Hi guys

I am in the market for a laptop over here in London, as just about everywhere place we have looked at to live has wireless broadband set up. The cheapest place we have found seems to be this mob - http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/

Having never really dealt with laptops before, I need some advice as to what might be a good purchase. So far I have been instructed by people to get an Asus, but there are so many models it's hard to know what we should get. Basically, what we are after is:

- Something under £700 (which is roughly $1700)
- 80-100g hard drive
- Wireless capabale
- Preferably a webcam, although we can buy one if not
- 15inch screen is fine, but if it comes with a bigger one that's fine too
- DVD RW
- Windows Vista capable

A lot of the laptops on there seem to list these sort of specs, but again it's a little confusing knowing which ones will offer better performace/value, etc. One of my friends has recommended this model - http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_F3J_Laptop_F3JC-AP040P/version-1.asp

Any laptop gurus out there who could take a look and give me some help that would be fantastic. In return I will send you a couple of copies of The Sun for all the British spoot you need.

The Sony's aren't really respected but I like them, they have some good ones for your price range with prety good features. Try the Sony.uk site

last edited by Skitza at 22:11:41 15/Nov/06

I have an ASUS laptop and it rocks, the main reaon I purchased an ASUS one was due to it's 2 year GLOBAL Warranty - I bought it from Aus.

http://au.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=22&l3=291&model=1009&modelmenu=2

That's the model I have, looks from your UK site that it would be out of the price range, but i am happy with it.

Duo Core 1.83ghz
2gb ram
512mb gfx
100gb hdd
wireless, bluetooth etc etc

Its tops :)

ohh yeah 17" and has built in webcam - which is handy when speaking with people back home...

ohh and mine came with media center edition of XP

Just looking on the site I linked to, it's got a sata drive, didn't know that!

And keep in mind if you want it to be 'portable' mine is a massive machine and weighs around 4kg - was a pain in the arse getting it here, but it was bought as a desktop replacement and it serves that purpose well.

n.b. I can't edit posts from work, hence second reply.

Get back to work!!!#!# meow.

why would I want to do that!

I get paid more to do less work that I did in Syd. I get to spam qgl (I couldn't access it in Syd office) and I get to monitor my torrents from work - did I mentioned unlimited downloads :p

ahhh such is life.

enough of the thread hijack, lets get back on track

So in essence,you're better off and we, in turn, are worse off.

At this stage I will probably go with what my mate recommended, but I am still open to suggestions.

Laptops are one of those things where engineerings and quality of components makes a difference.
imo.
Toshiba & Apple are top
Dell and HP are only just behind them
Then there is a heap on the next layer down. Acer, Asus, Sony, IBM/Lenovo

Don't but ones branded "Notebook"

But at 1,750 of our banana dollars thats a good buy.

but the cave troll is no longer in australia, so we are better off

love you heardy :)

I'd always go with Dell, had 3 so far and all have been top notch. The latest is an Inspiron 6400 with;

Dual Core 1.83Ghz
1Gb DDR2 mamories
15.4" 1280x800 screen
80Gb SATA HDD
DVD-RW
Wireless/Bluetooth/Memory card reader/Firewire
Vista capable (running it on dual boot)

It's a bloody nice laptop and I only paid about $1800 for it.

if you want a good looking, reliable, well built, no fuss, light weight and slim for portablility, performance/buck. get an apple macbook. otherwise buy a PC brick from dell or asis (intensional)