[Archived] Laptop Recommendations

[LeChuck]

You really can't go wrong with Dell Paul, check out some of the links myself and Wolverine posted on the first page.

[Paul]

I shall be doing that over the next few days. Thanks for the advice

[Jordan]

I am also thinking of purchasing a laptop. Will probably just wonder down to PC world and buy the first thing which I like the look of. I know absolutly naff all about computers and laptops.

One question which I do have is how does the internet work on a lap top? At home we have NTL/Virgin Broadband. Can I use the same connection for a laptop so I don't need to pay twice. I had a look on the Virgin website but could not find anything.

[dave birch]

We now have four Dells, two laptops and two desktops.

They have been very reliable, and on the odd occasion we have had to ring Dell, the problem has been resolved within the one phone call.

Our latest purchase was a desktop for my wife's office, 320gig HD, 22" LCD monitor, 1 gig ram, dual core pentium, 3 year next day onsite warranty, Office professional, Vista business. All for $1900 (800 pounds).

The laptops are a couple of years old now but working well. My daughter uses hers for her Uni work and hasn't complained to date.

Jordan, the laptop works normally with the internet. At home, ours connect through a Netgear wireless system and at the wife's office is hardwired (for security reasons). If you go for the wireless system, you'll connect through your existing supplier.

[LeChuck]

I am also thinking of purchasing a laptop. Will probably just wonder down to PC world and buy the first thing which I like the look of. I know absolutly naff all about computers and laptops.

One question which I do have is how does the internet work on a lap top? At home we have NTL/Virgin Broadband. Can I use the same connection for a laptop so I don't need to pay twice. I had a look on the Virgin website but could not find anything.

As Dave said, you'll need a router to have the internet on more than one computer at the same time. You'll probably need to buy one of these unless you signed up for internet recently, take a look at this if you do.

If you're not keen on spending £25 for the privilege of having wireless on your laptop, you could more than offset the cost by going to somewhere other than PC World.

[Drummer Boy]

Sounds good so far. Hope it carries on behaving itself. I'd still have my laptop to play FM 2007

I guess Word documents can't be read by any of the Mac's word processing programmes because of the gap in compatability. Am I right?

On the contrary - Appleworks opens all MS Office documents and is very reasonably priced.

In addition, MS Office 2004 (latest version) for Mac gives you total interchangeability between Windoze and Mac OS in the form of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, MSN Messenger and Entourage which is a very powerful equivalent of Outlook and works a treat across platforms. It can be bought for £80 (student/teacher price) or sourced at an even lower price through the usual online channels. There is even a Microsoft website dedicated to Office for Mac - www.mactopia.com I believe.

If you are really anti-Microsoft, and if you are you can be seen to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, you can of course opt for Open Office which works on Windoze, Mac and Linux, opens all MS Office files and allows you to edit as normal.

It is worth noting that Microsoft do produce some good software and I would argue that Office is so prevalent because it is a comprehensive set of applications that work. Now, if you load it onto the best Operating System - Mac OS X - you get the best of both worlds as I feel Windows is as bad as Office is good.

[Billy Castell]

Thanks Drummerboy. Good to know that if I ever did get a Mac, I'd be able to use my files created on a PC. Having said that, I have a laptop, and the missus will get her mums old PC soonish so thoughts of a purchase wouldn't be for a long time. And I'd have to have the money as well!

So is the talk about the bullet proof reliability of Macs true?

[John]

I would go Dell.

Very impressed with them - spilt water over my laptop a couple of weeks back, they sent me a new one for free (and upgraded it to Vista).

[Drummer Boy]

Thanks Drummerboy. Good to know that if I ever did get a Mac, I'd be able to use my files created on a PC. Having said that, I have a laptop, and the missus will get her mums old PC soonish so thoughts of a purchase wouldn't be for a long time. And I'd have to have the money as well!

So is the talk about the bullet proof reliability of Macs true?

In my experience, yes without a doubt - I wouldn't contemplate buying a Windows machine now, given my five years of rock solid system performance, total hardware and software reliability and not a virus in sight. This latter is particularly useful as my children all use MSN Messenger (that well known virus introduction agent) but use it on G3 iMacs where the OS is more resistant to malware. The only downside is there are only '000s of games to choose from instead of '000,000s - what disaster, I can still only play one game at a time. As for the suite of software that comes with OS X, it does all you need for home, work and play. When you're next in the market, it would be well worth your while checking it out as an option.

[Paul]

Just had an interesting experience with Dell, enough to put me off buying from them ....EVER! Anyway I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and try ordering. Main use is:

University work

play / store music

play / record DVDs

some gaming - not much

web / e-mail

I'm looking at these laptops and planning to order today / tomorrow

Don't really understand why the first two have the same price but more inclined to go for the 6400 because of the processor

Inspiron 1501 ~ £449

BASE AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TK53

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 -

HARDWARE SUPPORT 90 Day Base Warranty - Collect and Return

LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

MEMORY 1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]t

HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD 256MB ATI ® Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™ edit

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for AMD Processors)

Inspiron 6400 ~ £449

BASE Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2080 Processor (1.73GHz,533MHz,1MB L2 cache)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005

HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return

LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

MEMORY 1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]

HARD DRIVE 120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software

PRIMARY BATTERY 6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)

Inspiron 1520 ~ £629

BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450 Processor (1.66GHz,667MHz,2MB L2 cache)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium

COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish & Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web camera

LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

MEMORY 1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]

HARD DRIVE 120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr

I've nevr bought from Dell before. They are OK? and I understand they put out new offers every Thursday. Should I wait till Thursday or make a choice now?

[Cocker]

Just had an interesting experience with Dell, enough to put me off buying from them ....EVER! Anyway I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and try ordering

I've nevr bought from Dell before. They are OK? and I understand they put out new offers every Thursday. Should I wait till Thursday or make a choice now?

What was the experience that you had with Dell that nearly put you off then? I have bought a lappy from them and never had a problem with it until I poured water over it.

Delivery and what not is normally spot on because I have ordered a PC from them to for a mate and that hasnt been a problem.

I would go for the third one just because of Core™ 2 Duo T5450 Processor (although I hate Vista)

[Paul]

What was the experience that you had with Dell that nearly put you off then?

Never been near Dell before as I didn't have the confidence in myself really to ask the right questions. Spent time researching on their site and chatted with a very helpful lady online. All going well. Remember this was my first time on their web site. Logged off the chat to think a bit more and got to wondering about the price. Above the laptop it says, e.g. £549 £479 in green. At the bottom of the specs it says SPECIAL OFFER order today for £50 off. So I'm thinking that's £479 - £50 = £429. Seems good but when I add to the basket I keep getting £479.

Decide to ring and discuss this. I get connected to Vascar and say to him I need to clear up the pricing on the web and use FOR EXAMPLE the 1501. Make it clear this is just an example and ask why I don't get an extra £50 off because of the Special Offer. Vascar agrees it can be confusing for new customers and as compensation he'll give me McAfee for free for 15 months. Vascar takes my details to open an account and I'm think it's so I will getthe McCafee when I eventually order. When we get to the credit card point I have to tell him, again and again, I'm not buying today, Vascar then offers me a special, deal another £20 off, "NO!" again he offers me another £30. I tell him No again and ring off. (I'm fed up now). Immediately my land line rings and it's Vascar offering a further £50 discount. I say no again and put the phone down. He rings again and this time it's £100 discount!!! I tell him No as I don't want the model I used as an example. Hang up again. Then my mobile rings and it's frigging Vascar again asking why i don't want to buy. I have to shout at him never to ring me again and hang up. In total this guy has offered me £100 discount and 15 months free McCafee if I buy a 1501 NOW! All Iwanted was a simple explaination of how the web pricing works and I got the hard sell.

TBH I was really upset. I wanted to buy from Dell, had some good help from the first lady, and then this harrassment. I ring Customer Services and eventually talk to someone - by now I'm thinking make me an offer on a 1520 as compensation and I'll bite - give Customer Services this guy's full name and direct line. I tell the CS person how can I trust the prices when this Vascar guy is offering £100 discount?? Told they don't do deals like this and she doesn't understand. Then this lady offers to sell me a laptop. I'm nearly screaming by now.

So that's my experience today with Dell. Lots of people speak very highly of their product so I'm going to stick with it. If I had been in a shop I would have been demanding all sorts from the manager.

[Cocker]

Decide to ring and discuss this. I get connected to Vascar and say to him I need to clear up the pricing on the web and use FOR EXAMPLE the 1501. Make it clear this is just an example and ask why I don't get an extra £50 off because of the Special Offer. Vascar agrees it can be confusing for new customers and as compensation he'll give me McAfee for free for 15 months. Vascar takes my details to open an account and I'm think it's so I will getthe McCafee when I eventually order. When we get to the credit card point I have to tell him, again and again, I'm not buying today, Vascar then offers me a special, deal another £20 off, "NO!" again he offers me another £30. I tell him No again and ring off. (I'm fed up now). Immediately my land line rings and it's Vascar offering a further £50 discount. I say no again and put the phone down. He rings again and this time it's £100 discount!!! I tell him No as I don't want the model I used as an example. Hang up again. Then my mobile rings and it's frigging Vascar again asking why i don't want to buy. I have to shout at him never to ring me again and hang up. In total this guy has offered me £100 discount and 15 months free McCafee if I buy a 1501 NOW! All Iwanted was a simple explaination of how the web pricing works and I got the hard sell.

Ah right, yup, I have used them to buy stuff for work before and they keep your name forever and keep ringing. To be fair to them though, I have had the same problem with other companies and not just Dell. Just the sales guys trying to earn their commision I guess.

[Biddy]

lol, I've had the reverse happen to me. I used to order from Dell for servers / PC's on my last project at EDS. As they are our preferred supplier, we had an account manager who I had to email to get quotes. Would the git answer, would he hell. I had to keep ringing him and pester him to send quotes through.

Still, it was OK kit, fairly cheap and came on time.

[LeChuck]

Paul,

may I ask where you found these deals? I just find it odd that they come with XP as it usually takes a special code to get XP with new machines.

Anyway, there are better deals available. This is only £435 and is better in almost every department. Knock the warranty down to 1 year (90 day collect and return) to get it to that, there is double the RAM and a better processor.

[Paul]

Paul,

may I ask where you found these deals? I just find it odd that they come with XP as it usually takes a special code to get XP with new machines.

Yes, of course. I went here on Dell and then followed all the links but I selected XP as the operating system Have to say I haven't found the website very easy. Your suggestion is certainly better and cheaper. They hide that little bit about the hardware support well. Didn't realise I could change that.

On the OS I wonder what to do? If you think I'm not very PC literate you should meet my son! I chose XP because I know it and don't know anything about Vista other than it's the new release from MS.

[Paul]

LC the only way I can find your recommendation is by putting in the product code. It doesn't show up with the other 6400s. Interesting?

[Billy Castell]

As I often say on this sort of topic-thank God Time computers got their comeuppance and went under. I won't repeat the tale again, but let's just say the reliability of the computer, and the customer service was poo. The cheapo E-Systems PCs are tempramental as well.

[LeChuck]

Yes, of course. I went here on Dell and then followed all the links but I selected XP as the operating system Have to say I haven't found the website very easy. Your suggestion is certainly better and cheaper. They hide that little bit about the hardware support well. Didn't realise I could change that.

On the OS I wonder what to do? If you think I'm not very PC literate you should meet my son! I chose XP because I know it and don't know anything about Vista other than it's the new release from MS.

The question of Vista or not is purely personal really. If you do a Google search you'll probably find lots of people complaining about compatability issues with hardware, but since you're buying from Dell, everything will be checked and pre-installed and therefore guaranteed to work so that shouldn't be an issue.

Vista is meant to be designed to be easier for people not very computer literate, specifically in security. Whether or not it's better at doing it than XP I have no idea. I think as of this moment, XP is the easier choice because virtually every program your son will want will be supported by XP, whereas there may be the odd problem that would need to be tackled with Vista. However, as you're investing in dual-core computer with >1gb of RAM, I guess you'll be expecting your son to keep it for the duration in university, in which case I guess he'll still be using it when Vista has become 'the norm' and XP is the new Windows 98. Personally, if I were purchasing the laptop, I'd go with Vista for the long-term view, but it is a very personal choice.

From what little I've seen from Vista from the people I know who own it, I can't see any reason not to get it, and it does look a lot nicer than XP. That's certainly no endorsment though, the best thing I can think of is to see if anyone you know has it who would be willing to let you and/or your son have a play on it for half an hour or so. Or failing that, you could go on the slightly more dishonest route of going to PC World/Currys etc and pretending you're interested in buying a laptop from them, and getting a salesman to show you Vista in the store. I think some stores even have it set-up so you can play around unsupervised.

LC the only way I can find your recommendation is by putting in the product code. It doesn't show up with the other 6400s. Interesting?

That is odd. The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to plug the new range of Inspiron's more so have taken some of the 1501s and 6400s out of the search.

[Paul]

However, as you're investing in dual-core computer with >1gb of RAM, I guess you'll be expecting your son to keep it for the duration in university, in which case I guess he'll still be using it when Vista has become 'the norm' and XP is the new Windows 98.

Well I won't be buying him another one! I had considered this point and it would be the main reason for getting Vista. I had not appreciated Vista was more security conscious and I think your remark tipped the balance to Vista. We never have security issues on our home or office PCs. The only time we get a virus problem is when one of the kids has transferred files on MSN. Now I'm sure my son will be doing this. I've been running Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security for years in its various forms. I intend to set this up prior to handing over the laptop, so hopefully the combination of Vista and Trend micro will keep it reasonably secure.

That is odd. The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to plug the new range of Inspiron's more so have taken some of the 1501s and 6400s out of the search.

Probably right there. The on lne chat lady was keen to push the 1520 in particular and the telesales guy was the absolute end!

Thanks for the observations. I think we will be ordering later today.

[Biddy]

The only real way Vista is more secure is that is whinges and complains every time you want to do something. This includes simply moving something in the start menu and that gets mildly annoying when you are wanting to tidy things up.

"Windows needs permission"

"Are you sure"

"Accept the security warning"

those types of messages ove and over.

Watch this MAC advert which will give you a very funny idea of what I mean.

You will still need to install an anti-virus program (AVG works and is free), You can rely on the Network ports firewall but this is the same as XP's version.

I personally have Vista on my machine at home as I like to keep up with the new O/S's. In honesty I haven't had too many problems apart from older versions of Nero messing things up and some older devices not working. For example, I found out just last night that my USB Digital TV receiver doesn't seem to want to work. I'm sure I'll dig out a solution though.

[Paul]

You will still need to install an anti-virus program (AVG works and is free), You can rely on the Network ports firewall but this is the same as XP's version.

Thanks for that Biddy. I shall be installing Trend Micro Internet Security 2007. Been using this for years and never get a problem - excepting files transferred via MSN - so I'd take some convincing to move away from this even though it's around £40 pa.

[Alan75]

I personally have Vista on my machine at home as I like to keep up with the new O/S's. In honesty I haven't had too many problems apart from older versions of Nero messing things up and some older devices not working. For example, I found out just last night that my USB Digital TV receiver doesn't seem to want to work. I'm sure I'll dig out a solution though.

See what you mean about vista. Bit of a ploy to get you to buy new compatable programmes.

Got a new pc yesterday, which has vista. Spent most of the night setting it up. It didnt want to know my microsoft office 2003, had to search for microsoft to find a way over getting it loaded. Managed in the end but dont sk me what I did, but its up and running.

Still wont entertain my BT Voyager wireless usb adaptor, Mrs aint happy with the ethernet cable running through the hallway

[dave birch]

Bought a Dell desktop for the Mrs Office last april or so. With that purchase I also got a Belkin driverless USB 2.0 file transfer cable. Plug it in one computer, then the other and drag and drop. The best purchase I've ever made. It has saved me so much time, I transferred all her business files, including accounts, MS word2003 files (they were huge, she does a lot of report writng).

Hers has Vista business, took all of 2-3 hours to get everything, including the internet, sorted.

[Flopsy]

Need to buy a new laptop for our squadron, it needs to be able to run big Powerpoint programs and to have a decent wide screen that is visible from angles Price is below £800

Dell appeared to offer this

BASE Intel® Pentium Dual Core Processor T2330 (1.60GHz, 1 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB) edit

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit

COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish without camera edit

LCD 17.0" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife™ edit

MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit

HARD DRIVE 240GB (5400RPM) SATA Dual Hard Drives (2X120GB)

GRAPHICS CARD nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) edit

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Pentium Dual

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Cheers