jaya

Is anyone in the know on laptops,was looking to get a laptop and i have been looking at a few of the sony vaio's.was considering this one,but then i noticed the Toshiba.Are the vaio's any better or would say the Toshiba be just as good or better.The toshiba is priced at £689.00,and the vaio at £579.00 from Laptops Direct

Sony VAIO AR61E Laptop

This is the ultimate in entertainment! Sony have crammed in a range of features to make the AR Series of laptops a delight to use. This one features a Core 2 Duo processor, massive 2048MB memory and 200GB hard drive; lots of room for photos, videos ...


Toshiba Satellite A300D-15B - Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 2.1 GHz - 15.4 Inch TFT

Toshiba Satellite A300D-15B - Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 / 2.1 GHz - RAM 4 GB - HDD 250 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - Mobility Radeon HD 3650 HyperMemory - WLAN : 802.11b/g/n (draft), Bluetooth 2.1 EDR - Vista Home Premium - 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ ) TruBrite - camera [more info]

Wish

iTrader: (2)

A Dell ......

HankScorpio

You need to identify what's important to you and start narrowing it down from there. There are loads of good laptops from a range of manufacturers that do different things well. Dell are good all-rounders but also have a wide range.

Weight, battery life, screen size, pixel dimensions, screen brightness, hard drive size, external display connection, OS, included apps, AMD or Intel, dedicated or integrated graphics, amount of system and graphics memory, number of usb sockets, full size or condensed keyboard, style, case colour, PCMCIA/Cardbus slots, RAID, wireless G or N, TV Tuner, Webcam and a few others can all shape a choice....

staffs Mike

I'd go for this.

Dell Studio 15 Laptop Deal and Evalue Code Comparison, Dell Discounts and Coupons

The £779 model with the 10% voucher (top of the page) applied will come to the same price as the others but with that you get the same sort of spec, but it comes with a Blu Ray Drive. With the laptops HDMI out this will easily couple up a media PC for your TV

Lots of RAM a big hard drive and a decent CPU. I think this is what I would buy.

You can also add a 1440 x 900 LED screen for about £80 if that if the higher resolution interests you.

If you don't want/need the blu ray drive for £50 less (before discount) you can get a 2.4GHz CPU with the same RAM and Hard drive, also a very good deal

If you want something a little bit sleeker, lighter then the XPS M1530 also fits into your budget with the same v10% voucher applying.
Dell XPS M1530 Special Offers, Cheapest Deals and Evalue Codes | dmXdimension

Better for gaming if that is what you want to do.

jaya

Cheers for the info,Im just gonna think about it some more,as now i have just noticed the Acer 8920G gemstone and really like the look of it.seen some reviews on you tube and it plays games real well,which is one of the things i will use it for and movies too.

staffs Mike

The problem with the Acer is, while it may play games well it certainly won't play them well at it's native resolution of 1920 x 1200 (or 1080).

Certainly good specs for the price though. I'm not a big fan of Acer but that is certainly a fair bit of laptop for the money.

Removed.

My family has had 3, maybe 4, Acer's over the years, and been very happy with them. The optional 3 year warranty is well worth the money. Twice we've had screens replaced FOC even though they've been broken through dropping or other mis-handling. As for Dell, I'm sat here with my XPS 1530 on my lap. I don't exactly stress it at the moment, but I'm well chuffed with it.

jaya

Cheers mike for the info,the Acer is looking good and i do like that cinedash,unusual for me because i don't really buy something because it looks good..There are alot of laptops so many and im just viewing some on you tube..what do you think would be the equivalent Dell to that acer 8920
or what do you think i could get from a Dell for the same price as that acer
£879.00 from laptopsdirect.why do you think that DEll is better than other laptops..

staffs Mike

I have used Dell for years now. I don't have one that has failed yet, and we are talking 7 years old lol.

At my last job I managed to convince management to make the move from HP (which were awful.. just awful for reliability) back to Dell and ordered probably 20 laptops before I left, and was already supporting 30 odd. All perfect and still are to my knowledge, with only 3 small faliures fixed the next day courtesy of dell.

Their service and warranty support is second to none in the business and the quality is up there with the best of them.

So I'm just a very happy Dell customer overall.

Further to that, their current range of laptops are the most fairly priced I have ever seen from a highly regarded laptop manafacturer. The Studio's and Vostro's represent the best value in the market at the moment imo.

To answer which dell is best suited. For £900 or near as dammit, I would get the XPS M1530. The graphics card is the same if not better than the Acer, being the DDR3 version of the 8600GT. It has all the power you could want, a fantastic range of screens and is really quite portable.

I personally have it's little brother the XPS M1330 and find it to be the best laptop I have ever had

If you want a bigger laptop.. 17"+ then the Studio 17 might suit

jaya

I know about HP someone i know had one and the cooling fan packed up in the first few weeks..looked at the xps 1530 and i must say very nice,forgot about that cinedash already..The only thing is that there are 4 different 1530 ranging from £630.00 TO £950.00 I would post the link up but seem to be having some trouble with copy at the mo.£900.00 would really be my absolute limit,I really would not want to pay anything more than that for a laptop,but want to get the right one.So it will mainly be used for games and movies,and also in my job as i usually spend nights away from home sometimes or during the day like last Friday out at work i had to hang around for 5 hours in the pouring rain,(sitting in a vehicle lol) and really it was then i thought could do with a laptop..also would be handy for me to be able to google up maps out on the job too..Do you think this laptop could replace a desktop PC appreciate your advice..

staffs Mike

I use my XPS M1330 as a desktop replacement.

It is 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, 200GB 7200rpm HDD with an 8400gs.

I use it in dual screen with my 20" monitor when at home but used it for the last year on it's own as my desktop replacement.

My graphics card a lot weaker than the M1530's but it plays Rainbow Six Vegas and COD4 on settings high enough to appriciate the game

I know for a fact that the 8600GT can handle most modern games without too much fuss. I mean we aren't talking full anti aliasing etc.. but you won't get that sort of performance without paying over £1200 on a gaming laptop.

Which model you pick really depends what you want from it. If you want blu ray the £979 model here is just a monster spec.
Dell XPS M1530 Special Offers, Cheapest Deals and Evalue Codes | dmXdimension

It will drop below £900 with the 10% voucher "BRZSZ4B4FDD?3V"

This can usually be haggled on the phone with dell too, one of the few comapanies that will negotiate these days.

If you don't need blu ray then any of the models starting with the 2.1GHz £729 model will be awesome as a desktop replacement.

wiley

iTrader: (63)

why not get a mac, much more reliable... plus the air looks so nice
wiley

Removed.

Until you need/want to replace the battery, use more than 1 USB port.....get a "normal" Macbook all the advantages of Mac ownership, without the hype. IMHO.

jaya

I have thought about a mac a few times,but i have always been used to windows etc.I noticed that dell one for 979 with the blu ray,but then i also noticed that it don't have the 256mb 8600 nividia graphics card..it's 128mb 8400 nividia..Find that kinda odd as the others have the 256mb 8600 nividia,except for the £600.00 one which has the 128mb 8400 nividia..

staffs Mike

Oh I didn't notice that sorry. Even though my 8400gs works it's little socks off in my laptop it would be best to get the 8600GT.

I'd probably go for the cheaper one's then. At worst you could get an external USB blu ray player later, or buy the blu ray player seperately from dell and fit it yourself later on

jaya

That's it ive taken the plunge and gone for the one priced at 929,core duo T9300 2.50 ghz.With the voucher discount i got it for 845,would of been a little less except i added a flashdrive stick..Not bad because altogether i have saved about £160.00 with the discounts.It's a pity that blu ray one didn't have the 8600 graphic card,i was going to add it on in the build,but then also noticed it has 320GB,While the one i gone for has 400GB.This is my first Dell purchase so hope it goes ok..Pc pro gave this xps a good review too,and that was there basic starter model in the review...

HankScorpio

let us know how it goes

staffs Mike

That is one beasty laptop

All current will run nicely on it, apart from crysis which will still run fairly well.

PeteBrant

I'm also looking into buying a laptop.

Can anyone beat this deal?

Acer Aspire 5920G-302G25MI Gemstone, T7300 Processor, 15.4" Screen, Windows Vista Home Premium, 2GB RAM, 250 GB SATA HDD, DVD Rewriter, Geforce 8600 Graphics, LX.AN40X.432 + FREE NEXT DAY DELIVERY


For the money that is a ridiculously good spec.

Removed.

Check laptopsdirect.co.uk, that's where I've bought all my Acers from.

staffs Mike

With the discount you can get the £499 model for £450ish
Dell Studio 15 Laptop Deal and Evalue Code Comparison, Dell Discounts and Coupons

The graphics aren't quite as good for games, more than enough for blu ray though, and it has the advantage on not being an acer

oh.. and an extra GB of RAM.

And did I mention it's not an acer*

*I'm sure they aren't that bad just.. not what I would buy given their history of poor service and medicore quality.

jaya

yea will let you know what i think of it etc.I have just been on the Dell website to check what stage my order is at,it's currently in production/being assembled.Will probably be a few more days yet before i actually get it,but atleast i can keep a track of where it's at,which i think is pritty good..

bighead

iTrader: (1)

yes the Dell laptop are very good build......I would say better than sony , just bought my third dell (xps 1530) , and sold of my sony

D.O.M

iTrader: (4)

Yep, another Dell user here. What I like about Dells is the fact that you can customize the laptop/desktop to your specific requirements. I remember when I bought my laptop, at the time, I wanted a built-in bluetooth adapter, and only the expensive laptops £1000+ had this feature, I added this for £30 with Dell.

jaya

Great it's good to hear positive stuff about them.Im hoping to get it sometime next week although it said my delivery date will be the 22nd,so another week..