Smallish laptop

Amp34 · 22 Nov 2009 at 12:13

My sister wants a laptop and has asked me to look into it. She seems to want something reasonably small, similar in size to mine (13" XPS) which comes in pink or a similar bright colour and can play games like zoo tycoon (so not that powerful) as well as the usual internet, word etc.

So generally what she wants is something reasonably stylish (and I think well built) that can play the occasional old game that is reasonably small (<15" ideally). Budget of around £600-£800 ish (really an arbitrary one, a guess from me)

With that in mind I first looked at Dell and their 13" studio XPS range, as well as Sony's CW, CS and SR ranges. Any others I should be looking at or recommendations?

I'm erring on the side of a base model Studio XPS at the moment as if they are anything like my XPS they will be well built and good laptops and erring away from the Sonys (except possibly the SR range that looks a bit more metal and less plastic).

bigsharn · 22 Nov 2009 at 14:29

There's a 13" Vaio that's pink... you could always get an MV 13.3" (google it, I can't link it), strip it and spray it if it HAS to be pink

Bassmansam · 22 Nov 2009 at 14:34

Dell Inspiron 1545 - £400 can do all that stuff and will save some money

Amp34 · 22 Nov 2009 at 19:20

The only MV i can see is a till like system? It doesn't have to be pink, she really wants something bright instead of the usual black/white/silver laptop, preferably pink.

The Inspiron 1545 doesn't seem to have a very good review, especially the battery life. I've also found the inspirons to be very plasticky and bulky?

bigsharn · 22 Nov 2009 at 19:50

If that's the case then just take the case of and spray it before giving her the laptop, sorted

And try X30 MV

Amp34 · 30 Nov 2009 at 21:16

I've had a look round over the last couple of days and looking at the Studio XPS it's dire styling wise (really a step backwards from the XPS, square and bulky!) whereas the Sony CW looks just the ticket (other than the very vulguar pink) it's stylish and girly (in pink) to boot.

Anyone have a CW? Any good?

EDIT: This one (don't think it's a competitor)

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-cw-series/vpccw1s1e-p

Windows 7 x64
P7450 Processor
4GB RAM
320GB 5400RPM HDD (shame about the slow drive)
GeForce GT 230M GPU

Also do they come with a seperate Windows disk or only a recovery partition (and do Sony put lots of rubbish on the systems?)