Laptop questions..

jen_br

So I need to get a new laptop.. sadly my dell hasn't lived up to the previous acer I had.

Anyway, a few things im a bit of a picky laptop shopper and Ive never bought a laptop in the UK so I don't know where to go or who has better deals.

I don't like macs.. so thats out.

Im not a fan of windows 7 XP is my friend (not into change much) but i do have a copy of XP so if it doesn't come with it its not a big deal

Must have -- Mic, webcam and bluetooth. -- my dell and acer had all these and im not sure if its just me but I can't seem to find one like this.

Does anyone have suggestions?

hemophobic

What are you planning on using it for and what is your budget?

You could always get one of these bluetooth adapters http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158628

kwikbreaks

I'll just comment on the side issues...

You'll have trouble finding a new machine with XP. At some point XP won't run properly because you won't be able to get drivers for something or other so you may as well bite the bullet now and move on to Win 7.

Webcam + mic I thought were very common. If your choice of machine is only lacking bluetooth there are dirt cheap (like a couple of quid delivered) half moon shaped USB ones which work perfectly - check eBay/Amazon if you find yourself in this position.

jen_br

Yeah I know I can get a USB dongle... it just makes me sad with technology moving forward you would think this would be standard no?-- I know ebuyer sells the dongles and I think my husband has one.. I just dont see why I need to use up one of my USB for such a common feature?

I know its standard in my old dell!

And you think Mic would be standard.. but again looked up an acer at argos.. no mic! weird eh?

Uses-- I do a lot of home based typing I do a lot of reports needs to be reliable keyboard, good on the internet.. Im not a gamer so I don't need that.

Budget under 500.00 would be great.

And fair point about windows 7 GACK I hate change.. I loved 98 and if I could stay on it forever I would have lol...

westferret

http://www.aceroutlet.com/PRD_ProductDetail.aspx?cid=361&prodid=4662&Product=Aspire-5942G---4GB---320GB---Win-7----15.6---WCam---BTooth---BluRay

It is over your budget but is a damn good laptop and has all the features you want as well as bluray player.

jen_br

that is nice!! -- I think im going to just get a dongle.. it seems im paying 100+ for BT feature.. which is odd but cest le vie!!

http://www.aceroutlet.com/PRD_ProductDetail.aspx?cid=357&prodid=4452&Product=Aspire-5538---3GB---250GB---Win-7-Premium---15.6---WCam

that looked nice.. not bad in price. but ive never had an AMD always intel... thoughts?

lucylucky

If you don't like Wndows 7 you could ditch windows altogether and use Linux

jen_br

But I DO love windows... I have tried other OS like linux.. umbunto etc but I prefer windows as for work it has what I need and its easy to use.

I just hate change lol--- and 7 is change from XP and I love XP

closed

What's wrong with your Dell and Acer?

jen_br

The acer was many years ago and died on me the screen went and it was too expenive to fix ... so I bought a Dell in australia when i was down there... the dell is old.. starting to act its age.. not very fast anymore.. and the keyboard is shagged.. (a lot of travelling and over use!) its just time.

I need to move into the future lol

closed

keyboards are cheap, and speed is easily fixed by reinstalling windows from the recovery partition, or cutting down on the bloat loaded at startup - post a hijackthis log, commit charge from task manager, and installed ram. Machines don't get slower over time.