Associate
- Joined
- 24 Jan 2003
- Posts
- 637
- Location
- London
I'm looking to replace my very ageing laptop, and am having a little trouble finding laptops that actually have the features I want. I'm wondering if anyone can help me out here.
What I want is:
- 15" wide-screen 1680x1050 display.
- A docking station with at least USB, DVI or HDMI, audio, power.
- Dual-core (preferably Intel Core 2 Duo).
- 1GB+ RAM.
- DVI or HDMI output.
- Good battery life (3-4 hours plus).
- Good Linux compatibility.
- An standard upgradable DVD writer (so that I can upgrade to an HD-DVD/Bluray burner later).
- Wireless N a plus.
- Slim / lightweight / stylishness all pluses.
Things which I don't need:
- I won't be using this for games or anything else particularly strenuous so I'm not bothered about graphics capabilities (other than the gfx being good enough for Vista Aero).
- I'm not fussed about how fast the processor is (though I do want dual-core).
- I don't need the hard drive to be big (as all my media is kept on a separate machine).
Looking around I've found very few that seem to satisfy those criteria. In particular very few laptops seems to have docking capabilities, which I find a real pain because each time you want to change from using it in one room of your house to another you need to connect/disconnect mouse, second monitor, printer, iPod dock, power lead, ...
So far the only laptop that fits the bill is a Dell Latitude D830 for £875 or Dell Precision M4300 for £775. Are they any good? Are there any other laptops that I should be looking at? I was kind of hoping to spent less than that to be honest (£500-600 would be good, and I'm hoping feasible given I'm not going for a particularly high-spec). I have a lot more choice if I settle for not having a dock, but I'd really rather not do that...
What I want is:
- 15" wide-screen 1680x1050 display.
- A docking station with at least USB, DVI or HDMI, audio, power.
- Dual-core (preferably Intel Core 2 Duo).
- 1GB+ RAM.
- DVI or HDMI output.
- Good battery life (3-4 hours plus).
- Good Linux compatibility.
- An standard upgradable DVD writer (so that I can upgrade to an HD-DVD/Bluray burner later).
- Wireless N a plus.
- Slim / lightweight / stylishness all pluses.
Things which I don't need:
- I won't be using this for games or anything else particularly strenuous so I'm not bothered about graphics capabilities (other than the gfx being good enough for Vista Aero).
- I'm not fussed about how fast the processor is (though I do want dual-core).
- I don't need the hard drive to be big (as all my media is kept on a separate machine).
Looking around I've found very few that seem to satisfy those criteria. In particular very few laptops seems to have docking capabilities, which I find a real pain because each time you want to change from using it in one room of your house to another you need to connect/disconnect mouse, second monitor, printer, iPod dock, power lead, ...
So far the only laptop that fits the bill is a Dell Latitude D830 for £875 or Dell Precision M4300 for £775. Are they any good? Are there any other laptops that I should be looking at? I was kind of hoping to spent less than that to be honest (£500-600 would be good, and I'm hoping feasible given I'm not going for a particularly high-spec). I have a lot more choice if I settle for not having a dock, but I'd really rather not do that...