Laptop Advice (Dell or Sony?)

laurenzo99

Please can someone offer some advice on what to buy from;

SONY VGN-NS20E

DELL inspiron 15

DELL studio 15


if you can recommend anything else i would happily consider, however i have been told that Sony and Dell are the 'best' quality

isofa

I'd not say Dell are the best quality at all, however they are very good value for money and I've used them for years.

The best quality laptops by a country mile, in my opinion are: Levono, Apple and Sony, however you pay for quality...

I'd read some reviews, try www.pcpro.co.uk for starters.

Far better that your give us more details, your budget, what you are looking to run and achieve with the laptop, screen size preference, weight preference etc.

laurenzo99

So do you think the SONY VGN-NS20E is a good model?


I would use it for university assignments, storing photos + typical files, i tunes and possibly to play some games (sims 3).

My budget is around £550 and want the 15.X" screen size as anythign bigger is too much to carry around.

Is there anything I need to be aware of apart from the obvious such as RAM and HD space

davester

I have a Studio 15, its great, just avoid having Vista. Dell are doing free upgrade on the 15s to Win 7 too

Thats a recommendation to any Laptop you concider. XP is much better.

No OS X comments its not called for she's asking about SONY AND DELL.

Bufger

I find HP make some excellent quality laptops at a good price. I bought the nx325 (i think thats the model! im on another comp) for £420 2 years ago! Its a fast system.

I agree with dave, stay away from Vista if you can. XP is still a better operating system.

Also please let us know what the use of the laptop will mainly be. There are some laptops better for gaming, some specialise more for graphics/coding and web building etc. We might be able to point you towards the perfect one for your needs if you want to give us that info too.

edit: apologies, i didnt see the requirements you have already posted. It looks like you need a fairly standard laptop with at least 2Gig of RAM for sims. All your other requirements are everyday kind of things. If you download alot of music and videos i wouldnt go under 80gb of HD space either. You have alot of choice for the spec you need.

just did a quick search and found this: http://www.dabs.com/bundleview.aspx?quicklinx=5L22&bdi=1269

It has vista as does everything nowdays but it has 3gb of RAM (vista needs a min of 2 to run in a basic capacity). Lots of storage and comes with a bundle price including laptop bag, memory stick and mouse. Not sure what the price is without but its not a bad spec machine for the price.

edit 2 the bundle is only £10 extra than the normal price. Bargain! I paid £20 alone for my laptop bag, another £24 for my memory stick and a few quid for a mouse.

lolarentt

Too many horror stories about Dell customer service for my liking (including my own experiences although mine were 3 or 4 years ago)

laurenzo99

wow thank you for all getting back to me so quickly.

I'm not really a 'gamer' sims and simple things like that would be the most I'd play and that would be occasionally anywya- does this mean I should look out for a certain type of graphics card.

what does everyone think I should get min RAM and HDcapacity?

P.S I dont download much music- justy CDs into itunes library

davester

I run Sims 3 on my studio 15, if you turn off ageing and keep the story playing out it starts to judder at fast forward, easily fixed with letting peeps die so the town is not over clogged with tons of babies. also don't fill your inventry with 1000s of fruit and fish it seems to lag the switching between sims. I spent a few mins cleaning the town up of my housing creations and selling all my inventry items. works nice and fast again.

Never had an issue with Dell customer service so think it depends on if you unlucky who answers your call or mail. Might as well get 4GB of RAM, I don't think you need huge amounts of Hard drive space 320GB is more than enough for me even with 30GB gone on Windows Vista and recovery files.

cyberbob

Sony Dells build quality is appalling

laurenzo99

how do i know whether a system comes with XP or windows 7 etc?

Is that what i need to buy and upgrade to to getthings like word and excel?

does anyone think anything is wrong with the SONY in terms of what i've siad I'm using it for, here is spec:

Product Details

• Processor: Intel® Pentium® Processor T3400 with Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
• Processor speed: 2.16 (GHz)
• RAM: DDR2 SDRAM (1x2GB, 1x1GB)
• Screen: (Diagonal Size) 15.4" X-black LCD, resolution 1280 x 800, aspect ratio - 16:10
• Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
• Hard Drive: 250GB Serial ATA - 5400 rpm
• Graphics card: Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
• Memory stick slot: Memory Stick™ Std / Duo, Memory Stick™ PRO Std / Duo, high speed data transfer, SD card
• Digital camera: Built-in 'Motion Eye' Digital Camera, Frames per Second 30, Image Sensor 1.3 mega pixels, Motion Pictures max. Resolution 1280x1024 (SXGA)
• Optical Drive: Built-in DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM optical drive
• Interfaces: 4 Pin i.LINK™ (IEEE1394), 400 Mbps x1, DC in x1, Memory Stick™ Slot x 1, Microphone Jack (Stereo) x 1, RJ-11 Direct Port (Modem) x 1, RJ-45 Direct Port (Network) x 1, USB Port 2.0 x 4, VGA Connector for Monitor x 1, Express Card Slot x 1, SD Card Slot x 1
• Connectivity: Built-in Modem V.92/V.90, Integrated Wireless LAN, Ethernet network 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T

• Battery: Lithium-Ion battery (VGP-BPS13B) - Battery Life 225 minutes, Actual battery life will vary depending on your specific hardware and software configurations. Benchmark: MobileMark 2007
• Video & TV software: Me&My VAIO, VAIO Content Importer / Exporter, WinDVD 8 for VAIO, VAIO Movie Story
• Audio software: VAIO Music Box, Windows Media Player 11
• Photo software: Picture Motion Browser, VAIO Movie Story
• CD-DVD burning software: Easy Media Creator 9, Click to Disc/Editor
• Office application software: Adobe® Reader® 8.1, Microsoft® Office Ready 2007 (60 days Try & Buy)
• Security & other software: McAfee® Internet Security Suite (with 60 days free virus update), VAIO Recovery Utility - HDD recovery (hidden partition), Google software package
• Accessories included: AC Adaptor, Battery, Power Cord
• Dimensions: D 270 x H (min - max) 31.4 - 38.0 x W 360mm
• Weight: Weight with Supplied Battery and Supplied Drive (kg) 2.9

davester

• Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

Graphics card is integrated and will use memory from your total RAM allocation.