VAT Free laptop

[woody1985]

Hi all, I am currently in the enviable position of being able to buy goods from UK stores and being able to claim the VAT back.

I'm in the market for a new laptop as my Acer Aspire 7720G has been going strong for the last 6 years and I think it's on it's last legs.

I use it mainly for going on the net and watching movies. However I do play a bit of Football Manager.

I've looked around and the best deal I can find is the Lenovo Z580 although I can't put a link to it. The spec I want has an Intel i7-3612QM 3.1 GHz, 8Gb ddr3 1Tb HDD 2 Gb Nvidia gt630 and a blu-ray player and this retails at 799.99

Does anyone have any idea of the build quality of these?

If my maths is correct I should get 160 off. I'm just after some advice really.

Cheers

 

[Azuse05]

Ideapads are the upper end of consumer build quality. They're essentially a cheaper version if hps pro-books i.e. aluminium cover and around the kb with plastic underside. Solid kb, no squishy bits and good feedback (clicky). Surprisingly good sound for a laptop too, more mid range than you'd expect from such tiny speakers but I assume that comes from the rigidity of the build.

Lenovos are the middle ground. Cost more than the cheaper laptops but are correspondingly more reliable and sturdy, cheaper than the high end but similarly solid with comparable warranty. There's also no need to format to clean out pre-installed ****, the few things there are can simply be uninstalled while lenovos own stuff is generally worth keeping e.g. energy management as they actually employ staff that can code unlike some manufacturers; and update their drivers, although I just use the generic manufacturer ones. A single graphics update once every six months isn't enough imo

One of the interesting things about ideapads is they're designed in a similar manner to thinkpads - you can basically replace any bit if you have the need to and they supply the full maintenance manual online. Just see if you can find any info about the screen. Generally they make or break laptops, and lower end screens have been sneaking into mid range laptops to cut cost these past few years.


They can also be found cheaply on occasion. My current ideapad was £330 instead of £490