Thread: Laptop suggestions?

My Sony Viao was stolen 2 weeks ago, so I need a replacement.

Budget is £500, but I want to spend less as possible, it's just for surfing the web and maybe the odd streaming of movies or sporting events. Needs to have a DVD drive and be as compact as possible, but not notebook size, so give me some ideas.

I'm even considering an iPad, but need to have a play with one first before I decide.

Cheers.

Well, I'm an Apple man but for taking out of the house, travel etc., we accidentally stumbled on a Dell Inspiron 1545 Dual Core (£279). Nice machine and after five months I've got no complaints - and I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to computers, especially being a 27" iMac guy.

Have fun. Of course, for £430 you could have an iPad!!!!!

Not an apple man to be fair, iPad just seems to tick the correct boxes, but it doesn't have a DVD drive, I think I prefer one for my needs!

Eze Jojo. I bought a laptop for my Mrs not long ago from the dell outlet website. It was a refurb but a mate that works with dell told me that all the outlets actually are, are cancelled orders or company laptops which get upgraded every now and then. All still new but just rebooted. worth a look because you'll get a good one on there for 500! My Mrs laptop is absolutely wicked! Its well fast and up to now it hasnt had a problem and its 64bit! Take a look if your interested, this is the link - http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/de...uk&l=en&s=dfo&Of corse, not everybody is keen on refurbs but it's worth a look mate!

Good luck!

There ya go Jo-Jo, that's two Dell recommendations in a row lol.

No, I wouldn't buy an iPad as a main pc (not here anyway when they're $450 in the US - I'll get one there in a few months and will be even cheaper). Go with Dell, a dual-core as they're very quick.

Seriously, a year ago if you'd proposed I'd be using macs I'd have laughed. But give one a go, go into an Apple shop and play with one. The way they behave will seriously challenge your affinity for Windows PC's if not have you buying a mac. Trust me, go have a play (with a mac) and see what you think. They've ironed out all the compatibility issues so you plug them in and off you go. You can even split the drive to have a portion of it as windows. Every old argument against macs has been resolved in recent years and like me before, you're probably forming your opinions on those old arguments.

Go play wi a mac

Yep, like maestro says, you can use bootcamp, which you can use windows and mac on it. Surveys showed that a mac was one of the fastest vista running machines on the market!!

Well, I narrowed it down to 2 laptops in the end for there compact size, which was what I was after.

Acer AS4810T with £200 off @Argos

Asus UL30 on offer @CPW

Did a load of research and read the reviews and went for the Asus UL30, it should arrive by the weekend, now I need an external USB DVD drive.

Regarding the iPad, it has no USB ports, doesn't do multi tasking, no stand and doesn't support Flash, so I had to give it a miss, despite it being soldout everywhere! One day maybe...

Cheers.

Just seen some basic details of the new Asus EP121 tablet pc on the PC Pro and Engadget websites. Looks interesting with a 12 inch screen that can be attached to a keyboard unit to act like a laptop or detached to act like a normal laptop. No idea yet of availbility or price. Also MCI and LG are showing some new tablets at the Computex Show. Seems like Apple will soon have some competition!

Had a good look at some Netbooks at the weekend but the screen seem so small. I was thinking about one for taking on holiday but I think I'll stick to my Sony laptop with it's 13.3 inch screen.

Ipad would have been great for me if it ran windows, so can run vcds on it, but having a giant Iphone doesnt really appeal to me atm.

As for the new tablets from computex, well problem is alot are running atoms & they're tbh fairly ****e as take forever to load, had an archos 9 recently as fedup with large laptop for car work, god damn it was painful to use, the new MSI tablet is reported as crawling speed so think need something little more powerful to actually be worthwhile & a capacitance touchscreen as the archos was resistive & sucked big time.

The new Asus EP121 will be using Intel's new CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) Core 2 Duo processor so hopefully it will be a bit quicker than anything using an Atom processor. IT will also have USB ports and will have Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS. It is the one that can be both a tablet or more like a normal laptop when it has the keyboard unit attached so possibly the best of both worlds.

For basic review see here: http://www.islate.org/index.php/2010...mplete-review/

JoJo, Have you seen the latest Y series from Sony. Uses the new CULV processors and a recent review on the PC Pro website thought they were very good and the price is a little more than your buget but not a lot. Quite reasonably for a Sony!!

This is the review: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/lapto...-vaio-y-series

Thanks Dave, I've already ordered the Asus UL30, should arrive today actually. Had a Sony Viao about a month ago until someone stole it! I didn't want to go overboard on the monies for fear it would be nicked again, and the Asus is quite high spec too without the brand name to back it up, so only time will tell how good it is.

It's had some very good reviews though, so shouldn't be a problem.

Vaio's have always been very nice machines, but always overpriced, but admittedly well built, sturdy & just very well styled.

The Sony is a good choice, I quite like their laptops.

I'm an Apple fan personally, but I do have a little Samsung NC10 which i've been very impressed with for sofa browsing.

The iPad however doesn't really hit the spot for me, and you still need another "proper" computer to sync it, update it etc etc, whats the point in that?!??

Originally Posted by NHN

Vaio's have always been very nice machines, but always overpriced, but admittedly well built, sturdy & just very well styled.

Yes I was extremely peed off when I had to have a Dell for my Laptop refresh last time, because at the time Sony didn't offer any Vaios that would take 4GB of RAM, as I run a few VM images I required more that 2GB of RAM. 6 months later and out come the Vaios with 4 GB Ram support. Oh well next time I guess.

I have still got my old Vaio as my VCDS Laptop, very nice Carbon Fibre model so there was a flip side, I just have to run a Dell D630 as my business Laptop.

Paul

well they think its a good deal here http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/69167...ra-thin-ulv-su

Originally Posted by fingermouse

well they think its a good deal here http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/69167...ra-thin-ulv-su

Never even saw this, but I made use of the quidco offer anyways, or my brother inlaw did, cos he ordered it for me, so even more of a bargain.

Originally Posted by NHN

Vaio's have always been very nice machines, but always overpriced, but admittedly well built, sturdy & just very well styled.

A bit like Audi compared to Seat/Skoda.

Laptop's arrived! And my good sister dropped it off too, just need to find to to fire it up and install windows7, then I will be happy!

Just been looking at some reports on the Asus. Looks a nice machine. Did it not come with Windows 7 already loaded?

Yeah tis a nice lappy! I just installed W7 again on my laptop. Had it as a beta and thought i'd get it 64bit. Some good kit! I know plenty of people who have cracked it though... So whats the point of paying for it? lol

Originally Posted by h5djr

Just been looking at some reports on the Asus. Looks a nice machine. Did it not come with Windows 7 already loaded?

Yes Dave, it comes with Windows7 pre loaded, I meant the process of setup and then the need to download certain programmes like FireFox and Messenger.

All done now, just need to get use to the Windows7 interface, a lot different to the XP I'm use to. Tha laptop itself is very nice, slightly bigger than I thought it would be, but it's very slim and light.

just updating my desktop with win 7 as I speak, gone for 32 bit at first but might do a clean 64 bit install just for a laff..

Oh and I was given a link to a very nice priced win7 ultimate P

64 is a must if your processor is enabled to it! Much faster if you do many things at once! Got your anti-virus sorted? A good free one is microsoft security essentials. I havnt had a problem with it yet in terms of cpu usage, slowing the computer down etc.. Runs quicker than a mouse!

will have to check whats in my desktop and possibly the laptop, I thought there were issues with some software running on the 64 bit platform ??? I know both are dual core of some description



holy thread hijack lol sorry Jojo