Which laptop - help?!

[Alf]

'Puter-knowledgable folks,

If a person wanted a laptop/notebook/foldy-uppy 'putery thing, what should they be looking at? Budget is not more than £600 (should we just forget it right there? Am I delusional that anything under a grand will be any good?) Suitable for the wonders of t'net, email, photos and a little music - weight is not so much the issue. The AP* reckons a laptop is a Good Thing and who am I to argue in my bid to get her a little more 'puter savvy? Any advice on what models and/or makes to look at very much welcomed. Keep the techie speak to a minimum if you could.

Cheers, Alf

*Aged Parent :-$ 8-[

 

[StevieB]

Alf, I am no a laptop expert, but have just been through this scenario for work. IT department here recommended Sony Vaio or Toshiba only, but going by specs I fancied a Dell or Evesham. In the end I went for the Sony since it was a work laptop and it was work money!

As to price, I would say £600 is not going to get you the best laptop around, but it should be good enough if you do not want intensive graphics or gaming. The problem with laptops is that because all the components are scaled down in size they also have to be scaled down in terms of performance. Thus a £600 laptop is not as powerful as a £600 desktop. Where you might come unstuck is with a sound card. If you want to use the laptop as a music centre you need a good soundcard - the one on my Sony is awful and tinny to the ear.

I am sure others will know more than I, but the above may help.

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[dedee]

I also am no expert but if the AP can cope with a smaller screen, 14" rather than 17", then there are Dell laptops available for under £600. Have a look here at what you get for the money.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/produ ... l=en&s=dhs

Will the AP actually be travelling with the laptop? If not than things like battery performance are not so essential. And if the AP is not playing games then processor speed and memory are also less important.

The options are endless, Good luck

Andy

 

[ikd]

Toshiba - they bounce :wink: I use one for work, but you do get what you pay for - a bit like the Stanley plane verses an LN plane comparisons. Stay away from Acer as you cant get the spares if you ever need them, even warranty spares :roll:

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Alf

At the budget that you're working to I would look at Dell. They have sales on every other week so you should be able to find something suitable.

I would strongly recommend that you take out a three year warranty as if anything goes wrong it can be very expensive.

Cheers
Neil

 

[martyn2]

Hi Alf I have got the parkard bell that was on special at PC world it has a 15" clear screen that is really nice i use it for work and I am using emulators all the time so its nice to have a good screen It cost me £599.00 but they have come down in price over the last few months came with 60GB hard drive and 1GB Ram and all the bits that come with them these days might be worth a look in comment .

martyn

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Alf

Have a look here as they start at 399 inc. vat and delivery.

It's got the mobile processor so that battery life will be better.

Cheers
Neil

 

[wizer]

I agree with whats been said. Toshiba if you want an absolutely cracking, top of the range, never let you down, all rounder and Dell for a good laptop with good support.

 

[wizer]

PS: My AP has a Toshiba laptop and a Dell PC.

 

[filsgreen]

Alf, i bought one last year and I did a lot of research before hand. The only sure fire advice I would give you is buy it with a credit card. the consensus on the laptop forum i used was that any possible fallout would be dealt with by the CC company. Although a lot of the members bought Dell, the opinion was that their aftercare service was poor. In the end I went for an Asus and it is a good machine, I am reliably informed that they build for Sony. Also if you buy from John lewis you automatically get a two year warranty, although I think theirs start at £700. Another point is buy as much memory as possible, at least 512.

HTH

Phil

 

[Charley]

My first laptop was an Acer, I had no problem getting spares for it after I dropped it once and it needed a new keyboard although it was a few years ago now so things might have changed.
I've now got a Sony Vaio which cost a small fortune and I'm still paying for a year later :roll: It's very small and perfect for travelling although if I was using it every day I would want a different model.

When I was looking I found that you paid for the size. I could have got one that was halve the price, much higher spec but was 3 times bigger then the Vaio.

 

[Scott]

I bought my mother a Dell and it seems to be pretty good. IIRC it was around 600 quid without any upgrade options

Cheers

 

[Alf]

Thanks, chaps. All good stuff. I've been looking at the Dell ones but was afraid you'd all scream "No! Anything but a Dell!" at me. :lol: Hmm, John Lewis... Now there's a thought; the AP has a bizarre faith in JLP so a laptop from them must be her dream machine, huh? :roll: :lol: I'll go and have a looksee, and at PC World too.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Adam]

'Puter-knowledgable folks,

If a person wanted a laptop/notebook/foldy-uppy 'putery thing, what should they be looking at? Budget is not more than £600 (should we just forget it right there? Am I delusional that anything under a grand will be any good?) Suitable for the wonders of t'net, email, photos and a little music - weight is not so much the issue. The AP* reckons a laptop is a Good Thing and who am I to argue in my bid to get her a little more 'puter savvy? Any advice on what models and/or makes to look at very much welcomed. Keep the techie speak to a minimum if you could.

Cheers, Alf

*Aged Parent :-$ 8-[

Just a comment or two.... getting a full size good quality mouse makes all the difference to ease of use, if using it for any longer period of time. Similarly, as someone who has a work laptop and a work PC, I find I get a cricked neck working at the laptop for too long, as its too low to the desk to look at comfortably. Quick solutions are A) plug it into you PC screen if you are going to use it for any length of time (little 2 into 1 adaptor boxes are available if you screens are connected to your home PC), or buy an external keyboard, and lift the laptop up onto a higher platform. A few heavy books would do although I'm sure you could knock up a nice shelf in some nice hardwood!

Finally, if theres any chaps likely to be using it whilst sitting on the sofa, its not too good for fertility apparently! See here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4078895.stm

 

[Anonymous]

Alf

In industry and here at the ubi I have always used Toshiba and Dell. Tosh used to be THE one to get but their quality has dropped loads lately.
My last 3 have been Dell and so will my next one in a couple of years.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Alf
I bought SWMBO a Tosh L20 for Christmas, paid £529 so there was enough left for a wireless router too.

Does everything you are asking for. Excellent screen. Battery life reasonable (it's a Celeron M not a Centrino). Nice feel to it.

If I were buying again, I'd make the same choice. Superb. Just check the spec, they come in different flavours.

Cheers
Steve

 

[wizer]

Finally, if theres any chaps likely to be using it whilst sitting on the sofa, its not too good for fertility apparently! See here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4078895.stm

oops :?

 

[ike]

Hi alf,

I just got a Toshiba M40 t'other day (+wireless router hub) 8) . Always fancied a Tosh for years. Finally got one and it's very nice build quality. Celeron M 1.4GHz, 512Mb RAM, DVD-RW /Dual layer/DVD-RAM. £572 delivered from www.laptopsdirect.co.uk, but then spotted a cracker of a deal for slightly higher spec model on www.dabs.com for £556 all in.

Can't fault a Toshiba IMO.

P.S. whatever you choose, get at least 512Mb RAM. Laptop graphics cards have to share this too. XP needs this and ideally 1024Mb.

Ike

 

[Anonymous]

P.S. whatever you choose, get at least 512Mb RAM. Laptop graphics cards have to share this too. XP needs this and ideally 1024Mb.

Ike

No they don't. Not neccesarily anyway. Only low-end budget models with low spec. graphics cards will share RAM with video cards and the graphics performance will suffer for it

At least 512MB RAM is a very wise choice though, particulalarly with Windows Vista around the corner

 

[nonidentity]

No this is a topic I KNOW something about - you should also seriously look at Samsung (the quality is v good) - yes I know but you will be surprised.

A comment - all new laptops wil handle word processing, email, browsing etc.

As stated before invest in 1GB - it WILL make a difference. Also make sure it comes with XP Professional not the XP Home nonsense, especially at the cost.

Do yourself a favour and consider a wireless router then you have the freedom to move about - just be careful on the security side (do set it up properly for security)

Lastly, save yourself some $$$ and download various tools such as OpenOffice from OpenOffice.org BUT first do yourself a favour and download and install Java first from java.com. That way you have word processor, spreadsheet etc for free and it can read the MS stuff! Buy yourself another tool instead.

Lastly, download Firefox as your browser as MS IExplorer is not particularily secure.

:roll: see I KNOW something about something which really translates into knowing a lot about very little :lol:

Cheers