Buying a laptop for my hubby

ClareEmily

It is my hubby's 40th in Aug and I have been thinking of getting him a decent laptop, at the moment he has a toshiba (cheapish) from PC world which is a complete load of rubbish, he is now getting the blue screen of death, freezing and generally being slow to start up, I have a feeling it is going to go sailing out of the window shortly.

He uses it mainly to download car pics, go on car forums, type some invoices for his taxi business etc, uses it on a daily basis.

I know very little about laptops, my boss has an apple one which is very good.

I want a reliable one that actually lasts longer than a year and not from PC world, how much do you think I need to spend to get a good one with good support included if possible.

I am completely out of my depth here, can anyone help me please.

Many thanks

Clare

gjchester

Before you spend money do a factory restore on the old one if you have the disks, it will clean a lot of crap off it and may help.

Remember to back up everything important first.

hotkee

get one of them Dell latitude - strong sturdy.

I got a toshiba back while - paid over the top - hard disk went and under warranty had it replaced. Gave the laptop to my bro later on.

On ebay i got a second hand dell latitude (dont recommend second hand but suits me) - its from 2004 and i got it in 2007 second hand. Works fine for what i want - and am impressed by the dell machine.

For strong performance and reliability i therefore recommend dell latitude notebook and relatively cheap from dell direct.

isofa

You could buy a nice Apple MacBook as you are familiar with them but they aren't cheap, but are great quality and fantastic devices. Have a look on the Apple website, or John Lewis, or Apple stores.

For PCs, you'll be hard to beat a good Dell laptop for speed vs quality, best Dell deals listed here: www.dmxdimension.co.uk

Latitude are the business quality laptops (now Vostros), whereas the cheaper are more up-to-date specs are found on the Inspiron models.

Ninty

www. ebuyer .com/product/164845 (remove the spaces from the link)

I recently bought this for £400 and its pretty good. Certainly good enough for what you said he uses it for.

Does he really need a laptop though? I realize they are more convenient but you could pick up a desktop machine with similar specs for less money.

timbim_2

isofa wrote: »

Latitude are the business quality laptops (now Vostros), whereas the cheaper are more up-to-date specs are found on the Inspiron models.

By that are you referring to the addition of the vostro alongside the latitude in the business market? Vostro certainly aren't replacing latitude.

KeithP

OP, I have always been impressed by Novatech's products.
They have a showroom in Portchester... not very far from you.

johncolescarr

Whats your budget?

Think about what he'll use if for and choose one that best meets his needs. Apples are great machines, but expensive. They tend to be popular with photographers and graphic designers as they have good components and media software

First, decide what size, a smaller machine (13inch screen or less) is better if you carry it about, but tend to be more difficult to use for long periods. If its not moved around much and justs sits on the table, you may want to have a bigger screen (15-17 inch or higher). 15 inch is the most common.

Then decide what spec you'll need, if your husband does lots of photo work, you may want a better processor and graphics card (I'd say about a 2GHz core 2 duo or similar processor and a 128-256Mb dedicated graphics card). A good integrated graphics card will be ok if your budget wont allow for these more expensive cards. I dont imagine he plays loads of games, but if he does, then better spec would be needed and I couldn't offer any advice!

If he saves lots of photos then a reasonable hard drive is good, unless he's got an external drive already. (I'd say anywhere between 160-320GB is a good size)

I find the in built card readers good for using with cameras, so i'd go with one of these (most have these nowadays)

Also, a good screen is useful when editing and viewing photos, I really like the glossy types for viewing graphics. For a 15 inch widescreen screen, 1280x800 is ok, but with bigger screens, you need a more detailed display. Big screens will almost always come with a more detailed display

HDMI output is only necessary if he is going to connect the laptop to a HD TV or device. Blu ray is also only important if he is going to use it to watch or record blu ray stuff, or play it on the TV. A DVD R/W is useful to have so I'd make sure any laptop has this.

Almost all laptops come with wireless, but check just in case. Even if you dont have wireless Internet I'd still get it as it means you can get the Internet when away and also use it if you do get wireless

If he uses it away from home, then a big battery is better (9 cell or bigger), otherwise a normal 6 cell battery is fine

Webcam is only necessary if he uses skype or similar applications that need a webcam, you can always get an external one.

Bluetooth is good if you want to pair phones and PDAs etc with your machine, most people dont use this as cables are quicker and most devices now use Wi-Fi.

I'd stick to the better brands if you want a long term machine. I'm personally a fan of Dell and they also offer support packages if you need support. Never used it myself but heard its very good!

Just spilled my brains out, hope its useful

John

isofa

timbim wrote: »

By that are you referring to the addition of the vostro alongside the latitude in the business market? Vostro certainly aren't replacing latitude.

Vostros have replaced latitudes in the small business market sector of dell. Latitudes are still marketed at the mid-end/corporate (which accounts for a large % of their sales) and Precisions have replaced Latitudes in the high end market.

davetrousers

KeithP wrote: »

OP, I have always been impressed by Novatech's products.
They have a showroom in Portchester... not very far from you.

Donning my pedantic hat, they are in Cosham

ClareEmily

Thank you very much folks this has been REALLY helpful going to print off and have a good read, much appreciated.