Please help with sourcing laptops for my workplace?

DCodd

!!!!!!!!! wrote: »

Hi, I have been asked to purchase 4 laptops for managers at work. They will replace desktops and need to be running or have the option to downgrade to win XP.

The brief is that they are ideally glossy black in appearance, don't need blu ray necessarily, but do need at least 2mb of RAM, at least 160GB, if not 250GB and ideally around a 17inch screen.

I've looked at Samsung R710's but they only are available with Vista and seem to be aimed at the home market rather than business?

I'd say a spend of up to £500 for each one....

Any ideas?

For office applications I would always go for Lenovo, 15.4 in screen, if they need bigger for graphics or spreadsheets etc then buy a monitor and maybe a docking staion to plug into when at their desk.

Lenovo R or T series are strong, light, reliable and come with Vista Business whic is downgradeable to XP Pro (as are all Vista Business machines).

Buying 4 at a time from a decent supplier you should get R series for £550 or less (ex VAT)

timbim_2

!!!!!!!!! wrote: »

Why the Vostro and not any of the other ranges?

Because they're made for small business. The Latitude is for bigger networks and almost certainly over the top, and the inspiron/XPS don't come with XP downgrade, added to which they're aimed at the home market.

macman

I would opt for 3GB of RAM (and not worry about the glossy black finish). Definitely Vostro.

angelfire

Thankyou for your suggestions Guys! I'd almost settled on the Vostro, then one of the managers for whom I'm buying has stated they don't like Dell, they prefer Acer?! :rolleyes:

What to do?!

macman

Perhaps your managers should stop interfering-if they've asked you to source them with such a vague brief, they should let you do so. Ask him on what basis Acer is a better than Dell-you won't get a coherent answer I'm sure.
Or buy 3 Dell and an Acer and then he has only himself to blame..

timbim_2

I wouldn't buy an acer for that, in my experience the build quality isn't fantastic, the vostro is much more secure.

MX5huggy

:mad:Managers and there laptops:mad: why I don't do IT any more at least they have not asked for Mac's yet or they can always find a better deal in Tesco's! Yet they let their staff struggle on with some 486 with an old ink jet printer printing 400 letters a day.

wakandem

Go for a lenovo as they are excellent and made for business or as the others have said go for dell. Look at HP their business stuff is ok but don't touch acer, samsung or any others for that matter !

seatzie

if you go for dell don't forget to um...cough......use quidco or pigsback or other cashback........and of course I k now you'll pass any cashback back into the business ahem............

seatzie

yeah and ask the other managers and they won't like acer or whatever you buy.........at the end of the day, value for money, ease of support and what backup you get should things go wrong will be your important things I think, Dells business manager concept was good for me when I was in your position, managed to squeeze a free backup drive out of them.........

!!!!!!!!! wrote: »

Thankyou for your suggestions Guys! I'd almost settled on the Vostro, then one of the managers for whom I'm buying has stated they don't like Dell, they prefer Acer?! :rolleyes:

What to do?!