[Archived] Laptop Advice

[Kamy100]

After 5 years of being a Mac owner, I am now thinking about purchasing a windows based laptop. I have just sold my MacBook Pro, was thinking of buying one of the new ones but at £1400 can't really justify paying that price.

The Laptop will be used for surfing web, playing mainly football manager and using Microsoft office. I have a budget of around £800. Would like something that is well built and has a fast processor. Screen size upto 15.5.

Any help would be appreciated.

[S15]

It might not really help, but I personally think you're mad for downgrading from a Macbook Pro. I'd have a try on a few Windows based laptops before buying just to make sure you fancy the change.

[Poita]

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=N73JG-TY041V

Thats a excellent laptop.

It is 17 inch though.

You could probably get a cheaper 15 inch version with the same specs.

ASUS is very good.

[Glenn]

It's a long time since I've been into "tech", so I now see laptops as tools more than anything. That said, after three windows laptops, I've decided it'll be a Mac Book next

[Kamy100]

Poita, thanks for the advice on the Asus Laptop will look into that.

What's your opinions on the one below:

Cost: £750.

Sony VAIO EB Series Blu-ray 500GB 15.5 Inch Laptop.

Numeric keypad.

CPU and Memory:

Intel Core i5 480M.

2.66GHz processor speed.

4GB DDR3 RAM memory.

500GB SATA hard drive.

Display features:

15.5in display.

DVD optical drives:

Blu-ray.

DVD+RW/DVD-RW(read/write).

Graphics:

ATI Radeon HD 5470 graphics card with 512MB memory.

Interfaces and connectivity:

Multi-Media Card (MMC) compatible.

3 USB ports.

1 HDMI port.

Bluetooth.

B/g/n wireless/WiFi enabled.

Multi-media features:

0.3MP built-in webcam.

Built-in mic.

Dolby sound system.

Operating system and software:

Microsoft Windows 7 Premium.

[OhmiBRFC]

Personally I would take a Viao over an Asus any day of the week. Viaos are really good laptops. There is adequate storage space and 4 GB of RAM will mean Windows runs superbly.

Is it this laptop?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/18387612/Sony-VAIO-EB4-X0-E-BQ-Core-i5-480M-2-66GHz-4GB-500GB-Blu-ray-Combo-15-5-inch-Windows-7-Home-Premium-64bit-Laptop-Notebook-Black/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:18387612%7Cprd:18387612

Same spec but slightly cheaper.

[Paul]

I'm far from being an expert but my son (19) has a Sony Viao which has run superbly. At around £400 - 420 when he bought it I thought he got excellent value. Personally I would always get a known brand.

I have an Asus eee thing which I use when out on site, holidays and cycle trips. Obviously a different bit of kit but it has proved very reliable. It runs Linux though which I find a bit tricky if I go beyond basic spreadsheets - but that's what I bought it for. Battery life very good.

[Ricky]

Sorry to hijack the thread but What do you guys think about this one for me. Looking for a sub £500 laptop just for basic browsing and tinkering.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-g62-b50sa-15-6-laptop-red-intel-i3-4gb-ram-500gb-hdd-hdmi-rrp-599-99-only-386/890474.

Alternatively I'm really keen on this but not sure whether to go for it or not. How nice does this look though!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003V8AUU8/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

What do I do????

[Poita]

The ASUS over the Sony for sure.

The ASUS has much better specs. A better GPU ( graphics ) in case in the future you might want to run the newer game's.

As far as football manager goes both laptops are fine, as the game is very CPU intensive.

Personally i would go with a 17 inch . Much better resolution and is a huge difference when playing Football manager.

Thats my two cents anyway.

Sorry about the format of this message. I hqte using my iPhone for this forum.

When i get home tonight i'll write a more in depth review on the sony v asus.

[Poita]

Btw ricky that laptop us quite good. Deffiently will do the job for what you say are your requirements.

That last one you mention ( Lenovo ) is rubbish. Just looks good. You can build a PC which would be twice as good for cheaper than that. Rule of thumb is never buy a named brand desktop. Always build your own.

[Iceman]

Dell Laptops are better than both Asus and the Sony Vaio's

[Poita]

Dell used to be. The build quality has gone down hill. Components are shight as well. I used to work for Dell. The amount of returns and faults was enormous.

[Ricky]

I was about to say similar about Dell. About 5 years ago I would have probably agreed with you iceman. Not anymore though.

[Iceman]

there are few Dell models which are not bad, and still provide better specs than Asus and Sony Vaio's. You then might as well stick with the Macbook.

[OhmiBRFC]

Sony Vaio are much better than Dells.

[Glenn]

I was about to say similar about Dell. About 5 years ago I would have probably agreed with you iceman. Not anymore though.

Ditto. I used to recommend Dell for everything none-specialist (ie. all bar servers, gaming rigs, render farms etc) but the last few years, they've become just another box-shifter, all be it quite a cheap one.

[BangkokRover]

ASUS, Dell and Sony are all good makes but all of them have a tendency fall apart and the support for all of them is shocking and mostly return to base.

£800 should allow you to get a fairly powerful laptop. If you only gaming is FM then almost anything you buy will run it with lots of leagues

Also be on the look out if you can get one with the "Sandy Bridge" CPU's inside as these are the newest and knock the socks of the current CPU families.

[watty]

ADVISE NEEDED

I bought a laptop from pc world about 8 months ago, In that time I have had bits of trouble with it but nothing major/

However this last week the web cam has been playing, which I use for skyping etc and i cant repair it myself.

I'm going to take it back to pc world, but what I was wondering is will they insist on having it sent off for repair...or will i be able to get store credit to get a different kind of laptop as I am not impressed with this one?

Thanks

[brian_gallagher85]

Since you've had it so long I'd imagine that they're only going to offer you a repair.

You could argue that since it's being causing you some problems since you've had it that it's not fit for purpose, although you may need to take legal action on this.

[cmb211087]

Read up on te sales of goods act. Goods must be in working order for a reasonable amount of time after purchase or you can get a full refund. 8 months is not reasonable.

Though it should still be under warranty anyway so you should get a replacement

[Hughesy]

Sony Vaio every time....thats what I use.

If your clever you can usually pick them up from places like Very....who usually have some sort of 25% voucher code knocking around on the internet.

The one which I have is pretty much the first spec you linked, I paid £320!

[Brfcrule1]

Hi Hughesy,

the laptop you are referring to above the Sony Vaio could you give me some info I am at the moment thinking of buying a laptop but am unsure what's reliable I will be using it to surf the Net & if possible would like one with a SD photo memory card reader does the one you are referring to have the SD memory card reader? & does it have wireless built in? if so can you advise me where you got yours I did have a look on very but they don't have any Sony laptops only asus,Dell & Toshiba also for the Sony Vaio what is the after sales service like? is it easy to return if it goes wrong? If needed could I get an extended warranty on it? any additional help would be gratefully appreciated & as it falls within my budget I will be seriously considering it along with other laptops in the price range.

Thanks in advance for your help.