Recommend me a laptop

[munk]

I was debating getting an ipad, not sure whether to wait until the ipad 3 is out or not... could either be as soon as March or much later in the year so not sure whether to wait or go for the ipad 2 now.

But... have to say I definitely wouldn't be buying it for AP play, would strictly be a 'leisure' tab, really a 'second screen' as much as anything (ie for having next to you when you're watching TV or a film and want to know more about the thing you're watching!). Or ... well ok mainly for playing games on haha.

Incidentally and just to totally take this thing off topic, sorry(!): if anyone is after a remote control sized wireless keyboard there's a really smart Xenta keyboard (+integrated mousepad too!) I got the other day which I'd highly recommend. It's about the size of an xbox controller / 'wide' remote control, fits in your hands just nicely, ideal for a home theatre PC or if you need to enter very occasional text on a pc from a distance but mostly use the integrated trackpad. Really impressed with this badboy, wasn't expecting a lot cos it was only £15-20 or so, but worked like a dream out of the box, just has a tiny little wireless adapter (radio based, not infra red, so doesn't have to be in 'line of sight' to work and can plug it in round the back of a PC out the way - plug that in, switch the keyboard on and you're away. (ps if you buy it on ebay from ebuyer express it's a few quid cheaper than direct on ebuyer's site! postage is a killer on ebuyer nowadays!)

[rogsmith]

Stan,dont just limit your selection to an ipad,there are (some would say) better options in the tablet world for what you want to do.Some support flash,you can have more than one window open and most are cheaper.Check this out.Top 21 best tablet PC iPad alternatives | News | TechRadar

Just to add im no expert i dont own one.I did ask the question about a particular tablet that had very good reviews in the what mobile devise thread but i got no replies.Its a smaller screen but check this one out and the price.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cambridge-Sc...pr_product_top

[munk]

I read your post Rog and thought (as I imagine most!) that I had no opinion since I don't have one! I would go with the reviews on Amazon tbh... though on subject of tabs I don't know that there is anything better than the ipad if you want the best (which sounds a bit zealous but honestly isn't, I dislike Apple on lots of levels, but I have researched it a bit myself and the general concensus seems to be the ipad is the market leader for a reason - it's better than anything else that is out there). You do pay a premium price though for having the best... as always you get what you pay for!

I like those techradar reviews though, definitely worth checking out if you're in the market for some kind of electrical device, made choosing a TV a few months ago a lot easier!

[dreamylittledream]

In all honestly if you want a tablet then none of competition are in the same league as the pad. Ultimately it's largely all about the apps and the screen and you have to go pretty high in the budget to get similar features and at the end of the day you still end up with a poorer machine.

Caveat I am well known for being an Apple whore and am no great fan on android os in any of it's forms.

However, much as I love my iPad it is not an AP machine, flash can be emulated (badly) but ultimately you'll find it too diddly for anything other than placing basic bets.

If you can stretch to it I'd get the smallest MacBook air to combine practicality, portability and general shiny toy feeling.

Otherwise a netbook is going to be more suitable.

[mickfinn]

For MB work I'd recommend getting the widest screen you can. I've got a Fujitsu Amilo with 18.4" screen. It works well, provided you don't actually want to carry it around much.

[SlipperyFish]

This seems an excellent deal for a core i5 Lenovo, works out at ~£350 after cashback

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E520 Core i5-2410m 4GB 500GB 15.6" Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit £348.98(after cashback) @ Dabs.com - HotUKDeals

[cleaner]

It is simply beyond me to understand how do you guys can do this full time on one 15" screen.
I couldn't manage without my 2 screens (2 x 22") - tried it once on holidays on parents lappy and it was a nightmare.

[horsekeeper]

This seems an excellent deal for a core i5 Lenovo, works out at ~£350 after cashback

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E520 Core i5-2410m 4GB 500GB 15.6" Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit £348.98(after cashback) @ Dabs.com - HotUKDeals

I went for this one this week as the offer is back on again. The sale had finished so didn't get the £25 off but have claimed the £100 cashback from Lenovo. Hopefully Cashback will track too, but still £373 looks good value for money.

First impressions:

• Nice spaced out keyboard with a numeric key pad if a little noisy typing compared to a Dell Latitude E6410 and Sony Vaio E series.
• No lights: There is no HDD light, WIFI light, Bluetooth light or Num Lock light. The battery charging light is at the side and the only light is the red "i" on ThinkPad when the laptop is turned on.
• Very quiet so far but occasionally the fan makes a whoosh noise as the HDD spins up but even then, it is hardly noticeable.
• The Ctrl and Fn keys are swapped on the left hand side of the keyboard which takes some getting used to. This can be reversed in the BIOS if desired.
• By default the Function keys are disabled and the user needs to hold the Fn key down to use the function keys. A little annoying as I'm used to doing Ctrl-F4 and F5 and need to press three keys instead of two. Again, this can be changed in the BIOS to make it more like Caps Lock key i.e. Fn lock.
• The one thing that will take some getting used to is the PgUp and PgDn keys are beside the arrow keys and not at the top right of the keyboard as I'm used to.
• The laptop isn't as ugly as I thought but it is not as sexy as a Sony but I didn't buy it to be a model but to be a slave.

Going to have a few weeks doing some APing and see if I need some more RAM but it seems pretty fast so far.

Windows 7 will take some getting used to but I've customised it so it looks a lot like XP but for some reason the WiFi seems to drop a lot more often on a Windows 7 PC than the Windows XP machines I've been using. Don't know what is going on there.

[nels_tgt_er]

Should've posted that over Christmas I paid £599 from John Lewis for the Toshiba L750-17P

A bit over the top but pleased with it, quiet laptop, is getting rid of the heat well, unlike my previous dell.

I know its got plenty of processing power. Hopefully it lasts me a while and can deal with 20 million windows open.

Buy Toshiba Satellite L750-17P Laptop, Intel Core i7, 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB, 15.6", Silver online at JohnLewis.com

[westv]

After weeks (months?) of going round in circles pontificating as to which laptop to buy/whether to buy one at all I finally bit the bullet today and have gone for this refurbished one

TOSHIBA SATELLITE C660-26H LAPTOP 640GB 15.6 INCH 4GB DDR3 RAM - REFURB | eBay

Probably not the best but it seems to have good reviews. I've also ordered a 3 mobile dongle and some 1GB sim cards for when I might be out and about.