£1500 Laptop

bobdauilda

The acer is £1560... This is just getting worse as I have just found out that the Apple mac g5 powerbook with 17" screen can be got for £1860 and can run windows xp with the new bootcamp software from apple thats free!!! ALSO Dell are still doing £200 off the m1710 AND now DOUBLE memory free for this weekend! Combined with quidco cashback this is now the leader again i think!!!AAAAAAAAAAAARRGHHHHHH TOOOOO many choices!!!! The indian call centres do put me off dell as ntl one is a nightmare as are all the others I have encountered. The ROck cpus look v nice but are over £200 more for the equiv spec dell m1710( idon't include the 3yr dell warranty as it is an extra comp to rocks free one...)

carl_east

You won't get Windows XP free with the Apple notebook. You'll get the bootcamp free which is a piece of software that allows you to run windows on the computer. So it will cost you however much it does for Windows. Apple will never include windows with their computers. This bootcamp is a way of getting more people to buy Apples with the hope of people eventually deciding that they prefer the Apple OS and not getting windows the next time they buy an Apple. A long term vision but a very clever one.

All I can say is that you're going way over the top here. Read back your original couple of posts. You only use the thing for email!!!! Any laptop over £800 with a decent graphics card (not a super dooper one) will quite happily HD content sent to your HD screen on the wall. As it will do for music and stuff. And any laptop over £1000 will easily handle all of todays current crop of games.

You are getting lost in all the excitement of getting a new laptop. Do not spend more than the insurance company are going to give you because you don't need to! £1500 is a hell of a lot of laptop. It's just getting silly now. People are obviously trying to live out their laptop fantasies by suggesting top notch machines on the other forum.

bobdauilda

I agree Carl but I may as well futureproof my purchase as much as I can afford to with the cash. I already have a spare full XP OS disc that I could use so thats not a problem. As for just email I may well do a lot of photo and vid editing given the chance and time plus I'd like to have a multimedia machine to use for dvds etc rigging up to the lcd tv ....Its funny but this has rekindled my passion for gadgets and like you say I have been caught up in the IT geek maelstrom!!! YOu only live once eh?!

pigeonpie

As there are many laptops at same spec and price, think it's probably a good idea to go for the one with the best warranty. UK/EU/intl/duration/customer service etc. Hardware is probably most likely to go wrong in the first year.
That's the theory: Dell's is way the best on paper but 3 yrs next business day onsite? :rolleyes:
It appears to be good idea to take the warranty with the manufacturer, unless you buy from a very reputable company like J Lewis.

Also check the returns policy: eg at Selfridges I was told in their (outsourced) PC dept that if you return the PC you will forfeit 50% of price. This seems a very dodgy interpretation of your consumer rights, but only one thing worse than a broken shiny new toy is one you have to have a long fight about.
So when are you going to tell us what you've chosen?!
Acer have good prices>spec: are they really that bad?!

macs are going to become even more Windows friendly soon, or so a mac zealot mournfully tells me. But that's add on software so is not in the budget.
Enjoy the decision!

carl_east

Lol! I know what you mean. But £1500 is going to get you a laptop that is seriously future proofed already. If you ask me forget the Apple idea. You're paying for the look.

Video and photograph editing doesn't really take too much processing power. Most decent laptops will do it. A £1500 laptop will probably do it all for you while you go away and make a cup of tea! If you want to get back into gadgets and like the idea of photo editing then get a new digital camera with the extra money that you were thinking of spending. I've got the Nikon D50 digital SLR and it's amazing. Couple that with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and you're sorted. Or if you want to hook up your flatscreen then there are other things you can spend your money on like some cables. I'm doing the whole flatscreen and laptop thing at the moment because I've just bought a flatscreen. Also, you will need to buy a good wireless laser mouse and keyboard. The logitech Dinovo is very much worth checking out for laptops as it's bluetooth so you don't need a dongle either providing the laptop has bluetooth. The DiNovo desktop package acts as a media centre meaning you can connect your laptop to an amp and use the media pad as a remote control. It has an lcd screen on it to!

As big a technology geek that I am I would not spend more than the insurance company gave you for the laptop. Spend any spare cash that you have on other stuff to help sort your new media centre out.

bobdauilda

So what would you buy then Carl...put you on the spot now!!! Just one option though...so no cheating!! I have all component cables with my lcd hookup etc and a top digi cam and the panasonic NVGS400 video cam so am a bit of a tech geek myself I guess ...although I never reailised until now!!

bobdauilda

oh and the insurance people have now just opted to send me a cheque for the £1500 so all my research may have been in vain!!ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I was going to buy the dell m1710 too!

bobdauilda

The quandry continues......Rock laptops look vsmart but are very expensive......Carl what did you decide on?

John_M_Business

bobdauilda wrote:

The quandry continues......Rock laptops look vsmart but are very expensive......Carl what did you decide on?

The Rocks are more expensive than the Dell... and not as nice or reliable. I'd choose Dell over Rock any day. They are also notoriously unreliable on delivery times. I've had to back off from ordering a Rock... they told me at very short notice (hours!!) that there would be a 2-3 week delay. Not very impressed.

Malestrom

bobdauilda wrote:

...I am steering well clear of sony from now on as their customer service stinks.

Don't even contemplate a Dell then, their CS also stinks, is mostly based in India and it is incredibly difficult to get anything achieved with them. I wouldn't touch ANY Dell no matter what others recommend and certainly not for that sort of money.