New Lappy Time!

[menthel]

Right peeps, here is the big question. My powerbook 12" is becoming a touch long in the tooth and I think that I may no longer want a mac. I get annoyed with my lack of compatability with many things, including my windows mobile 5 phone (I have tried all of the proggies and none work really well). So I think I require a portable lappy, max 13.3" screen, decent hdd and processor (so intel core duo 2) and I reckon 2gb memory. It will be my day to day compy, so needs to have all of the mod cons and work well with video, music and my photos. I think vista home premium will do this best.

So, suggest a lappy.

Two things,

1) I am off to the states in June, so could possibly buy there,

2) I am crazy and am considering getting a macbook and running vista on it on its own. Is that possible?

What do you peeps reckon?

[staffsMike]

well you can run xp on them so I assume you can run vista off boot camp..that is an asumption though.

Whats the budget?

At that size I'd be considering two of my favourite laptops.

Dell XPS M1210

Can be had on ebay with a 2.33GHz C2D, 2GB of ram and geforce 7400 etc.. for around £1100 or configured from dell with all the best components including 667mhz ram and 160gb 7200rpm hard drive (selling point for me) for around £1600/£1700 depending on the version of vista you want.

you get the xps warranty for 3 years as stardard to which is a damn good warranty.

The other for me is the sony sz series.

Less spec than xps but really nice looking laptop. Can have the geforce 7400 again but it has a nice button which u can switch the integrated gfx off with to save battery.

Has about 6 hours of battery and is made from carbon fibre so its much lighter than the xps and its think too.

Standard warranty is weak but you can upgrade to 3 years for around £200...they are quite expensive to start with though.

Both are obviously a lot cheaper in the states and you can ever configure sonys to your own spec there to.

[menthel]

Budget is not too much of a problem. I have seen a 1210 in the flesh and it is too fat. Thinner the better for me. I really find sony expensive but I have a horrible feeling I may end up getting one. I will have a look.

edit:

Bah! sz comes with vista buisness. Looks good otherwise.

[sawyen]

I've recently got an HP dv2000 from New York and I can't help but be impressed with how far HP has come from those shoddy lappys they make ages ago..

If gaming isn't any concern, the dv2000 is hard to beat.. I paid USD1300ish over HP themselves for a 14'' goodness with..

C2D 2.0Ghz
2GB 667MHz
160GB 5400RPM
Geforce Go 7200
Vista Business
High Quality LCD Panel
2 x 6cell battery
Webcam and the usual jobby of card readers, DVDRW and such..

And by golly, other than a usual spin with FEAR and Far Cry, it has basically left my main system redundant now..

When left under power savings mode, I can do a good 8 hrs with 2 batteries while writing up + background music list over the headphones in the aircraft..

[staffsMike]

The thing you have to remember about the m1210 is it is a desktop replacement in a tiny chassis when its fully specced but yeah it is a little thick.

The sony is good but you do have the slower hard drive and slower ram.

Asus do some nice small laptops..have a look.

http://uk.asus.com/products1.aspx?l1=5

[menthel]

I think my main problem is that all of the lappies I like have vista buisness on them and I really want home premium. Is there any way of changing the vista legally cheaply or free? I am taken more and more by the sz vaio.

Any good bespoke lappy makers out there?

[sawyen]

You can get the HP configured with Vista premium for USD60 odd less...

[staffsMike]

In america..

Gateway are worth a look
sony as I said are configurable
voodoo
cyberpowerpc
probably countless others.

This might be worth a look.

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebo...=PEGASUS%20335

rocks aren't renound for good battery life though.

sounds to me like the high end SZ is the laptop for you.
apparently you're restricted to 553mhz ram whether you customise or not but you can have a 2.33ghz C2D.
the sz is a business laptop so pretty much stuck with business edition.

[menthel]

Samsung q45 looks damn tasty. Just have to wait for its release!

[staffsMike]

is that the one with the go 8500/8600?

[menthel]

8400 ot intel 3000. I think I would go for the 3000, but it depends on the costs.

[staffsMike]

thats the one..Sounds quite good from what i read before. Penryn core as well.

[menthel]

Even nicer is the samsung q70. 13.3" screen with santa rosa with 7300 cpu, and nvidia 8400! Sweet. What a choice to make!

[menthel]

Sorry to post after myself, but ordered my sammy q45 today and should receive on Friday. Once I am up and running I will try and do a little review!

[JimLad]

Sorry to post after myself, but ordered my sammy q45 today and should receive on Friday. Once I am up and running I will try and do a little review!

Where's the review then???

I saw one today in John Lewis - very sexy

[menthel]

Sorry! Work has been very busy, but so far so good. It is a sexy little beastie, all apart from the little feet on the bottom, butI can live with those!

Its light.
Its quick.
The screen is nice.
The hard drive is a good size.
It runs vista well.

Erm....

Honestly, I will try to take some piccies or something.