Buying A New Laptop Any Advice?

[Alfie Moon]

I'm currently going through the process of thinking about buying a new laptop/notebook computer and thought I'd see if anyone on here had any advice or tips.

I'm thinking about buying an IBM Thinkpad R52. As far as I'm aware they have a good reputation in terms of quality, and apparently have one of the best keypads around. For the money you can probably do better with other makes (in terms of specifications), particularly when it comes to the graphics card. I've never had any experience of the IBM Thinkpads and so would welcome any comments, advice or tips that people could give me.

I'm also giving some consideration to the Dell Inspiron 6000, and possibly an evesham notebook.

My budget is up to £1200 approx.

Any thoughts?????

[Guest absolutezero]

I'm currently going through the process of thinking about buying a new laptop/notebook computer and thought I'd see if anyone on here had any advice or tips.

I'm thinking about buying an IBM Thinkpad R52. As far as I'm aware they have a good reputation in terms of quality, and apparently have one of the best keypads around. For the money you can probably do better with other makes (in terms of specifications), particularly when it comes to the graphics card. I've never had any experience of the IBM Thinkpads and so would welcome any comments, advice or tips that people could give me.

I'm also giving some consideration to the Dell Inspiron 6000, and possibly an evesham notebook.

My budget is up to £1200 approx.

Any thoughts?????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Get an apple iBook.

www.apple.com/uk

The only people who slag Apple off are those who have never used one.

I changed from a PC to an Apple 18 months ago and I will never buy a Windows based computer ever again.

The processors are about 25% more efficient than PC processors, the operating system is about a stable as they come and you're not at as much risk of viruses etc as you would be on Windows.

[Alfie Moon]

Thanks for the reply absolutezero. I will certainly investigate the apple iBook. As with the IBM Thinkpads I've no real experience with Apple computers. I have heard a lot of good things said about them.

My computer at work is a PC so I don't know if that would present a problem when transferring work from one to the other. I'm an academic so much of my work is writing papers for journals and chapters for books as well as data analysis, and so on. Most of my research is qualitative in nature although I do occasionally do quantitative research, or a combination of both.

Any other thoughts from one and all would be most welcome.

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

I had to replace mine a few months back.

Great bargain bought the i friend.

Other makes new with or without OSs

As not to break Forum Rules have PM the details.

[Once in a lifetime]

DON'T BUY FROM PC WORLD

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

DON'T BUY FROM PC WORLD

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nobody with any sense buys from the big retailers.

[Alfie Moon]

Charlie, Thanks for the PM, the info is much appreciated.

PC World sound as popular as Estate Agents!

Always difficult buying a computer as the goal posts, in terms of what you get for your money, keep changing.

Wish my University had an arrangement with one of the computer companies to get the Uni staff cheap deals, but it doesn't. It's a Redbrick Uni but it does not seem to be overly clever when it comes to computers. There is a Computer shop on the campus which does some fairly cheap deals. However it's reputation is that it puts the cheapest and worst components in the computers, hence the low prices. I'm avoiding them like the plague.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

Get an iBook. I am seriously thinking of getting one if only to play one of my fav childhood games 'Oids'. Thing I am worried about is if my iPod that I presently connect to my laptop will connect ok to the iBook if I buy a FireWire.

[Randall Herbert]

I just got the lady an Acer Ferrari 4005. Once you get away from the Ferrari branding its actually a good spec underneath. AMD processor (more bang for your buck), nice wide screen and a good resolution for that size, no dead pixels, 100 Mb drive, 1 Gb ram as standard. Very solid feel and well put together. Plays DVD's well with no screeen smear.

She has a BP laptop at the moment which is IBM, the last one was too. Not impressed by the speed or reliability of these, though the amount of overheads BP run in the background has a part to play there.

Looked at ACER, Dell, and all the other usual large sellers. The Acer had a better standard spec by far for the price:£1290.

I wouldn't go less than 1Gb of ram these days.

Whatever you do go for, check out online reviews first, at least two if you can.

[Kam]

Mmmm I would not get an ibook,

I have both and the PC is better, much more software available easy to upgrade some parts, and cheaper.

I have more trouble with my Ibook than any PC,

Apple might have a better interface but still just as many bugs

as for being faster than a PC they're not really,

Apple are also switching to PC processors soon (x86) because they're faster and cooler than the IBM made G-series processors, and the fact that they can't make a G5 mobile version that works.

Acer ferrari is a nice,

Avoid PC world like the plague unless they have a model you want at really good price.

I'd go for a pentium 4 M (the M is important, Ghz wise it may look slower but its not!!! believe me. Battery is the best thing,

[Guest The dude]

This is that classic PC versus Mac discussion. I know lots of people with Macs...they look ok and seem to work ok but I'll stick with the PC anyday. The software which I use on the PC is not available for the Mac. I know my PC inside out, having rebuilt it over the time I've used it. I wouldn't have a clue how to upgrade on a Mac without sending it to a shop. Macs are more expensive and for what? My good ol' Pentium 4 3.2 gig PC has not given me any trouble at all.

[Scarecrow]

I would have a look at Dell - I know many people who've bought from them recently and had no problems.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products...dhs1&l=en&s=dhs

[Nijo]

I have one of these:

http://www.rockdirect.com/notebooks/pegasusti_cons.htm

And very nice it is too. They also have a good reputation for service & support, which was one of my reasons for choosing one.

On the downside the fan is a little loud when it kicks in and the battery doesn't last as long as I'd like it to... but overall I'd recommend them.

[Cornish Pasty]

I bought an Acer laptop, absolutely the best specs for your money with top video card, dvd rw, super fast processor bags of memory and excellent screen and I'm really pleased with it. The problem is that the keyboard is poor as many viewers of my posts would concur.

I always look at savastore.co.uk and dabs.com as a benchmark for whats around and prices.

Dell advertising looks attractive at first but the prices seem to go up really fast when you build onto the basic models i.e extra RAM, dvd-rw, graphics etc.

Also I think the processors with lower clock speeds but very high L2 cache i.e PentiumM725 1.6Ghz are great because they don't heat up as much as your normal PC processors I.e 2.7GHz P4 etc but deliver very similar performance without noisy fans going all the time, and your lap getting burned!

But there again WTF do I know??

[theChuz]

Alienware 7700

[Scarecrow]

IOn the downside the fan is a little loud when it kicks in and the battery doesn't last as long as I'd like it to... but overall I'd recommend them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The noise of the fan on my old Acer laptop used to drive me mad - it also used to overheat and switch itself off so there was probably something wrong with it I suppose. But it is worth checking out before you buy a notebook.

[Once in a lifetime]

1. Apple Powerbook 15 inch SD £1,580 (desktop replacement)

2. Fujitsu Siemems P7010 Life book £1,459 (ultra portable)

3. Apple ibook 14 inch £900 (entry level)

These were the top laptop computers recommended by which magazine this year.

Also scored high were:

Dell inspiron 6000 £958 (desktop replacement)

Fujitsu Siemems Amilo A1630 £1,100 (desktop replacement)

Sony VAIO VGN-B1VP £940 (entry level)

But don’t get them from PC World.

[Guest absolutezero]

1. Apple Powerbook 15 inch SD £1,580 (desktop replacement)

2. Fujitsu Siemems P7010 Life book £1,459 (ultra portable)

3. Apple ibook 14 inch £900  (entry level)

These were the top laptop computers recommended by which magazine this year.

Also scored high were:

Dell inspiron 6000 £958 (desktop replacement)

Fujitsu Siemems Amilo A1630 £1,100 (desktop replacement)

Sony VAIO VGN-B1VP £940 (entry level)

But don’t get them from PC World.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not wanting to sound like an advert for Apple, but the 14 inch iBooks now start at £900 (and work like a dream, natch).

[needle]

DON'T BUY FROM PC WORLD

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wholeheartedly agree.

Depends on what you want the laptop for.

I just bought one for about £500.

Has all the whistles and bells I need.

Tesco sell em and if you have a problem, they dont fix it, they replace it!

[Guest growl]

Depends on what you want the laptop for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It does depend on what you want the laptop for. I used to have a compact presario. Had it for five years and it came with the usual software. But when I needed to download programming tools it was a bugger. So when it died a few months ago I got a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo pro. I bought it as a business customer so I didn't pay the tax and it came with Windows XP. I got it for around £600. But it did not come with Office or any of the daft games and goodies that come with computers for home use. I installed my own Office and I'm not interested in thoses extra software goodies. It does the job and I can do lots more. But then I'm not playing games. I use my playstation for that.

So you need to think about what you want it for as you could be paying for extra stuff you don't need.

[George]

Alienware 7700 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

U play games Chuz? BF2 kicks ass with a 7800gtx amd fx55

In reply to #1

If I was buying another laptop, id buy one of those "small" ones, the really lightweight high res screened ones, that are about half size of a normal laptop. Reason: doubles as a portable dvd, its small on a plane - lugging about a laptop in a big bag sucks + they're heavy, battery is better, and basically is better as a personal organiser.

2p

[mad'un]

I'm currently going through the process of thinking about buying a new laptop/notebook computer and thought I'd see if anyone on here had any advice or tips.

I'm thinking about buying an IBM Thinkpad R52. As far as I'm aware they have a good reputation in terms of quality, and apparently have one of the best keypads around. For the money you can probably do better with other makes (in terms of specifications), particularly when it comes to the graphics card. I've never had any experience of the IBM Thinkpads and so would welcome any comments, advice or tips that people could give me.

I'm also giving some consideration to the Dell Inspiron 6000, and possibly an evesham notebook.

My budget is up to £1200 approx.

Any thoughts?????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I recently bought a new laptop, after many hours of searching I settled for a laptop from AJP (www.ajp.co.uk) I got the AJP Z71V-U. The quality and performance is amazing! They are one of the longest established laptop specialists in the UK. They have a really low profile though and the website looks a bit naff. Customer service is top notch. The laptops are actually re-badged ASUS models so the spec and quality is A1. I STRONGLY recommend you check these out. I would also echo the other comments - DO NOT BUY FROM PC WORLD or any other big retailers. Way too much hassle if you have any problems. Alienware are also great but v.pricey. Hope this helps!

[Alfie Moon]

Many thanks to all of you who have taken the time to reply to my original posting on this thread. The advice has been interesting and thought provoking and most definately helpful.

I gave a lot of consideration to buying an Apple and would really like to get my hands on one sometime to try it out for a few days to inform my judgement about them. I was also impressed by the Alienware laptops. However, in the end I have gone for the IBM Thinkpad R52. It arrived yesterday and I have to say I am very pleased with it. The keypad, as so many claim, is a cut (or 2 or 3) above those from other manufacturers. This is important to me as I use my computers for writing and publishing but remain with a pathetically poor level of typing skills (I just don't seem to have a good enough level of dexterity .... which is very frustrating!). I also went for the IBM machine as they are built with people who want to use them primarily for work in mind, as opposed to providing the best multimedia machine possible. The overall quality of the IBM Thinkpad is excellent as is the performance of the machine in regard to running the various programmes that I use.

When I come to replacing my desktop computer at home I will be very tempted to go for a 'desktop replacement' laptop.

I stayed well clear of PC World, although I did go for a quick walk around the one just up the road from the University. Prices were appalling. For example, Norton Internet security was double the price you can get it for on Amazon.co.uk.

Someone suggested getting a second hand machine from ebay. I might yet do this to try out an Apple computer.

Again, thanks for all you help - it has been much appreciated.