[Tech] New laptop

[Bradstreet]

Hmm... looks like my laptop may have started a new career as a very expensive paperweight. The lights are on, but there's nothing on screen (a bit like Haven). Any thoughts on replacements?

Since I have a desktop both at home and at work, I'd prefer something very lightweight to take to archives / use for presentations etc. I need to be able to do quite a lot of typing (so no tiny keys), and if it could be a little bit shiny that would be nice. As for budget, since we're also in the middle of buying a house eek I should probably be a little bit sensible.

 

[Birdy]

Can I reccomend the PC world... wait a min dont kill me yet.. they have a good £430 laptop that is a great spec. Im sure this one had a better processor but i cant check right now!

LAPTOP

 

[thatbloke]

Or this...

£10 less and you get twice the HD and more RAM

 

[Haven]

Hi Bradstreet, sounds like your screen may have died - the rest of the laptop may be fine. Get shiftee to take the keyboard out and disconnect the built in monitor. Then hook it up to your normal monitor and if it works fine at that point then its just your screen has gone. At that point you can look around on ebay etc to find a replacement if you care or just yoink the screen off and use it on a monitor from then on.

If you do still want a decent laptop I still recommend the M1330. Nice and light with a decent bit of power (not amazing for gaming but will just about handle warcrack with some settings down). Pretty pricey but you get some good features, make sure you pay for the LED LCD and not the standard as that makes a big difference to both the power usage and the usability (LED LCD is much brighter with better contrast ratios).

If you want smaller and cheaper then consider a eepc (updated model)

 

[waterproofbob]

Not the cheapest out there but the New macbooks are fairly awesome. Without any forms of discount you are looking at just under a grand. But the spec is fairly up to date and shiny and the 9400M performs very well indeed. The additional trackpad features are very nice as well.
Also if you are wanting some shiny you can't go far wrong. The screen on this looks amazing. I have big sausage fingers and I also find with the spacing on the keyboard that there is plenty of room for my fat man hands.
I know it's a MAC and oh look bob has sold out since working for Apple. But I figure everyone else can bring other manufacturers to the table and the current lot of macbooks and macbook pros are made of awesome. They really are awesome specs and they look stunning to boot.

Although if you also go to the laptop section of the Scan website there is a very good range there with a good range of prices and specs.

 

[[THN]Buffalo_Hunter]

Shame you're on a budget. I have one of these:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_M70VM-7T031C_Laptop_M70VM-7T031C/version.asp

and it's pretty damn good

 

[Iron_fist]

i have to say that as windows machines go personally i rather like the Samsung Q series laptops. They're compact but still a sensible size, a reasonable weight (just a smidge under 2KG all in) and have pretty reasonable hardware.

as my "mobile" machine i currently have an almost year old macbook that if you're a student you can get a nice chunk of cash off, plus it natively runs a lot of my linux stuff (i use amarok as my jukebox for instance) which is nice, it's just a smidge heavier than i would like though, but hey nothing's perfect, it works damn reliably, allows me to work on the move coping with my web dev\compling very comfortably and at 5-6 hours battery with wireless off i can't complain too much

 

[Bradstreet]

Thanks for all the suggestions (except for Haven's idea that I should tie it to a new monitor, which might reduce portability ). I am tempted to go for something netbooky, since I'd love to have a machine that didn't make me think my shoulder was going to drop off by the time I got to my destination. I'm thinking about the MSI Wind U120 (http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49297248-10,00.htm), as it seems to have a better keyboard than many, but if anyone has any horror stories / alternative recommendations it's all grist to the mill!

 

[Iron_fist]

if you're going for a linux version of the Wind be prepared to wipe the sucker as soon as it arrives the OS they supply is nothing on the netbook version of ubuntu

 

[Haven]

She's a windows gal at heart, I don't think linux is part of the equation here.

 

[Cpt.Spazmo]

The dell studio range are nice.