A Final Choice in Laptop

manisinghb

manisinghb

manisinghb

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Joined
12 Apr 2009
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627
hey guys found this laptop deal for £820 inc. VAT and delivery, what do you think??

Intel i5 520M @ 2.40GHz 3MB cache
4GB DDR3 Samsung 1333MHZ RAM (2x2GB)
Graphics - 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5650 PCI Express
500GB SATA II 2.5" HDD @ 7200rpm
2xSATA Blu-ray drive
15.6 inch widescreen HD glare - Maximum Resolution 1920 x 1080
Wireless Support Wireless LAN, 802.11a/g/n (Intel Shirley Peak)
Integrated Bluetooth adapter
2.0 MGP CMOS Webcam via USB2.0 interface
TV Tuner 1 x Mini card slot for Hybrid TV Tuner
PCI/PCI Express Port - Two mini-card (WLAN x1, TV-Tuner x1 )
3-in-1 Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
HDMI Port
USB - 4 x USB 2.0
Display - 1 x 15 pin VGA OUT port
Kensington Lock
Fingerprint Scanner - Fingerprint LTT SS801U & UPEK TCS5B

3 year's standard warranty
**Please note: there is now OS included
 
neoboy said:
Looks good to me especially with warranty. What brand is it??
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don't know if I can reveal that here but its a customised one from PC Specialist, so only thing I'm down about is the branding (not very well known). I did find a Sony e series 17.3" for £710 though which has an i5 430M, 500GB @ 5400rpm minus the tv tuner card...

edit: the Sony comes with W7 Home premium (64-bit) and £5 extra for PC Specialist gets a 1 year collect and return service too! :)
 
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That seems like a very good deal to me! Should handle some decent games too. I have a couple o pals who came on i3 5650 machines and they handle cod4,5,6 and starcraft 2 no probs.
 
Ollie83 said:
That seems like a very good deal to me! Should handle some decent games too. I have a couple o pals who came on i3 5650 machines and they handle cod4,5,6 and starcraft 2 no probs.
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how's about versus the Sony VAIO e series for £710? because that one just looks prettier than this one lol
 
neoboy said:
Can you get E series near that spec?
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near enough, and cheaper, minus the tv tuner card and lesser webcam (0.3mp on e series) here are the specs:

SONY E-SERIES (£709.98 inc. VAT + delivery)
Intel® Core™ i5-430M, 2.26GHz (Max Turbo Boost Speed 2.53GHz)
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB SATA HDD @ 5400rpm
W7 Home Premium (64-bit)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Graphics Video RAM memory, 1GB
Blu-ray Disc Player
17.3" VAIO Display with LED backlight; 43.8 Aspect Ratio, 16:9 Resolution, 1920 x 1080 Max Resolution External Display, 2048 x 1536 Graphics
Memory Stick Slot - PRO-HG (Duo Only) / MagicGate(MGR) / SD Card Slot
HDMI out, 3 USB's + 1 e-SATA
Wireless LAN Type - 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth NO
0.3 Mega Pixel Built-in Camera Built-in 'Motion Eye' Digital Camera, Motion Pictures max. Resolution (pixels) 640x480
Battery Life (min) - 155 / Battery Charging Time (min) - 210
1 year standard manufacturer's warranty
 
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Well I suppose in that case you need to consider how important TV card and webcam is to you. Although looking at it there are a few shortfalls in that spec (as compared to other one) such as slower CPU, slower 5400 hard drive and 1 year warranty. It's also a bigger machine with 17.3 screen but that's where an advantage lies too. I have a 15.6 1080p screen and for general browsing it's a bit of a pain especially coming from a 24".
 
My Vaio E series has now arrived and, apart from W7 Home Premium which is giving me a severe pain in the arse, it seems very good. I'll do a proper(ish) review in the next few days.
 
neoboy >> yh I totally agree with you, exactly what I've been thinking also. It's the screen size and design of the VAIO aswell as the little lower price that really attracts me to it and of course the brand name over the PC Specialist laptop. But yh, the PC Specialist does offer a heck of a lot more in terms of HDD + Processor speed and a tv tuner card and better webcam. But having said that, I think the size of the screen may play a bigger factor as I can't really see myself using tv on the laptop much except in desperation and from reading about the CPU speed between a 430M and 520M doesn't really make much difference. On the other hand, PC Specialist offers more and on top of which 3 years warranty.... lol do I sound confused?!

Snapshot >> mate would be much help for myself and others reading this post if you would review the e series here whenever you can :)
 
Yeah I got my E-Series yesturday, not one problem at all. Plays games on medium well even with the 1920x1080 resolution, though I haven't tested many yet.
 
In my experience all sony laptops are overpriced pieces of crap, please provide the make of this laptop and I will give you my professional opinion on this also.

Stick to a good brand like Dell or Acer, where they have good support and replacement parts are easy to get hold of.
 
Bubba said:
In my experience all sony laptops are overpriced pieces of crap, please provide the make of this laptop and I will give you my professional opinion on this also.

Stick to a good brand like Dell or Acer, where they have good support and replacement parts are easy to get hold of.
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its from PC Specialist

and I got to second neoboy on the Acer situation, been with them in the past and didn't have the best of experiences
 
In my experience acer support is very good, I always reccomend acer laptops as they have very few problems, sony on the other hand have so many serious problems its rarely worth fixing them, the build quality is terrible and I have no idea what they are charging so much for, it really is a case of paying for the name.
 
Bubba said:
In my experience acer support is very good, I always reccomend acer laptops as they have very few problems, sony on the other hand have so many serious problems its rarely worth fixing them, the build quality is terrible and I have no idea what they are charging so much for, it really is a case of paying for the name.
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I do agree with you and if I am honest it is the name 'Sony' that is one of the main factors in my indecisive attitude between these two laptops. Do you know much about PC Specialist?
 
Well from what few reviews I managed to find on the net and forums, it seems to be a good laptop. As you can imagine they don't actually manufacture them per se but buy the chassis from OEM suppliers and get components like CPUs separately. One review mentioned that it's Compal who provide the chassis.

As for Sony I was never fond of them but the E series has been getting some favourable reviews although I haven't tried one in flesh. Unfortunately after the way Acer went with me I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, seems there's no middle ground with their support. You either get decent as expected service or they will drive you to a point of considering calling your CC provider to get money back.
 
I'm just getting more and more confused lol :S I'm itching to just bite the bullet and get one of these laptops but I don't want to be looking back either. GRR!
 
Ill be honest I have never even heard of PC specialists, I am head technician for a laptop repair company so this can either be a good thing or a bad thing. They are probably rebranded machines which is never a good thing as getting parts for them is a nightmare. Fair enough they come with a 3 year warranty but what if you accidentally spill something on the keyboard and have to replace it but cant get one anywhere? This happens all the time with these cheaper laptops and I have had to write off a lot of laptops because of this.

I would be curious to know what problems you had with acer as everytime I have dealt with them it has been great.
 
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