Laptop

[enabb]

Looking to by a windozzzzzze laptop in the new year,
nothing real fancy, main uses will be for kids homework, surfing the net.

Me will use it for mapsource only, (have a i book n love it almost as much as me GS).

Any advice from you lot in the Know would be appricieted !
Budget would be less than a grand (I hope).rolleyes:


Thanks in advance........


:

 

[Paul G (BHT)]

My advice with a laptop is simple..... go for a branded make, HP... Toshiba etc and go for the best you can afford at the time.

 

[pragmatix]

Dell give good value for money. and there web site is quite good, which magazine gave Dell a good review for customer service and reliability, which I will second having bought several for work.
Pete A

 

[NeilF]

Sure it has to be a laptop?

We bought our home pc from Dell direct - included warranty, etc for peace of mind and idiot's guides to everything.

Go to http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs and you'll see that a home pc is the same price as a laptop - but with more storage, and a better screen and keyboard and mouse - better for the kids methinks. And if you are surfing a lot, invest in broadband rather than dial-up!


Cheers,

Neil.

 

[judge]

And steer well clear of Sony Vaio!!!!

I've just refused to accept delivery of one I sent to Sony for an out of warranty repair.

Diagnosis: Mainboard Failure
Estimate: £1180.00 (no that is not a misprint!!)

They want £40 off me to return it - fek 'em what good is it to me

 

[NeilF]

Sure it has to be a laptop?

We bought our home pc from Dell direct - included warranty, etc for peace of mind and idiot's guides to everything.

Go to http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs and you'll see that a home pc is the same price as a laptop - but with more storage, and a better screen and keyboard and mouse - better for the kids methinks.


Cheers,

Neil.

 

[Paul G (BHT)]

Dell...... I provide tech support in an organisation with 500+ end users, I get more hassle from the 60 Dell PC's than the rest put together.

In case you didn't gather from this post I am Anti Dell

 

[Fanum]

Sod new......I've got a perfickly good Dell Latitude CPx .....had it about 7 months now and its plenty quick enough.....it runs xp pro fine, i got a network card to whack it into my router and connect it up to my other machines and that worldly webby thing....it lives in and out of the boot of my car in an old briefcase, used daily, so its rugged too.

The nice thing about laptops is the second hand market.....all the posy yuppy sales reps see them as status symbols and when the latest shiny gizmo comes out, they swap their last shiny new gizmo and that goes to the SH marketplace

I got mine from a bloke who does them reconditioned.....and at £350 i can use it till i drop it, buy a nother one and repeat and STILL have change from a new whizzy one.

If all you really want to do is what you said, then this is the way IMHO....sure , it doesnt play the latset 3d accelerated games but for email, forums, running my work software, office type stuff and the occasional peek at the nekked ladees its superb.

(not that i'd ever......you understand....er.....)

 

[Fanum]

OOp...Paul, you must have snuck that post in while i was typoing away.

Can only speak as I find but i'm quite happy with my Dell.

'Part from the battery..that's screwed, but its not a problem in how i use it.

 

[judge]

Dell...... I provide tech support in an organisation with 500+ end users, I get more hassle from the 60 Dell PC's than the rest put together.

In case you didn't gather from this post I am Anti Dell

I had 1600 OPUS PC's and just before I left the Uni we migrated to Dell Optiplex's which were a welcome relief.... for about 3 weeks until we unboxed the fecker's!!! Spent the last six months at the Uni on the phone to Dell Support in Ireland, got to know them real well

 

[wessie]

If you definitely want a laptop make sure it comes with a proper laptop processor as these are designed to run a lot cooler than a desktop processor.

I bought a Fujitsu Siemans AmiloD from Dabs 18 months ago. It does everything I need and has been reliable in that time.

My only criticism is that the cooling system is not up to dissipating the heat from the non laptop processor. If I am running a lot of apps (say listening to radio, downloading P2P files and running Office) the system gradually slows down as it gets hotter.

The same happens if my boy tries to play FIFA World Cup 2002 whereas the 1998 version runs fine.

I find Dabs customer service excellent. Website has a real time stock system so you know if the stuff you are ordering is in stock and the goods always arrive on time.

www.dabs.com

 

[gavinbell]

Toshiba

throughly recommend Toshiba ...just about to upgrade at work again and have gone for the A30
had two at work over last 5 years...no problems at all. well made and talking to our It guys...if ever a problem arises they sort it really quick.

But for a cheaper way than the latest...check out Morgan Computers ...they are the richer sounds of the PC world...last seasons..or even last months model for good savings. They are an outlet for new discontinued toshibas. Any of those will excel in waht you want it for. But check Dabs.com as they have cracking deals too.

www.morgancomputers.co.uk

bargain hP desktop systems ...stock rotation if you go down desktop road.
Very cheap good digi cams too.

They have been good to deal with as well

As to kids...laptop is good...they can do homework or internet etc where ever suits you and them. And if you want with the savings you make you can always buy a large monitor. ..though I find modern laptop screens excellent and better than a monitor

Gavin

 

[gavin]

HP Pavilion 4300 does it for me, bought from Staples as a 'back to school' (???) promotion, i don't play games on it, just used for internet, mapsource and digital photography.

 

[AdamZ]

IMHO most laptops are about equal, considering that 99% are manufactured by the same small number of companies in Korea (I think there are approx 5-6 Korean manufacturers who produce the lot)

The difference comes when it goes wrong - then survivability is very much dependent upon the quality of the engineer who comes to repair.

Once a laptop has been opened there is a very high probability that it will go wrong again. They are not designed to be opened.

The other point is that most laptops have a very small number of "repairable" component - screen, keyboard, battery connections etc before work has to be done on the motherboard. As soon as work is required on the motherboard it is not long before the "beyond economic repair" equation comes into play and it is simpler to replace the motherboard and all associated components (hence the £1180) even if it is only one or two small components that have gone wrong....

The on-site service can also be variable (Toshiba subcontract this out to Seimens) and there is no guarantee that the engineer who comes to repair will have ever seen the machine let alone have a manual for it...

Also remember that unless you pay over the top for a "rugged laptop" with very slow speeds that they are laptops and NOT portables.

My laptops have a life expectancy of 18months to 2 years with at least 1 repair in that period. The damage is not from carrying in the panniers on the bike but from in the boot of the car and the fact that I am a hunt & peck typist (albeit quite fast). It just cannot take the pounding.

My recommendation is buy from a reputable supplier and pay the extra for the 3 year on site maintenance and don't expect it to last much longer than 2 years......

Dell, HP, IBM, Toshiba, Sony all much of a muchness then then next range is the high end bulk configurers such as Evesham....

 

[Mike Werner]

Consider going for the latest technology, the Tablet PC. It's a Windows Portable PC with a twist; apart from the keyword, you can twist the screen around, over the keyboard, and then use a "pen" to click and WRITE on your screen. No keyboard !!

Obviously you'll not use it to write your memoirs, but for normal, everyday, actions, it's great.

I bought mine primarly since I believe electronic books are the future, and now I can click on a button on the side panel, changing the monitor to portrait, and enjoy an electronic book, reading it like any normal hardback book.

Totally agree with Judge !! Stay away from any Sony. The only place you'll find service quality is in their dictionaries.

 

[enabb]

Wow !

Wot can I say.......
Just the advice I was looking for, now I know wot to look for and avoid, great stuff,

Afraid it has to be a laptop, have a pc but kids are fighting over who,s bedroom it should be in ? and space is a real issue, (teenagers bedrooms and space dont mix as you will appreciate !)

Will keep me eyes open for a bargin.......


cheers and thanks again.

 

[Mick_rw]

Re: Laptop.

If your looking for a laptop for the kids to move from room to room with ease, have a look at a desknote, it looks like a laptop, only works from the mains, has a full processor power of a desktop, normall size hard drive, does not need all the power saving modes of a notebook which slow it down. they all come with built in modem, ethernet TFT screens Ghz processors, and don't cost as much as a notebook or tablet. I borrowed one from my Co R&D, who were seeing if it was a suitable product for my company to sell, and I used it on customers sites for various things and I found it a brilliant piece of kit. Very fast compard to my laptop, has built in fire wire USB2 etc. Do a search on the web using "desknote" as your search parameter and have a look.

Mick