Sbradley

Hiya,

OK, my current laptop is on its last legs and the time has come to pension it off. I don't need a huge screen - 15.4" is enough - but I do need wireless, decent resolution, plenty of RAM and a good sized hard drive (though I can upgrade the last two myself if necessary)

Main use is for image processing and web editing when I'm travelling around the World Superbikes series. Being light and small is a huge plus, as is having a decent battery life, as my carry-on bag currently weighs over 20kg with laptoop and lenses in it...

I'm happy with MAC or PC, though the Macbook Air looks to be a bit of an overpriced gimmick - I'd probably go for a regular Macbook Pro instead.

I don't particularly care about the brand but I do need it to be fairly rugged and very reliable.

Cheers,

SB

HankScorpio

Bloke I work with was buying week before last and got down to toss up between the 15 Dell xps (the one with 15.4 and 1440x900) and some Sony job. Dell looked nice for the money but he went for the Sony in the end as it had blu ray writer as opposed to only reader on the dell. I'd still have done the dell tho I think.

Sony is pretty plasticky and the top screen doesn't have a catch which a few of us didn't like. I'll find out the model number.

MartinM

I'm thinking of one of these

Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Mobile V5535 Laptop Intel Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa T5250 2048MB 160GB DVDRW 15.4" Windows Vista Home Premium Edition - Ebuyer

...any thoughts?

corradoboy

For the work you do a Mac would be perfect. I've worked in print, design and graphics all my working life and still prefer Mac for these tasks. I have several friends who are web designers and have given PC a go recently, but they have all come back to Mac. They say that a webpage designed on Mac usually works straight out requiring very little tweeking, whereas on PC they hardly ever work with Mac browsers without a lot of tinkering, and often foul up on PC browsers too. I'm not a web designer so my knowledge in it runs out there, but that's what they say. Add in the (usually) longer lifespan offsetting the slight premium and the solid OS reliability, and the lack of virus threat and I can't see why not TBH.

swiss scooby

I would get one with the brandnew Intel Penryn t8100 or t8300 CPUs. They support the brand new 45nm technology. I wouldn't go bigger than 15.4". Check this one from HP out: HP Store item details - HP Pavilion dv6799ea Special Edition Notebook
Cheers, Daniel

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

It's the 'decent resolution' bit that's the killer. I've just been through much the same exercise, insisting on a 1680x1050 screen, and there just aren't too many around. Those that do exist, aren't cheap.

I ended up with an Asus G1S, which does have a great screen (as long as you don't mind the fact that it's quite reflective), but for portability and battery life I couldn't really recommend it - it's really meant for playing games on AC power.

Take a look on Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion - Powered by vBulletin - there's a dedicated forum for just this question. Do bear in mind, though, that many of the forum regulars are wannabe geeks who give out a lot more advice than they're really qualified to do - but you might get some useful pointers

Sonic'

I had the same problem in that all the laptops I looked at only had 1280 x 800 resolution

So I ended up getting a HP 6715b AMD Turion 64x2 its running Vista 64 and Photoshop is actually quite quick

It was the cheapest laptop I could find that did 1680 x 1050, but Ive since found out its only 130 quid for a replacement screen that will work in most laptops that only have a 1280 screen

Sbradley

Thanks, Andy. I've gone to see what they come up with...

I'm swaying toward a Macbook pro with Bootcamp and XP on the 2nd partition at the moment, but can be persuaded in another direction if something nearly as good comes along for a lot less dosh.

SB

Sbradley

Sonic, that's a pretty amazing spec for the price... Where did you source it, may I ask? Dabs looks like the best deal at the moment but I'm certainly interested if you have a pet supplier that I an chuck some more business at

SB