Looking For A New Laptop

[hldomster]

Hey guys!

Long time no see. Hope everything is going well here.

I've not been on here in ages, and as a result of that, I don't really know much about Sony laptops anymore. I've still got my FS115S, but to be honest it's getting pretty slow and outdated, and I want something new. I've said for a long time that my next laptop will be a Mac, and I'm quite liking the Macbook Pro for £1299, but I'd want Windows aswell, and I dunno if I can get the Student MS Office for Mac for £40 (which you definately can for Windows). So I'm not sure if I should go for a Mac or not, as the price could soon become alot more than £1299.

Anyway, I thought I'd come on here and ask what laptops you guys could reccomend for me. TBH I've not been impressed with my VAIO, they're overrated at best, but hey, I've had it a few years now and I remember the older VAIOs were very good, so perhaps Sony has improved (and has started putting they're own hardware inside the laptops!).

So let me know what you think. I'm looking for something with a 15.4inch screen. I don't play games, so graphics arent a big thing. I mainly browse the net, read emails, listen to music and use MS Office, so I need a laptop that's going to do all that, but do it fast!

Thanks for your time,

Cheers,

Dom.

[billysausage]

Hi Dom,

I was in your situation a couple of months ago, only I was choosing between Macbook and a VAIO. In the end I plumped for a VAIO but am not exactly bowled over by it.

I really wanted a Mac Pro myself but couldn't raise the cash as I needed more than the standard 1GB of RAM.

I think the VAIO is a bit unstable although this might be down to Vista. Also the battery life is CRAP. I get barely more than an hour sometimes and running intensive applications will shorten that.

It's the difference between a BMW(Apple) and a Renault(Sony) really. Apple Macbooks are kind of low powered but work at a hell of a speed and last up to 8 hours. Mac Pro's have a shorter battery life but more power than most desktops on the market. Sony's efforts a clumsily put together and are boxed with the bare minimum. I've also heard some horror stories about the tech support with one guy waiting half a year for his VAIO to be repaired!!

If I had to make the choice again I would have waited to get the Mac Pro and lived with compatibility issue....

Good Luck anyway....

Paul

[tonybeard]

Hey Dom been a long time alrighty. Most of the Macs have intel duel core and can handle boot camp (duel boot) for around a £1000, my brother bought and brought out me Mum a G5 quad core Power Mac from Japan (with UK keyboard of course) which had boot camp univeral compatability. I had vista onboard in a jiffy. It was lightning fast but the screen was still not as good as Vaio. Most of the A series vaios are sporting a 800MHZ front side bus and 2.4 duel core but I would be lying if I didn't spill a lot of people have ditched Vista and tried at their peril to re embrace XP. Of course the push towards Vista compatability has left XP drivers for the new Vista hungry hardware either unavailable or tricky to find. Where have you been matey?

[helloimgeoff1]

I'm new to using a Vaio, and personally I think my FZ21Z is the best laptop I've ever used, and most likly will be for along time. They're very very good laptops, they're excelent at doing plenty of things

I currently have my laptop dual booting with Ubuntu and Vista, which both are working very very well for me. If Vista is what puts you off for the Vaio, then just wait for Vista SP1 to come out, it should solve most of the troubles that you're having at the moment.

Hf Geoff.

[kee-lo_]

Hey Domster!

Long time no see!

As you can see a lot has changed, and people have left too but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I'd say get the Mac, be a maverick! You can buy Parallels desktop for it, (£40) and have Windows XP. Office for Mac is good - don't let it put you off, but OpenOffice is much better, and will save you £40. Very powerful too.

Leopard is an amazing OS too.

Hope all is well with you anyway,
see you around.

[hldomster]

Hi,

Thanks for your help so far guys.

Who's left KL? Let me know the crack, haha.

I think I will end up going for the Mac. That Macbook Pro for £1299 is lush, and I can get it about £100 cheaper cos I'm a student if I buy direct from Apple. Do you guys know where I'd get one any cheaper? Also, I like my laptop to be comprehensively insured for accidental damage and the like, and Apple don't sell this, does anyone know a company who specialises in this?

Cheers

[hldomster]

Hi again,

I've changed my mind, I'm gonna go for the cheaper non-pro macbook. My reason is that the Macbook pro is a bit ugly, whereas the standard Macbook is very sexy. Suppose I'll just have to live with the decreased screen size (13.1), but hey it might encourage me to take my laptop out more. This model only comes with 1gb RAM so I'm gonna pay £80 and have it upgraded to 2gb.
I'm in a bit of a predicament though. Obviously I want to get this as cheap as possible, but there are other things I want to.

I want this laptop comprehensively insured (including accidental damage.

I want a long interest-free period on the finance.

I want 2gb RAM

So I'm a bit stuck. With apple I get the student discount, and I can get the 2gb RAM for £85, but they dont do comprehensive insurance (just an extended warranty with support) and only have a 6 month interest free period. But if i get it from CUrrys or Comet, I pay a bit more and won't be able to get the RAM upgrade. What should I do??