Posted by Dessybaby
I want to buy a laptop for under £1,000 do you guys know any good ones that are fast, reliable and has a good build quality. Software such as nero is a must as I want to back up large files onto CD.
Thanx
Posted by oxegn
Dell is always good, so it Toshiba, compaq and hp (do compaq still make laptops or is it all under hp now?!?!?)
Actually there is some pretty good dell offers (free double RAM etc) at the moment, so look around on tv and in magazines...Just don't get anything with a celeron chip in, pay the extra and get p4 or amd. I doubt many laptops will come with nero so u might have to buy it seperatly.
Posted by Sir-SonyEricsson-man
i have an Sony Vaio... but that one costs 4500 USD...
Posted by gareb
Some Dell stuff perhaps
Posted by pachy
I'm am using a Dell right now, they are superb.
Posted by Dessybaby
But wouldn't a P4 overheat quickly?
Posted by ruff rider
Depends on how efficient the cooling is on the laptop. I'm using a Vaio GRT715M which has a desktop 2.8ghz p4 (not the crippled mp4 or the p4m, also not to be confused with the pentium-mobile!) and never had any overheating issues.
Posted by masseur
I'm can definitly recommend Vaio's.. .I'm on my 3rd vaio notebook in a row, the V505AP... its a 2Mhz mobile pentium 4 and certainly no overheating here. Its a slim size 2kg with built in DVD/CD-RW, 1Gb RAM 12.1" screen etc etc etc.
btw. for anyone wanting DVD multi-region capability on their pc and not prepared to flash the firmware of the DVD I use and recommend DVDIdle. Works great!
Posted by Dessybaby
How much did you pay for your new Vaio?
Posted by masseur
well mine is one of the expensive ones but you can the bigger vaios with cd-rw etc 14" screen etc within your budget.
Check out some of these...
http://www.microanvika.co.uk/default.asp
http://www.procomdirect.com/pages/index.shtml
http://www.sonystyle-europe.com
http://www.gultronics.co.uk/
Posted by Jools
Check out some of the best laptops here and here - but they may be a little out of your price range... Still, you get what you pay for!
[ This Message was edited by: JoolsG3 on 2003-08-20 15:57 ]
Posted by ruff rider
If you're after a vaio, look out for the new onyx black screens. Theres one on my GRT715M and its absolutely gorgeous. To the best of my knowledge, only Sony and Toshiba have implemented this technology in their notebooks.
Posted by Dessybaby
What are the benefits of an Onyx Black sxreen and how much extra does it cost?
Posted by ruff rider
You need to see one in person to understand. The first thing you'll notice is the screen has a glossy finish. It uses 2 lamps as opposed to 1 which improves the contrast and colour. Its also got a wider viewing angle. As for the extra price, I dunno. Its not an optional extra because all vaios are pre-built
Posted by Dessybaby
I saw an advert by PC World for a Compaq laptop for £799, is that one any good?
My cousin however says that Compaqs are unreliable and break down easily, but this was a few years ago so are they more reliable now?
Posted by shithappens
i'm using a compaq and they work great...i'll recommend the evo series over the presario.....they're much lighter too...
Posted by Dessybaby
How long have you been using your compaq?
Posted by abraham_aiza
hey:
i have just bought a vaio pcg-tr1f, one of the smallest on the market, centrino new tecnology, its 900 mhz but if it was pentium 4 would be 2 ghz cuz the centrinos new speed mesurement is different, that is cus it is smaller so it heats less and requires less battery, haz built in 512 mb ram i gave it another 512 (has 2 dimms) 30 gbyte hd and it removes easyly, cd-rw and dvd 1.4 k heavy and it is the smallest, graphic card with 64 mb of memory, i was gonna buy the z new one but has one main problen, graphic card with sahred 16 mb of memory and ram upgrade to 786 max so t is no use when u need more ram and it is bigger the onyx screen is the best, and the cover is made of magnesium, and has memory stick pro slot the z doesnt, the computer is fast even with 512 mb, its expensive but soo worth it, i bought an evo (compaq) and a pavillion before and they suck, also does toshiba in some models, dell, are big and bulky also heavy, vaio may not rule in desktops (even though my new vaio desktop came with 1024 mb ram and 160 gb hd, dvd rw) but what laptop market is about... VAIO, oh and most vaios dont have dvd rw cuz the drive has to have extra space to cool down, i prefer a dektop with dvd rw than a fat lap top.
my vaios display is small but wide and it rles i mean who wants the power mac 17 inch display, they should call that a desktop, if u need mobility get a small lap top.
Posted by senninha
thought of getting a dell before but when i read a survey by pc magazine on reliability reports, i quickly scrapped the idea and got a toshiba satellite instead. toshiba consistently gets one of the highest reliability ratings so i decided not to take a risk, especially since laptops to get banged around a lot. got a satellite 5105 and definitely have no regrets. a great piece of kit.
Posted by Dessybaby
What about the battery life?
Does it go down after a while?
Posted by ruff rider
A P4 laptop will drain the battery in around 2hrs with average use. By far the most efficient are the new Pentium-M's used in Centrinos. These aren't cheap but expect over 3hrs battery life. Some of these have double the L2 cache (1024kb) which perform equivalent to 1.5x a P4. So a 1.7ghz Centrino = 2.6ghz P4.
Posted by abraham_aiza
hey:
finally someone knows about what centrino is all about, my vaio tr lap top with full backlight drains th battery in like 4 hours in half backñight (still looking good enough) 7 hours that is max, what happens is that p4 is too big so ets hot often and the information takes time yo get to the end of the p4, centrino is really small which makes it faster, and doesnt get hot, also it is so small the uses about half of battery than a p4, p4 is 2 times bigger than centrino, but hey my lap tops screen is small so it uses less battery than a bulky toshiba that have big screens, another important issue always is hte backlight, vaio and some toshibas have the onyx screen, which makes the colors brighter and the screen less sensitive to scratches, so it can be viewed with no problem in a dimm backlight condition perfectly, dont be silly get a vaio, not the z though cuz it has more hd but ram only expands to 786 no like mine to 1024, and has a poor videocard,mine has 64 mb and the other one 16 and shared.
Posted by Dessybaby
I know that this is gonna sound like a really stupid question but what does the Cache and Front Side Bus do?
And how significant are they to the performance of a laptop?
Posted by carlidude
Dell Inspirons are cheap and cheerful (a decent customised one costs 900 euros,I'm getting one for my birthday, it gets delivered in 6 days
)
Posted by pawanr
If your looking for a light laptop with atleast a 14" display i would recommend the IBM T41. Powerful, Slim, Light, Centrino Technology, and i got a P4-1.6 for approx US$2000.
Posted by stuartdb87
Iv got a Medion. Its custom built for your needs. Mind has 120gb, 2.66ghz, cd/dvd/RW, Win XP and Microsoft Office. And a lot more. Prices start at about £400 for a basic config and go to a max of £2000. I got mine with all that for £1400.