laptop's

madmaxdh

Hey guys,
just wondering if anyone can give me a hand as i don't have a scooby about laptops, i seen a dell xps 1330 that looks good but 750 :shock:
well anyway whats your thoughts?
thanks max

z000m

laptops are free with broadband subscriptions 8)

Matteeboy

Mad max - Just bought and Acer Travelmate 5720. It's under budget (about £700 from laptopsdirect), has a 2GHz dual core chip, 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard drive, a nice big LCD screen, a magnesium alloys case and looks decent too.

Utterly brilliant and all reviews have been top notch.

The one in this review onlyhas 1GB RAM but I got the extra for nothing...

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/inde ... iewid=1187

madmaxdh

Matteeboy wrote:

Mad max - Just bought and Acer Travelmate 5720. It's under budget (about £700 from laptopsdirect), has a 2GHz dual core chip, 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard drive, a nice big LCD screen, a magnesium alloys case and looks decent too.

Utterly brilliant and all reviews have been top notch.

The one in this review onlyhas 1GB RAM but I got the extra for nothing...

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/inde ... iewid=1187

thanks for that bud i'l have a look into it

BlackSpur

I just saw the xps1330 the dell offers book that comes with the paper for £639.

craker

well, its the same sort of question as "I want a bike. Someone recommend me one."

- What are you going to use it for?
Office type applications & internet stuff you can get by on bottom of the range (ebyuer, dabs, pcworld, tesco for less than £300)
- How portable does it need to be? There are big laptops (widescreens) small laptops (great battery life)
- If you want to run XP you can get by on 512Mb, Vista wants double that + more
- Photo editing eats memory too
- Intel are trouncing AMD at the moment, especially in the portable arena.
Unless you're a gamer, a dual core with 1Gb is a good spec to future proof yourself with. How about this Acer for £400?
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133305

Matteeboy

Quick mention of Dell laptops - heard lots of bad things about them.

Stick to Acer, Lenovo (ex IBM - very business focused) or HP if possible.

I stuck to XP for mine so it runs very quickly. Had three mates get laptops with Vista and all are having nightmares. I'm sure it will improve but right now, it takes up too much memory and seems bug ridden.

ben0.1

i know im a bit late in ths disscussion but ive recently bought a sony vaio fz seris for £1200, there is a cheaper version for £800. Its one of the best laptops ive ever seen, it doesnt seem to compromise on anything. Check out the laptops on sony.co.uk if you havnt bought one already.
Ben

cee

i have an acer 5633 (laptops direct £527)

Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T5500 Processor 1.66GHz
1024 MB DDRII-533MHz SDRAM
120 GB Hard Drive
DVD SuperMulti Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD-
15.4" WXGA Widescreen TFT Screen
Intel GMA 950 up to 224MB shared memory
Integrated 10/100 LAN
Integrated wireless 802.11 a/b/g LAN - Call for advice on Wireless networking
1.3 Mega-Pixel OrbiCam WebCam
Integrated 5 -in-1 card reader
Operating System: Windows XP Media Centre

Mine has a RAM upgrade to 2 gigs and I run vista business (work laptop) with a pile of development stuff on there and it runs like a charm.

I have no problems with vista.......maybe a couple of driver issues at the start, but things have already gotten a lot better.

dont be put off by people telling you that vista sucks.......most of them have probably never had it installed on their machine.

PS I disclaim all of the above by saying that I am a developer for an IT company so if I have no problems, that doesn't mean that no-one else has!

Matteeboy

cee - don't think Vista sucks, in fact in many ways it's very good but I'm not going for it until MS have sorted it out a bit more.

And XP takes up so little room in comparison that my laptop runs at light speed.

cee

Matteeboy wrote:

cee - don't think Vista sucks, in fact in many ways it's very good but I'm not going for it until MS have sorted it out a bit more.

And XP takes up so little room in comparison that my laptop runs at light speed.

Matteeboy.....sorry, my comments were not aimed directly at what anyone on here said!

As I said, I work in the IT industry and as such have lots of communication with bulletin boards for IT stuff and the number fo folks who out and out slate Vista with zero knowledge amazes me.

Maybe though that is the wonder of the internet. Even people who know sook all can have their thoughts published easily!

As far as laptops go, I personally would not want to spend much over 500 quid on a laptop. If it is primarily for gaming, then its not a laptop you want its a desktop which is far easier to upgrade when the games inevitably require a 1024 mb graphics card (ok this is not yet, but it probably wont be too far away!)

ride_whenever

If you want portable then an asus eepc has to be on the list, small and very cool, plus they're pretty cheap. As for vista, it does suck pretty hard, it is large and ponderous, and way too awkward to use and customise. I much preferred xp and I'm contemplating putting that on my new comp. I also love utbuntu which I'm currently playing with on my old pc which has given it a new lease of life.

Matteeboy

Well my own requirements are for a no nonsense business machine, hence wanting a decent processor, HD and memory but without worrying too much about the sound and graphics card - I don't ever play games.

This is ideal and it's robust (magnesium alloys casing, etc) for when I drop stuff on it!

Me and my wife run a PR company so IT headaches cost us a lot in lost billing time. I look after the IT stuff, the finances and run some clients.

alfablue

ben0.1 wrote:

i know im a bit late in ths disscussion but ive recently bought a sony vaio fz seris for £1200, there is a cheaper version for £800. Its one of the best laptops ive ever seen, it doesnt seem to compromise on anything. Check out the laptops on sony.co.uk if you havnt bought one already.
Ben

I would highly recommend you buy an extended warranty for your Vaio (£170 ish for 2 extra years over the standard 1 year). In three years mine (a VGN S2XP) has had 2 motherboards, one screen, one hard drive, 2 optical drives and one wireless card, and has spent about 3 months in total being repaired. They have a menu pricing system for repairs, and several of the repairs I had would have been "middle" fee or "high" fee, at £209 or £512 respectively. Without the warranty my Vaio would have cost maybe £3000 over the 3 years!

(I did complain about one extended delay in repairs and they gave me an 18gb mp3 Walkman as compensation, so some consolation).

My warranty has just run out, the next big repair will probably mean the laptop is a "write off" (if I use Sony to repair it). All in all, I am a bit peeved given that this was a £1700 model, plus £170 warranty - it has cost me in effect over £600 per year, assuming it doesn't survive long into its 4th year. I thought that by buying a premium brand at a premium price I would at least get quality and reliability - not so! For my next laptop I am going to buy cheap (like an Acer, for which a warranty costs about £90) and probably get as good if not better reliability. For the cost of my Vaio I could have bought a reasonably specced laptop new each year, with much better spec each time.

Sorry to rant! :oops:

Matteeboy

Hmmm - A mate recently got a Vaio and has also had multiple problems...

BigDutch

Strangely everyone is overlooking Macs... But it is going to depend what you want to use the computer for.

For £699 you can get the Macbook with a dual core intel chip 1gb RAM and 80gb hard drive. Apples continue to perform better than PC's and the newest version of OS X (Leopard) is trouncing Vista on all fronts. Vista was designed as Microsofts answer to OS X and it bites. Seriously. i've got it installed on my HP laptop (so don't accuse me of being a Mac fanboy) with 2GB RAM, dual core intel chip running at 2.66ghz and 160gb hard drive. It takes FOREVER to boot, has constant issues (shutting down applications, security warnings etc) and can't even run Photoshop at a decent speed.

And it's not just me that's having problems with Vista. I'm based in San Jose (right in the middle of the Silicon Valley) and you'd be amazed at how much anti Microsfot feeling there is out here after Vista and the problems it's causing. If you MUST have a PC either be prepared to downgrade to XP or hang on until they can get Vista operational. Should only take them about three years or so.

For fairness sake my equipment is as follows:
Mac mini 1.4Ghz intel duo / 512Mb RAM / 120GB HD (OS X Leopard)
MacBook Pro 2.44Ghz dual core intel / 2Gb RAM / 180GB HD (OS X Leopard)
Mac Pro (desktop) 3.4Ghz quad core intel / 4Gb RAM / 750Gb HD (OS X Leopard)
HP Pavillion 2000 series, 2.66Ghz dual core intel / 2Gb RAM / 160GB HD (Vista Home Premium)
Philips 'Freevents' desktop. 3.4Ghz intel / 3Gb RAM / 300GB HD (XP)

I've NEVER had a problem with any of the Macs. Even the mini is more than capable of handling HDV video editing and rendering without problem (just a little slower than the others). the HP laptop is pretty much constantly left on the shelf back home. It's had constant software issues and I'm sick of having to restart it. My XP desktop isn't AS bad but can't really handle video work and has an annoying habit of shutting itself down in the middle of bigger projects.

Anyway. Ahem. Rant over. Choose away. My advice is look at Mac but enjoy whatever you get )

sidekicksjn

Macs are the way forward. They dont go wrong all the time like windows.

BlackSpur

sidekicksjn wrote:

Macs are the way forward. They dont go wrong all the time like windows.

Plus you can run windows on them if needs must

Matteeboy

I hate Macs.

Sorry but I just do.

BigDutch

Well. That told us then! ;-)

Is there any reason or is it just not being able to get past the Microsoft way of doing things?

Matteeboy

Well the image irritates me - smug designer types who think they know better.
I hate the OS it comes with.
They cost a lot more for less processing power.
And they look gay.

And I hate hate hate fashion victim type stuff like ipods, iphones and Macs.

Plus I think Steve Jobs needs shoeing.

warm18

i must say im with matteeboy on that one. ive used them and i can see they are functional but the above reasons is why i dont like them. and you cant really game on them as well

cee

Matteeboy wrote:

Well the image irritates me - smug designer types who think they know better.
I hate the OS it comes with.
They cost a lot more for less processing power.
And they look gay.

And I hate hate hate fashion victim type stuff like ipods, iphones and Macs.

Plus I think Steve Jobs needs shoeing.

Iv'e said it before and I'll say it again. For me thats the number one problem with the iPhone. You see someone thumbing their way through their music collection and you just think t*t. Not to mention having completely failed to wait for the 3g version.

I have to say, I have had more problems with Xp than I have had with Vista (been using it over a year now).

A colleague got a macbook pro and its already in the shop being fixed, so just remember that all consumer electronics have thier issues. Mind you the particular chap seems to have issues with every new piece of tech he gets

here comes the balanced bit!

But seriously... Macs/PC's/Linux it doesn't matter. they all have their pros and cons and they are all capable of breaking.

e.g.

Macbook pro example given above.
Another colleauge runs Myth TV on MacMini and the last time he tried to rescan his digital channels he ended up having to recompile the kernel (if you don't know what that means, just think of it as a total pest and probably a good couple of nights up to the elbows in script)
Im sure you can think of an example where pc's go wrong...hell everyone can.

The trick is.......don't be a fanboi. Buy whatever suits your needs and price range.

BigDutch

Matteeboy wrote:

Well the image irritates me - smug designer types who think they know better.
I hate the OS it comes with.
They cost a lot more for less processing power.
And they look gay.

And I hate hate hate fashion victim type stuff like ipods, iphones and Macs.

Plus I think Steve Jobs needs shoeing.

Such a balanced response there Matteeboy!

For the record - I'm not a designer type, or particularly smug. It's obvious you've not used a Mac from your response otherwise you'd know the processing power argument is nonsense . Yes, they are a little more expensive than a PC system which is seemingly more powerful but remember - Apple design all their own hardware and the OS. Windows don't. I'm quite happy to pay the extra for a system that does what I want it to when I need it to. My Mac desktop (which on paper is slower than my PC desktop) runs RINGS around the PC when running ANY Application. It's a better tool.

But, like any consumer product there are those who'll have problems. it's sad but anything mass produced has a chance of developing a fault.

You 'hate Fashion Victim stuff like iPods, iPhones & Macs?' How is having an iPod (which works brilliantly, there's no way you could argue that point) a sign that someone is a 'Fashion Victim'? For that matter, how does having an iPhone (which I do, got it when it launched back in June) make anyone a fashion victim? And a Mac makes me a Fashion Victim as well? Even though it's the most suitable tool for what I need? Wow. Thanks for the assessment of my character there Matteeboy.

I didn't get the iPhone because it was new or 'must have'. I got it for the fact it allows me to carry everything I need on a day-to-day basis in a portable electronic device. There was no other phone that allowed FULL internet access (no matter what you say, WAP & Mobile Internet is NOT the internet) and let me access all my email, send messages and make calls in one device. I had a Blackberry. It was good but not the same so when the iPhone came I grabbed it and love using it. No apologies from me for selecting the best equipment for what I wanted.

I also find it hilarious that you think Steve jobs needs 'shoeing'. He's a Man who loves his work, loves the product and the Company. That's not okay with you? I'll bet you enjoyed watching the Bill Gates attempt at a Keynote presentation from Vegas though, didn't you?!

Now, I'll sit back and see if you form an intelligent response or if you just accuse me of being Gay, Smug and a Fashion Victim again.

Matteeboy

BigDutch - your respone has completely justified and confirmed everything I wrote.

Many thanks for doing my work for me 8)

I've used Macs many times. I still hate them.

And I managed that in just 30ish words too.

BigDutch

Now who's smug and knows better? ;-)

Ah. The fun we have.

Anyone know what the original poster purchased in the end?

warm18

probably linux

Matteeboy

Not a Mac

BigDutch

Arf arf and indeed - Touche :-D

warm18

the japes and giggles had on this forum eh? im going to buy a laptop soon i hope. anyone had any experience of buying abroad in HK or singapore?

BigDutch

The only thing I ever got from HK was a digital camera. had no problems in general but obviously no UK warranty so when it developed a problem I had no help from the UK importer.

Depending on the make you get they may offer an international warranty (worth checking out for yourself, don't just take the dealers word for it).

And obviously, make sure the one you get has a Western keyboard (check the box before leaving the store).