Laptop for Uni...

[RDL]

I'm off to Uni in a couple of weeks, and rather than taking my clunky desktop I've decided to get a laptop. I intend to use it for typing in all of my lectures (if possible), and I won't be using it for any hardcore gaming.

It will mainly be used for,

Taking notes in lectures,
Surfing the net,
Playing poker,
Listening to music etc.

I also intend to buy a big external hard drive.

So my main requirements are a largeish screen, portable to carry to lectures and a big-ish hard drive.

If there's any good deals on the go just now it'd be handy to hear about them, but max price is probably £700 exl. VAT.

Also can anyone recommend a good external hard drive?

Thanks.

[NightshadowUK]

£700's a bit OTT, I'd be looking at something like a Dell Inspiron 6400...

- Here with Windows XP Pro
- Here with Windows Vista

Just make sure you select the appropriate warranty, TrueLife™ display, 160GB hard drive and the 9 cell battery.

[Kumagoro]

Personally I would get a dirt cheap one say £3-400 then spend more on getting a seperate TFT
keyboard. speakers, external HDD, etc. That way you can get the comfort of a desktop but still
have portability when you need it.

I dont know about you but I hate laptops for doing a lot of report writing.

[nichomach]

My wife's recently got a Samsung R70 which might suit. Under £684 including VAT, although I'd chuck another GiB of RAM in.

[staffsMike]

For £550 you can get the current bang for bucks special the dell vostro 1500.

For that you get.

1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo (1.8 is £50 more)
2GB or RAM
120gb hard drive
8600gt (great for games if you want to play them)
and all the usual little bits.
You could also get a next day onsite business warranty for 2 or 3 years inside budget. So you'll always have a working laptop within 24 hours if it breaks.. its a nice feeling to have.

theres also the Vostro 1400 which is a bit more portable and still capable of playing games if you desire it.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...dt1&l=en&s=bsd

[kidzer]

Vostro was what I was going to say, but there may well be better spec avaliable for the price, I don't know.

Ofcourse, if you buy as a business, you can claim the VAT back on the Dell. (You might be able to do this, I know that)

[alexander]

For university i have ordered the XPS M1330, it looks pretty nice!

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3826

[jimbouk]

If you are going to be taking it to lectures every day then I can recommend a 12" laptop. Any bigger then it's going to be a pain to carry. 13" might be ok, but have a look at the weight of the thing. I got a 12" widescreen Samsung Q30 about 2 years ago, weighed 1.1kg and travelled in my normal rucksack to uni with me every day. A days worth of battery life is a must as well, it isn't always possible to sit next to the plug socket and trail a wire...

Or how about a Mac? With the higher education discount the basic one is £601.60 and the mid spec is £713.23...

[staffsMike]

A word of warning with any dells at the moment ( i know i recommended one) they are all suffering delays in build time so you may not get it before the start of the semester...espeically the xps m1330.. i ordered at the beggining of July and still dont have it..predicted at the start of october :|

[charleski]

If you are going to be taking it to lectures every day then I can recommend a 12" laptop. Any bigger then it's going to be a pain to carry. 13" might be ok, but have a look at the weight of the thing. I got a 12" widescreen Samsung Q30 about 2 years ago, weighed 1.1kg and travelled in my normal rucksack to uni with me every day. A days worth of battery life is a must as well, it isn't always possible to sit next to the plug socket and trail a wire...

Or how about a Mac? With the higher education discount the basic one is £601.60 and the mid spec is £713.23...

Have to agree about size. When you're used to desktops it's very tempting to go for a bigger screen and better specs without thinking about the portability factor. But if you want to take it to lectures everyday then size and weight are crucial, as you'll be carrying it around for most of the day. A Macbook is a good choice, though it's weight (2.3kg) isn't superlight, it's cheaper than most light PC laptops in the same class.