Hi laptop dudes, I need some help choosing a laptop for work. I don't really know what's available at the moment. I wouldn't ever get a dell desktop PC but I'm thinking that a laptop might be OK as I wouldn't need to upgrade anything anyway... or am I being stupid? Have up to £700 to spend. preferably a bit less but the funds are there if necessary. Found a reasonable Dell system for £656 Pentium M 735A, 512MB, DVD-RW, XP pro, 60gb 5,400 HDD, 14" WXGA screen, 80Whr battery... What do you think? Is there better available for around the same money. Needs: To be fairly portable but with reasonable battery life. XP pro. 512MB memory Nice screen well built wifi Would like: SD card slot would be a bonus. Does not need: to be particularly powerful. i.e. no gaming apart from a few emu's maybe. Any help is really appreciated. I know nothing about currently available laptops so it's in your hands Bit-Tech
If you want it portable the 14" might be OK I spose, depends how you consider "portable". Ive been using a Dell lappy for the last 2 years and it's had it's ram upgraded to a Gig which makes it far smoother, but the harddisk is still 4200 which cripples it The 5400 should be fine. What speed is a 735? 1.6? 80Whr is decent too. First thing you do when you get it is wipe off the standard XP install and stick your own on. Get rid of the Dell crap and it's fine, just make sure you've got the latest drivers off the dell site.
Cheers Bindi OK slightly different.. Pentium m750 (1.86/533), 1GB ram, £646. Hmm, so it's going to come pre-loaded with crap then? If that's the case then t might be worth getting a nicer lappy with xphome and use one of my licenses up from the desktop it's replacing. There's loads more available with just XP home on. Seen a nice Vaio for about £800 on John Lewis... hmmmm.... Ok, I guess I could spend up to about £850 including VAT for a particuarly nice one. Any suggestions?
I dont know the noticable difference in speed between a 1.86 and 1.6. I use a 1.7 and it's more than enough for day to day. Try using 512, just make sure it's only using 1 DIMM though and if you need more pop another stick in.
Cheers. Think I'm gonna get the entry level Vaio. £640 ex-VAT. It's got the 1.73 chip and 512MB (+ free slots). Thanks for the help http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=12340&GroupID=1404
Have a look at the Acer Aspire series. I got a 3022Wlmi last year, and it's a cracking machine for the money (paid just over £500 for it). Not exactly portable, but I'm sure there are smaller Acer's around...
Aye, I got my Acer Aspire 1672wlmi last year. Amazing laptop for the money, even now. I recommended switching to IBM's at work last year and it seems people have really taken to them. They might not be the chicest laptop in the neighbourhood, but they are (so far, touch wood) reliable.
Nice machine, I have one. Tbh tho I reckon you can get more for your money by avoiding sony, try acer or dell. And as said earlier, 15.4, 2.9 Kg doesnt feel that portable plus the GPU isnt too hot. X-black screen rocks though
