Laptop suggestions

Hi all.

I'm seriously giving thought to selling my desktop computer and buying a laptop.

The main driving force for this is that my PhD funding finishes at the end of August and i have to move out of my current house and then either lodge in Nottingham or commute from Bedford whilst i finish my experimental. Space will be a premium and i'd need the portability.

I've had a brief look at what available out there but i've never been sure how laptop specs match up to their usability. Most of my friends alsways complain about them being slow - not a problem i've had with my desktop.

As the laptop would be my sole piece of computer hardware i'd need it to be capable of dealing with many large photos (just bought a DSLR) and the associated editing programs, large word documents, DVDs and the occaisonal game.

As for screen size, i'm not sure.(maybe 15" widescreen) I'm going to look at some laptops in PCworld this weekend (not to buy) to see how they look and feel to work on, as i'll be typing a lot.

One thing i'm sure of is that i'll have to stick to Windows as the OS, with the only reason being most of the Uni programs i use won't work on apple.

My Budget is ~£500 maybe £600 at a push. So far i've looked at Dell as the main contendor.

Cheers for any sugestions

Pete

Laptops are not slow, like any computer it depends on what's inside and what you are trying to do on it. If you are trying play Crysis on a Celeron 1.5GHz with a x800 graphics card... your desktop will be VERY slow (not even sure if this is possible it's just an example). My laptop is faster than my desktop as far as raw CPU power and Memory is concerned.

What do you want to do on your laptop? Internet, email, general office usage, play games, movies, Photoshop, 3D animation etc....??? Also will you be travelling a lot with it? If yes what kind of travel; hauling it on a bus in a backpack or on a plane in economy, or just driving to/from work? Do you mind glossy screens?

I am not exactly sure what 600 pounds will get you but Dell is probably a good place to start as their systems are usually well priced and have a model for any situation. Other good brands are Lenovo, Asus (but I think Asus is pricey in the UK). I hear Acer is quite popular in Europe but it is not here. They are usually the lowest priced systems around here.

Hope that helps a bit. Let us know.

Hi Thund3rball.

I did say what i wanted to use the laptop for in my original post, but i admit it isn't particulary clear:

Main use, writing my thesis(!) -therefore word/powerpoint and excel.

In addition, obviously web, internet but also photo editing using Photoshop and lightroom. I've got a DSLR now and work with RAW files quite a lot.

I'm not really a big gamer anymore but it would be nice to have a dedicated graphics card instead of a integrated on board one.

As for travel: yeah, i'll most probably be lugging it around in the car or train, i think i'm set on a 15" widescreen as any bigger it'll become too heavy and any smaller it might be a PITA to write long documents and eit photos. I'm also thinking of keeping my TFT to plug the laptop into when i'm at home (so it'll need DVI...possible?)

Glossy screens: What are the pros/cons with these?

Also, i thnk 4Gb RAM would be sensible, it should help when working with large photogalleries.

As i said i'll pop out this weekend and have a look at whats available and how they feel to type on.

Cheers

If you will be moving around a bit, I highly recommend the Lenovo laptop. They are extremely solid, can be small/light (depends on model) and are very quick. I picked up the T61 and don't regret it one bit.

Glossy screens are extremely annoying on laptops, if you have *any* source of light behind you, it literally acts like a mirror. I took one on a trip and it was completely unusable due to the reflection.

I would suggest 4gb only if you need it. I have yet to see a system be offered a 64bit version of windows so that it can use all 4gb.

If you want a dedicated gfx card on a 15" laptop my best suggestions are:

Dell XPS M1530. It's a stylin machine that will perform very well and is of good build quality. It does have the glossy screen but is available with a WXGA+ LED panel or WUXGA panel. For photos either of these two screens would work extremely well. However your thesis on WUXGA might be hard to read so the WXGA+ LED would be the best choice?

The Lenovo T61 is a more no-nonsense machine. It has great build quality and performance with a matte screen. However the colour reproduction on the Lenovo is not going to be as nice as the XPS.

Dell also has the Vostro 1500 which is going to give you similar toughness as the Lenovo and performance of the XPS M1530, but for a lower price than the 1530.

From Asus I would say the M50sv is THE budget performance notebook out there right now. However Asus notebooks don't have the battery life of other brands for some reason. So if you are going to be on battery power a lot I don't recommend it.

Of course this is all relevant to what I know in North America; market and pricing may differ in Europe from what I am used to.

Another vote for IBM/Lenovo - those things are tanks and work great.

If you want a little more seks appeal, the VAIO SZ series is excellent. Gorgeous, easy to use, 4lbs, 13" screen (but razor sharp and easy on the eyes - similar to a 21" monitor in terms of text size). Might be a bit pricier, maybe around $1400 USD for these guys and then another $75 USD for 4GB of RAM (never get the OEM RAM upgrades, they typically charge like $200 for the same stuff).

--Illah

I'm probably going to go with the Dell Studio 15. You can spec it out the same as the XPS for a few hundred dollars less. I'm gonna get me 1920x1200 resolution with a blu-ray slot load drive *drool*

Good choice. I really like the looks of the value line. I think it really is going to undercut a lot of the XPS sales. I bought my wife a 1530 last month and wish I could have waited for these but she needed it then.

thideras said:

Glossy screens are extremely annoying on laptops, if you have *any* source of light behind you, it literally acts like a mirror. I took one on a trip and it was completely unusable due to the reflection.
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That's good to know. Will avoid these when I make my purchase.

thideras said:

I would suggest 4gb only if you need it. I have yet to see a system be offered a 64bit version of windows so that it can use all 4gb.

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I have heard rumors (google for them) of Dell laptop customers being able to call and get 64-bit CDs. Dell doesn't like to do this but I believe they have to. Again google for this to find out exactly how to go about it.