Reply to: New laptop - what to buy?

[El_Diablo]

I've just got a nice little black Macbook 13"

[basshead]

I wouldn't touch Acer with a bargepole

Acer's UK support & repair centre are an absolute shambles. I'm sure their laptops are great if you never have to deal with them but a simple screen replacement turned into 4 months of to and fro nonsense, they had it in 3 times and each time sent it back without having fixed the problem. Useless bunch of numpties. I woudn't ever buy an Acer again after that debacle.

IBM Thinkpads just work, no fuss.

[Moscow Mule]

VMware fusion will also let you run Windows apps within OSX so that it actually uses OSX's window manager and they appear to be OSX apps. Very cool stuff...

Parallels coherence mode is similar - all very shiny stuff, plus you can use your boot camp partition, so you can have windows apps open in OS X, then boot to the "same" pc in native mode if you need to crunch the numbers.

[daviejones]

So....we all agree...get the Mac.....

[b0redom]

VMware fusion will also let you run Windows apps within OSX so that it actually uses OSX's window manager and they appear to be OSX apps. Very cool stuff...

[KevinS]

Looks like this would be useful too to access files on both partitions: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

I use MacDrive on my Vista machine and it works a treat..

[beaker]

Looks like this would be useful too to access files on both partitions: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

[beaker]

You should ask this in the "Ask Beaker" thread...

Good point, although I'd probably get some useless philosophical answer...

[TheFaQQer]

I need a new laptop but don't want to spend more than 1000, my main priorities are:

• Widescreen
• Lightweight
• Reasonable battery life (current one just manages 45mins!)
• Doesn't need to be particularly powerful but has to do the essentials - web browsing, watch movies, run office apps etc.
• Be able to run a basic web dev environment (eg WAMP)

I bought my wife a MacBook for 749 earlier this year and it's really cool and fast, but not sure if I can justify 2 Macs and no PC!

I like the look of Sony Vaios, I hear ASUS is good but can't be @rsed with their unusable website... any other suggestions? IBM or Toshiba? I'm not too impressed with Dell...

Cheers!

You should ask this in the "Ask Beaker" thread...

[Moscow Mule]

Thanks guys. I'll take a look at the Acers but the dual boot Mac sounds like a plan.

Do you need it now? Check buyerguide.macrumurs.com - tells you (roughly) when new stuff is due.

MacWorld in January may be bringing something new and shiny if you can wait that long.

[beaker]

Thanks guys. I'll take a look at the Acers but the dual boot Mac sounds like a plan.

[daviejones]

No. In boot camp, you're running a windows system.

If you put them in the right place, yes.

There's been two buttons on the mighty mouse for yonks. On a laptop you put two fingers on the pad an hit the button = right click.

And...an added bonus is that you can access your Windows files from Mac OS...as the drive is mounted on the desktop....very handy indeed.

[Moscow Mule]

Can't say I've done this before - are there any compatibility issues when running Windows apps?

Can I access all the same files?

What do I do about the one mouse button!!??

No. In boot camp, you're running a windows system.

If you put them in the right place, yes.

There's been two buttons on the mighty mouse for yonks. On a laptop you put two fingers on the pad an hit the button = right click.

[daviejones]

I'll second that!

My HP laptop died and I needed something quickly whilst it's away being repaired.

I bought an aspire 9304 (only 399 from amazon). The 2GB upgrade kit is £35 from crucial. Bargain!

It's only marginly heavier than the HP 15" I have and the glossy screen is awesome.

I put vista business and vmware on it for the odd XP app I need. It's better than the HP I have which cost twice the price!

I think I'll use the HP as a backup laptop when it comes back.

Yep, I bought the missus an Acer Ferrari. It is nice and light but the fan is forever coming on and it gets noisy....nice laptop though.

[miffy]

[QUOTE=r0bly0ns;353227]Acer do some quite nice ones./QUOTE]

I'll second that!

My HP laptop died and I needed something quickly whilst it's away being repaired.

I bought an aspire 9304 (only 399 from amazon). The 2GB upgrade kit is £35 from crucial. Bargain!

It's only marginly heavier than the HP 15" I have and the 17" glossy widescreen is awesome.

I put vista business and vmware on it for the odd XP app I need. It's better than the HP I have which cost twice the price!

I think I'll use the HP as a backup laptop when it comes back.