Which Laptop ???

[Stemmy]

Im in the market for a new laptop - I was looking at the VIAO but have seen talk of the Acers etc ?

Please help - let me know screen quality and price etc.

[tonymidd]

Im in the market for a new laptop - I was looking at the VIAO but have seen talk of the Acers etc ?

Please help - let me know screen quality and price etc.

I use an Acer at home and it's fine tho' the battery life seems limited but that may be I've bu**ered the battery up by running it on mains all the time. We've just bought a Vario for the club, built like a tank and heavy, the screen is exceptional but for the same money (£1400+) I think I'd go for a top end Acer, as I'm a Ferrari fan it would probably be the very stylish Ferrari model. In fairness it has to be said the Acer is not belt and braces build like the Sony but how long do you expect your laptop to keep up with the pace of developments and how much knocking about when travelling it has to stand? Having said that my Acer Travelmate has done two trips to the Azores, bounced around in a Tamrac in the coupe's boot all over Scotland and many other journeys. I think when my base unit next needs replacement I'll get a high end laptop and run it with a 22" or 24" stand alone monitor.
I also have Acer flat screen monitors which are again exceptional value for money.

[bartonflyer]

We've used the IBM Thinkpad range at work for years (now made in China by Lenovo) and I see no reason that we would change - but with laptops as with anything else you pays your money and ........

Key things to look for are a good support web site with all the latest drivers & updates, good service facilities if they do fail - again I'd recommend Lenovo (IBM) - have heard poor reports of Dell laptop reliability and a couple of freelancers that we use have had the Vaio and both had problems with hard disk failures.

Cheers
Ian

[tonymidd]

Forgot to add that my son, an IT manager for a logistics company, warned me off Vaio as they were expensive to repair when out of warrenty, he also mentioned the hard disk failure problem. He has used Dell for some time for some instalations and has found them value for money and quick to respond when there's a problem but that may be down to the fact his company buys in dozens of units not one or two at a time.
With some machines, like the Vaio and some others, I wonder how much you are paying for the name, a bit like buying a Leica compact instead of the Pana version, I also wonder which brands are made in the same factories in China? Both my Acer and the clubs Vaio were made there, maybe not in the same facility, who knows?

[IanG]

You could have a look at Novatech ... I've used them for my desktops and laptops for years and they have never let me down ... they have good after sales service, although they are fairly local to me down here in Hampshire, so I can pop in when I need to.

The Ferrari model that Tony mentioned looks like a good machine and Acer have been around for years ... I used their desktops at work in the early 90s ... for comparison, there is a similar spec Novatech one here http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbrange.html?TT2 with a 17" screen and built in card reader for a couple of hundred pounds less ... no Ferrari badge though :)

[tonymidd]

You could have a look at Novatech ... I've used them for my desktops and laptops for years and they have never let me down ... they have good after sales service, although they are fairly local to me down here in Hampshire, so I can pop in when I need to.

The Ferrari model that Tony mentioned looks like a good machine and Acer have been around for years ... I used their desktops at work in the early 90s ... for comparison, there is a similar spec Novatech one here http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbrange.html?TT2 with a 17" screen and built in card reader for a couple of hundred pounds less ... no Ferrari badge though :)

There are times when the badge is important:grin::grin::grin: it's why my d-in-law ran a VW but would not even look at a Skoda.
I know I could have saved about £300 when I bought the Leica D2 but somehow using a Panasonic???? where's the street cred in that??? My vacs a Panasonic as is one of the sound systems but a camera???? If the badge does not mean anything then save and buy the Pana or Skoda version. Perversely I'd buy a Skoda:wacko::wacko:
And anyway buying a Ferrari Acer is about as close to owning a Ferrari as I'll get:grin::grin::grin: and it really is a stylish machine which any client would comment on.

[IanG]

:agree: Absolutely agree with you Tony and I hope my comment about the badge didn't sound sarcastic, because it wasn't meant to ... I'm not suggesting the Novatech is a better option, just another alternative to consider. When comparing laptops, I tend to prefer a larger screen, but I guess if you are going to be lugging it around with all your other gear to weddings, then the more compact size of a 12" may be an advantage. Your point about impressing clients is a good one ... it certainly does look stylish.

[tonymidd]

[quote=IanG;90355]:agree: Absolutely agree with you Tony and I hope my comment about the badge didn't sound sarcastic, because it wasn't meant to

Not at all Ian, as you can see I agree with you and I for one took the Ferrari badge comment as intended.

... I'm not suggesting the Novatech is a better option, just another alternative to consider. When comparing laptops, I tend to prefer a larger screen, but I guess if you are going to be lugging it around with all your other gear to weddings, then the more compact size of a 12" may be an advantage.

That's one area where the Sony looses out 'cos it's so heavy. My Acer is lighter and has the same size screen..15.4"

Your point about impressing clients is a good one ... it certainly does look stylish

Street cred is important for a pro and it can work in many ways, At one of the Anzac days services on the Chase a BBC cameraman spotted Stan and I with our Leicas and made the comment 'nice to see real cameras being used' similarly my well worn Hassy always gets a similar comment. Rarely are our Nikon and Canon dSLRs commented upon, everyone seems to have them nowadays.
That Acer with the black finish and red trim with the prancing horse in the corner is so distinctive.
http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?sp=page117&dau22.oid=18363&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&ctx3=147&ctx4=United+Kingdom&crc=3336990279#inu57_33531

[robbie-doux]

All our work computers are Dell. Work well enough, but I'm not sure I'd want to trust my own business to one.

[Stemmy]

MMM all food for thought guys - thanks - and keep it comming

[StuG]

Damn I hate agreeing with me Brother :grin:

We use novatech for both Dektops and Laptops at work now. We've had a couple of problems with Desktops but they were rectified very quickly.
The laptops are very nice, especially the screens and to my knowledge we've not hat any problems with them yet.

As has been said though they don't look as good as the Acer :)

I should add we used to use Dell, but found them a) more expensive and b) slower, also within two years we were struggling to buy spares such as batteries.

We have also used Evesham but I although they look quite nice I would estimate about half of them had hard disk failures which is why we moved to Novatech.

[Deus]

Hate Dell.
Got a Lattitude or something like that downstairs. Never does what it's meant to do, it's big, clunky and rubbish and only use it if my wife gets to the Macbook before me and my pester power doens't work if she's doing something she can only do on the Mac.

We got a Macbook pro with both MAc Os X and Windows XP loaded.

Love it.
:)