h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My current PC is over 6 years old, and was low spec when I bought it. It now struggles to the point where it's not usable for the first 30-40 minutes after rebooting. (I've a good system maintenance routine, so it's not that).

I'm fortunate that I can afford to replace it. But what with?

If money really were no object, I'd get a MacBook of some description, but they are expensive, about to be replaced with a new product line (I can wait), and I'd have to replace and maybe re-buy all of my software. But they are s.... But they are expensive, and may be over-priced.


So, do I go for a MacBook and take the Bank Manager? Or do I get a Windows laptop? And if so, which one?


Here are my criteria:

Laptop - I want to break free from the kitchen table, though I won't be lugging it around on a daily basis

Reliable - I will pay more, if necessary a lot more, for never having to phone customer support

Not sure about size - small is lighter, large is easier on the eyes


Here's what I use / what I do:

Skype - would be useful to have integral camera and speakers, but that's standard these days, isn't it?
Lots and lots of MS Office - (which I will have to buy, dammit, since my (legal) copy is MS Office 2003)
Editing Images (I'm ok with Gimp though I use a free photoshop knock-off)
iTunes - I've got a decent set of external speakers already


Then I've got a lot of utilities I use regularly for things like

Converting scanned PDFs to text files
Capturing and editing screenshots


And I am likely to have three or four different browsers, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Explorer, and quite likely to have them all open at once.

I also use web-based apps a lot; gliffy.com in particular runs a bloody great Flash app which is pretty resource-heavy.


And of course, I like to do everything at once.

I don't play games, and at present I don't watch DVDs, but that could change (just when laptops stop having CD/DVD drives, of course..... ).


So... which brand? The user satisfaction survey say Thinkpad owners are the most (self?)-satisfied.

And... what spec?



Ben

I have a Lenovo T400 think pad, about a year old. It's fine. I don't know what it costs, my employers lend it to me...

Takes a few minutes to start, yes, but having my helpful boss shut down some process that would always autostart helped.

I skype comfortably, browse with Chrome, usually. I suppose there are faster machines, but I'm ok.

All I can contribute is this. When I switched from a pc to a laptop I was insistant I have the extended keyboard. I work in accounts and thought nothing could annoy me more than having to use the numbers along the top.

However, I soon found out that something does annoy me more - brushing the mouse pad and suddenly ending up somewhere else on the document. It wasn't long before I bought a very cheap usb keyboard and mouse so now no longer need the extended keyboard. A normal keyboard would have meant a lighter laptop.

Also I paid £50 more just to get a sexy red cover, which I never see as the laptop still lives on the same desk the pc did and is invariably open.

I think the point of this is: think hard before you waste money on extras you just have to have - because you probably don't.

Deb

I think that it sounds like your priorities are high power and reliability? am I correct?

I have no idea. But I really need a laptop, the remote desktop sharing at the university VPN is annoying.

Thanks Milla and Deb.

Reliability first, and then *enough* power, Z.

The trouble is, I don't know how much is enough. As I said, I don't use it for games, so I don't need the latest thing in graphics cards. But I don't want to see that damn hourglass for another two or three years please!

Incidentally, want it not to have crappy consumer entertainment apps on it which I then have to uninstall.

B

"brushing the mouse pad and suddenly ending up somewhere else on the document. "

Could you not turn the mouse pad off? I had to do that with my Dell, although it involved some jiggery pokery.

I had a laptop thread on here recently, which got some good results. I've got the notes somewhere, still haven't had time to choose one and order it!

Ooh, I'll take a look though the backlog, Mina, thanks.

(We need an smiley!)

I had a quick search, but keep getting distracted by dogs, sorry.

Was it this thread?

F19585?thread=8283242

Yes, that was my last one. Although technology has probably moved on a lot since October!

Well found.

Oooh. Thanks!

*clicks*

In case people think i'm stalking I actually found it by googleling 'laptop, Mina and h2g2'...

But that's exactly stalking!

Ooh er.. erm..

No stalking would have been reading all Mina's posts for the last year..

Mina and Z
Sitting in a Tree
Kay aye ess ess
Aye en gee

If you're determined to get a laptop, make sure to get one that you can turn off the little touchpad below the space bar using a handy button beside the space bar. Otherwise, when you're typing you'll hit the touchpad by accident and type in all the wrong places - absolutely useless if you use Word at all, or construct long documents or even postings.