Choosing Laptop...Tonight (i hope!) - Advice? :)

Spend

Posted in the sub-£350 powerful laptops thread, but not getting much interest. So, posting here instead.

If this is considered duplicating (that one is a post in thread), then mods please delete that one... (newbie here)

Ok, I will make this post as detailed as possible, and hopefully some tech savvy moneysaver will have the patience to assist

So I have been looking for a laptop for the following use:

General web browsing, emails, pics, youtube, movies, etc. Nothing too heavy and definitely no care for "gaming". I would like it to be reliable and fast; so minimal crashes, etc and no need to buy a new one next year!

Notebooks are a no-go. Mac also far too expensive and a big pain.

So I have been looking at the following type items. All are from currys website, as I would like to first find the type of laptop I need and then I can start browsing other companies for the best deals. Currys site seems to give a good variety to make the right choice.

HP G56-100SA 15.6" - £280
From the experience of many people I know, HP is unreliable, the fan always makes too much noise/doesnt work very well and wont last

Advent Modena M100 15.6" - £290
Celeron 900 processor. Apparently worthless

Advent Modena M200 15.6" - £300
Comparing with the above, this would be a MUCH better deal?
Bigger hard drive, better processor
Celeron T3500 also worthless? No idea..

Samsung NP-S3510-A01UK 15.6" Dual Core - £300
Celeron T3500 also worthless? No idea..
Smaller memory and hard drive than the Toshiba below (C660-119)

Toshiba Satellite C660-119 15.6" - £300
Celeron T3500 also worthless? No idea..
Does that mean Toshiba is better and more reliable than Samsung above?

Toshiba Satellite L655D-133 15.6" - £350 (was £650 apparently)
Dual-core AMD Athlon™ II X2 P320 processor much better?

Acer Aspire 5742Z - £350
Dual-core Intel® Pentium® P6200 processor any good?
In comparison to the Toshiba above, which is best?

ASUS A52F-EX1240V - £400
Intel® Core™ i3-350M processor - best?
In comparison to others, much better?

At this rate, I will be listing all the laptops on the site...

So in general, if specs are relatively similar etc, which is usually best? ACER, ASUS, TOSHIBA, ADVENT or SAMSUNG? Are any worth paying that little bit extra for? What about Sony for lower range. Approx £450.

So many processors, how do you choose??

Celeron 900
Celeron T3500
Dual-core Celeron T3500 processor (different to the above)
Dual-core AMD Athlon™ II X2 P320
Dual-core Intel® Pentium® P6200
Intel® Core™ i3-350M processor
Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor
AMD Dual-Core Processor E-350

The other problem I am having is that I think 15.6" may be too big for me. And as I mentioned earlier, the netbooks are a no go and too small anyway. So, if it wasnt a matter of price, I would definitely get the medium 13"-14" types.

Dont mind spending a little extra, and giving up a little of the specs. Need to strike the balance right.

The cheapest I can find is:

Sony Vaio VPCEA3M1E/B.CEK 14" - £550 (various colours)
Intel® Core™ i3-370M Processor - as discussed above
But I've heard Sonys are rubbish, Vaio in particular, especially the lower range models?
Rubbish battery life and very low reliability?

Toshiba Satellite R630-156 13.3" - £600
Intel® Core™ i3-380M processor
Likely to be more reliable than the Sony above?

Sony Vaio VPCCA1S1E 14" - £650 (various colours)
Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor
Better than the Toshiba above?
worth the extra £100 in comparison to Sony above?

If I wanted to go all out and get this (for heavy use, long life and reliability):

Sony Vaio VPCSB1X9E/s 13.3" - £900
Would I be getting a lot (enough for my money)?
Would I be better off spending that kind of money on a Mac?

I get the feeling no one is going to be fighting to reply to this post! Hope someone can help though...

RussJK

You lack direction young padawan.

Decide for sure:
- what screen size you want
- where you will have the laptop most of the time (e.g. permanently on your desk, wherever you are at home, wherever you are at work)
- what you want to do with it

You can compare the actual performance of the CPUs on this list:
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Spend

RussJK wrote: »

You lack direction young padawan.

Decide for sure:
- what screen size you want
- where you will have the laptop most of the time (e.g. permanently on your desk, wherever you are at home, wherever you are at work)
- what you want to do with it

You can compare the actual performance of the CPUs on this list:
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

I concur..

- WANT: 13"-14" screen size
- WHERE: Portable to use around the house, to take abroad and use on desk, etc. (Hence preference again for smaller size)
- USAGE: browsing, email, web, youtube, movies, etc. Not gaming

CPUs is just one of the things on my list that I dont know much about. I can comapre memory RAM etc fairly well (I think)

However, I may have to forgo the smaller sized laptop if they are offer much less in terms of value for money, which is why I need help particularly with that size range.

If I do have to go for the larger size, then there is a wide range, which is why I asked for help on those...

So, any tips for the 13-14 inch laptops? In comparison to similar 15.52 would be great

Spend

Samsung Q330 - £450

Samsung SF310 - £560

Between these 2, what am I missing the Q330 seems far superior with much better battery life, and bigger hard drive, except for:

- processor I think, (which is not much worse than the latter)
- graphics card (not important for me)

So, is the Samsung Q330 a good buy?

Also any comments on the 13-14" mentioned in original post?

EDIT:

Actually, from what I can see the processor for the Q330 is actually much better than the SF310. So for £110 EXTRA SF310 gets you everything worse, but a better graphics card..

I think I am starting to like this Q330 even more

Spend

Now looking very closely at:

Samsung Q330 - £450

Toshiba Satellite Pro L630-166 - £460 (L630-167 for £520, or L630-15W for £585)

Sony Vaio VPCEA3M1E - £550

Sony Vaio VPCCA1S1E - £605

Ideas, suggestions, recommendations??

Basically am looking now at Toshiba, Sony, Samsung. Leaning towards Samsung Q330 (which I never) expected!

Help?

stilltheone

Buy the cheapest one that actually fits your needs. My laptop cost £240 and I haven't outgrown it yet. My next £240 laptop will probably outperform the laptop that you will purchase today for double.

Spend

stilltheone wrote: »

Buy the cheapest one that actually fits your needs. My laptop cost £240 and I haven't outgrown it yet. My next £240 laptop will probably outperform the laptop that you will purchase today for double.

Which is exactly why I'm seeking some help from those with a little more experience...

Your £240 laptop - what size is it? 13-14" demand greater premium from what I can see.. Only concern is getting one with a price tag as close as possible to the £300 price mark I would probably spend on a 15.6" inch means it may well be a very bad/budget choice...

stilltheone

Spend wrote: »

Which is exactly why I'm seeking some help from those with a little more experience...

Your £240 laptop - what size is it? 13-14" demand greater premium from what I can see.. Only concern is getting one with a price tag as close as possible to the £300 price mark I would probably spend on a 15.6" inch means it may well be a very bad/budget choice...

If you are sharing it with a sibling, what will happen when one of you takes it abroad?
I certainly don't see much point in the smaller screen unless you intend to be travelling a lot.
It seems to me that most of the usage would be at home(if as you say that you are sharing it's usage).

Therefore, my choice would be for a larger screen and a Netbook for travel. Both attainable within budget.

Your criteria simply does not merit an expensive laptop. This is a forum concerned with saving money.

thechippy

I just bought (today) an e-machines E728

3gb ddr ram / 15.6 / 320 hdd / dual core pentium t4500 processor.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=emachine

I've got 4 laptops at the moment and one of them is a 6 year old e-machine which still works fine, in fact it's been the most reliable pc I've ever owned (and it's had quite a hammering)

This new one has better build quality than my Toshiba C660 satellite.
E-machines are now owned by Acer.

It also has a built in webcam, bluetooth, hdmi port.
It's quite impressive for the price. Keyboard is nice as well.

Hope this helps...

Edit.
It also came with free Webroot security (not a trial) and laptop case.

Spend

stilltheone wrote: »

If you are sharing it with a sibling, what will happen when one of you takes it abroad?
I certainly don't see much point in the smaller screen unless you intend to be travelling a lot.
It seems to me that most of the usage would be at home(if as you say that you are sharing it's usage).

Therefore, my choice would be for a larger screen and a Netbook for travel. Both attainable within budget.

Your criteria simply does not merit an expensive laptop. This is a forum concerned with saving money.

When one of us takes it abroad, the other will have to survive using older pc or something, but that is not really relevant.

I have a preference for a smaller screen, which is a choice I've made, so this is what I would like to buy (if its good value)

The original plan was exactly that. Well actually a super PC and netbook for travel. But after careful consideration, we would both like the medium size laptop and thats it.

I dont want an expensive laptop not am I seeking one out. In fact I am using the forum for its purpose, which is to save as much money as possible, on a specific product, namely medium size 13-14" laptop.

So, any tips on saving some money, or getting the most for my money when making said purchase?

Spend

thechippy wrote: »

I just bought (today) an e-machines E728

3gb ddr ram / 15.6 / 320 hdd / dual core pentium t4500 processor.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=emachine

I've got 4 laptops at the moment and one of them is a 6 year old e-machine which still works fine, in fact it's been the most reliable pc I've ever owned (and it's had quite a hammering)

This new one has better build quality than my Toshiba C660 satellite.
E-machines are now owned by Acer.

It also has a built in webcam, bluetooth, hdmi port.
It's quite impressive for the price. Keyboard is nice as well.

Hope this helps...

Edit.
It also came with free Webroot security (not a trial) and laptop case.

Thanks chippy. I had one bad experience with an e machine, so would be hard to spend the cash on one of these!

C660 was one of my options for the larger screens, but am probably going to go for medium size if possible. What was your experience with the toshiba, over say an sony, acer or samsung?