Recommend a laptop for <€900 ...by Monday?

It has to be...

  • Toshiba!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dell!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Neither! Laptops are very bad for you.

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Total voters
    1
D

DrMoriarty

Moderator
Messages
5,173
OK, I've just under a grand to spend on a laptop, for general home/college/multimedia use. I know I could probably spend a bit less, but the money's there, in a work-related budget, and I have to order something by Monday and submit an invoice to accounts, or it'll be gone — a 'use it or lose it' kind of situation. (If I'd known earlier, I might have joined those queues outside Aldi last Thursday, but what the hey... I heard they sold out in about 15 seconds flat anyway!)

So I see these two fairly similar offers:
from laptopsdirect.ie — €832 delivered (i.e. €220 off; indeed, the same machine is €1,076.72 incl. delivery on dabs.ie)
Inspiron 9400 from Dell — from €879 delivered, 1-year return-to-base warranty). For €999, with a €100 off promo coupon, I can get it with a better graphics card and processor, but I dunno if it's really worth it. There'll be lots of DVDs/DivX videos watched, but not a lot of high-end gaming action or anything like that (I'm far too old for that kind of thing... ).

Your votes please, gentlemen? Or any other suggestions? In particular, I don't really want/need Vista; I'm quite happy to stick with XP Pro, which I already have. Does anyone know anywhere that does good deals without an OS, but with a 1-year warranty? (most refurbs I see online only have 3 months).

Oh, and I'm in Limerick, so (a) I can't get to the likes of Peats to check out shop floor/Manager's Specials, and (b) although the Toshiba looks to me to edge it, a Dell return-to-base warranty obviously has a certain practical appeal. I've already had a look in their outlet store but I don't really see any great deals there at the moment, once you factor in VAT and delivery.
 
Whoops, sorry about that — I've never posted a poll before, and I can't see what's preventing you from voting.

Whaddya reckon, anyway?
 
Hard to advice unless you give you idea of what do want the laptop for, and your expected use.
 
DrMoriarty said:
...general home/college/multimedia use. [...] lots of DVDs/DivX videos watched, but not a lot of high-end gaming action or anything like that.
Click to expand...
Occasional video editing, but I'll probably continue to prefer the desktop for that.
 
DrMoriarty said:
Occasional video editing, but I'll probably continue to prefer the desktop for that.
Click to expand...

Since pretty much any laptop can do what you've aked for. I kinda meant, will you traveliing with it a lot, on planes etc. To college every day, on the train, just occasionally to the office/college. Or will it just be for email and movies in different rooms at home, and never really travel with it at all.
 
Well, occasional travel, but certainly not daily. I'd say most of the time it'll just sit at home as an extra PC — our desktop is shared between five kids at the moment, which leads to a fair bit of bickering!

Someone mentioned to me that a 17" display, apart from making the laptop that bit bigger and heavier to lug around, can be a bit of a killer on battery life. Maybe I should look at something with a 15.4" widescreen instead?
 
If its used at home all the time, and plugged into AC all the time you'll run down any laptop battery in about a year so it holds no charge. You need to remove it. Or use it on the battery as much as possible and only use on AC when you have to.

A Dell 6400 with a 9 cell battery will give you around 4 hrs whereas a 9400 with a 9 cell will give you 2.5 hrs at best. Why is battery life an issue if you are not travelling?

Bit late now, but my advice is to check out difference screen and resolutions before you buy, as you might hate the one you order. Personally I like big screens and battery life isn't a huge issue for me.
 
Thanks, aircobra19, I'll bear that in mind. Unfortunately I won't have time to go and look at displays, but I'll certainly look at screen resolutions as well as size. On reflection, maybe is a better option than the one I linked to above (and the model is also eligible for the Toshiba offer, which I suppose gives added peace of mind).
 
Well just buy on price and spec then. Toshiba are well regarded, I have no personal experience of them myself.
 
Well, in the end I went 'slumming it' and managed to pick up an Inspiron 1501 with a scratch on it for €410 delivered from the Dell outlet store on eBay, so I'm happy enough with that.
Now I'll have to spend the other few hundred on a nice external HDD media player, for ehm, watching management's Powerpoint presentations on the telly...
 
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