Best laptop for around £800-£1000

Marty_J

anewhope wrote: »

It was in relation to the point you raised below, and wondering what Mac exclusive software you considered to be industry standard?

The Mac software I mentioned. Logic Pro, Final Cut Studio, and Aperture. All of them are widely used in their respective industries, and all of them are only available for the Mac.

Scrilla

The scope of this topic is to offer laptop advice for someone who wants it for small business. How about helping ISIOTB instead of taking this OT (or OTT depending on how you view this thread)?

To the OP:
flossy_splodge has provided a link to aldi for a decent 16" laptop for just shy of £500. If small business is what you're after, it may meet your needs whilst being very cost effective. There are some people who don't like Medion though. I'd advise only getting this if you feel you would not need any customer support. It would give you some extra money in your pocket for a desktop monitor if you should wish, although I must say 16" is a little large for a laptop.

davidmt83 I feel gave you a good list of laptops to chose from within your price range. Dell is also reputable and offers good customer support if you need it. Again, I would only look at the sub £800 for your needs.

To the stubborn PC/Mac comparison crowd:
Go away or help the OP. I've never owned a 'PC', always owned Mac and I'm still recommending PC. Each has their merits. Each has their disadvantages. Each person has their preference and the OP has stated his preference is PC. Should the OP ask for advice on choosing Mac or PC, then by all means provide it in a helpful and non-bickering fashion.

Marty_J

Scrilla wrote: »

To the stubborn PC/Mac comparison crowd:
Go away or help the OP. I've never owned a 'PC', always owned Mac and I'm still recommending PC. Each has their merits. Each has their disadvantages. Each person has their preference and the OP has stated his preference is PC. Should the OP ask for advice on choosing Mac or PC, then by all means provide it in a helpful and non-bickering fashion.

Good grief, the thread got a bit off topic (as it always does when the word "Apple" is mentioned), but there's no need to tell people to go away, nor is there any need to instruct them on how to conduct themselves.

Now, is there any reason why a Dell Vostro wouldn't suit the OP's needs?

Leopard

Scrilla wrote: »

To the stubborn PC/Mac comparison crowd:
Go away or help the OP. I've never owned a 'PC', always owned Mac and I'm still recommending PC. Each has their merits. Each has their disadvantages. Each person has their preference and the OP has stated his preference is PC. Should the OP ask for advice on choosing Mac or PC, then by all means provide it in a helpful and non-bickering fashion.

I missed the bit where you explained that you are now an officially-appointed Moderator on here with nearly 40 postings to your credit.

Are you in the Army or do you teach at a Primary school?

Scrilla

Leopard wrote: »

I missed the bit where you explained that you are now an officially-appointed Moderator on here with nearly 40 postings to your credit.

Are you in the Army or do you teach at a Primary school?

Apologies for your misunderstanding, but I must have missed the memo which states a person's post count directly correlates to the validity of that person's opinion/advice. I'm certainly not against some witty banter and discussions which may digress from the OP, but I also recognise if I was the poster I would be reading through 45 posts where only a minority of them relate to the original question. Oh, I am a Secondary school teacher if the question needed answering.:rotfl:

Marty_J wrote: »

Now, is there any reason why a Dell Vostro wouldn't suit the OP's needs?

Looks good for ISIOTB's needs to me. I think you (ISIOTB) just need to have a look around the Dell website and see what tickles your fancy.

Leopard

Scrilla wrote: »

Apologies for your misunderstanding, but I must have missed the memo which states a person's post count directly correlates to the validity of that person's opinion/advice. I'm certainly not against some witty banter and discussions which may digress from the OP, but I also recognise if I was the poster I would be reading through 45 posts where only a minority of them relate to the original question. Oh, I am a Secondary school teacher if the question needed answering.:rotfl:

Scrilla,

When you get to rule the world, or even this forum, those who post to it will acknowledge your right to tell others on here what to do.

Until then, you would do well to remember that we're not in your school class, you aren't our teacher and you have no authority whatsoever to issue instructions to us.

On here, M'a'm, you're just another pupil. Unless and until you manage to grasp that fact and come to terms with it you just make yourself ridiculous by issuing pompous orders to the rest of us - who will simply ignore them (and you).

Capice?

sleepyj

I don't understand why people feel the need to argue like this on an internet forum

Anyway, back to the topic, one of the things to consider with your purchase is the warranty, particularly as laptops are prone to all sorts of problems - I use mine a lot as you do for work, and many of mine has died due to silly wear and tear things such as the power plug coming away from the motherboard and you're looking at £100 for a really pitiful repair, not to mention the time it takes to get it done if you're out of warranty and having to organise it all yourself, it's a real hassle. Laptops aren't generally designed for durability.

With that sort of money spend on a laptop you may wish to consider spending 700 on the laptop and 100-200 on a 2-3 year extended warranty. I don't think the extra 100-200 is going to get you much in terms of specs but will certainly help in getting your laptop picked up, fixed and speedily returned if there's a problem. For this I would recommend that samsung do very good warranties at good value, although there are probably many others out there

I picked up a laptop for work with a budget in similar price bracket and decided that splashing out on a warranty was much more justified over a small increase in speed or hard disk space, and when it came to looking at what the best warranty was I found that the samsung one was the best - some manufacturers don't even offer these types of warranties.

prowla

As a business user, if you are VAT registered, then you can deduct that, and also depreciate it.

But the question of "best" is a big one, and impossible to answer.

Perhaps an approach is to list the criteria:
- Screen size.
- Display resolution.
- Processor speed.
- Memory.
- Hard disk.
- Removable media (CD/DVD/floppy).
- Weight.
- Applications you need to run.
- Price.
- Warranty.
- etc.

When I went through that exercise a year or so back, I ended up with a Dell because I wanted a hi-res display above all (mine is 1900x1200).

Marty_J

Scrilla wrote: »

I'm certainly not against some witty banter and discussions which may digress from the OP, but I also recognise if I was the poster I would be reading through 45 posts where only a minority of them relate to the original question.

Well in our collective defence, and with all due respect to the OP, this thread is now three days old, three pages long and contains 50 posts, only three of which are from the OP.

Over a dozen different laptops have been suggested, and the only one to elicit a response from the OP was the MacBook Pro, which they didn't want.

Aside from that, we've gone from wanting to buy a laptop to wanting to buy a 15-inch laptop. That, I'm sure you'll agree, is a rather open-ended proposition with many possible choices.

We could sit here until the end of time suggesting laptops, but unless the OP is inclined to offer any feedback, it's a rather fruitless endeavour and as such, it's hardly surprising that the thread has drifted recklessly off-topic.

Unless the OP feels up to helping us find a laptop, there isn't really a topic to be had.

Scrilla

Leopard wrote: »

When you get to rule the world, or even this forum, those who post to it will acknowledge your right to tell others on here what to do.

Every post I have made to this topic has been to try in some way to help the OP. Perhaps "Go away or help the OP" was a bit raucous, but I intended it to be. I guess I could have said something like "How about helping ISIOTB instead of taking this off topic?"... but I already said that.

It's amazing how much of that particular post is lost due to tunnel vision. Take out the words "Go away or help the OP" and read my post again. See how much of a difference it makes.

Regardless of your opinion of myself at this point in time, my intentions in each post could not be clearer. Post count, join date etc means nothing to me. You could be the local PC repair pro whom everyone turns to when they have a problem and still be the worst person to ask to resuscitate my keyboard who lost to my coffee. Although my perception of you thus far is of an individual who himself is pompous and dogmatic, I'm a certain you are able to offer a sound opinion on certain topics. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to see that side of you.

Marty_J wrote: »

Well in our collective defence, and with all due respect to the OP, this thread is now three days old, three pages long and contains 50 posts, only three of which are from the OP.

I think the OP has been consistent in viewing this topic for help. Maybe he stopped after his most recent post here because he wasn't getting the responses he wanted, didn't want to wade through the non relevant conversation, hasn't had time to check or some other reason. Don't know and the reason is irrelevant to your defence because we were off topic long before he "stopped" looking.

Anyhow, this is where I drop the matter. (Collective) You vs me is not the reason why I post.

I must disagree with your assessment the OP was not inclined to give any feedback - each of his posts clearly show he has understood the more relevant posts and clarified his needs, although perhaps in less detail than we may desire to fully advise him. The lack of detail may simply mean he's less knowledgeable than the likes of yourself with computers and thus needs more general guidance.

In the spirit of myself still trying to help the OP, I would suggest the following two computers to choose from as general guidance:
Aldi: 16" screen, 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, good graphics, HD video. Very good value at just under £500.
Dell: 15.4" screen, 2.53 Ghz Core 2 duo processor, 4 GB RAM, 320GB HD, good graphics. Just under £600.

Aldi's one is slower, but good if you want it for multimedia as well (HD DVD and so on). Dell's one is faster, more expensive but not a media machine like Aldi's. One thing to note is the Dell has a lower battery life, but you can upgrade it on the site if you want. Additionally, the Dell laptop will increase in price on the 25th of this month (currently has a £50 discount). As powla said, you will be able to claim back the VAT too as a business user.