£1000 for a lew laptop but which one?

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Duncan.F

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My laptop, Sony Vaio has gone wrong again. It's had two hard drives with the attendant grief and pain and I have had enough. So I have up to a grand, what do you suggest? Sony seem to have a good rep, although not with me. I just have no idea and would appreciate some guidance from those who know!

Ta

Dunc
 
ive never liked sony laptops.

andy (arad85) keeps banging on about a i7 sandybridge based dell laptop he bought recenty which is a pretty good spec for the cash (£900 approx?), might be worth having a search through his posts to find which model it was.

or he'll be along soon id bet to rant on about it.. :p
 
What do you want it for? As your sole computer / light carry around machine?
 
Might be worth looking at the Dell Outlet store, as a lot of £8-900 laptops are reduced by almost £300 just because they have something ridiculous wrong with them like a scratch on the casing or something.

There are a lot of xps 15" machines on there with sandybridge processors for under £600.
 
Girlfriend just ordered us a couple of laptops last few days HP ones quad core amd, 6gb ram, 17.3" screen, 2 x 750gb hard drives, ati graphics card for £720. The i7 version direct from HP was £800 but due to HP being idiots and refusing the sale for no reason then giving my girlfriend the run around play got the order instead.
 
If I had £1,000 to spend on a laptop I'd want a gold leaf covered one with diamond encrusted keyboard.

Personally I've never spent more than £300 on a laptop and they have always worked fine. I have a £400 desktop that is quicker for the photo editing but I suppose if you want proper speed on the move then a very high spec laptop is the way to go.
 
Would you consider going for a Mac? MacBook Air's are pretty good....
 
Went into PC World today for a look around [yes i hate the place to!] and nearly bought a 15" mac! Seems a much better bit of kit but too a deep breath and walked away.
I do have a desk top but its sloooow and i mainly use it for invoicing and email when my laptop braks down. So the new laptop will be used around the house, i don't travel with it.
What i am struggling with is comparing Mac v windows Laptop performance and reliablity wise.....

Dunc
 
Duncan.F said:
What i am struggling with is comparing Mac v windows Laptop performance and reliablity wise.....

Dunc
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can-o-worms.gif


Depends if you prefer the Mac OS really. I have 13" Macbook and love it. Depends if you really want to stay windows or not. I find the Macbook very well built, not had top end Windows laptop so can't compare, but I do love my macbook.
 
ding76uk said:
Depends if you prefer the Mac OS really.
Click to expand...

Yep. Hardware wise you're talking Canon or Nikon. Really nothing in it these days. Mac v PC debates are outdated by about 15 years, when there really were different machines.

A Mac will generally be well set-up out of the box for general use, where a PC is a whole bigger market with so many options it can be very confusing. But if you know what you want..

Aside from that, it's which operating system you prefer.
 
If you want something ultra portable but with still half decent power/performance consider the samsung 900. very nice and sleek (macbook air size) but more powerful windows machine and very nice screen.
 
I have had my MacBook 5 years, never had a single problem. Never crashed and still runs just as fast as day one.

Before the MacBook I had gone through 3 windows laptops in the about the same time. So consider I've saved money in the long run.

Just upgraded to lion and love it.

Use windows at work which I have no problem with, however if I had a choice I would use mac all the time.
 
I went with a Dell XPS 15" with full HD screen and a quad core i7-3620QM processor, 8G memory and 750Gb HDD. £930 all in and yes, I love it (I'm currently in Utah editing photos on it now, and whilst it's not as fast as my i7 based desktop, it's handling 5D2 RAW images quite easily). Full HD screen makes a heck of a difference too - screen real-estate is important for editing images.

@-Rob- I used to be like you and would buy the cheapest laptop.... Until I started to process RAW images on it.
 
Just bought a 13'" Macbook Pro. It's a very fast impressive machine and just in your budget.
 
Once you buy a Mac you'll never go back.

Best kit out there I am biased though ;-)
 
Im sure almost any laptop for that price will be fine

1 Year ago i spent £900 on a quad core 17" lappie with 4gb ram and its a beast, god only knows what a current machine would be like

(the clue IMO is is to get a very good dedicated graphics card)
 
Another in the mac camp here. Had a Rock gaming laptop a few years ago and was very happy at the time. I'm now using a macbook pro 17" and wouldn't dream of returning to windows.
 
Hi all,
Thank you for all the replies! Been out to look at more and have a few more questions.... How do you determine what is a high def screen, I have only spoken to one [out of 7] in shops that could actually tell me which models had them!
Secondly my present screen is really difficult to tell whether the exposure is right because you have to look at it at the right angle. Only 15 degreees or so out and you get quite a false impression. I was told that the macs have a much wider 'comfort zone' of viewing and I certainly had that impression as well. Do the higher end windows machines like for example the Dell XPS have that wider viewing angle.
And finally if I went mac it would appear that I have to get software to convert all my 'Word' files [in emails etc] and presumably to send to people who don't have Mac's? It could add quite a cost with PSE and Lightroom....

Cheers,

Dunc


Chris Primadona said:
Does this work?

Nope!
http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/...ch.aspx?rn=3540&SC=&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

Its an Alienware M17x MLK

•Alienware M17x MLK : Base Nebula Red
•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
•Processor : Intel Core i7 Processor 740QM (1.73 Ghz,6MB cache)
•250GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
•6 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ (2 DIMMs)[/QUOT
Click to expand...
 
Duncan.F said:
Went into PC World today for a look around [yes i hate the place to!] and nearly bought a 15" mac! Seems a much better bit of kit but too a deep breath and walked away.
I do have a desk top but its sloooow and i mainly use it for invoicing and email when my laptop braks down. So the new laptop will be used around the house, i don't travel with it.
What i am struggling with is comparing Mac v windows Laptop performance and reliablity wise.....

Dunc
Click to expand...

If it's going to be used around the house and not being travelled with - I may be stupid, but, why not an imac with 21.5" screen.to keep the space useage down, or any number of windows based copies?

I have a 17" screen Acer which has been extremely reliable, on which I run CS3 and Lightroom, (actually I don't - the missus uses it for surfing!) and my imac with Aperture:thumbs:
 
With a Mac you do have the option of running Windows (free with Bootcamp) or with Parallels. in which you'd have to buy the software.
 
Duncan.F said:
Hi all,
Thank you for all the replies! Been out to look at more and have a few more questions.... How do you determine what is a high def screen, I have only spoken to one [out of 7] in shops that could actually tell me which models had them!
Secondly my present screen is really difficult to tell whether the exposure is right because you have to look at it at the right angle. Only 15 degreees or so out and you get quite a false impression. I was told that the macs have a much wider 'comfort zone' of viewing and I certainly had that impression as well. Do the higher end windows machines like for example the Dell XPS have that wider viewing angle.
And finally if I went mac it would appear that I have to get software to convert all my 'Word' files [in emails etc] and presumably to send to people who don't have Mac's? It could add quite a cost with PSE and Lightroom....

Cheers,

Dunc


Chris Primadona said:
Does this work?

Nope!
http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/...ch.aspx?rn=3540&SC=&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

Its an Alienware M17x MLK

•Alienware M17x MLK : Base Nebula Red
•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
•Processor : Intel Core i7 Processor 740QM (1.73 Ghz,6MB cache)
•250GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
•6 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ (2 DIMMs)[/QUOT
Click to expand...

Checkout the Apple Refurb store a good 10-20% saving on the latest [early 2011] Sandybridge Macbook Pro's 13 and 15". MS Office 2011 for Mac is £110 [x3 license's] OR Apple Pages £14 off the App Store can Import and Export to MS Word.
Click to expand...
 
If it was me it'd have to be a mac!
Amazon currently have this years 13 inch MacBook pro i5 at £898!
 
Duncan.F said:
How do you determine what is a high def screen
Click to expand...
You have to look for wording like "Full HD" or 1920x1080 resolution in the description. If you build a Dell, you have to select it as a £170 option when you configure it.

Duncan.F said:
Only 15 degreees or so out and you get quite a false impression. I was told that the macs have a much wider 'comfort zone' of viewing and I certainly had that impression as well. Do the higher end windows machines like for example the Dell XPS have that wider viewing angle.
Click to expand...
Yes. This is the reason I ended up with the Dell. The viewing angles are great. There are some reviews out there with screenshots at different angles (google L502x review) which compare the screen favourably to the Macbook screen.
 
SCM said:
Girlfriend just ordered us a couple of laptops last few days HP ones quad core amd, 6gb ram, 17.3" screen, 2 x 750gb hard drives, ati graphics card for £720. The i7 version direct from HP was £800 but due to HP being idiots and refusing the sale for no reason then giving my girlfriend the run around play got the order instead.
Click to expand...


I'd go with this one, although, if I'm honest, I'd use the grand to build myself a PC. Much cheaper, and won't overheat in a tiny case :p

Whatever you do, don't buy a macbook! :D
 
I was fixing an i7 macbook pro last week, the thing had ground to a halt about 2 months in. Otherwise they're nothing to write home about over an equal spec windows laptop. Which proves the point one system is not better than the other, its just personal preference on the layout of the OS.
 
A little off topic OP, but, for £1000, especially as you "won't travel with it", I would get a kick-arse desktop, a netbook and still have money left!

In my experience, a £1000 laptop will perform as well as a desktop costing half as much. Once you factor in upgradability (is that a word(?) and ease of repair, I wouldn't even consider a laptop.

If this interests you then I'll post a possible spec.

Take it into an independent compute shop (they do still exist) and see what they can offer you.
 
If you decide on a Mac the refurb 13" are £850 i5 or £1099 for i7 Inc VAT
 
Hi Guys,
Still agonising but moving away from the Mac....I think. Looking hard at the Dell 15" HD I7. I realise I could do better and cheaper with a desktop but it would be in a separate room and it becomes 'anti social' and anti 'happy relations'. But with the laptop i can appear to be present and not....as it were!

Dunc
 
Duncan.F said:
Hi Guys,
Still agonising but moving away from the Mac....I think. Looking hard at the Dell 15" HD I7. I realise I could do better and cheaper with a desktop but it would be in a separate room and it becomes 'anti social' and anti 'happy relations'. But with the laptop i can appear to be present and not....as it were!

Dunc
Click to expand...

I'd have thought you could have some very 'happy relations' (if that's what you like to call it) in a room by yourself ;) :lol::lol:
 
Last edited:
Duncan.F said:
Looking hard at the Dell 15" HD I7. I realise I could do better and cheaper with a desktop but it would be in a separate room and it becomes 'anti social' and anti 'happy relations'. But with the laptop i can appear to be present and not....as it were!

Dunc
Click to expand...


Fair enough.

In that case how about an Acer 8943G. A little over budget in this link but I'm sure you can find one for £1k.

Screen size - 18.4 in - 1920 x 1080
Processor - Intel Core i7 - 1600 MHz
RAM - 4096 Mb
Hard Drive - 640 GB
Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium
Optical Drive - Blu-Ray DVD Combo
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

Better looking even than a Mac and outperforms it by far! I imagine that screen size / quality / resolution are important to you as a photographer and this has one of the best around.

Alternatively, Samsung R780.
 
Mike1980 said:
Fair enough.

In that case how about an Acer 8943G. A little over budget in this link but I'm sure you can find one for £1k.
Click to expand...
Other than the fact it's an 18" screen (which means it's less than portable...) the Dell i7 15" is a better machine (more memory/disk, probably better screen, but you'd need to google that)
 
arad85 said:
Other than the fact it's an 18" screen (which means it's less than portable...) the Dell i7 15" is a better machine (more memory/disk, probably better screen, but you'd need to google that)
Click to expand...

Better screen; no. No simply quality but 1366x768 (720p) vs 1920x1080 full HD. 220cd/m2 brightness. No contest!

Disk; not worth considering IMO as external HDDs are so cheap.

GPU; lower power consumption / heat output / DX11 / bandwidth etc make the 5650 a great GPU.

More memory; yes, but unneccessary. Heavy (Photoshop, After Effects, encoding/rendering and 1-3 VMs) multi-tasking on my desktop rarely (if ever) uses more than 6Gb. 4 Gb for a lappy is more than enough.

The Acer is a thing of beauty.

neil_g said:
Indeed, dad has a 17" Sony laptop and its way bigger and heavier than id want to carry around.
Click to expand...

Agreed but the OP said that they wouldn't travel with it.

Just my two pence worth.
 
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