Recommend me a laptop

Cheetah Designs · 30 Dec 2010 at 18:56

Hi there,

I need a recommendation for a laptop.

Absolute maximum budget: £600

- well build, hopefully a metalic shell
- as lightweight as possible, hopefully not much more than 2Kg with battery
- at least 4 hours real-life use battery
- 4GB ram
- discrete graphics card
- fast as possible

I know I am asking for a lot for £600, but does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks.

Cheetah Designs · 30 Dec 2010 at 21:49

I've been looking at the Samsung Q430.

Core i3, 4GB, GT 330m graphics, claims 5 hours battery life. ~ £550

Any better than that out there? Need to buy before Jan 4th obviously because the VAT rise.

_lecro_ · 30 Dec 2010 at 23:43

This looks a nice system http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-026-MS&groupid=959&catid=1828&subcat=

Cheetah Designs · 31 Dec 2010 at 00:05

_lecro_ said:
This looks a nice system http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-026-MS&groupid=959&catid=1828&subcat=

Battery life won't be enough and it is WELL out of my price range.

Thanks for your input though.

Cheetah Designs · 3 Jan 2011 at 18:48

I really want to order tonight before the VAT rise....yeah I know its only a couple of pounds more...

Any more input?

My concern is that I am missing out on decent graphics and faster chips for battery life...Im so used to the Dell 13z with 10+ hours real-life battery use I think it would be weird without it!

crisbduck · 3 Jan 2011 at 19:13

Apparently the graphics on the samsung are only 310 according to another thread in this forum;
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18220161
still looks good though

Cheetah Designs · 3 Jan 2011 at 19:19

Yeah, i have been reading/posting in that thread.

Was actually about to order it but they've stopped selling it, presumably because of the mistake.

franco_22 · 3 Jan 2011 at 19:39

GT310 only has about 2/3s of the power of the GT330.

Good news thou is that will improve your precious battery life

You may wanna look into a Samsung QX410 btw, it's $800 so that should be about £600 no?

Cheetah Designs · 3 Jan 2011 at 19:45

franco_22 said:
GT310 only has about 2/3s of the power of the GT330.

Good news thou is that will improve your precious battery life

You may wanna look into a Samsung QX410 btw, it's $800 so that should be about £600 no?

Can't find is anywhere in shops?

Rob_J · 3 Jan 2011 at 20:08

Have you looked at the Dell and Asus ranges, even the Acer? I've been looking for the past 3 days since my Daughters Dell went belly up and I saw a lot of nice ones in your price range, some had dedicated graphics, some didn't.

I looked on the usual high street online shops also on the place where 'every little helps'.

Cheetah Designs · 3 Jan 2011 at 20:28

Rob_J said:
Have you looked at the Dell and Asus ranges, even the Acer? I've been looking for the past 3 days since my Daughters Dell went belly up and I saw a lot of nice ones in your price range, some had dedicated graphics, some didn't.

I looked on the usual high street online shops also on the place where 'every little helps'.

Any particular ones that stood out to you given what I'm after or otherwise?

Rob_J · 3 Jan 2011 at 20:39

I'll have another look for you and report back.

Cheetah Designs · 3 Jan 2011 at 20:52

Rob_J said:
I'll have another look for you and report back.

thank you very much!

franco_22 · 3 Jan 2011 at 21:06

I don't think Dell have well built metalic laptops. Neither does Asus I think, asus high end laptops are really expensive too for some reason.

Rob_J · 3 Jan 2011 at 21:19

Cheetah Designs said:
thank you very much!

I've emailed you some links as writing down all the makes and specs on here would make my fingers bleed

.

Cheetah Designs · 5 Jan 2011 at 01:02

Thank you very much Rob J, though your suggestions I actually found a Q430 somewhere else for £518 with 3GB of RAM. I'm going to upgrade it to 8GB, add a SSD and it should be a fine machine.

Rob_J · 5 Jan 2011 at 10:49

Your welcome, I hope you enjoy your new laptop

.

batfink · 5 Jan 2011 at 12:54

After all the messing about I've done recently (see the other thread), I've also finally ordered a Q430 with 3Gb Ram and a 310m GPU. I paid a bit more than £518 though as I wanted to pick it up locally.