Build Advice So... I need a laptop

Ok, as per title I need a new laptop, I may have a new job that involves travelling a lot (4 weeks out of 5) so I need something portable and pretty powerful for the car journeys and when I'm in a hotel room bored out of my skull

I've come up with a couple of ideas (if anyone has any more recommendations it'll be a great help)

Acer Ferrari (Athlon 64 X2 1.2GHz, 2Gb, 250Gb, 11.6", £394)

Acer Travelmate Timeline (Core 2 Duo 1.4GHz, 4GB, 320GB, 13.3", £474)

I've also been looking at UMPCs, the Samsung Q1 and the OQO Model 02. I've had an OQO 01+ before and they're capable of running Worms Armageddon and Civ 2, but I've no idea of the new model's capabilities or the current price new (I can't find an etailer that does them) and I've no idea what the Samsung's like so is there any chance anyone's had one before and could let us know a bit more about them?


Thanks in advance
Sharn


EDIT: Sorry, I should add that the Alienware M11x is out of my budget, and I've had bad experiences with Dell in the past, so they're off the cards

ANOTHER EDIT: Sony are also well out of my league... Unfortunately £600 is about the top end of my budget.

 

Acer is a good brand but I would choose dell over Acer.
I am saving for Dell 1464, it has option to turn it to a gaming machine if or a workstation if you're like me an office boy.

 

I would say the Acer Ferrari; unfortunately it has the effect of making you look like a prat. I tried one in John Lewis a while back whilst I was hunting for a laptop, it's a nice bit of kit but the fact it has a rather large Ferrari logo on the back lets the side down.

Another laptop I found to be pretty nice was this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pavilion-dm...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277034933&sr=8-1 There's an Intel version too.

I ended up getting the laptop I have in my sig though; discount at John Lewis

 

Unfortunately Jaydee it's a bit bigger than I'm after, I wrked it out (because I'm sad like that) and including charger I can't have anything >13.3", otherwise that'd definitely be on the list.

The HP looks ok, but I've heard bad things about the build quality and reliability, how has yours been for you?

 

I've only had it for about three months, so you'll need to be the judge as to whether that's long enough. So far I haven't had a single problem with it, works flawlessly.

There are Acer equivalents as well though.

 

never had any probs with all my dells laptops ...but had trouble with Sony's though

maybe you had a "bad" one lol
I would give Dell another try though .

 

Well I had a Latitude C610 and an XPS M1730, of which died... One after a small drop (and I mean <3ft onto carpeted floor) and the other overheated while stood rendering an A4 picture on Photoshop CS2. I've had this Advent (that I'll be selling) since October and it's survived 2 car crashes and my landing on it after coming off my bike.

 

Advents are no-brand laptops, made strictly to cost - I'm surprised yours has lasted you so well.

What about this Lenovo Edge? Apparently it's got an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200, which I imagine is better than Intel's integrated GFX.
Review here: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/03/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-13-review/

 

If money is a concern at all:

ASUS 1201N - Atom N330, 2GB (Up to 8GB) DDR2-800, NVIDIA ION (9400M) - $490

Or, if you want something a little more powerful and with better battery life, you can wait for the 1215N, which'll have an Atom N550 (more powerful than some of the CULV C2Ds) and ION 2 (9400M/GMA3150 switching- utilizing the good GPU only when you need it, thus saving battery). Dunno how long that'll be though.

 

This is far more powerful than any of the ones you originally suggested, for the same price:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-g62-107sa-04753071-pdt.html

 

I thought it couldn't be >13.3in screen size?

 

Alienware M11x.

Top-shelf 11" laptop. It'll even play Crysis.

 

Check out the HP laptops on Aria.co.uk

They have some really nice ones. There is one on there that I really want, I forgot its exact name, but it had a 500gb disk which was 7200rpm which is really uncommon for laptops. And it was a 2.2ghz turion2 I think, and it had a decent graphics card. It was really great, although it was about £530 inc vat.

 

How about http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-y-series/tab/models ?

Their 14" models look nice, too if you can stretch to that.

 

That was my entire point You'd have thought Dell made better quality stuff than that

I think it was down to the performance per £ factor, it offers less grunt than the Travelmate and only costs a few £ more

Unfortunately (not to badmouth Asus) but it'll be insanely expensive, as it's a completely new technology and very few netbooks out there will use it. As for getting the Atom 330 it's a bit underpowered, I should probably have mentioned that by web browsing, I mean that I have a good 8 tabs open at a time.

Couldn't find any <13.3" by HP, I found the MSI Wind u200 though which is now added to the list, thanks for reminding me about Aria

As much as I would love a Sony they're like the Lenovo, there's not a lot of performance increase for the price they're at. The only ones I would consider (due to the performance) are well over £1k and that's too much for something without a huge amount of battery life. I love the look of the 14"ers but as I say, space doesn't permit

 

Sonys ultra thin laptops give about 8hrs battery when watching films

they are very expensive (£1200 min ) which is outta your budget

dell is best you will get for the money

 

If you can afford to wait a bit for it to be released in the UK, Toshiba today announced this lovely laptop (I might pick one up). Official page here.

 

Have a look at this one see what you think:

Check this one out, for just £399.99 inc VAT we have this little beauty of a machine.

Looks much better than the price would suggest (it was originally much more) and features 4GB RAM, ATI 4570 Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium and a 500GB hard drive.

A great machine for those looking to play WoW, Sims 3 etc without breaking the bank.

Have recommended these to a couple of my mates in the market for laptops for Uni as they do offer a complete package for super-budget price.

=======================================

Acer Aspire 5738ZG Notebook - LX.PP502.103



Overview

Movies come to life in true cinematic form on the 15.6" Aspire 5738ZG. A competent processor, efficient graphics engine and premium audio technologies work behind the scenes to deliver marvelous entertainment. The Aspire 5738ZG comes in the classy Gemstone design, so you can enjoy a theater experience anywhere, anytime and in style.

Specification

* CPU - Intel Pentium Dual Core T4400 2.20GHz
* Memory - 4GB Memory
* Screen - 15.6 inch LCD TFT Widescreen Display
* Graphics - ATI Radeon HD4570 (512MB) with HDMI Output
* Hard Drive - 500GB SATA Hard Drive
* Optical Drive - DVD+/-RW Drive
* Card Reader - 5 in One
* Wireless - 802.11 b/g/n
* Webcam - Yes
* Battery - 6 Cell
* Multi-Touch TouchPad

ONLY £399.99 inc VAT.

Sold 60 in 2 days.

 

August release date looks good (it's about when I'd be able to afford it), but there's only an idea of US pricing

Unfortunately, that's the part that lets it down