13/14" good battery and portability laptop

[telemachus]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on a laptop to buy, I'd do most of my work on a desktop so I'm looking something portable with good battery life rather than a desktop replacement. Since it's not going to be sat on a desk permanently I'd also like it to be reasonably solidly built.

The acer 8731 and 3810 models seem to be very popular around here, is the 8731 still available anywhere at the £350-ish price? I've found the 3810TZG for 350 so tempted by that, the only thing that puts me off is I've heard quite a few mentions of long term screen problems coming up over time with screens either cutting out or deteriorating. The Toshiba r700 porteges also look very nice but seem to generally be fairly pricey.

I'd welcome any other suggestions, the dedicated gpu on the two acers are nice bonus but good battery life, light weight and solid build are what I'm looking for.

 

[kevpuk]

I have the 8371, with ATi 4330 - cracking laptop, with good spec and excellent battery life. The 3810 is very similar, few +/- against the 8371, but all-in-all both are good.
There was a time when these 2 were readily available for circa. £350 delivered, but I am not sure if they still are....try checking out the dedicated thread in this forum for hints on where most of 'us' sourced them from......
Otherwise, I think the Asus UL30 may be available still, if you dig around ? Similar sort of unit....as for the Toshiba, as you say, can get pricey for spec.