Which laptop should I buy (considering my requirements)?

[oimi]

I am looking for a laptop which has 2048MB RAM, 160+GB HDD capacity and a nice processor.

It will be used to complete work either in the library or when I go back home from University, will require Wi-fi, 3+ USB ports, a long-lasting battery, should be lightweight and portable (easy to carry).

I refuse to buy a laptop from Dell.

I should mention that I will not be using this for high end gaming, that it will be used as a replacement for my powerful desktop PC when I am on the move.

I want a laptop with Windows XP/(preferably Vista).

I should also mention that I am from the UK.

[godsdog]

I am looking for a laptop which has 2048MB RAM, 160+GB HDD capacity and a nice processor.

It will be used to complete work either in the library or when I go back home from University, will require Wi-fi, 3+ USB ports, a long-lasting battery, should be lightweight and portable (easy to carry).

I refuse to buy a laptop from Dell.

I should mention that I will not be using this for high end gaming, that it will be used as a replacement for my powerful desktop PC when I am on the move.

I want a laptop with Windows XP/(preferably Vista).

Shame. Dell Vostro 1000 range has a deal on atm for pretty much what you're after. Comes in at around £374 with a 9 cell battery. £363 with a 6 cell battery.

[oimi]

Did I mention that I want a built-in webcam (at least 1.6 megapizels) and a fingerprint scanner?

[dave87]

Nope - look at HP then, going to cost you more but they should have in their business section what you want.

[MSIC]

Here are some choices:

Mesh PR600 £599 (but no fingerprint)
Evesham Voyager C550SR £699 (also, plus heavyish)
Dabs is good to be able to enter specific requirements, as i have done here for you:
Dabs choices
Overall though, this Acer at £625 seems to have all of your requirements inc fingerprint scanning security, as well as weighing only 2Kg. That's my recommendation, although i havent used any of them personally.

Just for my peace of mind, are you someone who is generally familiar with the PC scene right now? Have you even considered stuff like a Macbook or the Asus Eee??

[oimi]

Pavillion or Presario?

[oimi]

Here are some choices:

Mesh PR600 £599 (but no fingerprint)
Evesham Voyager C550SR £699 (also, plus heavyish)
Dabs is good to be able to enter specific requirements, as i have done here for you:
Dabs choices
Overall though, this Acer at £625 seems to have all of your requirements inc fingerprint scanning security, as well as weighing only 2Kg. That's my recommendation, although i havent used any of them personally.

Just for my peace of mind, are you someone who is generally familiar with the PC scene right now? Have you even considered stuff like a Macbook or the Asus Eee??

I simply prefer Windows macines, particularly because my PC has Windows installed. If I am to be using this as a replacement, it will need to use the same OS so that I can transfer files seamlessly without any problems. Like MP3's and documents.

Those are some good choices, thank you. Although the embedded webcams don't provide great
quality.
I don't like Macs and I did look at the Asus Eee, but that is simply too small, doesn't store enough and has a poor run-time on the battery.

[oimi]

Here are some choices:

Mesh PR600 £599 (but no fingerprint)
Evesham Voyager C550SR £699 (also, plus heavyish)
Dabs is good to be able to enter specific requirements, as i have done here for you:
Dabs choices
Overall though, this Acer at £625 seems to have all of your requirements inc fingerprint scanning security, as well as weighing only 2Kg. That's my recommendation, although i havent used any of them personally.

Just for my peace of mind, are you someone who is generally familiar with the PC scene right now? Have you even considered stuff like a Macbook or the Asus Eee??

I simply prefer Windows macines, particularly because my PC has Windows installed. If I am to be using this as a replacement, it will need to use the same OS so that I can transfer files seamlessly without any problems. Like MP3's and documents.

Those are some good choices, thank you. Although the embedded webcams don't provide great
quality.

I don't like Macs and I did look at the Asus Eee, but that is simply too small, doesn't store enough and has a poor run-time on the battery.

[staffsMike]

Whats the budget for this?

It's a shame you're counting out dell as they are making some of the best laptops you can get right now.

I wouldn't bother with Sony as they come loaded with so much junk and are difficult to upgrade.

HP are so much worse than Dell imo especially the business notebooks. We had over 50% (around 30 laptops) fail on us in one year at my last job. Rubbish support as well.

Asus have rubbish support to but their laptops aren't bad. Not up to date with their models though.

I will only really buy laptops from dell these days, they easily offer the best value for money and they are very good quality too especially for the home user notebooks. If I can covert you check out the M1330 or new M1530, that way you get xps support which is like the holy grail of notebook support and they are seriously good for the money. I'm running a 2.2GHz C2D, 2GB or RAM, 200GB 7200rpm HDD, geforce 8400GS, LED screen and 4 years warranty all for £1150

[HSK]

^ damn, that sounds pretty good.

[staffsMike]

With the various christmas offers the same spec M1330 is avaliable for the same money. But a decent spec can be had for under £1000. Same for the M1530.

The vostro 1000 is great on a budget and a high spec vostro 1400/1500 is only around £700 with a big warranty.

[oimi]

staffsMike, I checked out the XPS.

This is what I came up with:

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Price £1,031.13
You Save £100.00
Subtotal £931.13
Ex. VAT & Shipping

Components
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7700 (2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year Hardware Support, Next Business Day edit
COLOUR CHOICE 2.0 mega pixel Camera & Tuxedo Black for CCFL Display edit
LCD 15.4¿ UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) CCFL Display (220nits) with TrueLife™ edit
BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION Biometric Fingerprint Reader with BLACK accent edit
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB dedicated graphic memory edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SW edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr) edit
Accessories
CARRY CASES Large Nylon Carry Case edit
BLUETOOTH Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data rate - Eur edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card - Europe edit
USB MEMORY KEYS Lexar 2GB JumpDrive FireFly Memory Key edit
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English edit
Services & Software
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English edit
Also included with your system
Gedis Bundle Reference N1215354
Order Information Inspiron Order - UK
Shipping Documents English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord
Dell System Media Kit Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers)
Power Supply 90W AC Adapter
Modem No Modem
Keyboard Uk/Irish Internal Keyboard (QWERTY)
Standard Warranty Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)
TV Tuner and Remote Control Dell™ Travel Remote Control
Online Promotion Option for GEDIS Configs Dell Internet Order.

vs

Znote 6625WD - Graphics

Delivery: 13 Days £1,355.73

Configuration
Keyboard Znote 6x15W Grey UK
SAMSUNG DVD-RW DL
15,4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 - 6625WD
12 months pick up & return
NVIDIA® Geforce 8600M GT
2.20 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7500 800MHz 4MB
2GB (1X2048) DDR2 PC5300 SODIMM
320GB 5400rpm SATA Harddisk
6 + 12 Cell battery
Intel Pro/Wireless 4965AGN
Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium - UK
Zmore TV-Tuner incl. adapter

Accessories
Extra AC Adapter 3x14, 3x15, 6xx5, 6xx4
Dockingstation for Znote 6XX5WD

PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Custom PCs, Custom Computers, Custom PC, Custom Built Computers, Gaming PC

Price for this Laptop:

£852.77 ex VAT.
£1002 inc VAT and Delivery.

Here is your chosen specification...

Display
15.4 INCH WIDESCREEN DISPLAY (1440 X 900) + ANTI-GLARE
Processor (CPU)
INTEL® Core 2 Duo T7500 (2 X 2.20GHz) 800MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Operating System
WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)
USB Options
USB PORTS & 4 GB USB 2.0 PEN DRIVE (£23)
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH ADAPTER (£7)
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5400rpm)
CD/DVD Drive
8x DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 8600GT + D-SUB + TV-OUT
Sound Card
Realtek ALC268 2 Channel High Definition Audio + SPIDIF OUT
Modem
INTEGRATED 56KBPS V92 MODEM
Network Facilities
Onboard LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G NETWORK CARD
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 3 IN 1 MEMORY CARD READER (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO)
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
TV Card
NONE
Stand-Alone Monitor
NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 87 KEY KEYBOARD + 2 HOTKEYS
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Speakers
Logitech® V-20 USB Powered Notebook Speakers (£32)
Printer
NONE
Surge Protection
NONE
Webcam & VoIP
NONE
Media Center Kit
NONE
Anti-Virus
NONE
Office Software
NONE
Port Replicator
Docking Station (1 x VGA, 4 x USB, Mic IN, 2.1 Stereo) (£59)
Laptop Stand
NONE
Battery
2 x 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (+ Spare 6 Cell Battery) (£69)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Dimensions & Weight
W x D x H: 355mm x 257mm x 35.2mm | Weight: 2.7KG
Additional Features
Biometric Fingertip Reader & 1 x Express Card Slot
Carry Case
NONE
Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return
Delivery
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)
Quantity
1

Configure Your Rizeon IFL90 Custom Built Laptop

£916.00
Exc VAT, excl. Del

£1,076.30
Inc VAT, excl. Del

Screen: 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440x900) Glare Type Display
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
Warranty: 1 Year Collect and Return Insurance Backed Service
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 2.4GHz 4MB L2 Cache 800MHz FSB
Memory: 3GB DDR2 PC-5300 667MHz
Hard Drive: 250GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT 512MB
Optical Drive: DVD Super-Multi(DVD-RAM/-R/-RW/+R/+RW)
Sound Card: High-Definition Audio with 3D Effect & Full Duplex
Wireless Card: Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN network card
Turbo Memory : 1GB Intel Turbo Memory Card - flash memory module
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5
Carry Case: Targus Trademark Notebook Skin Carry Case
Optical Mouse: None
Productivity Software: None
Security Software: None


The problem with the Dell is that it only offers a 250GB HDD.

The problem with the pcspecialist laptop is that it does not contain a 250GB HDD and it does not have a webcam embedded.

[this_is_gav]

The vostro 1000 is great on a budget and a high spec vostro 1400/1500 is only around £700 with a big warranty.

They're anything but lightweight though. Even the lowest of the lowest specs are heavy, and don't even consider the 1700.

They are excellent laptops though, particularly for the money.

[speardane]

I'm very happy with my Toshiba portege, though the model I bought had poor battery life (I knew this & not a problem for me). My son bought a later model with fingerprint scanner that has good battery life.

I have been very unhappy with HP warranty support, so will never buy from them again.

pretty impressed with my Asus eee - but not as a full time machine!

[staffsMike]

I've been very tempted by zepto and rizeon in the past year (before I bought the XPS). They are very good spec for the money but so is the dell. Both of these companies have good customer service via forum or phone and rizeon are always ready to go the extra step to help. In fact I called and made some suggestions when they were starting out and the next day they were all avaliable to order

The quality of the laptops is average to good but not great. There's normally a bit of keyboard flex etc..

If it were for gaming then the Dell will be a bit better as it uses GDDR3 rather than 2 like the others almost certainly do. I do really like the look of these new xps models and the offer a hell of a lot in such a small thin package I found it impossible to refuse. If you spec big warranties they will often give a nice discount over the phone..probably will even without the big warranty.

[Hasnath]

Also another happy dell m1330 user here, the xps support is brilliant.
I had the "p" sticker lettering fall off the back of my laptop to which dell replaced the whole back!, the engineer even came next day and even offered to visit me at uni.