[dunnyg]

Need some help picking a laptop out for the lady. Loads out there, and I dont really know whats good in lap tops. Spec wanted is

- 11-13 inch screen
- lightweight
- good battery life
- non of this touch screen b/s
- decent keyboard-one with keys that go down, none of that touch stuff
- can handle usual - MS office, video streaming/skyping etc.

something around £500ish is good, but willing to pay more if it actually makes a difference

Any advice? What would you get if you were in the market.....

cheers!

[psychomansam]

I'm not the most up to speed, but this spec looks half decent:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Vostro-3360-13-3-i5-3337U-1-8GHz-500GB-6GB-Windows-7-Pro-3-Year-Warranty-/141076973019?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item20d8d7c5db

More to the point, this is my recommended method of buying a laptop. It's how I've got my last two and it's been brilliant. On-site 3 years warranty's are golden. I wouldn't get a laptop without one. The fact that it's refurbished means nothing. It's worth far more than a brand new one with a shitty backtobase 1yr warranty.

[slackline]

Need some help picking a laptop out for the lady. Loads out there, and I dont really know whats good in lap tops. Spec wanted is

- 11-13 inch screen
- lightweight

This suggests looking at Ultrabooks, although because of the small size.  They're very thin, my Zenbook UX21 is 9mm at the thickest point, 3mm at the thinnest when closed.  The battery last around four to five hours of continuous (modereate) usage (less if I'm compiling large packages or number crunching), so not sure if that meets...

- good battery life

...but they spring to life in seconds after closing the lid, so just shutting it for a few minutes away isn't a hinderence.

- non of this touch screen b/s

[

Newer versions to have touch-screen, but shop around and you can probably find older non-touch screens which will be cheaper.

- decent keyboard-one with keys that go down, none of that touch stuff

Its not a metal keyboard (as the reviews hastily point out as there is little else to criticise) but its fine to use.

- can handle usual - MS office, video streaming/skyping etc.

Unless you buy an old second hand one this will never be a problem on any new computer you buy.

something around £500ish is good, but willing to pay more if it actually makes a difference

Picked up mine a year ago as a refurbished unit for around this price, not sure what they are currently going for.  Look around at other Ultrabooks too, they're great.

Any advice? What would you get if you were in the market.....

Got mine from dabs, but check also ebuyer, Scan, Dell outlet and other manufacturers direct for refurbished.

[tomtom]

Make sure its oen with the new series of Intel Haswell processors (or whatever they are now called). WHilst not step chance in performance, this latest gen processors gives 70% better battery life... Its starting to trickle down into Laptops now, so some do, some dont have it..

[slackline]

That will of course push the price up.

Maybe this will be useful in helping make the decision http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-windows-ultrabook/

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I'm not the most up to speed, but this spec looks half decent:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Vostro-3360-13-3-i5-3337U-1-8GHz-500GB-6GB-Windows-7-Pro-3-Year-Warranty-/141076973019?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item20d8d7c5db

More to the point, this is my recommended method of buying a laptop. It's how I've got my last two and it's been brilliant. On-site 3 years warranty's are golden. I wouldn't get a laptop without one. The fact that it's refurbished means nothing. It's worth far more than a brand new one with a shitty backtobase 1yr warranty.

Or buy them direct...
http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=3&c=uk&cs=ukdfb1&l=en&s=dfb

If you shop in the Biz/Edu outlet store everything seems to ship with a 3 year warranty.

Prices about the same, not free shipping at the moment but it seems to go month on, month off so if you wait a week or two...

[dunnyg]

cheers for the knowledge. Have put some options to the boss, see what she has to say... Havent had much good experience with dell laptops (the one i am currently using has keys missing, no battery and had an interesting phase with the screen. Other peoples dells also been similarly  ). Have they improved?

Also any laptop without "bloatware" - im guessing this is all the stuff on it you would rather not have - which dell seem particularly good at filling up their laptops with, would be good, as it is something that majorly does my nut in!

[lagerstarfish]

I got Dell laptops from the outlet for my mother and my wife

both laptops doing great

the best deals seem to come on around 4pm to 6pm and get snapped up pretty quick - when you put it in your shopping basket you get 15 mins or so (can't remember) to decide whether to buy it or it goes back up for grabs

have a look over a week or so at what kind of stuff they are selling through the outlet and work out which specs suit you, then wait for one at the right price to come up by checking at tea time every day

[SA Chris]

All I can add is don't get an Acer

[lagerstarfish]

I've got an IBM Thinkpad R50e that I bought for not very much in 2005 when Lenovo took over

still works fine - added more RAM
solid as fcuk
nice keyboard

I don't know whether Lenovo have kept up the quality on more recent incarnations, so I'm not really saying anything useful here

[dunnyg]

Why no acer? (curious)

Forgot to mention mrs is still a student so if theres anyone who offers deals on that, that would be gran. Think apple do, but have an extremely strong dislike of them...

[slackline]

Forgot to mention mrs is still a student so if theres anyone who offers deals on that, that would be gran.

Check with the college/university if they have any deals (ditto for M$-software if its required, although free alternatives exist)

[SA Chris]

Why no acer? (curious)

Shitty keyboard and touchpad. Used to do my head in. heard similar problems from others.

[dunnyg]

Fair enough. Will have a word with the uni, cheers

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Also any laptop without "bloatware" - im guessing this is all the stuff on it you would rather not have - which dell seem particularly good at filling up their laptops with, would be good, as it is something that majorly does my nut in!

Dell Edu&Biz are better than consumer for this, the outlet desktop I bought last week was pretty clear. Other than a month trial of Norton which uninstalled straight away there wasn't any crap on it. No MS Office trials etc etc. Dell hardware is a lot more reliable than it used to be, especially if you get the better put together biz/edu range (Vostro, Optiplex,  Latitude etc), hence why they ship with a 3 year warranty. Lenovos are also pretty good, again stick with the pro range and they are solid if rather utilitarian machines. Think I was recommending the X220/230 on another thread. A quick look on Ebay shows you can still pick them up refurbed for around £500. Great machines that would cost double that new.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LENOVO-THINKPAD-X230-12-5-i5-3320M-4GB-RAM-320GB-HDD-BT-W7-Pro-UK-Model-Wrnty-/161119105603?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item2583727243

Regarding software http://www.software4students.co.uk is worth a look although the deals are not as attractive as they used to be, as both Adobe and Microsoft try and push everyone towards a monthly subscription model.  that said the MS Uni deal isn't actually that bad, £53 covers two machines for four years.

Haven't heard of may uni deals with hardware but software deals are still quite common. What's she studying? Some vendors have some great (ie. free) student agreements for specialist software (eg. Autodesk)

Consider open source or web based stuff for the Office stuff. If you must have M$ Office but don't want to pay for it, be aware some home MS licenses allow installation on up to 5 machines so it's worth asking around your family for any spares.

Oh yeah, and (forgive the rant)
BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!!!!!!!!!

Heard yet another story of a tea drenched dead laptop and lost work this week. 

Tell her to start as she means to go on, keep copies on Skydrive/Google Docs AND an external hard drive (that isn't stored or carried with the machine). Set up reminders in her phone to backup weekly at least. Set it up and stick to it.

Here endeth the lesson (and rant).

[dunnyg]

cheers, maybe dell is worth a shout then. Yeah, think she is pretty on it when it comes to backing up fortunately, unlike me 

Studying to be a dr so doesnt need any specialist stuff really (i dont think...)

Thanks again for the knowledge!

[a dense loner]

my mac has suddenly decided to give me massive icons and writing, how do i get this back to normal size?  the toolbar along the bottom is fine but I'm writing this in about font 16 which is double what ondra can climb. cheers

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

my mac has suddenly decided to give me massive icons and writing, how do i get this back to normal size?  the toolbar along the bottom is fine but I'm writing this in about font 16 which is double what ondra can climb. cheers

They have something called the 'Optical Apple Performance' sensor that kicks in if it senses the user is slow to respond, or it can be triggered by a certain series of key presses resulting in a particularly obtuse comment.

[tomtom]

my mac has suddenly decided to give me massive icons and writing, how do i get this back to normal size?  the toolbar along the bottom is fine but I'm writing this in about font 16 which is double what ondra can climb. cheers

They have something called the 'Optical Apple Performance' sensor that kicks in if it senses the user is slow to respond, or it can be triggered by a certain series of key presses resulting in a particularly obtuse comment.

You mac has sensed you are getting old Dense

[lagerstarfish]

if you lick the apple logo on the back of the mac, the display will go back to normal

if this hasn't worked after 10 mins of licking, try licking the screen itself

I suggest doing this whilst you are in a public place

[a dense loner]

i have tried all of the above but they don't seem to work. if only slackers hadn't been condescending to that poor guy about the tax dodging good business he'd have helped

[lagerstarfish]

have you tried standing further away from the screen?

[a dense loner]

yes then i can't see the toolbar icons

[Johnny Brown]

'cmd' + '-'?

[a dense loner]

Have zoomed out which looks ok but doesn't affect top toolbar. Oh well I'll have to look at big writing for a few wks. Cmd stuff just hurt my ears  cheers tho