I need a decent laptop ,to replace my very old PC, and also because I have plans to go self employed sometime soon.It needs to do both home and work, min screen size is 13", don't need any more than 15.6" . Weight or size is not an issue as it'll be trasported in a car and not by train or plane. I'll go up to £ 600 and don't need anything more than word/excel/powerpoint and some ability to play video clips. I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to these things and I know that on the forum there are some IT wizards.There are sooo many on th market and it's confused the living sh*t outa me!! I've looked at the HP G61 - 110sa and the HP DM3-1025sa, are these any good? Whaddya suggest??????
Recommend me a laptop
- Thread starter bigshurv
- Start date
Ha... seems to be the season for it!
Just recommended this to someone the other day and should fit your bill:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/822766?camp_id=wk37_09_sony_laptops
Haven't price checked - told my friend he could do that bit himself, but PCWorld are good value for Sony.
I'd get this with something like NOD 32 or Kaspersky for the AV.
Not the last word in performance but has a good balance of CPU / RAM and the Sony X-Black screens are superb. Only thing I would say is make sure you use the battery regularly - Sony seem to suffer more than most for being used on the mains a lot.
Just recommended this to someone the other day and should fit your bill:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/822766?camp_id=wk37_09_sony_laptops
Haven't price checked - told my friend he could do that bit himself, but PCWorld are good value for Sony.
I'd get this with something like NOD 32 or Kaspersky for the AV.
Not the last word in performance but has a good balance of CPU / RAM and the Sony X-Black screens are superb. Only thing I would say is make sure you use the battery regularly - Sony seem to suffer more than most for being used on the mains a lot.
I had an Acer and had nothing but trouble with it. When I took it for repair somewhere other than I'd bought it and said I'd hoped for hassle-free use, they replied 'so why did you get an Acer?'. Warranty experience was they'd do a minimum check on the phone, then say 'must be a hardware problem, send it back'. Turn-around 10 days, collect and delivered by courier any time between 9 and 6. Not good for business imo.
i have an HP and it has been great so far. i wouldn't go buying some random/unknown make but i also wouldn't pay for some brands, sony, apple etc. although apple are a different ballgame altogether people like sony tend to charge over the odds for the name.
a friend of mine bought a sony for close to 1k, i got my HP for £450 and it was a higher spec.
a friend of mine bought a sony for close to 1k, i got my HP for £450 and it was a higher spec.
Rudd_2002 said:
HP are a tier 1 vendor! In fact, they see themselves as the premium product in the market place... and I'd probably say they are*. I use one at work and it's very good indeed - still rather have my MacBook though!
There are some good deals about - Lenovo aren't what IBM used to be... a lot of support issues. Fujtisu are worth a look as are ASUS. Let's not forget Dell, they will probably have some deals as this is the last month of the financial year.
*in the desktop / notebook market - don't want to get into a debate about servers / storage / networking as I know there are a few techies on here!
lacroupade
Veteran
Sticks said:
+1 - had two Acers - they are cheap and cheerful and TBH I've had no hardware failures but they can be a bit chunky and both keyboards were crappy.
You can't really go wrong with a mid-range HP or Toshiba - the latter especially have a long reliable track record and fairly priced with good features. I have one with Harmon Kardan speaker upgrade and its fabulous for audio/video. And while its tempting to get a big fat screen, a 15" is more han adequate for most applications and is a lot more portable.
I wouldn't touch Dell either....when they do fail (and my daughters has after just four months) customer sevice is at best very painful.
And if you are moderately Luddite....forget the Mac. In fact just forget the Mac anyway, its for hairdressers.
And while PC World pricing can sometimes be OK, I would never buy from them - have you ever seen the size of those queues at customer service?? And don't even think Currys/Dixons, they struggle to even spell 'PC'. I went to buy an HD vid cam from Currys and the assistant ought to have been flipping burgers frankly...
Better to buy from the manufacturer if its a major, and get on-site maintenance thrown in.
Last of all, whatever people might try and tell you, pretty much nobody makes their own components...they are all outsourced to Malaysia and elsewhere and all the key OEMs operate assembly lines as opposed to component manufacturing, so they ALL have reliability issues arising from individual dodgy components. Thats why you never see just ONE company coughing to a battery overheating problem, as they all use the same few battery manufacturers in Hong Kong Phooey. So no company is necessarily better or worse than another in that respect - which brings it back to "where will you get best customer service". Thats coming from someone who's been in IT for 24 years and worked for both Dell and HP in the past.
Burning question - whats your s/e plan then and good luck with it!?
PS I actually work for HP, although in IT outsourcing having been 'acquired' when EDS was taken over, but I think I can add pretty much anyone to their 'family and friends' purchase scheme. Can't promise it will have major discounts but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick..PM me if I can help.
I would recommend Dell. I've owned five laptops and the Dell's have been the best.I've also had no issues with the warranty. My first Dell wasn't the most reliable (but still better than the non-Dell laptops I have owned) but I had no problems getting any problems sorted. ANd instead of having to send it back to the manufacturer, they just mailed me the parts and I fitted them myself (two keyboards, one hard disk, power cable that had split). The hard disk failure was a little disappointing but it was 3 years old at the time and was one of the faster 7200rpm drives, and the laptop went almost everywhere with me (banged around on the tube etc).
I'm quite particular about the spec and of course with Dell there are loads of options you can select from - very customisable to the spec you want. You may pay a little more but at least you're getting exactly what you want/need, rather than buying something not quite the required spec and left thinking "oh, I wish I bought one with X now"
My current one is an XPS 1330 bought just over a year ago and not had one problem. It's got 4GB memory, 2.5 processor, Wireless N compatible with my router, 64-bit Windows, long lasting 9 cell battery, extra bright screen. THis was the exact spec I wanted. Actually also got it for a good price as I negoitated a discount and also they sent me a free gift that I sold on eBay for £60
I'm quite particular about the spec and of course with Dell there are loads of options you can select from - very customisable to the spec you want. You may pay a little more but at least you're getting exactly what you want/need, rather than buying something not quite the required spec and left thinking "oh, I wish I bought one with X now"
My current one is an XPS 1330 bought just over a year ago and not had one problem. It's got 4GB memory, 2.5 processor, Wireless N compatible with my router, 64-bit Windows, long lasting 9 cell battery, extra bright screen. THis was the exact spec I wanted. Actually also got it for a good price as I negoitated a discount and also they sent me a free gift that I sold on eBay for £60
Here we go...
:slappy:lacroupade said:And if you are moderately Luddite....forget the Mac. In fact just forget the Mac anyway, its for hairdressers.
You see, you've immediately raised a questions over your experience and judgment! Macs rule!
Actually, I have to admit, Mac is a odd one... now I have one I wouldn't go back... but a friend asked me if he should get one, if it was worth the premium over a similar spec W7 machine and I couldn't say yes to paying an extra £300 because I couldn't quantify the difference.
lacroupade said:
Gained some ground back there.PCWorld, I would only ever buy from them on price and if I knew exactly what I wanted and could get subsequent support from the vendor.
Dell, in my experience their failure rate (from 100s of boxes) is not that high, but yes their support can let them down.
Darren M - the XPS are nice machines!
One thing I would say... if you're just going to use the basics I would probably look at the business machines... I personally don't like all the little background apps that they dump on home user machines.
Mac prejudice (ignorance
) aside, lacroupade offers sound advice... and despite my tone has a lot more experience than I do. Okay!I buy the IT equipment for the company I work for, and for the last 6 years or so it's been Dell, good value and very reliable (otherwise I wouldnt be buying it) and have over 150 PC's and 19 Dell Servers.
Customer service is good, but thats probably because it business customer service and not consumer.
Regarding Acer, I have had three colleagues ask me to look at them or they have asked about them with fairly major issue, and they have had a hell of a job getting sorted if indeed they do ever get sorted, so I never recommend Acer.
At the end of the day though you will get lots of recommendations, so you will have to make your own choice.
Customer service is good, but thats probably because it business customer service and not consumer.
Regarding Acer, I have had three colleagues ask me to look at them or they have asked about them with fairly major issue, and they have had a hell of a job getting sorted if indeed they do ever get sorted, so I never recommend Acer.
At the end of the day though you will get lots of recommendations, so you will have to make your own choice.
For what you need it for I would save your money and buy a netbook. I have the Samsung NC10. £240. Very small, light and 7 hours battery life. Operates office well. Excellent for web, email and video conferencing (built in camera suprisingly good) and if you store your videos get a cheap external hard drive.
Maybe i'm an exception to the rule, but I'm a luddite and I rate the Dell (mine) and Acer (the wife's) laptops highly. They've been perfectly reliable since buying them.
Dell Inspiron 1525, £350 instore from Tesco over 18 months ago. Works well but I filled the 120GB hard-drive with music and photos so recently changed the hard-drive myself for a 500GB one for £50. My battery died due to not removing it when running off the mains, but a replacement (non-Dell) was £30 or so.
No idea what my wife's Acer is, but it's a 12.2" widescreen and is lovely. Only cost her £330 about 3 months ago and she's got an upgrade to Windows 7 I think.
Dell Inspiron 1525, £350 instore from Tesco over 18 months ago. Works well but I filled the 120GB hard-drive with music and photos so recently changed the hard-drive myself for a 500GB one for £50. My battery died due to not removing it when running off the mains, but a replacement (non-Dell) was £30 or so.
No idea what my wife's Acer is, but it's a 12.2" widescreen and is lovely. Only cost her £330 about 3 months ago and she's got an upgrade to Windows 7 I think.
a11y said:
With the battery... I run mine from the mains until charged and then unplug until it gets down to 20 minutes remaining - not fanatical about it, but it my VAIO kept a good charge for over 3 years!
Good point about the Dell parts... a company called Origin Storage make a lot of the components (replaceable parts) for Dell notebooks and you can buy from them and cut out Dell. Warranty would be an issue, but if you're having to replace something I guess you're beyond that! Sell probably 400+ Dell units a year and the failure rate is very low - excluding component issues (usually affecting large batches).
For any of them, if you want RAM try Kingston system specific memory.
I HATE everything Acer.
ASUS are good, they make (or at least used to make) Sony Vaios and usually have a 2yr warranty standard.
Dell are excellent. Family and i had about 5 dell laptops in the past, and the only thing that ever went wrong were a hard disk (mailed me a new one next day) and a dead on arrival touch-pad. Phoned them about the touch-pad and within 5-6 hours, had some nice chap in the office install a new one for me - now thats service
ASUS are good, they make (or at least used to make) Sony Vaios and usually have a 2yr warranty standard.
Dell are excellent. Family and i had about 5 dell laptops in the past, and the only thing that ever went wrong were a hard disk (mailed me a new one next day) and a dead on arrival touch-pad. Phoned them about the touch-pad and within 5-6 hours, had some nice chap in the office install a new one for me - now thats service
Be wary of the Sony Vaio series as they do have some compatibility problems with IPOD and ITunes owing to some Sony specific software. Not a serious problem if you remove all of the Sony rubbish before you use it - try something like pc-decrapifier freeware (google it!).
lacroupade
Veteran
Mac Shmac....LOL What a lovely opportunity for an argument!!!!!!!!!!!!
While people who cut their own hair might like them , the Mac has never really known what the hell it is IMHO. OK so Gates blagged his original look and feel from the original Mac OS, but thats about all it had to offer mainstream. After a reasonable start in the late 80s/early 90s it got wiped out by the PC competition and never recovered in the business market (which strikes it off shurv's shopping list immediately as he's going into business for himself). Its main role in life after that always seemed primarily with graphic designers, video and related general hippies 
of which I know we have a few on here LOL - in such areas it rightly dominates.
But in the mainstream PC world, while it has designer appeal (like the iPod, iPhone and other such dreadful devices, where other manufacturers have always executed vastly superior products functionally and technically but lets not go there.....yet ), it is no match for Windows technology.
Mac owners always struggle to get mainstream software and external devices working unless they have been built to do so - which they usually aren't.
So while this isn't an anti Apple rant (well only a mild one!) its defo NOT a machine for either a luddite or someone wanting it for business use IMHO.
I cut my teeth in the IT business as service delivery manager 20-odd years ago for a small but tidy company that looked after a range of blue-chip infrastructure contracts for the likes of SKB, Glaxo, the BBC and, in my case, the old Mercury Communications company - a 12,000 seat estate later shredded and absorbed into Cable & Wireless. At the time they were Apples largest European client wth an entirely Mac desktop environment - but what a bunch of hippies they were! And employing support people was easy - they just had to be able to repeat "Boot with extensions off" down the phone ad nauseam! LOL
But that experience, and a lot of major contracts since, brought home to me how, even then, the Mac was totally unsuitable for general business use.
So sorry Prawn and mcbeee - fine for home use, professional media or as a door stop, but thats about it... :evil:
And thanks again for the opportunity - came home to Wales last night to a very cold empty house (wife in Dubai) and this rant has cheered me up no end - who says testosterone fizzles at 11am????
While people who cut their own hair might like them
, the Mac has never really known what the hell it is IMHO. OK so Gates blagged his original look and feel from the original Mac OS, but thats about all it had to offer mainstream. After a reasonable start in the late 80s/early 90s it got wiped out by the PC competition and never recovered in the business market (which strikes it off shurv's shopping list immediately as he's going into business for himself). Its main role in life after that always seemed primarily with graphic designers, video and related general hippies of which I know we have a few on here LOL - in such areas it rightly dominates.But in the mainstream PC world, while it has designer appeal (like the iPod, iPhone and other such dreadful devices, where other manufacturers have always executed vastly superior products functionally and technically but lets not go there.....yet
), it is no match for Windows technology.Mac owners always struggle to get mainstream software and external devices working unless they have been built to do so - which they usually aren't.
So while this isn't an anti Apple rant (well only a mild one!) its defo NOT a machine for either a luddite or someone wanting it for business use IMHO.
I cut my teeth in the IT business as service delivery manager 20-odd years ago for a small but tidy company that looked after a range of blue-chip infrastructure contracts for the likes of SKB, Glaxo, the BBC and, in my case, the old Mercury Communications company - a 12,000 seat estate later shredded and absorbed into Cable & Wireless. At the time they were Apples largest European client wth an entirely Mac desktop environment - but what a bunch of hippies they were! And employing support people was easy - they just had to be able to repeat "Boot with extensions off" down the phone ad nauseam! LOL
But that experience, and a lot of major contracts since, brought home to me how, even then, the Mac was totally unsuitable for general business use.
So sorry Prawn and mcbeee - fine for home use, professional media or as a door stop, but thats about it... :evil:
And thanks again for the opportunity - came home to Wales last night to a very cold empty house (wife in Dubai) and this rant has cheered me up no end - who says testosterone fizzles at 11am????