New Laptop

john · Oct 21, 2010, 14:07:46

I'm considering buying a new Laptop as my Dell Inspiron 9400 is a few years old now. It needs a new battery and power supply cable, which although they're obviously not as expensive as a new laptop, I'd think I'd rather put the money towards replaceing it with something newer and faster. Also whilst I've had power supply problems with the Dell I've been using my daughters Sony Vaio which has a much brighter screen.

Anyway I saw this Sony Vaio in M&S today which looked a decent spec and should last a me a while. The card by the one on display said it had been reduced to £799 from £999 but I've found others selling it for £799 and it also had some other inaccuracies quoted too but I expect the spec published online to be correct.

Any comments or alternative models recommended would be welcome.

Rik · Oct 21, 2010, 14:58:00

I was once advised never to buy a Sony Vaio, John, but no good reason was ever given. I'd probably lean towards Samsung or HP right now.

Steve · Oct 21, 2010, 15:08:25

I've only one suggestion

Rik · Oct 21, 2010, 15:10:57

Wet weather clothing to you too.

Steve · Oct 21, 2010, 15:14:42

Well there is a MBP for less than £900 on Amazon (only just)

pctech · Oct 21, 2010, 15:29:03

Quote from: Rik on Oct 21, 2010, 14:58:00
I was once advised never to buy a Sony Vaio, John, but no good reason was ever given. I'd probably lean towards Samsung or HP right now.

Build quality on Vaios ain't that great.

Rik · Oct 21, 2010, 15:30:23

That's the reason, then, Mitch. Thanks.

pctech · Oct 21, 2010, 15:32:50

My laptop of choice (and will get one if/when my own business takes off) would be a Panasonic toughbook but you are talking about 3 grand minimum for one of those.

Rik · Oct 21, 2010, 15:34:20

They are nice, though.

pctech · Oct 21, 2010, 15:36:38

Indeed, I am going to equip myself with one when finances allow.

john · Oct 21, 2010, 15:49:10

Thanks for the replies eveyone, My daughter's Sony Vaio I'm using at the moment has been fine (except for the cap coming off the 'F' key, although it obviously still works).

Whilst I'm sure Mac's are very good they appear to be a bit more expensive, a Windows machine does everything I need it to do and I've already got a lot of Windows software. I also use Windows machines at work and don't want to have to get used to another type of OS.

If I don't get another Dell then other than the Sony Vaio I'd probably consider a HP or a Toshiba but £799 is about the most I really want to pay for one.

Baz · Oct 21, 2010, 15:50:52

my daughter has a Vaio and its good,had no bother with it.you get the usual junk software they 'insist' you have installed but apart from that its ok.Build quality is ok too.

other laptops we have are a Toshiba...also ok.sturdy build,reliable.

two Asus laptops which I think are the best of all the ones we have.very nice design/build,good bundled software and back up discs( which werent supplied with the others).cant recall how much we paid at the time but the price was good.That one in the link seems pricey to me but i'm a tad out of touch with lappys these days

pctech · Oct 21, 2010, 15:56:24

Find the Vaios I've seen a bit plasticky.

Glenn · Oct 21, 2010, 15:56:37

These are getting good write up's, I've never seen one, but the specs look good.

john · Oct 21, 2010, 16:44:42

Quote from: pctech on Oct 21, 2010, 15:56:24
Find the Vaios I've seen a bit plasticky.

I think maybe the cheaper ones are but the one I saw on display at M&S appeared to be at least good quality plastic. Most, if not all, laptops cases are made of varying qualities of plastic though.

Quote from: Glenn on Oct 21, 2010, 15:56:37
These are getting good write up's, I've never seen one, but the specs look good.

I agree Glenn, the specs look good but not significantly better than the Sony and they start at £999.

Lona · Oct 22, 2010, 02:48:23

I like Samsung. I bought one for my Hubby's xmas last year and it's been very reliable. I would never touch another HP.

Have a look at this one.

Here

karvala · Oct 22, 2010, 03:02:02

Quote from: Lona on Oct 22, 2010, 02:48:23
I like Samsung. I bought one for my Hubby's xmas last year and it's been very reliable. I would never touch another HP.

Have a look at this one.

Here

Yeah, we bought a bunch of different laptops around the same price point at work in the last six months, and I must say the Samsung's are by far the best. That wasn't entirely unexpected when you consider the quality of Samung memory, displays and hard drives these days. They've really worked hard to put their products near the top of the quality pile these days.

Rik · Oct 22, 2010, 09:48:05

I agree, I've been delighted with my Sammy netbook.

Gary · Oct 22, 2010, 09:56:32

Vaios are over priced and build quality is not always great, but I hate the amount of cr@p that comes pre-installed on laptops, Acer are the worse for that.

Rik · Oct 22, 2010, 10:01:58

Tell me about it.

Gary · Oct 22, 2010, 10:23:33

Quote from: Rik on Oct 22, 2010, 10:01:58
Tell me about it.

I know the various companies get rewards for putting trial offers on these things but tbh I would never buy a windows laptop now, they are cluttered beyond belief with duplicate programs or are so designed that its hard to put a clean copy of windows on them as you can't get the drivers for some of the built in hardware. It took so long to get rid of all the crud games off Justina's it was maddening

Rik · Oct 22, 2010, 10:28:50

Plus there's often not a Windows disk supplied, but a recovery partition.

Gary · Oct 22, 2010, 10:37:23

Quote from: Rik on Oct 22, 2010, 10:28:50
Plus there's often not a Windows disk supplied, but a recovery partition.

That I do find to be a pain, one the Acer Justina inherited there was a hidden propriety XP based partition (Vista Ultimate laptop) so you could use it off like as a media unit without booting, sadly Prevx decided that was a rootkit and destroyed it, and you cannot recover that yourself, saying that its a feature she never uses. That's why I like Macs and hand built Windows machines, you only get what you want, the OS and no clutter.

pctech · Oct 22, 2010, 10:40:15

I'd never buy a mass market box again.

Rik · Oct 22, 2010, 10:41:24

Not even for cricket?

Gary · Oct 22, 2010, 10:43:31

Quote from: Rik on Oct 22, 2010, 10:41:24
Not even for cricket?

Steve · Oct 22, 2010, 13:50:54

Well he might if it was new,well err definitely not second hand

pctech · Oct 22, 2010, 14:13:39

Ray · Oct 22, 2010, 14:44:32

john · Oct 23, 2010, 04:25:48

Quote from: Lona on Oct 22, 2010, 02:48:23
I like Samsung. I bought one for my Hubby's xmas last year and it's been very reliable. I would never touch another HP.

Have a look at this one.

Here

Thanks Lona, I agree that Samsung have upped their game and they're another brand to consider but the Sony has generally a better spec for less money than a similar Samsung (although the Samsung has a bigger capacity HD and a higher resolution camera)

Lona · Oct 23, 2010, 05:52:40

The screen is also fabulous. It's much clearer than any othe laptop I have viewed.

john · Oct 23, 2010, 05:56:19

I think the quality of the screen is quite an important feature, I'll have to comapare a Samsung to other makes.

john · Nov 04, 2010, 20:05:56

The Sony Vaio I mentioned in my first post now has a VAT free offer from Sony which reduces the price from £799 to £680, I'm very tempted now although I was looking for a 15" screen rather than a 17".