Reply to: Laptop Recommendations

[vhadiant]

I would generally always go with Dell - buy through their business site as well - I specked exactly the same laptop through their home site and their business site - the business laptop was £200 cheaper.

My approach is that I buy a new, medium spec machine every couple of years - they're so cheap now. I don't see the point in spending nearly 1k on a laptop that will be a low-spec machine in 3 years time. By buying a new machine from dell every couple of years, I always have an ok machine...

Or eBay it. I found my brand-new M1710 for £500 less than the list price on eBay. It's from a proper computer shop that does all the haggling for me, nice and sweet.

I'm loving my M1710, yes it's pricey and it'll be outdated in 2 years time, but currently it plays all the game that I want superbly, VS 2005 runs nicely on it too (2GB RAM), does everything that I want really.

If you don't play games yes I'd say M1710 is a bit of an overkill.

[Spacecadet]

How does one go about this, exactly? I find their website somewhat tacit. Especially since I'm only buying one.

My wife has an XPS M1210 and it's a superb little machine. It's a chubby little thing but well loaded. Bargain, too.

I used the online chat to get intouch with the sales staff, one of the sales people called me. Had a week of calls and emails back and forth... in the end I got the laptop with the software about £200 less than the list price and the 3 year worldwide support thrown in for free.

[Zorba]

Sounds like SA.

[TheFaQQer]

It's a chubby little thing but well loaded.

Sounds like SA.

[KevinS]

In order to haggle, you need to call them..

[Zorba]

One thing that suprised me about Dell was how open they are to haggling.

How does one go about this, exactly? I find their website somewhat tacit. Especially since I'm only buying one.

My wife has an XPS M1210 and it's a superb little machine. It's a chubby little thing but well loaded. Bargain, too.

[lexington_spurs]

What about the new Asus EEE PC?

A small laptop, 512MB RAM, 900Mhz Celeron, 7" Screen, 4Gb Flash HDD, Wifi, Ethernet, USB Ports

All for approx £220, various places are selling them see

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1067

Very tempted to buy one myself, would make a good contractors laptop for use on client sites.

Just be careful if the name of the reseller in question rhymes with "fresh" and is another word for "lattice". If their stuff works out of the box and stays working - you've got a good deal. If anything goes wrong you are begoniad regardless of how much extra warranty you've paid for.

[portseven]

One thing that suprised me about Dell was how open they are to haggling.

Did an E-Auction with them for a previous client who were looking to standardize on their laptop's. Dell wiped the floor with the other vendors, no-one could touch them on price.

[Spacecadet]

One thing that suprised me about Dell was how open they are to haggling.

[monkeyBoy32]

I would generally always go with Dell - buy through their business site as well - I specked exactly the same laptop through their home site and their business site - the business laptop was £200 cheaper.

My approach is that I buy a new, medium spec machine every couple of years - they're so cheap now. I don't see the point in spending nearly 1k on a laptop that will be a low-spec machine in 3 years time. By buying a new machine from dell every couple of years, I always have an ok machine...

[Spacecadet]

I've had multiple Dell laptops from multiple consulting jobs. They all are usually a good bog standard laptop. For my personal one I bought XPS M1710 about a year ago. Never been happier with the build quality. They've gone a long way Dell.

I bought a Dell Precision M65 in July... not had a problem with it. Bought software (Visual Studio, SQL Server Dev edition) from Dell at the same time as it worked out cheaper than buying seperately.
Got the 3 year worldwide onsite support thrown in for free!

Almost went for the XPS M1710 but I didn't like the thought of the big red XPS logo on the lid lighting up the clients office.


I've used Dells a lot over the years, servers, PC's, laptops, PDA, RAID and been happy with them and the support they've given when things have gone wrong (99% the time its the hard drive thats the problem)

[threaded]

MacBook Pro...will never go wrong...

Seconded on that. Nice machines.

[portseven]

What about the new Asus EEE PC?

A small laptop, 512MB RAM, 900Mhz Celeron, 7" Screen, 4Gb Flash HDD, Wifi, Ethernet, USB Ports

All for approx £220, various places are selling them see

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1067

Very tempted to buy one myself, would make a good contractors laptop for use on client sites.

[fridge]

Get her a nice little HP Compaq nc 4200 that wont take up to much space. she may even get it into her handbag.

[Moose423956]

There's a sticky in the technical forum on moneysavingexpert about good value laptops.

Faqqer, thanks for that, very helpful. ebuyer looks like a good bet. Something like this.