laptop for my sister

[lost eden]

My sister wants a laptop.

I should get confirmation of my PhD place soon, which means I can buy myself a laptop which I have wanted to do for ages. What should I get? I want it to be reasonably light, but not a really small screen, DVD RW, at least 20GB HDD, floppy disk drive (if you can still get that, as a lot of the equipment I use still uses floppy disks!), USB, able to dual-boot it with linux and windows (maybe even beyond 2000! Is Vista ok if you take all the rubbish animation-y bits off). Am willing to spend about £500, so I want something pretty decent! What should I get? Sensible suggestions please!!

A couple of things I will add to her list;
- ignore the bit about a floppy drive
- we're probably talking about 13" wide
- I want her to buy new with warranty, not refurbished/eBay/etc.
- she's currently an MSc student at Cambridge so may be able to get student discounts from certain brands
- £500 is about $1000, but remember that tech is more expensive over here

Recommendations?

[nichomach]

dabs.com - Samsung Black R20 PM Core Duo T2330 1GB 120GB DVDRW VHP (NP-R20FY01/SUK)

dabs.com - Acer TM3273WXMi Core 2 Duo 2GB 120GB DVDRW Windows XP Professional (LX.TH606.002)

Any use, or too heavy?

[staffsMike]

MSI actually do quite a nice 12" notebook
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

If you can find an dell xps M1210 lying around somewhere they are lovely as is the new M1330 if you can get one in budget.

Samsung q45 is quite nice. Current A listed in PC pro
Samsung Q45 RED 12.1" Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66 GHz 1GB 120GB DVD±RW (+R double layer) GMA X3100 WLAN Bluetooth Vista Home Premium - Ebuyer

I know you said no refurbished but it has a years dell warranty and you do get a lot for your money
MCS Technology Ltd > (MLN046) Dell Inspiron XPS M1210 Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 2048mb/120gb/12.1" Wide XGA TrueLife™ Screen/DVD-RW Drive/Wireless Network

MCS Technology Ltd > (MLN057) Dell Inspiron XPS M1210 Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz 2048mb/160gb/12.1" Wide XGA TrueLife™ Screen with Integrated 2.0MP Webcam/DVD-RW Drive/Wireless Network

(prices are ex VAT)

[lost eden]

Right, she seems to quite like the look of the Inspiron 1525, as do I, but wants to know what the battery life is like with each of the batter options? Anybody have one yet & know what they're like?

[staffsMike]

Roughly, 9 Cell should deliver roughly 5 hours,maybe a little less, under light use (wifi, medium brightness, word processing etc)

3.5 hours with a 6 cell maybe

Good review here
Dell Inspiron 1525 Review