Buying a laptop - any ideas?

[bgowland]

Nothing to do with NextPVR hence posting in General Discussion.

My wife's current PC is almost as old as the ark so I was going to upgrade the mobo etc. but she suggested just getting a cheap-ish laptop. I'm completely out of the loop with current hardware and I've personally never owned a laptop so that makes it even harder to advise her on what to get. So....

All she needs to use it for is the usual - email, web-browsing, creating documents with Word etc. so nothing needing any major processing power.

Ideally she'd prefer a 4:3 ratio screen and it needs to be fairly light to carry. She's not fussed about Windows version although I'm inclined to go with W7.

I'd be interested to hear any comments from anyone who has recently bought a laptop so I can get an idea of which makes/models to look at.

Cheers and Happy New Year,
Brian

[sub]

I don't really have a recommendation, but I'm pretty sure nobody makes 4:3 laptops any more. I haven't seen one in a very long time.

I'm currently using a mid-range Dell with i5 processor. Pretty happy with it. They've since introduced a lot of UltraBooks, which are a hell of a lot thinner and better looking.

[Reddwarf]

My wife just bought an Acer Aspire E1-571, it has an Intel i3 processor, 4gig ram and 500gig HD. She is really pleased with it (even when it came with W8 ). Cost about 350 £ here.

[bgowland]

I don't really have a recommendation, but I'm pretty sure nobody makes 4:3 laptops any more. I haven't seen one in a very long time.

Yeah, I figured it was fairly unlikely we'd find 4:3. When I left my last permanent job in 2006 and I was involved with hardware purchases, 16:9 was beginning to creep in on high-end models at least. Everything I've looked at today is 16:9 - great for viewing video but not so good for viewing an A4 page when creating documents.

I'm currently using a mid-range Dell with i5 processor. Pretty happy with it. They've since introduced a lot of UltraBooks, which are a hell of a lot thinner and better looking.

OK, thanks I'll take a look in that direction.

[bgowland]

My wife just bought an Acer Aspire E1-571, it has an Intel i3 processor, 4gig ram and 500gig HD. She is really pleased with it (even when it came with W8 ). Cost about 350 £ here.

Does this look like the same as your wife's?

http://www.ebuyer.com/395550-acer-aspire...-m09ek-001

Where I used to work we bought a lot of Acer laptops and I always liked them so I've been looking at their current range tonight.

[Reddwarf]

Does this look like the same as your wife's?

http://www.ebuyer.com/395550-acer-aspire...-m09ek-001

Where I used to work we bought a lot of Acer laptops and I always liked them so I've been looking at their current range tonight.

Yep, pretty much the same except for some stickers . I'v also installed a npvr client on it and it works nice over wireless n.

[Graham]

My daughter has been using this ...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docum...ct=4315312

She has had it for a year and is well pleased, she is at college so it has some rough treatment without problems, and she runs Autocad on it. I would buy HP again.

[bdgbill]

Does she really need a Windows machine? My wife's old desktop is a dusty relic in the corner since I bought her an iPad last year. She told me to bring it back when I gave it to her, saying she would never use it. These days, it's rarely out of her hand.

[bgowland]

My daughter has been using this ...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docum...ct=4315312

She has had it for a year and is well pleased, she is at college so it has some rough treatment without problems, and she runs Autocad on it. I would buy HP again.

Thanks Graham. HP is another make of laptop I had good experiences of back in my previous job. They're on the short-list of manufacturers I'm considering but working on a budget they're possibly out of the picture based on spec/price I've been looking at (unless I can find a clearance deal).

Does she really need a Windows machine? My wife's old desktop is a dusty relic in the corner since I bought her an iPad last year.

Yes, she pretty much needs a Windows environment. She's a teacher and needs MS Office for lesson planning and creating teaching resources.

Well, in general, this exercise has become a major headache. We took a trip out to PC World earlier just so my wife could decide on whether to have a ~15 inch or ~17 inch screen and to gauge the weight of various models. For a change one of the staff instantly latched on to us (usually PC World staff are oblivious to customers) - perhaps it was just a case of us looking at items with triple figure price tags instead of my usual visits to buy a USB cable or similar.

Anyway thanks for the various suggestions - I'm gradually narrowing it down.

Cheers,
Brian

[whurlston]

but not so good for viewing an A4 page when creating documents.

HP TouchSmart Convertible Tablet PC or EliteBook (or other manufacturer equivalent). Spinning the screen to tablet mode will turn it into a Portrait layout.