new laptop advice needed

[Grim Reaper]

Looking for a new laptop:
max budget £700
needs to be reasonably small (i.e approx 13" screen)

The samsung q310 at laptops direct for £647 seems to be the best spec for this price.
Does anyone have any suggestions, or any experience with ordering from laptops direct?

thanks

[Hyperviper34]

What are you going to be using it for?

[staffsMike]

The samsung is pretty good value but I've never thought much of the screens on the Q series.

The Dell XPS M1330 or Studio 13 might be worth a look. 10% off all XPS and studio right now so theres discount to be had.

HP DV3 or if you want to go really small the DV2.

Toshiba make a few in this size as well. Personally the the dell would be my pick, I have an XPS M1330 (2 actually.. dont ask) but I would probably get the studio 13 now if you could fit one into the budget, especially if it have the geforce 9500.

Don't expect much out of the 9200gs in the samsung if you do get it. HD content will need to lean on the CPU quite heavily I think.

[Grim Reaper]

The laptop will be used for a bit of everything - internet, MS office, video, maybe a bit of gaming.

I had looked at the xps M1330 (which has GF8400), but for a similar spec to the samsung they seem to be £900 (or even more for the studio 13 which has the GF9500) as the prices seem to be higher than they used to be (weak £ I guess). Also looked at the Dell outlet (which I had bought from previously), but the prices are only slightly less than new (wheras they used to be about a third less). Also the 10% off is for over £699 + VAT which would be beyond my budget (unless you are referring to a different code?).

Comparing the HP dv3 specs to the Q310: the Hp has T5800, 2GB RAM and GF9300, whereas the Q310 has P8600, 4GB Ram and GF9200. I think you are right in that HD video will probably rely on the processor, but I think the P8600 is a penryn core whereas the T5800 is a wolfdale (?) core, so it should be faster clock per clock. I wouldn't expect much out of the GF9200, but if it can handle HD video together with the CPU that'll be fine. If the HP dv3 with the GF9300 will give better performance then I'll definitely consider it, I just thought the samsung would be better, but happy to told I'm wrong if I am.

It's just a question of what gives the best overall performance at this price in a 13" laptop.

[staffsMike]

I deffiantly think the samsung is a good deal, but it's one of those laptops I would not buy blind. Go and use one because the screens have always been a let down for me, and when you are using a small screen like a 12-13.3", it's painful when it's rubbish.

[Grim Reaper]

Just found a studio xps 13 on the outlet website, same cpu - p8600, but with 4 Gb DDR3 and the GF9500 and the LED backlit screen for just over £600 + del. Ordered

[staffsMike]

Great deal that is , well done