View Full Version : Need a new Laptop
Hi All,
Just sent back my Acer Laptop as both the USB ports have broken and it now refuses to switch off so i have got a refund.
This question has probably been answered many times before but technology advances so quick the info would be out of date in a month or two.
I have got £400-£500 to chuck at one, very tempted to get a MAC book as we have all got Ipods and Iphones indoors but don't like the prices of £850 upwards, so i was considering a Dell as my daughter has one and it seems to be well built.
I'm using a Caiman with Spotify and Itunes but i'm comtemplaiting running something else with a 1TB external hard drive to put all my music onto.
Apart from music it is only used for Word documents and tinternet browsing, i don't play games and the kids are banned from loading Simms onto my computers as well, i hate the way the slow everything down.
Any help or leads would be appriciated so i can go back to playing tunes :cool:
spendorman
15-07-2010, 18:56
I have a Del Inspiron with Windows 7 on it, pretty satisfied. Sound through the internal speakers is better than some, but not as good as an Acer Netbook that I tried.
hifi_dave
15-07-2010, 19:34
As a Family, we are all Dell and have had several generations of them. They are reliable and their backup is good but expensive. A 4 year in home warranty will add nearly £300 to the cost of the computer.
I have just had a few days from hell when my newish laptop caught some sort of virus which filled the computer with Trojans (whatever they are), ads and worms. I spent nearly 12 hours over 4 days on the phone to Dell until it was fixed (fingers crossed).
Having my laptop out of commission caused me untold grief and problems so, today, I bought a Toshiba for £380 from John Lewis. It was a 'special purcahse' and has Windows 7, 3 Gb of memory and 250 of something else. It has a 2 year warranty. Seems pretty good so far and dead easy to use.
Thats what puts me off about Dell as you have to go to them with any problems and they are only available through thier own telephone helpline even if you buy one in a shop you will still have to go through Dells helpline.
The Acers still come up with good reviews but i was dissapointed with the build quility on mine
hifi_dave
15-07-2010, 20:36
Dell's helpline has been very good and efficient. You phone, follow the short menu, tap in the serial number of your computer and you're through to a techie. If you ask, they will phone you back. They then, take over your computer and (usually) fix it.
If the problem is hardware, an engineer comes to you and fixes it within a few days. I have no gripes at all with their service.
As a comparison, a friend bought a Sony Vaio something or t'other last Autumn. It went wrong in January and took two months for Sony to fix it.
I've recommended the Toshiba "specials" to a few people who only want basic functionality, and they've all been very pleased with them. Tesco do them sometimes around the same price, but of course with John Lewis you get the extra warranty - worth looking at Jon.
Otherwise, at work we've recently moved from Dell to HP - not for any real reason other than cost, but the HPs have proven to be very reliable so far. To be honest, every manufacturer will have its glowing recommendations and disastrous experiences - if you're selling millions of boxes a year, something is bound to go wrong sometimes, but by and large any of the well known brands should be fine.
Hi Jon,
A while back when the subject of laptops came up, Martin T, who works in the industry, recommended Lenovo:
See here for info: http://www.lenovo.com/uk/en/index.html
And here to buy: http://uk.insight.com/apps/nbs/index.php?C=102&S=1015&lang=en-gb&K=&M=LEN
Apparently, it's what the professionals use - extremely well built, well featured and very reliable. They get little exposure to the general public, so not many people have heard of them.
Worth a shot, I feel :)
Marco.
Just bought a Dell inspiron 15R for the wife, it's her 2nd Dell.
We currently buy from the Lenovo G550 series and they have proven rugged, reliable and nice to use. Teachers are fussy types and they have given them the thumbs up. All are running Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010.
See the links provided by Marco above.
Hi Jon,
for professional use, take a Lenovo, if you can.
For personal use (less intensive), I would recommend an Asus or a Dell.
My server is a Dell, and it's been working 24/7 for two years without any probs, still has several years in front of it. ;)
The problem with Macs is that they offer less power for the price, comparatively with the win-based PCs, with no better overall built quality.
We use Dell servers and they're excellent. Our biggest beast is the Exchange e-mail server with 8 CPU cores and 16GB RAM. It is noisy, though!
Thanks for all the help, its a toss up between the Lenovo G550 2958 and a Dell 15 inspiron both with 4gb of Ram, just got to persued her who must be obeyed that i need to spent the top end of my budget ;)
hifi_dave
16-07-2010, 18:35
I've recommended the Toshiba "specials" to a few people who only want basic functionality, and they've all been very pleased with them. Tesco do them sometimes around the same price, but of course with John Lewis you get the extra warranty - worth looking at Jon.
Otherwise, at work we've recently moved from Dell to HP - not for any real reason other than cost, but the HPs have proven to be very reliable so far. To be honest, every manufacturer will have its glowing recommendations and disastrous experiences - if you're selling millions of boxes a year, something is bound to go wrong sometimes, but by and large any of the well known brands should be fine.
Alex,
Any idea how to brighten the screen on my Toshiba I bought yesterday. Diving into the monitor menu appears to show that it is on the brightest setting but it is rather dull unless in a dark room. The Dell sitting right next to it is sparkling and clear in comparison....:scratch:
Ali Tait
16-07-2010, 18:51
Is it on battery or mains?
hifi_dave
16-07-2010, 19:08
It's running on mains.
I'd better add that I'm a computer numpty.
Dave - is there a Function (might be Fn) button, and then a brightness + and brightness - on one of the Function Keys? (A little sun symbol) (on my Sony it is hold Fn and then press F5(-) F6(+) but others may vary) - not sure if this will help, but it should enable you to check it is set on maximum.
Ali Tait
16-07-2010, 19:24
Ok,sometimes they run with a darker screen on battery.Alex's suggestion seems a good one.
hifi_dave
16-07-2010, 20:04
Alex,
That's another choccie biscuit I owe you. The FN brings up a whole host of useful buttons and one was 'brightness'.
Hip hooray....:king:
and thank you Ali.
Ali Tait
16-07-2010, 20:13
Result!
chris@panteg
17-07-2010, 09:09
We currently buy from the Lenovo G550 series and they have proven rugged, reliable and nice to use. Teachers are fussy types and they have given them the thumbs up. All are running Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010.
See the links provided by Marco above.
Hi Martin
i recently bought a lenovo laptop for my Wife , on her recomendation as she uses them at the school .
Its excellent ' she loves it :)
HanTheMan
23-07-2010, 04:46
Just be careful of bargain basement models from Dell, HP & Acer. Especially Acer. The big 3 computer companies have a horrible service record and this percentage all comes from mostly from their low end consumer range.
Often they will look good on paper with decent screens, CPU, RAM & HDD but they cut costs by using less or sub par connectors, or have poor heat & power management and other issues that you cannot see on the showroom floor.
If you are gonna use your computer a lot I would recommend getting a business grade pc as those tend to be built with reliability rather than features in mind.
Agreed, Hansen. Particularly, stay away from the shop brands such as Advent and Packard Bell. They are cheaply made OEMs - excpet when you can identify them as a premium machine such as my Advent 4211C which is really an MSI Wind U100 netbook but cheaper!
StanleyB
23-07-2010, 06:54
I am a Sony Vaio type of guy, and have been for more than 10 years. As a matter of fact, I bought myself a BZ31VT only a few days ago after seeing one on eBay at half the list price :mental:. The main reason I like the Sony is because of the reliability of those laptops, and the ease at which they are to fault find or restore if things go wrong.
The main reason I like the Sony is because of the reliability of those laptops, and the ease at which they are to fault find or restore if things go wrong.
:eek:
It just goes to show how different experiences can be. We find Sony to be overpriced bijous machines which are unreliable, difficult to repair and very hard to obtain spares for. Not to mention the bloatware crap that they come installed with. This is on a base of 250 student laptops, about 60 of which are Sony.
We find that Lenovo are by far the nicest machines overall. Very popular with the staff, not so much with the students as they are not as 'cool' as Apple or Sony laptops. Amazing really, the small Thinkpads are seriously cool in my eyes.
StanleyB
23-07-2010, 07:36
The trick is to uninstall the unneeded programs;). The infamous blue screen of death that MS Windows owners experience is a rarety with the Vaio.
Price wise, they can be had far cheaper if you go off the beaten track and ignore the Sony centres. They also hold their resale value on eBay.
spendorman
23-07-2010, 07:41
I have had several old Thinkpads in for 'repair'. In fact there was nothing really wrong with them, just software issues and one with low CMOS battery (can't complain as it was years old). Nice machines.
Techno Commander
23-07-2010, 10:40
We use Dell laptops at work and they have been very reliable.
Another plus is their home warranty. If it doesnt work, a chap turns up the following day to fix it. No need to post it anywhere or stand in a shop queue. :)
Thanks for all the help, its a toss up between the Lenovo G550 2958 and a Dell 15 inspiron both with 4gb of Ram, just got to persued her who must be obeyed that i need to spent the top end of my budget ;)
Let us know which one you get Jonboy.
HanTheMan
26-07-2010, 06:00
Sony and other "boutique" end laptops come with a lot of junk you need to purge - lately Sonys have been making lower priced models with less bloatware to compete with the designer versions from the larger manufacturer.
Its more likely that you will physically break a business oriented laptop such as a Sony, IBM or Fujitsu than burn out the electronics.
Gaming laptops such as Alienware and Asus also need care - they are designed for max performance rather than longevity and are very likely to burn out. However this is a design feature rather than a flaw - overclocking has a price.
If you want a computer that will almost never break try a Panasonic - their military models can stop a .22 round and still boot up.
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