Looking to buy a laptop - suggestions?

spirit

spirit

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I'm looking to buy a laptop for school (further education - AS and A levels specifically). I need something which is relatively small, portable and lightweight. I'll probably do doing a little bit of programming on it and maybe some *light* photo editing (nothing too intensive) as well as the usual emails and Office work.

I was looking at the 11.6" ASUS VivoBook S200E however I think it may be a tiny bit small. I've now got my eye on a Sony Vaio Fit E 14" in white for £380 or so, which seems good to me. Spec is along the lines of a Pentium Dual-Core, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB or 750GB HDD.

I require the following:
- 13.3" or 14" ideally
- Small, lightweight, compact (not fussed about optical drive)
- It'd be good to have Windows 8 pre-installed
- Around the £400 mark (or less!)

I've found a lot of good 15.6" laptops which are in my price range and well-specced, but I think 15.6" is a bit big to be carrying around all the time. I used to own a 4:3 15" laptop and it was huge.

Anybody got any other suggestions?
 
 
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Thanks for the suggestions. I must admit I do like the look of the ASUS U38N and the ASUS VivoBook S400E (which is a 14" version of the laptop which I was looking at originally), so I might get one of those.

I also like the look of this Lenovo - what do you think? http://www.ebuyer.com/581985-lenovo-flex-14-convertible-laptop-59390888

I'll keep looking. I'm not really sure when I'm going to buy. When I have the money probably. ;)
 
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I've had another think about this and decided that the ASUS U38N is probably what I'll aim for if I have the money (simply because of that 1080p display). So thanks for the recommendation Dasiy! :good:
 
spirit said:
I've had another think about this and decided that the ASUS U38N is probably what I'll aim for if I have the money (simply because of that 1080p display). So thanks for the recommendation Dasiy! :good:
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Jason, you know that the a8 4555M is one of the worst laptop cpus ever made? Both, graphical and computing performance is 0. You can get cheaper laptops with an a6 5200 which is faster in both and also carries some nice features.

Anyway, I found hundreds of laptops around 330£ with the a6, but none of them with a 1080p screen :S

But I'll probably wait for kaveri, Mullins and Beema. Offering much better performance and power consumption.
 
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Only just seen your response to this thread Rob. :)

I know we talked on Steam for a bit today, but I may as well post some updates here.

I changed my approach a bit and now I'm looking at 14" or 15.6" laptops (I had a go with a 15.6" laptop last week, not too big or heavy, so should be OK) and I've upped my budget to around £700 since I now have a job.

I was looking at ASUS but I saw their lower-end models didn't have quite so good build quality and since this laptop is going to be carried around school a lot it needs to be well-built. I have turned my attention to HP and Lenovo.

I used to own IBM ThinkPads (A31 and R40 if you're interested), so I may go back to my 'ThinkPad roots' and get a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 or a ThinkPad L430. If I were to get a L430 I'd order it directly from Lenovo and get this kind of spec:

Intel Core i5-3230M Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.20GHz)
Windows 8 64
14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
Intel HD Graphics 4000, Mobile Broadband ready
8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM)
UltraNav without Fingerprint Reader
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n
Mobile Broadband upgradable
None
1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

I'd choose to have the 1600x900 screen (it's a £40 option) and I also chose to have an i5 over an i3 and 8GB of RAM over 4GB. All in all, that comes to £666.

I would also order the Edge directly from Lenovo and customize it with an i5 and 8GB of RAM too. I'd get the Edge if I wanted a ThinkPad but couldn't afford the L430.

The alternative is the HP ProBook 450 which I've been looking at. The screen resolution is lower (1366x768 vs 1600x900) but the laptop looks very nice and I like HPs. I'd get it with either an i3 or an i5 and probably 8GB of RAM. The HP is cheaper than the Lenovo I think. I'd also try and order it directly from HP and customize if I could.

So those are the two which I am looking at now. :) I'll stay away from the AMD chips.

I'm not buying for a little while yet, so I'll keep an eye out for new machines.
 
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I would at all cost stay away from Hp, there build quality has continued to go down hill on the business and consumer notebooks. Just scroll through the notebook area of the forums and you will notice 2-3x more post involving hardware failure then any other brand.

Lenovo are good as long as it is not an essentials models, the essentials model is like the Hp of Lenovo's.

I am just bringing this up since you brought up the feeling of poor build quality from lower Asus and would hate for you to share this experience with an Hp or Lenovo Essentials. Best of luck you.
 
Only just seen your responses guys, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I would rather to stick to the known brands rather than go for custom in this case. Although I am willing to go up to £700, I would really like to keep it at less than that.

I've used HP's laptops and I've found that they're OK. I didn't think they were that bad at all? The ProBooks which I've tried seem fine I think. Though I am aware some people don't really like them.

I've been on the ThinkPad forums to get advice about Lenovo. I think I may end up going with Lenovo since they're easier to configure and I'd quite like to own a ThinkPad again. :) I would always opt for a lower-end ThinkPad L430 or L440 over an Edge, which is the lower-end model. It's not the lowest-end Lenovo, but rather the lowest-end ThinkPad.

That L430 spec I posted above came to £666 or thereabouts.

I'll just post what I said on the ThinkPad forums to save me typing it all out again. It does look the L430 is going to be replaced with the L440 which has already been released in the US, but not in the UK yet.

I still can't find anything out about the L440 coming to the UK, but besides from the Haswell CPU over the Ivy - and the redesigned UltraNav, it looks kind of the same. I have asked Lenovo when the L440 is coming to the UK and as of yet, I've not had a response.

By the time I have the money, I reckon the L440 will be here so I'll probably buy that. What spec it will be depends on my money but I have decided I would really like to configure it with at least an i5 because I can't really change the CPU later. I'd like the 1600x900 display too and if I can afford it, I'll go for it but if not I'll settle with 1366x768. RAM wise - it'd be good to have 8GB out of the box but I can easily upgrade the RAM myself if I need to, whereas I can't upgrade the screen resolution at all or the CPU easily.

'Second best' would be the HP I guess, though I'd be very happy with one of those since I really like them too. I don't think I'll buy an Edge. I'll go for lower-end L430/L440 or the ProBook 450 over the Edge. It's a matter of build quality I think.

As you can probably tell, I have decided that I want the ThinkPad - an L430 or L440 to be specific. Though I will get the ProBook if it is a lot cheaper and I can get a similar spec.
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Still not had a response from Lenovo regarding when the L440 is coming to the UK. Apparently they don't know. ;)
 
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