I want to buy a new laptop. Not a huge one, but reasonably powerful and not too expensive. Its most likely use will be taking to the USA on holiday this summer so I can e-mail, download photos and for the kids to watch DVDs - so good battery life is important.
People have recommended Dell or Acer. However I know very little about such things.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
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How much do you want to spend?
Ideally for most of your needs, you would need a netbook. Small, light, long battery power, good net connectivity. Not very powerful tho, few have built in DVDs.
So the DVD thing rules out netbooks, its Laptop you need.
I would avoid dell, the quality of build is pretty poor, as is reliability.
I would go for a Lenovo, HP, or Toshiba.
My son has an HP, its pretty good and survives his hard use well
The HP Pavilion dv6-2113sa is my recomendation
h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelaptops/index.php?jumpid=re_r135_uk/en/hho/psg/growth-ot-xx-xx-laptopguide-a/chev/
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Thanks Zero
I like the look of those.
Which is the best processor to go for? There seems to be a wide variety (or does it make much difference for my sort of work?)
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A netbook - 10" screen - has long battery life, but no DVD player.
I think you'll struggle to find a not too expensive laptop with a DVD player and battery life of much more than three hours.
Netbooks are really handy for travelling - could you load some films on to the hard drive before you go?
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I have three netbooks! One is kept in my flat overseas, one is my wife's which is an Advent and is very slow and the third is my original Asus eee Linux which is great but battery life is dreadful.
I also want a laptop so I can work at home when the children are on the main house computer.
Thanks for the idea though.
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...my original Asus eee Linux which is great but battery life is dreadful...
You can still get replacement larger capacity batteries.
Larger capacity means larger size, but they still fit OK.
The original is 4400mAh.
Mine is 5600mAh and it makes a big difference to life.
Battery life declines with age, so even a new standard size battery would last longer than your old one.
Loads of sellers advertising on ebay, I used Clove Technology and found them to be reliable.
tinyurl.com/35fmutx
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Thanks for that.
The one advantage of the replacement eee battery is that the charger for our Sony portable DVD player is the same output as the charger for the Asus, so I could take two items and not buy a new laptop just yet.
But...........I have a company credit card burning a hole in my pocket and I may be selling the company soon, so want to get the new piece of kit before I have to hand the card back!
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Yes, I have a cigar lighter charger for my Eee PC.
Rarely need it, but when I do, boy, is it handy.
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Its probably easier if you tell us your budget. Between the £500 and £1,500 mark.
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I was hoping to spend nearer to the bottom of this range.
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then i stick with my earlier suggestion for the HP pavilions.
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I see one of the 13" machines in the HP link can be specced with a different processor to give a 10-hour battery life.
Might be worth inquiring.
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Thanks
That may work quite well.
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Thanks for all the advice.
I had a good look at the HP website as well as the Lenovo and Toshiba, but a friend bought an Acer which has a very high spec and which seemed to tick all the boxes. He likes it and uses it virtually full time without trouble. It is his third Acer.
I bought an Acer Aspire Timeline 4810TZG for £502 inc VAT. I could have bought the 5810 with a larger screen (15.6") but portability was important so I bought the 14" screen version.
The reviews seem pretty good and the battery life appears to be five hours when working flat out at up to 8 hours when on light use. That's good enough for me for a cross Atlantic trip with the kids.
Do I need a special adapter/converter for the US, or does the transformer automatically compensate?
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>> Do I need a special adapter/converter for the US, or does the transformer automatically compensate?
Used my cheap-ish Dell laptop in the States recently without any problems, just using one of those travel adapters to convert from 2 pin to 3 pin.
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Espada, if you have not already jumped, you may like to have a look at this 15.6" HP G62-1-55A one at £449.
www.ebuyer.com/search?q=HP+laptop&x=44&y=18
The bit that appeals to me is the use of the latest type i3-330M processor, typically 2.1GHz --- which is quite fast for a laptop. That speed previously resulted in a short battery life, like 2 hours or so, but this i3 processor has power management ---- you need to check it is being applied in this particular HP design.
Others on here may be able to comment on this HP version.
I saw an HP Laptop using this processor in Comet the other day and the display stated an in-use power consumption of 18 watts and 0.8 watts during standby. Also a battery life of 6 hours. Check this one has a DVD player, just in case.
Incidentally, IIRC, the i3 is a four core processor and is in such great demand there are shortages and Intel is having to ramp-up production.
Last edited by: busbee on Tue 25 May 10 at 12:05
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Oh! I see you bought a PC.
However, others will be interested in the use of the i3 and i5 in laptops.
Last edited by: busbee on Tue 25 May 10 at 12:22
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Aren't i3 processors a bit last week - thought i5 had taken over?
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The i5 is the upmarket version of the i3. If you really want to show off you need the the i7 6-core! Usually only of interest to gamers wearing water-cooled nickers for when they put it on their lap.
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