New laptop

[Vladamir]

After over 8 years of faithful service, my Dell Inspiron 6400 with Windows XP is starting to give up the ghost and I could do with an upgrade.

I have absolutely no idea about tech these days, I use some form of Windows 7 on my work laptop and quite like that, and I have no idea what to make of Windows 8.

Is it worth looking around for something on W7 as the choices are a hell of a lot less than Windows 8, or should I just man up and go with Windows 8? Or is it worth waiting until the stream of Windows 9 machines start coming out?

Would like to stick with Dell as I've found them to be very reliable, ideally spending 5-600 quid, doesn't need to do any mega high performance stuff, general home use without heavy gaming.

Cheers m8s!

 

[ECA]

You can install classicshell in <1minute and get your start menu back and disable metro....

8.1 has solid performance gains, blahblah

tldr just upgrade and if you hate any aspect of metro ( which I just ignore anyway - boot to desktop ) install classicshell.

If you don't do ANY gaming, then I'd look into a chromebook, or the new windows 8.1 lappies around £350-500.
If you need storage you need an HDD version, if you don't you can get some really nice cheap lappies with an SSD.


Also screensize ? You can get 10" to 17"..

 

[Vladamir]

Oh so you can un-windows 8 windows 8? That sounds handy

I doubt I will do any gaming, at a push it will be some oldschool stuff that it should have no trouble running.

Screen size I'll probably go 15 or 15.6, current is 15.6 and that's probably about as large as I'd want to go should I want to be portable with it.

 

[Edmond]

I've been using 8.1 for a couple of months now and I have really got used to it, even my work partner who has trouble turning it on and of seems to have it sorted. Although he still can't get used to the fact I have put everything on the taskbar and still minimizes every open window to get back to the start screen to open outlook, (when it's already open, we don't close it) even though I have shown him how to do it in an easier way.

And he double clicks everything in the taskbar and start screen too, drives me mad

 

[TdC]

sounds like my mum

 

[Gwadien]

sounds like my mum

Your mum is very very annoying.

 

[TdC]

she has the amazing way of calling me when I am in a tremendous hurry, or just about to have a shit, or just about to listen to some music, etc. still, I should be glad she does. I will call her tomorrow.

 

[Job]

My daughter got her laptop out yesterday that I bought for her two years ago..it had been in a drawer for six months ans she only needed it for some bullshit word docbollox that wouldn't work on her ipad.
Micrishite are still huge of course..but the only way is down..I'm torn because they are crap..but at least they didn't spy on you 24/7.

 

[Hawkwind]

Had 3 dell laptops, 2 xps and one inspiron, had problems with all 3 to the point where I would never buy another.

Got my son a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro in June, fantastic laptop and would definitely recommend it. Love the way you can flip it to become a tablet, work very well.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAx3DJcwJUI

 

[Vladamir]

Came across this which looks half decent, anything glaringly wrong with it?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...ouchscreen-ultrabook-silver-10010939-pdt.html

 

[MYstIC G]

Had 3 dell laptops, 2 xps and one inspiron, had problems with all 3 to the point where I would never buy another.

Got my son a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro in June, fantastic laptop and would definitely recommend it. Love the way you can flip it to become a tablet, work very well.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAx3DJcwJUI

Guy at work has one of these, first time I've ever wanted a laptop

 

[gmloki]

There are better out there for a little more especially if you want to get some gaming graphics on board. http://www.ebuyer.com/657670-msi-ge70-2pl-apache-gaming-laptop-borderlands-927-175a12-219 . Plus you get free Boderlands the Pre Sequel. If you get it let me know and I will get you an MSI Rucksack and Steelseries headset sent out

 

[TdC]

Had 3 dell laptops, 2 xps and one inspiron, had problems with all 3 to the point where I would never buy another.

Got my son a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro in June, fantastic laptop and would definitely recommend it. Love the way you can flip it to become a tablet, work very well.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAx3DJcwJUI

I was considering that since my other love, an Acer Aspire S7 w/8GB and 256GB ssd won't be happening due to Acer customer service horror stories.

The screen on the Yoga 2 Pro is amazing, but tell me @Hawkwind how is the scaling? 5.5odd megapixels on a 13.3" screen seems....dubious. Can you actually read what goes on on the screen?

 

[Hawkwind]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/20tdyqcherzu17d/AAAI2OWD7LLS80E-b9wWt_GJa?dl=0

Couple of Screen shots there of the metro and desktop.

 

[TdC]

cheers Hawkbacon, you're a star how does the screen brightness and contrast strike you?

 

[Hawkwind]

@TdC The screen is extremely nice, bright with decent contrast. It is what really sold me on the unit when I was looking for a new school model. The weight, feel and lightness of it too. Just thought it was so well designed and put together. My son has been using it for several months months now, firstly dragging around EU and now back at school, he loves it. Other parents in his year have contacted me to ask where I got it from, as their kids all thought it was "boss".

Simply a very nice product that does its job well.

 

[TdC]

great to hear @Hawkwind! so the discussion of what's what in nerdland is once again more academic than real world I suppose. it's now a tossup between this one and the Asus Zenbook I mentioned. They both cost about the same and are similarly spec'd other than the screen ofc.

 

[soze]

We had a guy in work from Lenovo and he had the Yoga 2 and a few other units with him. But his display model had developed a fault where the keyboard was not pulling back into the base anymore so when you sat it down it went mad. But we must have opened and closed that thing 100 times and it was a demonstration model. Other than that it looked good but with the moving parts and the chance for something to go wrong I would stick with the Asus Ultrabook I have played with a few of them recently and have been really impressed.

As far as Windows 8.1 goes there is no point in worrying about it. You can set it to display the program list like you get on Windows 7 but it is full screen. Unless you like the mouse and like using the last document feature in the start menu you should be fine with the switch it takes some getting used to which will be pointless seeing as 9 is around the corner and has a traditional hybrid style menu back. But I would imagine there will be a cheap upgrade when it arrives.

 

[Vladamir]

Still looking around, settled on a 15.6" screen which is the same as my current laptop; comparing the vivobook that I posted previously;

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...ouchscreen-ultrabook-silver-10010939-pdt.html

This one looks to be nearly 200 notes cheaper, compromising on the touchscreen (I'll never use it) and integrated rather than dedicated graphics (I can't foresee any gaming really being done)

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/X550CA-XX101H-ASUS-X550CA-XX101H_1599435.html

Anything I'm missing here?

 

[ECA]

I'd rather get an i5 with an SSD and integrated graphics than an i7, or a dedicated gpu.

 

[Vladamir]

If I'm just using it for non-gaming stuff and media streaming, will it make a significant difference?

 

[ECA]

Yes. That's actually where it will make the most difference.

My laptop priorities for nongaming would be

SSD
4gb of ram or more
and screen size of preference,

 

[Vladamir]

Dilemma re-acquired then!

 

[ECA]

Imo it's worth checking out ebay/amazon and see what you can find in your price range, there are some very nice second hand laptops available, with incredible specs in your price range.

But eg, for facebook/media playback I'd rather have a celeron with an SSD over an i5/i7 with a HDD. ( I have an i7 lappie with a hdd :/ ).

 

[soze]

It is a hybrid SSD and 200 quid difference. you could get a 512gb Sunsung 840 pro for 250.

 

[Vladamir]

SSD's, I don't even know what these are

 

[ECA]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrnvKhWPz2Y