My girlfriend is looking to buy a laptop which will be for the following purposes:

* Downloading and storing tunes to transfer to her ipod
* Storing, touching up and viewing pictures from her digital camera
* Word processing
* Using the internet for email, surfing, etc

It needs to have a sd card reader, a good sized hard drive, wireless enabled and a half-decent screen. When she moves down here it'll become a secondary computer to my PC so there is no need for it to be packed to the gunnels with features, graphics cards, etc. It would be useful if it was relatively light and sleek given that it'll become the 'portable' computer when she lives with me despite initally being her only computer. But that said the screen can't be too small as I'll probably find myself running poker modules with it so I can play on the bog

Having had a brief check online and walk round PC World (not that we'd ever buy from there!) I would think something in the region of £750-999 would fit the bill. Suggestions with links would be appreciated

 

Get a Mac.

 

Get an iBook

 

I won't let her even if she wanted to because few of the poker sites have mac compatable software. I used to be a hard hard hard HARD nut mac fan but then I got realistic. They are the better, more stylish, more useable computers but they still just don't have the same software support

 

ive got an ibook and can highly recommend them

 

Check out DELL they are doing some great deals at the moment!

 

Dell are just plain nasty.

 

Dell Latitude X1. Just the ticket.

 

You couldn't get much more PC centric than myself, my whole IT career has been Microsoft and still is, but since I got my Mac Mini my PC at home hasn't been used for 6 months. (And that was seriously overclocked, water-cooled and full of neon lights - that's how much of a PC nut i was) I don't have any problems with software, Macs either save in PC format or the programs available for Macs are just better.

If you consider a PC laptop though, go for HP, Toshiba or Sony.

 

Kiwi, macs are great for all the major stuff. Amazing for photoshop, dtp, web-page building, etc, etc but its the smaller things they fail on. Like running poker software and other smaller programmes you might download. Afriad it has to be windows based.

 

Can't go wrong with some of these

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/HP_Co...ptops/prod.asp

 

I just bought a refurbished Acer off ebay.

1.3 gig processor, 60 gig hd, 512 ram, wifi, 15" widescreen, dvd burner etc etc.

Its in brand-new condition and came in the right box with manuals and original discs etc.

Cost me half of what you are budgeting.

on ebay, you can enter minimum spec for the laptop and it will search all the listings for you. I did this and looked at the best buy-it-now deals and this was the best value. Also in the same price rane were a couple of Dells and a Hewlitt Packard, all the same kind of spec.

 

Well everyone who sees my Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook P7010 wants to buy one. It's small, light, got an excellent screen, ports for everything, long battery life and a 3 year warranty. I really should become a reseller -- they've sold at least 3 or 4 after people have seen mine!

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Fujit...ptops/prod.asp

 

So let's get this straight....your girlfriend wants a laptop for her home, and the main criteria is that it can run your poker s/w a year from now (assuming she doesn't play poker)

Hmm....given the iBook is a sensible choice in ALL other respects, seems she's gonna end up with the raw deal

 

PS My brokerage have recently introduced support for Safari. I suspect more sites will begin to support Safari/Firefox as time goes on.......why not enquire of your poker dealing sites if they have plans for support in the future......

 

PPS www.ebuyer.com always have cheap laptops. Can't recommend any mind.

 

Yep iBook sounds like the winner there, but if you need to poker then you need the poker. There are a few sites out there that do offer OSX packages, don't know which specifically though.

It is a shame though because as far as absolutely everything else goes software-wise it is available these days on the Mac, just look at versiontracker for proof of that.

 

why would you not buy from PC World?

 

Agreed

 

PC World have some great clearence deals fromtime to time if you ask, I just picked up a G5 Dual processor Powermac for £650 brand new from them. The model still retails for £1199 ex vat on the mac website.

 

I had a compaq and it was sh1te, bought a Dell Inspiron 8600 6 months ago and it is the ticket. Cant go wrong with dell tbh, add whatever you want

 

The Apple Store in Regent Street sometimes have some great chuckout deals on iBooks. There were some for around 500 quid last time I was there (it was a few months ago, though).

 

why is that then????onder2:

 

Dear Kenny,

Personally, I can't sing the praises of Samsung laptops enough.

I run an X10 which i've had for almost 2 years and it's run flawlessly 12hrs/day 365days/year.

Light, stylish and quick, I would recommend the X25 (X10 replacement) to anyone.

base spec:

Pentium M750
80gb HDD
512MB DDR
X600 PCi-e graphics
DVD+/-RW
Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
Fingerprint security
15.1 screen
weighs in at just over 1.5kg

http://www.samsung.co.uk/cgi-bin/ecu...-X25T000%2fSUK

Can source you one cost price if you want one?

In fact, if you want to make an offer for my X10, i wouldn't mind upgrading

 

I did think you posted here anymore mate I'll check out the link later, got to run just now.

 

Hi Kenny.

I would go for a Dell, had several over the last 10 years, few problems, sorted straight away by Dell.

Inspiron range good value.

Try the Dell outlet, they have ready built off the shelf models at good prices

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...=uk&l=en&s=dfh

 

Another vote for Dell here. I've personally got one, (the XPS Gen 2) and the company I work for has loads of the things. Extrememly reliable, well made, good value, and we've never had anything but excellent service...

 

Check e-buyer just bought my sister in-law a Toshiba pro satelitte L10 (1.4GHz 256MB 40GB CD-RW/DVD 15" WLAN XPH) £420 with delivery, but not surprisingly out of stock now.

Mark

 

Must agree with Kenny that Samsung laptops are the best. I work for one of the major IT resellers, Samsung are the only maunfacturer to produce the whole machine apart from the processor. They manufacture most of the TFT panels in the world and also produce the lightest and thinest laptop.

Acer high returns
Sony crap warranty
HP very ugly rather big
IBM good but now not owned by IBM, have been some support issues.
Toshiba good, sometimes high priced.
Dell, never heard a good thing about them

 

Ignore my earlier advice. Chuffing thing is less than a week old and now refuses to switch on.