Advice on laptop?

[NaokoSmith]

Anyone willing to give advice as I tootle off on my bicycle to buy a new laptop, it would be warmly welcomed.


(Not John, who must save his energy unless he really is better which I am v. suspicious about considering how ill he was the other day.)

I plan to go to John Lewis to buy the thing so I will get some additional advice there.

Within my price range, it looks like I can only get one with a pentium i5 processor, not the i7 but the i5 should be OK for my purposes. (The i3 will not do it, cuz I run data analysis software on my computers occasionally, I did not reeely say that, I am reeely a silly MILF who has not a clue about how to do a chi square test ).

Using the Which website I have identified these three as potentials for the MILF fingers to run over lightly:
Toshiba Satellite L955-10M (I like Toshibas as I had one before and Piglet has one, and anything that can survive Piglet is doing well in my opinion).
Sony Vaio Fit 15 (i5)
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5

These are my criteria.

I can prolly afford up to £600 which I will stuff in my stocking top out of my final salary payment for the year.

I am being a size queen and want a big screen cuz I am a bit tired of peering at the li'l netbook. (These all have 15.6 ".)

A longer lived battery would be nice but I will live with whatever I get cuz I do have the netbook for going out and about with still. (Oh, my little netbook I love you so! don't worry, you will still be first in my heart, you tuck so nicely into my pocket .)

It has to be as durable as my netbook, which I have used all day every day for about three or four years now, while ironing, while cooking, on the train for hours (acksherly I plan still to use the netbook for that), the cats sit on it and try to write smut (their smut is a li'l bit basic, it goes: slkdjfajf oiweu kajf - it is nonhuman, of course).

I don't mind if it does or doesn't have a DVD player (the Sony has one but I don't think the others do), cuz I only watch movies with Piglet reeely (thank God for the kids' films made by Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson, we can enjoy the same movies for rather different reasons).

I think I would like a touchscreen but I have survived all these years without one so that too is prolly optional, bit like a bow on a bra rather than the proper cup size.

I am a little bit unclear about software, not sure if that will come with those but I think I can get that from various sources anyway like I did for the netbook, so I will find out about that.

Thank you for any thoughts! especially irrelevant flirty ones so I can muck about in here instead of getting on with the cleaning and my marking.

 

[TxRad]

Of the three, my first choice is the Toshiba.

I'm working on my second in 9 years. The last one bounced along in my truck, on the motorcycle, to the beach, and to work for six years. The oil fields are no place for a sissy.

As for a light touch. I learned to type on an old Underwood manual that you had to pound to get the keys to move. I still type that way. When I typle on an Acer i can see the keyboard flex.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Of the three, my first choice is the Toshiba.

I'm working on my second in 9 years. The last one bounced along in my truck, on the motorcycle, to the beach, and to work for six years. The oil fields are no place for a sissy.

As for a light touch. I learned to type on an old Underwood manual that you had to pound to get the keys to move. I still type that way. When I typle on an Acer i can see the keyboard flex.

The Toshiba toughness is the way I'm thinking. Mechanical devices have to work hard for the MILF, y'know.

I learnt on a typewriter too! It was a little 'portable' typewriter that my dad used to take on missions round the world with him. Sometimes he wrote us a letter on it, so I liked typing up my essays on it and I have been quite unable to throw it away, LOL. It weighs about the same as three netbooks! and would undoubtedly be rejected as a potential weapon by any airport security nowadays.

 

[oggbashan]

Look at Morgan Computers.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/

I have been buying from them for decades and have always been pleased with my purchases. Their laptops are not 'the latest' but their prices are good.

Their Panasonic Toughbooks would stand up to Piglet abuse:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/pr...-Tablet-CF18-10-1-Touch-Swivel-Screen-Laptop/

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/pr...op-CF29-1-6GHz-13-3-Screen-1-5GB-80GB-XP-Pro/

 

[NaokoSmith]

Look at Morgan Computers.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/

I have been buying from them for decades and have always been pleased with my purchases. Their laptops are not 'the latest' but their prices are good.

Their Panasonic Toughbooks would stand up to Piglet abuse:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/pr...-Tablet-CF18-10-1-Touch-Swivel-Screen-Laptop/

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/pr...op-CF29-1-6GHz-13-3-Screen-1-5GB-80GB-XP-Pro/

Those do look good. Although I should explain, Piglet has her own hardware. I never use hers and I don't allow her anywhere near mine. That way I can be sure she doesn't inadvertently log into anything I've got on the internet (sometimes to do with serious research on sex and relationships education, LOL) and turn up at school with rather more advanced vocabulary than they expect at her age.

I will check out in detail!
Thank you

 

[hoo_hoo_boo]

I'm told there are only two to consider- Asus and Samsung. I believe the guy- he is a repairer and adapts computers for games. He doesn't sell computers at all. He has customers come to him and he recommends which to buy, they buy it and bring it to him and he adapts it to games use. I think he knows his stuff. He doesn't like Toshiba at all- he said their preeminence is over. I figure that a dedicated gamer knows his computers like no one else. They are into performance and quality.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

john lewis?

 

[StrangeLife]

Of the three machines you've picked only one is equipped with a full HD resolution display (1920x1080) - the two others have 1366x768 screens. If this is a parameter you care about, the Sony is your choice. I haven't seen it anywhere for £600 though - usually they're a couple of hundreds higher.

Other than that I'd go for the Toshiba. I'm not familiar with this particular model but they have a reputation for making sturdy and reliable machines.


On a fanboyish sidenote - the best laptop I've ever owned is Apple Macbook Pro. I got it "reluctantly" because my employer at the time enforced a strict Apple IT policy, but after a short acclimatisation I was hooked. The build quality is beyond what any other manufacturer can offer and they're really durable.

A bit over your budget but there are ways of getting a discount.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

1) If your laptop will have Windows 8, GET A TOUCH SCREEN! Windows 8 is designed with touch in mind.

2) Windows 8 may bother you at first. No start button. Charm bars. Tiles. Take a deep breath, stay calm and it will be okay. It does happen to be a very good operating system.

Other odds and ends:

• Core i5 is the sweet spot for price/function
• There's a new processor line out. Intel is moving from their 3rd generation "Sandy Bridge" processors to 4th generation "Haswell." Haswell reported offers substantial improvements with battery life. However, I don't know if you'll find an i5 laptop with a Haswell processor yet. Soon, but you might be ahead of that curve.
• Hard drive size still matters - bigger is ALWAYS better. If everything else between two computers happen to be equal, get the one with the bigger hard drive. SSD hard drives are still pricey, but WONDERFUL. Unlikely you'll find one in your price range. 500 GB is relatively standard. Don't go smaller. 1 TB is lovely.
• RAM still matters, too. More is ALWAYS better. If all else is equal, get the one with more RAM. 6 GB of RAM is good and easy to find. 4 GB is a bit lame and should probably be avoided.
• Test the keyboards if you can, see if one "feels" better to your fingers than another. I'm not a big fan of the "Chicklet" style keyboards, but they seem rather standard now.
• Depending on your eyesight, be careful with screen resolutions. My first 15.6" laptop had a wonderful HD screen packed with pixels. The end result? Thing looked so small on the screen that it was challenging to read. 1366 x 768 feels rather standard. I would only recommend 1920 x 1080 to people with good eyesight.
• ASUS is a good brand. Lenovo is geared towards business, formerly IBM Thinkpads, good durability. Sony, I believe, has more flash than substance. Sony's are "sexier" than others, but I would question its durability. I'm currently using a Toshiba. Compaq's are inexpensive. Dell's can be pretty good.
• I upgrade my laptop every couple of years. On the odd years when I don't upgrade my personal laptop, I'm upgrading my wife's.

Hope that helps!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have had experience with all three of the ones you picked. Boy have prices gone up on laptops. 15.6" is not a big screen, the Dell Latitudes I had at work...damn was it 16 years ago, had only a 15.6" screen.

Since then I have had the use of HP, Toshiba, Sony, Acer, Gateway(Acer), IBM, Dell, Asus and PowerSpec.

Scrap everything but Toshiba and Acer. I currently use a Gateway(Acer) with a 17" screen. It has a dual core ADM processor, it is four years old, and still runs like a top although a bit slow,compared to my i7 desktop, it does get the job done.

As for the Sony...I never did like the Sony, don't know why, just didn't, too flimsy for me. The Dells all had a problem with the keyboards crapping out. The HP's were nice but a pit pricey and heavy to lug around. PowerSpec's were shit, out of six ordered only two worked. IBM never kept up with the rest of the pack. Asus was so new the one I had crapped out after a couple of months, disk crash, then the CPU fried itself. Lucky for me these were all company machines.

The Gateway is my personal laptop, but has been through some rough times and always bounced back. Dumped a cup of coffee on the keyboard. After it dried out, I fired it up and it is now humming along very nicely. It took a while to get the keys from sticking, but eventually, I was able to clean all the sticky stuff out. I take sugar in my coffee.

Don't know if this helps. But sometimes I just like to share.

 

[StrangeLife]

My first 15.6" laptop had a wonderful HD screen packed with pixels. The end result? Thing looked so small on the screen that it was challenging to read. 1366 x 768 feels rather standard. I would only recommend 1920 x 1080 to people with good eyesight.

I must disagree with you Bucky.

The size of icons and text can always be adjusted if you find them too small - in MS Word it's as simple as moving the zoom slider. But the higher resolution screens give you higher pixel density and that makes characters appear sharper and better defined. Curves look more like "curves" instead of "stairs".

This makes a noticeable difference in legibility and thus the strain on your eyes. If you're sitting at the screen for long periods of time you'll want the best resolution you can get. That being said 1366 x 768 on a 15" screen is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Guys, this is all so helpful! I'm going to make detailed notes before I hop on the bicyclette and tootle down to the shop, first having checked out Ogg's site (although I think they are all second hand on there and I am a little bit unsure about that).

I have been working surreptitiously on a tiny netbook for far too long and am about to get my first ever pair of reading glasses so I suspect that the improvement in visibility is going to be so enormous I don't mind how many pixies are jumping around in the screen, however I will consider those issues carefully along with all the others.

Gosh, I will prolly come back onto this board and have a very nice surprise when I find out what all your avatars really look like! If I am really lucky this will turn out to be an erotica site not the knitting group after all.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I must disagree with you Bucky.

The size of icons and text can always be adjusted if you find them too small - in MS Word it's as simple as moving the zoom slider. But the higher resolution screens give you higher pixel density and that makes characters appear sharper and better defined. Curves look more like "curves" instead of "stairs".

This makes a noticeable difference in legibility and thus the strain on your eyes. If you're sitting at the screen for long periods of time you'll want the best resolution you can get. That being said 1366 x 768 on a 15" screen is nothing to sneeze at.

You're right, Strange, about icons being adjustable and Word having a slider bar. Same is true with Excel, too. The extra "real estate" of the higher pixel density was nice, too. My problem was more with surfing the internet and how websites presented. Yes, modern browsers can zoom, too, and maybe their better at it now - but often a zoomed web page looked crappy.

For those who don't quite understand how this works - here's some help:

Suppose an image is 1024 x 768 - that's roughly 1 MB. So, that picture will appear "smaller" on a 1920 x 1024 screen and bigger on a 1366 x 768 screen. The picture is always the same computer size, but will look as if its different size on screens with different resolutions.

Viewing things in their native resolution on a screen with more pixels per inch means the objects look smaller. If you deal with a lot of images, the extra pixels per inch really make a difference. You'll see more of the picture when viewed at the same magnification because the screen with a higher pixel density can show you more.

If magnify a low resolution picture on a high density monitor, the picture will begin looking pixelated because you're see the actual pixels. Also, if you view a low resolution picture in its native size on a high density monitor, the picture will look great, but it will be relatively tiny. It's sort of a trade-off.

Text wise? You won't notice a difference. Like Strange said: "1366 x 768 on a 15" screen is nothing to sneeze at" and we all know "bigger is better," right?

 

[desertslave]

I'm thumping away on a 6-year-old Toshiba Tecra. It's had a few repairs and I upgraded the HD, but it's a solid workhorse for all that.

My son chose an Asus as his graduation present 3 years ago, and it's still humming along quite well. My daughter just upgraded her Toshiba (purchased a few weeks before mine) to an MSI. She's over the moon with it, with similar specs to what you've mentioned. I don't know if they're in the UK or not, though. She ordered it online.

 

[PennLady]

Until my aunt gave me my current computer (a MacAir, because she decided she hated it and Apple stuff), I would use PCs. My last was a Compaq and before that an HP. They worked fine, aside from what I consider the usual PC/Microsoft stuff. However, I have to say that I had to use some older programs for work, so I think that contributed to some of the problems.

I think my last PC was $349, and I would imagine you could get more for that price now than I did five or so years ago.

 

[StrangeLife]

If magnify a low resolution picture on a high density monitor, the picture will begin looking pixelated because you're see the actual pixels. Also, if you view a low resolution picture in its native size on a high density monitor, the picture will look great, but it will be relatively tiny. It's sort of a trade-off.

Text wise? You won't notice a difference. Like Strange said: "1366 x 768 on a 15" screen is nothing to sneeze at" and we all know "bigger is better," right?

My own experience comes from upgrading from a standard Mac (1440 x 900) to the one Apple - in their usual modesty - calls "retina" (2880 x 1800).

I went for the retina model because I like to dabble in photography in my spare time, but was very surprised to discover that the actual improvement was in the display of text, not graphics. Apple has an illustrative demo here where they make a comparison, and having used both I can vouch for the effect.

But I see your point - and you're right of course. Fixed resolution bitmaps will not look better on a higher resolution screen. Most fonts are scaleable though.

 

[NaokoSmith]

This is all very helpful.

I did think about Macs, however I'm not really a visual media person. I only post occasional pix of my pussy and her kittens on my blog, so I felt the extra expense was not going to be value for money for me. Really I need the laptop for marking essays (which my university have done online for some time now), running occasional analysis using heavy social science programmes and writing smut. I sometimes do have to run interactive tutorials online but these are so badly supported that we can quite often skive off and watch the rugby instead .

I am v. glad I asked about the touch screen thing, that tip about Windows 8 is great - and so are all the other tips, thank you very much.

 

[sheablue]

I'm a Mac snob and have only ever used Mac in my whole life, so I'm no help. But can I just say ... new laptop? Yay!

 

[PennLady]

This is all very helpful.

I did think about Macs, however I'm not really a visual media person. I only post occasional pix of my pussy and her kittens on my blog, so I felt the extra expense was not going to be value for money for me. Really I need the laptop for marking essays (which my university have done online for some time now), running occasional analysis using heavy social science programmes and writing smut. I sometimes do have to run interactive tutorials online but these are so badly supported that we can quite often skive off and watch the rugby instead .

I am v. glad I asked about the touch screen thing, that tip about Windows 8 is great - and so are all the other tips, thank you very much.

I'm by no means a Mac snob, since I only recently came into possession of mine and until then, always used PCs. I will say that the whole "visual media" thing is nice but I'm not much on it myself, yet still the machine is a good one (a MacAir). It is stable -- any "crashes" I've had seem to be a result of having to use programs like Word (for work) and not anything inherent to Apple.

Also, my beta reader (a devoted Mac user) has pointed out that Macs have advantages like fewer viruses out there; a more stable OS; a system that will last longer before needing to be replaced (he's using one, or was until recently, that was probably close to ten years old).

You could also look into getting a refurbished Mac. I'm not sure quite how the price run, but it could be worth looking at.

 

[alwayswantedto]

<deleted>

 

[Handley_Page]

Updates (Windows 8.1) are available for those who'd prefer the Start Button.

Whatever else you do, Naoko, make sure you make a copy of the disk that comes with the machine and put it somewhere SAFE.

 

[jomar]

I could be swayed, I'm sure, but I'm a ThinkPad fan. I borrowed an IBM ThinkPad years ago and it was a tank...indestructible and completely reliable. Bought the new version when I had to turn it in and it was a workhorse until I drowned it with a glass of wine. Bought a new Lenovo version a few years ago (they put drainage channels in!) and it's been old reliable. Windows kind of sucks, but I'm stuck due to business software which would be cost prohibitive to switch to Apple. So...ThinkPads are great by me.

 

[PennLady]

I could be swayed, I'm sure, but I'm a ThinkPad fan. I borrowed an IBM ThinkPad years ago and it was a tank...indestructible and completely reliable. Bought the new version when I had to turn it in and it was a workhorse until I drowned it with a glass of wine. Bought a new Lenovo version a few years ago (they put drainage channels in!) and it's been old reliable. Windows kind of sucks, but I'm stuck due to business software which would be cost prohibitive to switch to Apple. So...ThinkPads are great by me.

I had a ThinkPad a while ago as well. I still have it, even though the OS is Win98, but it was always reliable and stable. I wish we could get some regular use out of it now, since aside from being old, it's a good machine.

 

[StrangeLife]

I could be swayed, I'm sure, but I'm a ThinkPad fan. I borrowed an IBM ThinkPad years ago and it was a tank...indestructible and completely reliable. Bought the new version when I had to turn it in and it was a workhorse until I drowned it with a glass of wine. Bought a new Lenovo version a few years ago (they put drainage channels in!) and it's been old reliable. Windows kind of sucks, but I'm stuck due to business software which would be cost prohibitive to switch to Apple. So...ThinkPads are great by me.

I used to swear by Thinkpads too but since Lenovo took over from IBM they have slowly diluted the lower end of the brand. The more pricey ones are still fine though but... well... pricey. Today I wouldn't buy any of the <$1000 models.

However Thinkpad is one of the laptops I'm never afraid to buy second hand because they're so easy to repair in the rare cases when they break. As opposed to many japanese brands they're built to last and you can download repair manuals for all of them. Parts are easy to get as well because they're so widely used in the corporate world.

 

[Handley_Page]

It might be worth thinking about a Compaq/ HP.
They're what we use for our cadets.