Laptops - Whats hot and whats not currently?

[andyw]

Hi all,
I'm looking around for a replacement business notebook for my Vaio PCG-GRX616MP I'm currently typing on,

I appreciate their are a number of "IT" people on here - therefore I'm sure you have a mixed bag of recommendations, but wondered whats the dogs danglies now

Main use is as a desktop PC - so high end of the scale is what I'm looking at, budget around the £2k mark

Current thinking is another Vaio, this one has never faulted in 2 years, but what else is good?

thanks in advance
Andy

 

[Madferrit]

I bought a Vaio recently, one from the FS series.. which i like for its wide screen and weight.. ie, easy to take around with me without losing any feeling in my arm. Had i had more of a budget i would of gone for a Toshiba. can't remember the model number but i fancy the one with the screen you turn around and can use as a tablet pc. Not sure of functionality.. but damn it looks good!

 

[Sp!ke]

Depends on what you are after really.

What are your priorities? Sexy Design? Docking capabilities? light weight? processing power? etc etc.

Sony has no onsite warranty whatsoever - IMO thats enough reason not to buy their laptops. Nice kit but I cant rely on something that will have an 8 week turn around if it goes wrong.

For a business tool, it needs 2-3 years next day onsite warranty bundled into the package.

This leaves you with IBM, HP/Compaq and Dell with Toshiba offering onsite warranty but only in some countries.

EDIT Tablet PC's are just a novelty and slowwww

 

[andyw]

Sp!ke,
Not overly concerned about the weight - it doesn't go further than the car / house - I'm not "on the road"
Processing power is paramount - needs to dock
Would be nice to have enough spec to handle decent games too, like BF2...
am I asking too much?

 

[fuzzer]

AS ive said before , Vaio is rubbish ...

Ibm used to be good , im not sure now they ahve been taken over by levano .

Something small and light incase you need to take it somewhere with a full size keyboard , docking station and monitor when your back at base.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I've always had Dell laptops (provided by employer) and found them to superbly reliable, and with good performance too. Big bonus of using Dell is that if you ever do take it somewhere else (ie not at home or in the office), but someone else's office, then you stand a fairly good chance of finding another Dell user for docking, charging, etc.

My personal laptop is Vaio too, and been very happy with it - but blimey it's heavy!! I'm probably biased though - just about every electrical item I own is Sony!!

HTH

 

[pammy]

My work's lap top is a compaq and it's utter cr*p. Constantly lets me down. I've just gone a week of working away and been unable to use my lap top - fanbl**dingtastic

A little Tosh I had a few years ago was a dream and I'm trying to get another one.

Fair does - mu8ch of the problem is the cut down version of Windows etc that we use but the physical build is also poor quality - -imho

 

[Mr E]

We turn our IBM ThinkPads around every three years - only problem seen with about 20,000 of them in the UK is the batteries.

Move to LENOVO won't be an issue in the short term - built in the same factories by the same persons using the next 3 years of design with the IBM badge still on....

 

[andyw]

I really do like the smaller notebooks, very exec and mobile - but having tried one for a day - I can't get away with such a small screen doing extensive spreadsheet work - found I was getting eyestrain a lot.
16" or 17" screen I'm afraid it has to be for my main use

(although it's not out of the question to get a 2nd more mobile one for when I am out)

 

[mercmanuk]

laptop

I can recommend the toshiba qosmio g10,changed from my desktop to this laptop 10 months ago and never looked back,2.0 gb centrino,1gb ram,256mb graphics,17" ultra bright widescreen,on 24 hours a day with no hickups and very very fast.
worth every penny i think

 

[blassberg]

Ibm used to be good , im not sure now they ahve been taken over by levano

I work for IBM and use a T40 thinkpad all day every weekday, rarely gets turned off. Business was bought by Lenovo.

 

[Brett]

I work for another major PC/Laptop/Server manufacturer already mentioned. For reasons that may become obvious, I am not going to say who. My personal experience has been that Toshiba laptops are indestructible. I have also had HP, Compaq and IBM laptops and my experience has been patchy at best. Problems have usually centred around the screen and battery for these manufacturers. That said, I still have a six year old Compaq that is going strong and has now been passed onto our parents to get to know the internet with.

Dell is a reasonable solution for one off customers i.e. you are only buying one of them and are not bothered that the next laptop off the line may have different components in it. This is more of a problem for some of my customers that need to ensure that systems are absolutely identical so that when it comes to fault finding, they have fewer things to consider.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I had a great experience with Toshiba, and average experiences with the rest. Good luck in making your choice.

 

[kenwaic]

for a great gaming laptop hows about an alienware laptop...plenty power , dual drives with raid even dual disc drives,17 inch screen,four speakers with sub and a radeon x800,more than enough for doom 3 or farcry,not too sure about battery life though find it here http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_...=PC-EU-LT-AREA51M7700&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT#sub

 

[BimMerc]

I bought a Vaio recently, one from the FS series.. which i like for its wide screen and weight.. ie, easy to take around with me without losing any feeling in my arm. Had i had more of a budget i would of gone for a Toshiba. can't remember the model number but i fancy the one with the screen you turn around and can use as a tablet pc. Not sure of functionality.. but damn it looks good!

Thats the one I have, toshiba tablet pc. I got the docking station too, cost me £1800! Im selling it soon to go back to a desktop as i need the 'space'

 

[imadoofus]

I've got an Asus W5a. It's blummen lovely. A4 size (really) 3cm thick. It's very light, and has a great battery life (3.75hours with wireless & bluetooth swithced on). Bluetooth, wireless LAN, DVDRW, built-in webcam (which actually doesn't work, but it looks cool), 1.73Ghx Pentium M, 496Mb RAM, 80Gb HDD, Firewire, USBs a-planty, SD/MMC/etc slot, built-in wireless mouse transceiver ( )

All for (IIRC) around £1,200

Limitation: No docking station or port replicator available.

PJ

 

[Brett]

I've got an Asus W5a.

Who???

 

[A-AvantGarde]

In my role I am responsible for the evaluation & ulimate support of Laptops. Our user population has increased from 9 laptops about 5 years ago to just over 80 From a support perspective those 80 laptops are more hassle than the hundreds of PC's & Thin Client terminals we have (but that is another story)

I've always specified Toshiba, a predecessor bought some Dells that weren't such a wise buy. More recently due to pricing I've looked at moving to HP, Dell, IBM & Fujitsu Siemens. I can say that after the eval process I was impressed with IBM, although for my money (or my company's) it's Toshiba everytime.

Try looking at the Tecra range or the Protege, I'll check some specs when I'm back in the office if you like. They've got quite a neat looking sub-notebook a Libretto with tiny 9" or 10" screen (I think) that comes in at about £1800

 

[fuzzer]

Who???

are you trying to emulate the wee computer shop 2 years down the line when your getting overheating and battery issues ?

 

[andyw]

thanks for the feedback so far, aint this forum the dogs!!

I hadn't considered Toshiba, still remember the first Satellites - never did like them and always bypass them when shopping! Maybe I need to look closer.

I'm in the office probably 80% of my time, with the other 20% travelling to our other offices overseas so I can't decide whether to get a full blown desktop replacement for when I'm in the office, and a smaller more mobile for when I'm out....any thoughts?

As stated, I like the 16" screen I have now, and couldn't go smaller for when I'm in the office, and I don't want to clutter the desk up with a 2nd flat screen

It's a pity there isn't a slim 17" widescreen notebook out there that has full P4 processor - enough video to handle the latest games, battery power that last for ages, weighs less than 3kg and isn't physically the size of a small desk!!

Or is there....?

 

[Sp!ke]

In my role I am responsible for the evaluation & ulimate support of Laptops. Our user population has increased from 9 laptops about 5 years ago to just over 80

I have the same responsibility although it is for a large multinational who spend over 6 million a year on replacement notebooks.

Toshiba were knocked out in round two of our latest evaluation due to their 'not so' global support. Agree that the hardware was good though.

Has anyone noticed of late that all the newsreaders on all the channels and even the UK military all seem to be using Dell D series notebooks?