Looking for Laptop...

[shiato storm]

[hope this is in the right place - please move as necessary - cheers]
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone knows much about Laptops at all. I'm trying to help out the g/f whose needing a computer for college etc. and suspect about £1000 range for laptop (desktop is not an option unfortunately...)
What could I expect to get for that price? would it last for a few years (i.e. have decent memory/HD capacity/processor, and potentially take stuff introduced in a few years down the line)? and who are the best/most reliable makes to go for (thinking what you get for money, guarentees etc)?
I'm thinking along lines of 512mb ram, 40gb HD, dvd/cdrw, 15" screen...and what ever else fits in with that, I know not much about laptop graphics cards or processors etc but know tend to be more expensive...
she's not especially computer savy so doesn't have to be any sort of uber-laptop but enough to let her do (probably lots of) word processing/excel etc, the usual email stuff and handle pictures from digital camera (...photoshop perhaps in the future as well, but not essential). the usual studenty-type of set up thats easy to use everyday basis...

any pointers gratefully received...

[shiato storm]

no takers?

[Kezzer]

I'm looking for a laptop as well. Can't think of many places to get laptops from though and i'm not looking for something special as it'll only be for word processing. As cheap as poss but not a piece of celery

[shiato storm]

hehe...yeah know what you mean. I'm fine when it comes to chosing bits for desktop but know very little about laptops and who's good to get one from etc.

[nichomach]

[hope this is in the right place - please move as necessary - cheers]
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone knows much about Laptops at all. I'm trying to help out the g/f whose needing a computer for college etc. and suspect about £1000 range for laptop (desktop is not an option unfortunately...)

OK, that budget is realistic; you can get very serviceable machines for that. The key thing is to tailor your spec to your requirements; laptops are pretty much always a compromise, especially at that price point. If she's actually going to be using it on the move - i.e. away from mains supply, then a Pentium-M (maybe Centrino, not necessarily though) will be the best option for battery life and weight.

What could I expect to get for that price? would it last for a few years (i.e. have decent memory/HD capacity/processor, and potentially take stuff introduced in a few years down the line)? and who are the best/most reliable makes to go for (thinking what you get for money, guarentees etc)?

How long a machine lasts depends on what you're going to do with it . If it's for general word-processing, Internet access, email, spreadsheets, officey type stuff then yes, most definitely. Bear in mind that RAM and hard disk can be upgraded (though CPU and graphics aren't really an upgrade option - and yes I know some companies are doing machines with upgradable graphics, but not at this price point), so you're not absolutely stuck with regard to spec if you need more power/space later.

I'm thinking along lines of 512mb ram, 40gb HD, dvd/cdrw, 15" screen...and what ever else fits in with that, I know not much about laptop graphics cards or processors etc but know tend to be more expensive...
she's not especially computer savy so doesn't have to be any sort of uber-laptop but enough to let her do (probably lots of) word processing/excel etc, the usual email stuff and handle pictures from digital camera (...photoshop perhaps in the future as well, but not essential). the usual studenty-type of set up thats easy to use everyday basis...

any pointers gratefully received...

If she needs to use it on the move, Pentium-M is the way to go. Powerful little machines with good battery life and low weight. Otherwise, mobile Athlon or Pentium 4 Mobile. She's not really going to be gaming on it or doing heavy 3D work, so don't worry too much about the graphics. My wife recently picked up a Compaq Evo NX9005, AthlonXP 2400M for about the £800 mark. Performance is good, 15" screen, no wireless, but that's what PCMCIA slots are for. Heavy though, really a desktop replacement. Look at the Dell Outlet. Your grand there gets you a LOT of machine in the Inspiron 5150 range, and they've got 40 in at the mo', e.g.

SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Inspiron 5150 (System Identifier. EJCXBKG9)
Dell Inspiron 5150 Notebook: Mobile Intel ® Pentium 4 Processor, 3.06 GHz, 533MHz Front Side Bus, 15 UXGA Display
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
System Price £1,482.68
Promotion Discount (£625.01)
Discounted Price £857.67
Promotion End Date March 15 2004 06:00 AM Europe/London

Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory: 512MB DIMM (333MHZ) (2 X 256MB)
Hard Disk Drive: 60GB(4200rpm)IDE Hard Drive
Video: nVidia® GeForce? FX Go5200 video controller with 64MB DDR
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
Network Interface Card: Internal 10/100 Ethernet LAN on Motherboard
Dell TrueMobile? 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g) m
DVD Drive: (Fixed) 8x DVD/24x CD-RW Combo Drive with Decoder Software
Software: Dell Paint Shop Pro Standard Edition (Standard Edition Contains Trial Pack Version ONLY)
BT, AOL, Tiscali ISP Combination
Dell Picture Studio Image Expert Standard Edition (Standard Edition Contains Trial Pack Version ONLY)
Norton AntiVirus 2003 (90 Day Trial)
Microsoft® Works® 7.0
MISC: 94WATT/HOUR 12 Cell Battery

So that's £857 ex VAT, £1008 inc VAT, but delivery'll be £49+VAT

If you go the Pentium-M route, then most of those'll be 14.1" screens to start with, and the 500m series Inspirons on Outlet with 512MB RAM start at:

SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Inspiron 500m (System Identifier. DDDJKAEE)
Dell Inspiron 500m Notebook: Intel Pentium®M,1.5GHz,14.1SXGA+, Intg. Sound, NIC & Modem
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
System Price £1,140.38
Promotion Discount (£400.01)
Discounted Price £740.37
Promotion End Date March 15 2004 06:00 AM Europe/London

Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory: 512MB DDR, 266MHz [2X256MB DIMMS]
Hard Disk Drive: 30GB (4200rpm) IDE Hard Drive
NoteBook Screen: 14.1 SXGA+ LCD - Insp 500M
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
Network Interface Card: Intel® PROWireless 2100 802.11b MiniPCI card
DVD Drive: 24x CDRW/8x DVD Combo
Software: Microsoft® Works® 7.0
Norton AntiVirus 2003 (90 Day Trial)
Dell Picture Studio Image Expert Standard Edition (Standard Edition Contains Trial Pack Version ONLY)
Dell Paint Shop Pro Standard Edition (Standard Edition Contains Trial Pack Version ONLY)
AOL, Dellnet + Tiscali UK ISP Combo
MISC: 4 Cell Primary Battery

£870 inc VAT but shy of your spec a little.

If it was me, unless I REALLY wanted to use it actually on the move (which, with the best will in the world, is going to be fun with a 15" screen machine), I'd go for the 5150 series.

ebuyer have some very attarctively priced Centrino machines (Acers and Benqs and suchlike) that might suit your requirements, too just do a search for "Centrino" on their site then sort by price on the results. I'd still say that the 5150'd be the better bet for your money though, especially in terms of having power available for future apps.

[Kezzer]

dabs has some good laptops as well

[nichomach]

A good point, Kezzer, that's where we got the wife's NX9005. Still say you'll get better deals on the Outlet, but Dabs have some very good stuff.