other 2 elected to take Mac Books and swear by them. It seems anything that does not rely on Microsoft products to keep it going is a big advantage. No crashing, no freezing, no viruses.

[hardcase]

i have a Macbook Pro...which is excellent, i highly recommend one.

No need to worry about virus/hackers etc...online security/reliability was the main reason I bought an Apple. I have Microsoft Office for Mac, excel,word etc and it works very well.

But they do cost more than HP, etc with the same spec

:ok:

[helldog]

Once you go Mac you'll never go back, sorry couldn't resist:yuk:

Truth be told Mac's rule, at least get a demo before you make up your mind.

[hellsbrink]

Not wishing to start a Mac/PC war, but to say you are safe using a Mac is horsiepoo.

As I know after spending several hours clearing out an infection on someone else's machine which was transmitted via MSN. If Mac OS was so safe, they wouldn't be patching security holes, would they.....

If you don't believe me when I say you are NOT secure just because you use a Mac, lookee here :- http://www.securemac.com/

[Saab Dastard]

This month's Personal Computer World magazine (May 2008) has a group test of high-end laptops, and the Acer Aspire 7720 gets the editor's choice. Particularly good choice for watching DVDs - it's HD ready (1080p).

The Toshiba Satellite P200 gets a good review - perhaps Toshiba are putting the "bad years" behind them, and building good machines again.

SD

[Farmer 1]

Before you buy, ask yourself two questions:

1. If the machine fails, are you able and willing to fix it without any help from the manufacturer?

2. Do you enjoy sending emails to an individual who does not reply to them?

If the answer to both questions is Yes, then I thoroughly recommend Toshiba.

[mixture]

Farmer 1....

Don't know where you got your Tosh experience from, but I've never had a problem getting things sorted out. Then again, my experience has been with their business notebooks, not with the cheap and nasty stuff that can be found at certain high street retailers.....

That said, if you want top notch support on a PeeCee, I would suggest HP (again, business range, not "retail") and buying an HP Carepack (note I said HP, NOT a worthless [insert retailer's name] extended warranty !).

However, I've got a MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM, WiFi, BlueTooth ..... Apple support is generally very, very good ...and because the all Apple laptops now have intel processors, you can run Windows at full speed in an emulator (or on full hardware with Bootcamp). I wouldn't go for the MacBook Air, but that's only because I need a proper ethernet port, not some USB dongle.

Your mileage may vary ...all just my 2p worth.

[Farmer 1]

the cheap and nasty stuff that can be found at certain high street retailers

Definitely not cheap, Mixture - in fact, the most expensive one on the shelves at the time. Maybe I've been unlucky, but letters of complaint to the top man have proved to me that once they have your money, that is where their interest ends.

[mixture]

Sorry, didn't meant to imply anything that way !

Interesting to hear about your experience with them ...and good on you for trying to get the attention of the top man there, not enough people do that these days!

[Rightbase]

Thanks mixture. I should be more careful in my choice of words. I have known several cases of retailers insurance scams (AKA guarantees) that just generate utter frustration and anger when it turns out that marketing hype and financial skills just turn a hardware problem into an endless loop.

And no cases (of laptops) where they worked well.

Only a small (UK) sample but it works for me!

[621andy]

Many thanks every one! Some food for thought there.

On the subject of Macs, 2 of the pilots we've had out here have got them- Both swear by them, but one is on their 3rd one due to various problems:uhoh:

Had a play with one today, and found it bluddy annoying- lower display thingy popping up and down etc., :hmm: and no right click jobby. I'm sure I could get used to it, but not sure I want to...

Still, I'll have a look at the Tosh, HP etc and see how I go.

Incidentally, I'd be buying in Germany, unless I find something considerably cheaper in KL when I go through on sunday:ok:

The missus will get this old lump to play with when I'm away, but as she works with me, then she'll get to play with the new one too;)

[mixture]

Rightbase,

Pleasure....

Too many people fall for Dell these days, all I'll say is they've got the worlds best sales reps who will do anything (including knocking back their margins) in order to get your order. But post sales support ..... forget it, unless you've just given sales an order for at least 6 figures, but preferably 7 figures.

But HP ....admittedly I've more experience with HP's Carepacks in relation to their non-laptop product ranges ... but I've yet to have an experience that will make me consider (a) not buying HP kit again or (b) not buying HP Carepacks again.

[621andy]

Just to add a few details- This Laptop is an HP Pavilion zv5000. When I bought it it was an end of line model, so I didn't expect the latest spec even then. However, I've been impressed with HP so far, and apart from a hard drive crash* in the autumn it's been very reliable.

*Luckily everything backed up;)

But now I certainly notice the lack of performance in comparison with newer models. I updated the thingy memory from 256 to 512 before I came out here and that obviously made a difference.
I'll keep this as a back up as it still works ok. The hinges are getting dodgy, but if I'm not hauling it around the world it should last a bit longer.

Budget BTW max 1500€

It would appear that the Toshi wotsit has only just appeared on the German market as the only reviews I could find were in English. Eventually found a review this am, and Mediamarkt(huge electrical chain) have just introduced it for sale, but with a slightly different model number.

The problem is that there are so many different models of the same machines, and one machine will get rave reviews and the next will get a sh1te one:uhoh: I can't get my head round all the different model numbers:*

[FerrypilotDK]

My 2 cents! I have a Macbook Pro 17inch. Never a problem, excellent integrated programs included with the all Macs in the Maclife suite, and indeed, I have a right click wireless mouse, as I also use it for gaming. Called the mighty mouse, it truly is with normal vertical and also horizontal scrolling. There are no buttons on this mouse either, just clicks by pressure. The trackpad discerns whether you have 1 2 or 3 fingers and changes function, so you don´t have to wander about with the cursor.

Music fantastic and good battery life. The charger connection alone is a work of art and has saved the laptop being knocked on the floor by clumsy people numerous times.

I also have two desktops and never a problem with them either........So I highly recommend them. Regarding security, Macs are not completely immune, but saving yourself 130,000 potential attacks and living with the 90 or so out there, sort of evens the odds somewhat!

Have fun! Buy in the US if you are there..........great prices with the low dollar!

[Dan Winterland]

I have a Compaq. It's abit old, but is now market under the HP brand. What a piece of junk. Had problems from the start, called Compaq who said they couldn't help because I was using it away from where I bought it. It's a laptop -that's what it was designed to do!!!! My bro in law bought the same model and had exactly the same snags. never again.

Eldest son has a Toshiba. It has a beautiful clear screen and is a very stable and safe machine. Only snag has been him downloading a virus.

Youngest son has a Lenovo - a model which is also sold under an IBM brand name. It's a very stable and reliable machine and I would thoroughly recommend the brand to anyone.

[mixture]

I have a Compaq. It's abit old, but is now market under the HP brand. What a piece of junk.

Compaq still is one of HP's retail channel brand names (i.e. stuff HP's marketing department targets at home users buying from the high street or online equivalent). They still use the Compaq brand in EMEA for some product ranges although there is some use of the HP brand creeping in more and more. However as far as I know, the Compaq brand is never used for HP's business range, they stopped that pretty much the day they bought Compaq many years ago !

You should not expect the same build quality to have gone into an HP retail laptop/PC then the stuff the business laptop/PCs go through.

Business computers are generally built on the unwritten understanding that the purchaser is expecting that kit to last a minimum of three years, probably around five. There's not much you can do about hard drives failing .... that's a given in the IT industry .... the reason why the word BACKUP is uttered so frequently.

Retail channel kit however, is built with cost rather than quality in mind ....

You get what you pay for in IT, especially when it comes to brands like HP.

Edit to add ....

P.S.

No I don't work for HP
No I don't own shares in HP
I've just spent enough money on HP kit over the years to know it's generally a safe bet based on my experience ....your mileage may vary, just like with playing the lottery !

[mixture]

Lenovo - a model which is also sold under an IBM brand name

IBM sold their PC and laptop businesses to Lenovo a few years back.

Any IBM branding on new kit is just that ... a sticker with IBM's name on it.

However one could say Lenovo wouldn't want to loose those ex-IBM clients and so are being careful with R&D and manufacturing ... but I don't have sufficient first hand experience to comment ...:cool: