Laptop Recommendations

[marcus]

A budget of up to ?1500, after something that light, very portable, reasonably quick for general usage (not interested in gaming), reliable and (as Im such a gadget-whore) stylish. Ive not looked at laptops for ages, but the dual-core option would Im sure reap benefits given the choice. Like the look of the T60, and the Samsungs.

[djjimbob]

I'd only trust a Toshiba if it was my own money.

[VR46]

I've had a Samsung Laptop for about three years, yes it did develop a fault once, was sent back to them for repair and was delivered back working fine within a week so would recommend them.
Think Alienware will build a laptop to your specs, plus they do off the shelf non-gaming orientated laptops iirc. Pricey though.

[Resonance]

I am using an Asus W3V and the W3J (dual core, Ati X16000) comes out soon. I really like Asus, they are actually the manufacturer for many other company laptops including Sony and Apple. High quality builds, sexy design and a 2 year global warranty.

If I were to fault the one I have it would be that the range vertical viewing angle of the screen is not quite as good as it could be (although when viewing from the 'sweet angle' the colours are great). Sony make the best screens.Secondly the paint finish on the palm rest is starting to rub off a little.

Apart from that I cant fault it.

Check out www.notebookreview.com for info on all laptops and check the forums for peoples views on them.

[Soi]

One of the new Macbooks or Macbook Pros. Use it with Boot Camp (free download from Apple) to dual boot with XP.

Ok, so only the Macbook Pros are available right now, but everyone seems to think that 13.3" Macbooks (replacement for the current 12" iBooks) are coming in May.

I had never considered getting a Mac before, but a dual booting machine seems to me to be the best of every worlds. Stylish (imo), small, secure and able to boot every program in existance. Reports say that the new Intel Macs run XP very quickly too.

[yosai]

**** the budget. Get a cheap Dell for ?350. ;p

[JohnMcL7]

One of the new Macbooks or Macbook Pros. Use it with Boot Camp (free download from Apple) to dual boot with XP.

Ok, so only the Macbook Pros are available right now, but everyone seems to think that 13.3" Macbooks (replacement for the current 12" iBooks) are coming in May.

I had never considered getting a Mac before, but a dual booting machine seems to me to be the best of every worlds. Stylish (imo), small, secure and able to boot every program in existance. Reports say that the new Intel Macs run XP very quickly too.

Bear in mind there are a couple of catches with bootcamp at the moment, no right mouse button on the touchpad and the Fn button doesn't work either which means you lose some features.

John

[marcus]

I wont be going to Mac route again, its the last time I buy something because it looks nice, in use I found Tiger to be a complete pain to say the least.

Theres a few Vaios Im looking at, highly portable, good performance, although a little pricey. Although to be honest, I may postpone the whole thing as a friend is offering to lend me his laptop, so it depends on that now.

[Resonance]

At the moment there are several problems with macbookpros. I would advise avoiding them till apple take the customers complaints about them more seriously.

http://www.osx86project.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=182&Itemid=2

I saw online that one of the maglocks melted and the user posted images online to show people what could happen. Apple made him take them down in exchange for a new laptop :/

[DUKENUKEM2UK]

yosai where do you get dells form at that price

[Jei]

Dell.co.uk

[marcus]

http://www.rm.com/fe/Products/Product.asp?cref=PD434208

I expect Ill be purchasing the Vaio VGNTX2XP

Aesthetically, its gorgeous, and I feel like a shallow whore for saying its a strong purchase point for me.

But, in my defence I have read reviews of this and they are glowing. Battery life is good, performance is more than enough for what I will need, its durable and lightweight. Its a little more than I wanted to spend, but Im pretty much sold on a Vaio, and will want to see them in the flesh before ordering online, but the VGNTX2XPP is currently top of my most wanted list. Theres also a version that has a blue lid, which is lush.

[VR46]

not worth starting a new thread for, shamelessly pinched from another forum, a dedicated PC gaming tablet type thingy

http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/28/the-rogue-gaming-tablet-pc/

[marcus]

Ive been working on IBM X41 laptops this week, and think Ive found my laptop. The size of them is a bit bigger than the (overly) small Vaio VGNTX2XP which I think would be very awkward to use in long bouts, they are built with the typical rugged Thinkpad quality and so will be much harder to break than the Vaio, and in terms of size and performance it more than fits the bill. Shame they are around the ?1400-1600 mark, although I think I can claim back ?500 of that value now Im contracting.

[gizmo1990]

I wont be going to Mac route again, its the last time I buy something because it looks nice, in use I found Tiger to be a complete pain to say the least.

Thank god I was beginning to think all ntsc users thought the sun shone out of Apples butt!

Can't stand Apples, bleurcchhh!

Looks like you're going for the IBM Marcus but I'd just like to say that if I had the dosh I'd definitely go for a tx2. Have you seen one in person? They really are the dogs bollocks, I'd love one.

Been a Vaio user for 6 years (sr range) and its never let me down.