What are the Decent Brands of the moment?

Goose500

Goose500

Goose500

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Calling all laptop brainiacs,

Being a mostly Desktop user I don't really keep up much with laptop hardware and with laptop brands. But i'm now looking to buy a new laptop for college and I am totally lost in all the different brands and silly names like AC-7832X or whatever. I am looking for a laptop that runs vista smoothly as well as basic programs such as Office and Firefox. However I am also into photography and I'm looking for something that works well with photo and photoshop. This initially directs me towards Apple and the Macbooks. But I have been told by some people that it is possible to get a far superior laptop for the same price as a bog standard Macbook. I am in need of some advice and some guidance and would appreciate any recomendations.

Regards

Goose500
 
Acer gemstone that Overclockers have just got back in stock are quite good spec for the money and have a well made quality feel for them in my opinion nothing can touch them for spec/build quality/value.

However if the DV and HDX series from HP are pretty good looking too, any laptop with a decent core 2 cpu and 2GB of ram will run vista smoothly enough, you don't need to go down the Mac route, its basically the same hardware with a diferent OS.
 
Thanks very much for the advice, I will look into the Gemstone series in a lot more detail. Although I cannot help being tempted my the gorgeousness of Mac..........

And also just to add: I'm on the Acer site, could someone be as kind as to explain to me the difference between Gemstone and Gemstone Blue?
 
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Apologies I have deleted the links. But apparently there is a difference between Gemstone and Gemstone Blue laptops, does anyone know more?
 
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You can't post links to competitors Goose. :)

As for top brands, Dell and HP are probably up there. I personally wouldn't regard Acer as being anywhere near the top, lots of people have issues with Acers it seems, their build quality isn't anything special and my experience with their customer service is that they're slow and not particularly informed on what's going on, which is frustrating.

The Dell Studio series is definitely worth a look, especially if you google 'Dell deals' and use the website that comes up. The Studio XPS 13 may be worth a look too, as it's comparable to a MacBook in terms of size and spec.
 
Apologies, I forgot about that the links rule. And i'm sorry but i refuse to buy dell, i have had to many bad experiences with Del, and im trying to replace my dell laptop at the moment! I think i am going to be looking into Acer and HP mainly. Does anybody have any other recommendations..............? ;)
 
Agree with goose i would totally avoid dell... i bought a xps off them for £1300 bit of a the moment thing its lasted 2 years before gpx fried taken a week of messing about with dell and still no where near getting it repaired

even the guy i spoke to dell says the gfx card only normally lasts 2years.....
 
We tried to buy some more RAM for this Dell Inspiron 1501 that I am planning on replacing at this point. And some guy tried to sell one gig of "High Performance" RAM for £128 !!!! That's all that needs to be said. I am seriously considering a Macbook Pro 13inch. That comes to £900, but I am challenging you gods of tech to find me a laptop that is vastly superior but preferably for less price.
 
damn lol £128 for that... they tried to sell me a gfx card for 2year old laptop for
£375 for card £100 for engineer

will take a look about when i get in from work see if can find anything good
 
That would be awesome and deeply appreciated-and what's your opinion on macs? it seems to be a highly debated topic here.........
 
My Dell Inspiron 6400 has been very good to me. I think it depends on the graphics card when it comes to graphics card failure. The studio dells run off a midrange card, like my X1400 was at the time of buying, so they don't tend to get quite as hot, meaning they last longer.

Also make sure you buy at least a cheap 7,200rpm hard drive to replace the 5,400rpm drive that most laptops generally come with at the moment. The 7,200s are faster (more desktop like performance) and now consume similar power anyway. If you have the money of course, get an SSD...
 
Goose500 said:
We tried to buy some more RAM for this Dell Inspiron 1501 that I am planning on replacing at this point. And some guy tried to sell one gig of "High Performance" RAM for £128 !!!!
Click to expand...

If you're going to Dell for upgrades, you can't really expect anything less. Every single manufacturer out there charges a huge amount for upgrades, be it RAM, HDDs, or anything else. RAM is essentially generic, you can buy it from anywhere.

There isn't much else in the 13" MacBook range if you're writing off Dell. HP, Sony, Asus and Samsung may have some decent offerings though. It depends on how important the 13" form-factor is to you, because that always drives the price up. If I didn't like Dell's service, I certainly wouldn't be switching to an Acer though.
 
Well 15" is my maximum because it's going to be used at college etc and my maximum price tag is say around £1200 but i may be pushed slightly if it is really worth it. I am now looking at the 15" inch macbook pro's. going to be looking into a student discount on those as well. And sorry but I refuse to buy Dell. So it seems to be Asus, HP, Sony and Apple then do you think. any specific recomendations so i can begin review hunting etc?
 
I would be looking for a deal on a Lenovo myself.

As for Dell - my job is fixing them. Some of them aren't too bad but I wouldn't buy one myself.

Dell upgrade prices are robbery - if you buy a memory kit from Dell you will just be getting a Crucial or Kingston kit which you can buy much cheaper if you go direct.

As for the graphic card replacement - £375? A total rip off and they charge £100 for an engineer visit? Just so you know, the engineer who would have done that job would actually have been paid £9 by Dell to actually come out and fit it.
 
Acer, Samsung, HP are all good brands. Dell have never been, nor ever will be considered a decent brand in my opinion.
 
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