I'd quite like a Vista Laptop...

[Flompy]

Now Vista is out I'd quite like a laptop with it installed, problem is I don't really know about things like this so hoped you lot could advise me. I'm after the following, spec-wise:

Vista Home Premium
DVD writer
Built in wireless
Decent battery life (a couple of hours at least)
Widescreen display
Very quiet when turned on
Powerful enough to play back HD video files properly

I will mainly be using this for browsing the net & watching videofiles as well as streaming to my Xbox 360. It would be nice if it supported bluetooth too but not essential! Does anybody know of any good laptops fitting the spec, or any brands worth avoiding or going for? I won't be using it for gaming...

Thankyou!

[Number45]

You'll probably get more of a response if you give people some sort of indication of what you're willing to spend.

My laptop fits the description pretty well, but it wasn't particularly cheap at around £1100 (Though it's nearly a year old now).

[sj33]

I got a catalogue from www.novatech.co.uk yesterday, they mention on the cover that they're doing Laptops with vista starting at £350-ish (can't remember the exact price).

[Flompy]

I got a catalogue from www.novatech.co.uk yesterday, they mention on the cover that they're doing Laptops with vista starting at ?350-ish (can't remember the exact price).

Thanks, um have you actually looked at that site

And my budget is ?1000. Obviously the less it costs the better however, considering I don't want to game there's no point paying more for the sake of it..

[in5ane]

I'm typing this on a Sony Vaio laptop which I'm very happy with, so it'd be rude not to suggest them! They start off about £800 for the decent ones, all the way up to £2k for the blu-ray one

[sj33]

Thanks, um have you actually looked at that site

Oops, clicky link fixed

[bootmonster]

buy a laptop with whatever os and *obtain* vista, . vista is a big part of the price of a new laptop.

[charlesr]

Of you could pay for it. Don't listen to the theiving pirate scum.

[bootmonster]

aye true, i am a bit scummy,

[NecronomiconUK]

if you buy almost any new XP machine then you can upgrade to vista for a nominal fee (P&P costs)

[Geezer]

Hmm, I'm looking for pretty much the same thing as you Haribokart, just with a lower budget of say ?700-?800.

I don't really want too much of a downgrade from my current PC though. What kind of processor should I be looking for to match a 2.8GHz dual Core P4? (It's a Pentium D 820 I think)

Sorry for the thread hijack!

[Mofoman]

Dell Inspirion 1501 with Dual core Turion, awesome laptop , I just got a few in today and they are lightning quick and the Sata drives are just gorgeous, the thing is silent too, which makes a huge difference, and it is more than capable of Vista premium.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_better?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

Have a look at these, and if buying the Inspirion, get 1gb of ram, and the better screen. It also comes with the option to upgrade to Vista for thirty quid or something.Trust me if your not using the machine for game's these are massively impressive laptop's for the price, and the Turion dual core processor's are really good, obviously the Core 2's are better, but the difference is pretty minimal is the majority of application's.

[Flompy]

Dell Inspirion 1501 with Dual core Turion, awesome laptop , I just got a few in today and they are lightning quick and the Sata drives are just gorgeous, the thing is silent too, which makes a huge difference, and it is more than capable of Vista premium.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_better?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

Have a look at these, and if buying the Inspirion, get 1gb of ram, and the better screen. It also comes with the option to upgrade to Vista for thirty quid or something.Trust me if your not using the machine for game's these are massively impressive laptop's for the price, and the Turion dual core processor's are really good, obviously the Core 2's are better, but the difference is pretty minimal is the majority of application's.

Thankyou, just had a look- it's just what I need. Do you think these are the ideal options or would you say I don't need some of them?

PROCESSOR AMD? Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL56
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista? Home Premium
HARDWARE SUPPORT Collect & Return, 90 Day Service only
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen XGA TFT Display with TrueLife? 1280x800
MEMORY 2048MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
HARD DRIVE 120GB (5,400 rpm) Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
GRAPHICS CARD ATI Radeon? Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory?
PRIMARY BATTERY 6 Cell, 56Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Mini Card18

Only thing I didn't understand really was the difference between the wireless cards (either Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band 802.11a/b/g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Wireless or Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Mini Card18).

Also, what is the difference in battery? These are the options: 6 Cell, 56Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery - 4Cell 29WHr Primary battery - 9 Cell, 85Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery) The first 2 are the same price with the latter being ?20 extra. I'd like it to use as little electricity as possible and would only take it off the plug every now & then to browse the net from bed, watch an episode of something downloaded etc so a couple of hours life would be fine.

Would I need that memory & processor? Sorry to be so dumb, last time I bought a laptop when XP came out I just walked into Dixons and picked up the first one I saw and got quite stung..

[Dogg Thang]

Okay I'm going to use this thread too if it's okay. Help me! - there are TOO MANY LAPTOPS!

How can I possibly know which one I should go for?

Here's what I need - preferably lightweight (I'm flexible on that though), DVD drive/burner, bigass hard drive, very good graphics capabilities (not for playing games, for creating graphics and video editing etc), good sound (for basic sound editing), built in wi-fi and all that malarky.

Now, as you can see, graphics is a focus. But now I'm seeing these 'tablet' PC thingies. Would these mean that I wouldn't also need my Wacom tablet? Do they do the same job or are they not up to that standard yet? Should I just be looking at a high end VAIO or something? They have lovely screens but I've heard battery life is pretty poor.

I won't say money is no object but I'm looking to go top end here so I won't be left wanting as my needs go on. I reckon for good processing power, large hard drive and good graphics capabilities I'm going to have to pay quite a bit.

Any advice? There seems to be so many laptops from so many makers, I really have no idea what to go for.

[Flompy]

The Dell I got is stunning, a beautiful piece of hardware. I'd strongly say to go for it!