Buying a laptop - is this one ok?
 

Hi all,

I'm buying a laptop, but I really don't know what I'm looking for. I'm fine with PC's etc, but laptops are a whole new world to me. Thus, is this one any good for the price?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/NBrange.html?SCH

I'm not really looking for serious gaming etc, it's mostly going to be for work - word/excel etc, but also for listening to music and maybe watching DVD's to pass the time while on trains - I do a fair amount of travelling, and sometimes have to stay in hotels away from home, so it will then come in useful to keep me occupied - DVD's and a few games, but nothing too complex and I don't really care if it's not got fantastic 3D graphics.

According to www.xe.com, £586.32 = 1,071.34 USD

Thanks in advance!

Well..it's a celeron processor, and only comes with 256mb of memory. Nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't pay that much money for that particular laptop.

I wouldn't go for it. I'd search around for others. The Celeron really slows things down for me. Try to find a slower Pentium 4 or something for the same price!

I'm with the others -- get a Pentium with at least 512MB of ram -- 768 or a gig is even better if you want to ensure that it lasts as long as possible before upgrading. Nowadays I would never consider a Celeron in a laptop, only maybe a slower Pentium at the same price.

The other thing I noticed is that it's only got one PCMCIA slot -- sure it's fully loaded otherwise, you may never need it, but you should think about what you might need a PC card for. I don't know anything about the video card chipset either but as an alternative to maybe look for I'm a big fan of the Radeon 7500 mobile in my T40 Thinkpad.

Thanks for the guidance everyone. I'm now overlooking anything with a Celeron processor in it - I didn't realise they were that bad! I'm quite surprised by the price of laptops still, but I'll keep looking around. I'll see what else I can find and put another choice on here soon for you all to appraise. Thanks!

if u want cheap and cheerful, maybe PCWorld might be a good bet..although the staff know very little, sometimes u can pick up a cheap and cheerful laptop that will keep u going...my laptop is 3 years old with not one problem (so far...fingers crossed :D) otherwise dell might be an idea, if its for business, u might also get tax off...but u prob know that :) good luck in the search

Ok, take II:
https://sslrelay.com/s90663264.onean...47180-P01%3D29

What do you all think of this one? It seems a little more expensive but a lot more feature rich. No Celerons in sight, 60GB HDD and 512 RAM. :)

i'm at a friend's house and don't have time to give a whole guide on laptop shopping, but here's some quick things to keep in mind.

1. don't confuse centrino with celeron. centrino's what all the hype is about right now and what you see everywhere. it's one of the few new technologies that really makes a noticible difference. 4 hrs battery life vs. 2 hrs (may be up to 5 hrs now). built in wifi is an awesome convenience and doesn't suck up a valuable PCMCIA slot. processor rocks. i believe a 1.4ghz centrino is equiv to a 2.0 ghz pent desktop.

2. don't buy extra ram. buy it with as little as possible, and spend the money buying an extra stick you put in yourself. the install process is roughly 100 seconds. i'm not over-exaggerating. it depends on the laptop of course, but it's rediculously easy and way cheaper.

3. hp/compaq have the best value i've ever seen. gateway has a couple centrinos that will probably fit your needs as well. i tend to shy away from dells, all the ones i've seen look like cheap plastic. i'm not spending $1k to have a piece of machine that looks like it was built from the same material as a McDonalds toy. ibm is top if you can afford it. nothing beats it, this isn't just fan-boy talk either. it's pretty verifiable. (i don't own an ibm, but i wish i did). sony's are nice but overpriced.

4. know exactly what you want. figure out what screen size you want, and then resolution. XGA, SXGA, or UXGA. then SEE IT IN PERSON. this is incredibly important because you will not be able to change the resolution (well you can, but if you operate at anything other than native resolution, it gets blurred horribly). go to best buy, frys, circuit city, whatever. personally i run SXGA 15" (technically WSXGA, it's wide-screen). however the text is too small for some people, not enough for others. i suspect you will want a high resolution for text documents.

5. i spoke about wide-screen. keep in mind this IS available, it's just a tiny bit wider width-wise. great for dvds, some games also run wide-screen now as well. also allows for more text, excellent for programming or documents.

6. you should get a built in cdrw, but built-in dvd burners are becomming popular as well.

7. if there's a remote possibility you will use it for multimedia purposes, don't skimp on the video card. you're not going to be able to upgrade it.

8. buy it on a major credit card that has an extended warranty! huge deal.

9. the better the return policy the less risk you take. hp/compaq has 30 days no questions asked. they have fedex come by and pick it up- you don't pay a cent!

10. any questions, please ask! that should be enough to get you started though ...

Wow! Thanks for that - It's given me even more to think about.

Many thanks for your time!

For a great laptop go here ... http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...ts/AppleStore/

sweet. good to know you're giving out good, unbiased advice.

Ooh. Pwned.

EDIT: Couldn't just let a two-word post hang there on it's own.