New Laptop advice for a PC noob!

MarinaDiamandis

MarinaDiamandis

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I'm after a new laptop, I know very little about specifications or what's good and what isn't, all I know is that I want to avoid Acer :sly:

*My other requirements are:
*MUST be reliable! I need it to last for the long haul.
*Must accept a wireless connection without the need for a USB dongle.
*Must be able to run several windows/programs at once.
*Not too big, but not too small. I'd like it to be nicely portable (15.5 inch screen, or fairly close to that size).
*Decent storage space, pictures, music, documents.
*Good graphics, or whatever you techies call it!

Other:
It won't be used for gaming, just web browsing, music/picture/word document, and flash gaming mainly.
 
Imakuni
I'm after a new laptop, I know very little about specifications or what's good and what isn't, all I know is that I want to avoid Acer :sly:
Click to expand...

*My other requirements are:
*MUST be reliable! I need it to last for the long haul.
*Must accept a wireless connection without the need for a USB dongle.
*Must be able to run several windows/programs at once.
*Not too big, but not too small. I'd like it to be nicely portable (15.5 inch screen, or fairly close to that size).
*Decent storage space, pictures, music, documents.
*Good graphics, or whatever you techies call it!

Other:
It won't be used for gaming, just web browsing, music/picture/word document, and flash gaming mainly.
Click to expand...

Paradox post!

Acer offers you best what you're looking for. I don't know about your personal experiences, but Acers are amongst the best, if not the best, laptops on the market. They're cheap, perform great, look slick and are extremely reliable. I say go for an Acer! Otherwise a Dell Inspiron would be a good second shot 👍
 
SweetshopUnion
Well Dell have a deal on their Inspiron 15 Laptop.
Link : http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p...Offer&cs=ukdhs1&dgc=IR&l=en&lid=NHP_BB1&s=dhs

Seems to have everything your after and from £320 it isn't a bad price either.
Click to expand...
First off, it starts off at £349, and that's for a Dual Core, not a Core 2 Duo. Adding in a C2D, the price jumps up to £409. Bumping up to a 250Gb drive adds in another £30, 9-cell battery adds another £108. You can see where this is going. :)

Looks like for £389.00 (plus VAT and shipping) you can have the laptop I spec'd out below. There are, naturally, a few things that you can add on, if you'd like and a few that I would suggest you didn't go with.

The processor can be as fast as you're willing to pay for and the OS is Home Premium, which should be more than fine unless you'll have a need for Ultimate. I put in the $20 add to go from 1280 x 800 to 1440 x 900, but skipped the True Life. I have True Life on my laptop and, while the screen looks great in a dark room, if there is any kind of light, be it artificial or sunlight through a window, there is an unbelievable glare. There are plenty of other things you can upgrade (drive size, RAM, etc.) but those are up to you. :D
 
Bram Turismo
Paradox post!

Acer offers you best what you're looking for. I don't know about your personal experiences, but Acers are amongst the best, if not the best, laptops on the market. They're cheap, perform great, look slick and are extremely reliable. I say go for an Acer! Otherwise a Dell Inspiron would be a good second shot 👍
Click to expand...

I'd rather pay more (£600-£700) and get a higher-end brand than get another Acer. It's more the terrible customer support that puts me off, but I do see what you mean as they are great value for money.

EDIT: Just to add to what I said in my first post, i'm not really on much of a budget. I probably wouldn't pay out over £1000, but pretty much anything £400-£900 is within budget. Would a Sony VAIO be a good companion? Or are you paying for the name and getting a terrible laptop in return?
If i'm considering paying near enough £1000 would it be a better idea to buy a laptop capable of doing anything I throw at it? Instead of just a bit of web browsing and document holding.

Thanks for the help so far, Dell looks promising.
 
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Imakuni
Would a Sony VAIO be a good companion? Or are you paying for the name and getting a terrible laptop in return?
Click to expand...

No, you're basically paying for the name and getting a pretty average laptop in return ;)

I'd head for Dell. If you've got that much to spend, ignore the Inspiron and get a much sleeker Studio instead :) Or, if you want a little more portability, take a look at the XPS M1330.

Personally I'd pick the £499 option on this page. Although the one for £449 is perfectly adequate too.

Is there anything in particular you want to do with it other than t'internet and word processing? Any CAD, Photoshop, video editing etc?
 
Jondot
Is there anything in particular you want to do with it other than t'internet and word processing? Any CAD, Photoshop, video editing etc?
Click to expand...

Nope, just cruising the interwebz, storing things (I will likely pick up an external harddrive too) and spreadsheets/word processing.

If there are any wildcard laptops, or laptops that you personally lust for, post 'em up. I pretty much just want a great laptop, my guidelines were just to give you all an idea.
 
Reliable? The Lenovo Thinkpads and Dell Latitudes are rugged and can take liquid spills. They're not quite as svelte as a MacBook or a VAIO.
 
We bought a Lenovo T500 recently and it's well built, though two keys aren't working too well. Lenovo install a whole bunch of junk on top of Windows, which is really annoying. So ideally I would suggest re-installing WinXP or Vista if you bought a Lenovo. It does feel like a solid machine and performance is acceptable; we have the dual onboard/ATI graphics cards.

From what I've read Acers are terrible laptops; poor quality. Dell's business line is worth looking at (Vostro?). I don't think they're much more expensive than their Inspiron's but I'm told (by people who repair them) that they're more solidly built.

Our Lenovo hardly flexes when you lift it by one corner. It has a metal cage of sorts inside, which the consumer grade laptops (Sony, Acer etc) don't. The metal cage makes the laptop more rigid.

I'm no expert but based on what I've read, used and touched, I would suggest Lenovo (not the SL series) or Dell's business line.
 
My friend has a Vostro and she's been very pleased with it. It's certainly lasted better in terms of reliability than my MacBook Pro has. But it is unutterably dull and plasticky. Sort of like a Proton's interior - all shiny and... bleugh. I'd be in tears if I had to use it for a year, put it that way.

...and my mum has an Acer. And I hate it. It's more to do with its woeful specs than anything else, but there are a few little things I can't stand. The wireless card, for example, is beyond pathetic. As far as I can tell, it's got an identical one to my old HP/Compaq, but they've somehow managed to make it 100 times more flaky and unreliable. And it weighs a ton. And the battery is right at the very back, so if you place it even slightly over the edge of a desk or your lap (like, an inch or something) it will fall straight over backwards. And the button to switch the wireless on and off sticks out at the very front, so even a slight touch will knock your internet connection out. I'm told the new ones are pretty good, but I don't like the look of them personally. There's probably nothing wrong with them, though - this is just my little rant. The one for my MacBook is equally long at the moment...
 
I'm not a huge fan of Dell, but they are a lot better nowadays, and if you want the best customer support, then Dell will have this over most manufacturers out there.

Sonys aren't too bad, but they have crap speakers (crappier than laptop speakers are anyway), and you are paying for the brand. But they look good and are well built.

I was looking at an Acer not long ago, since they seem to provide the most bang for your buck than most mainstream companies, but if their customer support is bad, then fair enough.

BUT, if you want to be a little different... Then go with a company called Novatech. Their PCs don't look the best, and don't have the best build quality (unless you go for the more expensive ones, which Asus, Rock etc share the chassis), but mine has never broke in 2 years, you get a lot more for your money and their customer support is excellent, since you, most of the time, get someone who knows what they're on about on the phone and knows what your problem might be. This was a HUGE plus for me and it's enough to put up with the quality issues I have with my one (I've had a crack on the back of the case for a year for no apparent reason, and the touch buttons have never worked properly...). But the newer models I've used seem a little better and solid now. :)

The Pro version might be of interest (it does use 800mhz RAM like the Dell does - they haven't updated the front page):

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=nb&c=home&r=X1G

Those Dells are still tempting though...
 
G.T
I'm not a huge fan of Dell, but they are a lot better nowadays,
Click to expand...
We have 9 Dell machines in the office (8 PC's and a server), plus another 4 laptops and assorted home PC's and have never had trouble with any of them.
G.T
BUT, if you want to be a little different... Then go with a company called Novatech.
Click to expand...
I had a go building a comparable Novatech machine as close as I could to the Dell I did earlier - the Dell came to £389 while the two Novatechs were £619 and £609, but they also included VAT...

How does VAT work, anyway?
 
Well after seeing TB's comparison a Dell would be a better buy for the price. Though the Dell's do not include VAT in the price.

TB
How does VAT work, anyway?
Click to expand...

Perhaps you can get a read of it here.
 
Im also looking for a laptop, dont know much about them or what specifically to look for in terms of brands or parts.
-Id like something small and light
-Fast processor something like 1.8GHz or above
-Large HDD 120GB or more
-At least 1GB ram
-Has to look good too
-Needs to be wifi enabled

Id like to spend £300-400 but I could stretch slightly for a really stylish and compact laptop with decent performance.



So far I have looked at the Lenovo S10 Red. Its only £300 but not very powerful, I was thinking I could use the remaining money for upgrades such as a better processor and upgraded HDD??
The Dell Inspirion Mini 12 looks quite good too.

Any other ideas??
 
Well the ASUS N10J-A1 would meet your requirements but it's a tad over your budget and for the fact that it's the only netbook in the market with a dedicated video card.
 
I've had my Inspiron 1525 about 6 months now and so far I have no complaints. 1.66ghz C2D, 250GB HD, 4GB RAM, Integrated webcam and mic, Vista Home Basic (Yeah don't ask me why I have over 3.5GB RAM with a 32-bit OS, that's how it came configured when I ordered it from amazon.com lol)

Had no problems with it so far, only thing I can think of that I don't like about it are that the speakers aren't very loud and while it does look good it does feel a little cheap. But hey, I have some friends who have the older model inspirons going strong after almost 4 years so I'm thinking mine should last me for a while.

As Inspiron is a good buy but if you have the extra $ to spare you could take a look at the Studio or XPS lines like Jondot said.
 

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