Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Aiadi

BOBS wrote: »

Went to get Lenovo at Argos and it was out of stock -typical - came back on here yesterday and read through threads again and decided I would take chance and have today ordered this one off argos ebay .....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOSHIBA-L500-15-6IN-LAPTOP-V1-REFURB-/350380933769?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH#ht_2053wt_937
...... thought I have nothing to loose with 12 months warranty and saving £100+ thought they have it listed twice on their ebay site - £239.99 which i went for and exactly same product at £338.99 - anyone know why they do this?

Did you try reserving one before going to pick it up? The one from eBay is cheaper as it is refurbished and also as it is a bit more hassle to sort things out if it is not up to your expectations.

BOBS

Yeah Aiadi I had reserved it but didnt manage to pick up in time and was stupidly kinda hopeful it would still be there !! but hopefully the one off argos clearance is ok - esp looking at savings - they give 12 months warranty so that can only be a good thing.

thelawnet

baldmosher wrote: »

Has anyone further up the thread mentioned any smaller (12") laptops? 30 pages is a lot of reading... :-D

It'll all be out-dated.

The article is quite confusing

"Laptops come in many shapes and sizes,"

it says, but then exclusively lists big, heavy 15.6"ers. These devices are not portable, and they all have low-res (for the size) 1366x768 screens.

It's all very well having a 293-minute battery life, but then a big heavy laptop - you're not going to be lugging it around, so the battery life is of little relevance.

Re small laptops & netbooks, the Intel Atom CPU is normally the one used, and it's to be avoided if it all possible. Of course that will cost more £££. Anything other than the Atom will be better, although check battery life.

Generally no DVD drives with these devices, you can get an external one for those rare occasions when you need it though.

Try the Acer Aspire 1410, £310 here http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-1410-refurbished-laptop-04036608-pdt.html

1.35kg, and 11.6" 1366x768 screen - a nice piece of kit

Try also the Samsung X120 http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001801&langId=-1&searchTerms=SAMSUNG+X120

Or the MSI Wind U200 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Laptops/Netbooks/MSI+Wind+12+U200+12.1"+Netbook+?productId=40479 (don't get the AMD or Atom version)

Or the Acer Ferrari One http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/101806/acer-ferrari-one-200-312g25n-netbook-pc-lx-frc02-005

Very fast, but consequently poor battery life.

pistjordy

I've been trawling sites for the last few months for the best sub-£350 laptop. My preferences were: 15" screen, Intel dual processor, Windows 7 OS.

Best I've found is at eBuyer a Lenovo Ideapad G550 at £349.97, with IMO a better spec than that listed on this weeks E-mail (although £50 more):

Available at eBuyer - product 201750

Intel Pentium Dual Core T4400 2.2GHz
3GB RAM
250GB HDD
15.6" TFT
DVD Writer
Windows 7 Home Premium

We use Lenovo at work and are good machines.

electrodent

Hi Guys,

Didn't think it was worth starting a new thread and was wondering if anyone can help me...

I'm looking for a new (or refurb) laptop (given the specs probably not sub 350). It'll be for two uses, one is surf the net, watch BBC iplayer etc - no big requirements here. But the other will be to support my hobby in photography. So I'm thinking it'll need:

large harddrive - in a year I've taken over 60 gig worth of photos
decent processor - to deal with photoshop and similar photo software
dedicated graphics card - to accurately process images
decent screen - this one is tricky. I would like a screen that accurately shows the image colours. When I look at my photos on my work laptop compared to my home laptop the shades of colours are slightly different. Is this solely based on the graphics card or is part of it the screen make? When I went into PC world they were pretty unhelpful pointing me out to the HD screens which isn't the same thing.

Can anyone point my in the right direction (any advice on make), give me hints, or let me know if I need to think about anything else. Any help if not for the screen for the other points gratefully received.

thelawnet

electrodent wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Didn't think it was worth starting a new thread and was wondering if anyone can help me...

I'm looking for a new (or refurb) laptop (given the specs probably not sub 350). It'll be for two uses, one is surf the net, watch BBC iplayer etc - no big requirements here. But the other will be to support my hobby in photography. So I'm thinking it'll need:

large harddrive - in a year I've taken over 60 gig worth of photos

What are you storing them on now? One location is not enough.

decent processor - to deal with photoshop and similar photo software

Yes.

dedicated graphics card - to accurately process images

Not really. All graphics, integrated or discrete are 'accurate', a dedicated one is needed only for games/3d. Modern versions of Windows do make (moderate) use of 3d, which means that a discrete one can help a little, but a discrete graphics card will cost more and use more power. It shouldn't be a priority.

decent screen - this one is tricky. I would like a screen that accurately shows the image colours. When I look at my photos on my work laptop compared to my home laptop the shades of colours are slightly different. Is this solely based on the graphics card or is part of it the screen make? When I went into PC world they were pretty unhelpful pointing me out to the HD screens which isn't the same thing.

Yes this is actually very tricky. As you have noticed the PC World staff are clueless about colour accuracy. So most laptop manufacturers use cheap LCD panels. For good colour, what you need is an IPS panel, but these are very rare, and basically no longer produced for laptops.

Can anyone point my in the right direction (any advice on make), give me hints, or let me know if I need to think about anything else. Any help if not for the screen for the other points gratefully received.

How much money have you got?

Have you considered perhaps buying a desktop computer instead?

Something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003R7K332

as a screen is going to be more suitable for photo editing than any laptop.

If you want an IPS laptop check ebay,

e.g.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X61-Tablet-L7500-SXGA-IPS-Flexview-/130414167088
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130407468375
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T60P-T60-P-notebook-15-screen-/260651981213

Or there is the HP 8740w with the optional Dreamcolor display. I think it's about £3,000 Some illustrations here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebook-news-reviews/503121-hp-8740w-review-full-metal-jacket.html#post6512737

JDPower

thelawnet wrote: »

Or there is the HP 8740w with the optional Dreamcolor display. I think it's about £3,000 Some illustrations here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebook-news-reviews/503121-hp-8740w-review-full-metal-jacket.html#post6512737

Ooh, that's nice :drool:

electrodent

thelawnet wrote: »

What are you storing them on now? One location is not enough.

Yes.

Not really. All graphics, integrated or discrete are 'accurate', a dedicated one is needed only for games/3d. Modern versions of Windows do make (moderate) use of 3d, which means that a discrete one can help a little, but a discrete graphics card will cost more and use more power. It shouldn't be a priority.

Yes this is actually very tricky. As you have noticed the PC World staff are clueless about colour accuracy. So most laptop manufacturers use cheap LCD panels. For good colour, what you need is an IPS panel, but these are very rare, and basically no longer produced for laptops.

How much money have you got?

Have you considered perhaps buying a desktop computer instead?

Something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003R7K332

as a screen is going to be more suitable for photo editing than any laptop.

If you want an IPS laptop check ebay,

e.g.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X61-Tablet-L7500-SXGA-IPS-Flexview-/130414167088
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130407468375
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T60P-T60-P-notebook-15-screen-/260651981213

Or there is the HP 8740w with the optional Dreamcolor display. I think it's about £3,000 Some illustrations here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebook-news-reviews/503121-hp-8740w-review-full-metal-jacket.html#post6512737

Thanks thelawnet, very helpful :j
I've thought about a desktop, but that would mean some rearranging of my place which isn't very practical at the moment. It would also mean issues around getting internet connection as the wireless box would not be near the desktop - do desktops come with a wireless receiver these days?? I also like the flexibility of a laptop but do recognise I could probably get a better screen for the money with a desktop. I guess I could do both, buy a laptop that allows me flexibility etc, but a dedicated screen that allows me to do photo editing.

Budget - no real fixed budget. Like most I want to pay as little as possible and I was looking around the £600 mark but am happy to pay more for the right piece of gear.

Photos currently stored on two separate external harddrives, I'm pretty good at backing things up. Unless there is a house fire they should be safe.

Are there any other screens I should be looking at other than IPS? Is there any particular make which are better then others? The other thing I will need is a SD slot - what should I be looking out for?

As for the HP laptop, more money on IT equipment means less money on camera lenses

KoughKandi_2

Netbooks from £179 @ Tescos!

greybot_boogie

Although they are cheap, I don't think that those laptops suggested my money saving expert are very good at all, I would stay clear. I've worked in the IT industry for 10 years, and have experience of dealing with and repairing those types of laptops. They are aimed at entry level users, and are not designed for powerful applications and/or high usage. The components and chip-sets used are usually very cheap, and the power supplies and motherboards are forever failing. I personally would not buy ANY the following brands:- Compaq, HP, E-Machines or Advent. (Also stay clear of anything from Lenovo under £500)
Compaq, HP and Lenovo (who used to be IBM) are all makes we've heard of, but are not industry leaders in that price bracket. My advice would be to look at Acer, Dell or Asus laptops which can be bought from many websites such as ebuyer, laptops direct and dell.
Obviously this is just a personal opinion, but I have seen first hand many times how poorly contructed and how quick to fail those poor brands are.
I'm happy to answer any questions.