best laptop?

[chirpychirpy]

Can anyone recommend a really good laptop that I could buy new for up to about �750? My last two have been Sony Vaios and they've gone wrong after a worryingly short time.

[Richard1966]

I switched to an apple macbook nearly two years ago. It works like a dream and I would never go back

[sn�gged]

I also use Macs... Apple are doing the 13'' Macbook for just over �700 at the moment... see their website...

[chirpychirpy]

What of the laptops that are not Apple Macs?

[spacechimp]

Well what do you want from it? Long battery life? Graphics? Ruggedness?

[terambulan]

This lappy Dell Lat D620 with wifi is great but since my son bought it for me to keep me out of his hairhe chose without a CD burner. Would be perfect with a burner; get that and you're in virtual-heaven.

PC World do lappys on terms (pay after 1y) great investment!

[chirpychirpy]

I need it for writing Word documents and emailing mainly.

[willyboy]

Laptops are great for on the move, and l suppose space saving, but why not consider a midi tower system. Spend �750 on a laptop, give it 6mths, and it will be out of date! With a tower system, just upgrade the obsolete item with ease or add new components at will.
Excellent deals, great specs., and a lot cheaper than �750.

[ACtheTROLL]

chirpychirpy - cheap cheap?

Lappys have come down in price - or at least closed the gap of late
�750 is (relatively) a lot of dosh these days for a general purpose lappy to serf, office and such

what's it for?

[Beswad]

One thing I've learnt in buying computers is not to buy from new anymore. The first desktop I bought costs �1200 and the second computer was a laptop costs �1500. Now I just buy secondhand computers then upgrade them it's far more cheaper, knowing if I was buying from new the computer will be dated in a years time.

If you are buying a laptop for general use. You could pick up a pretty decent machine online for over �400.

[Ethel]

I bought my Acer laptop at least 5 years ago - could be 7 - and it still going strong.

For your needs any laptop in the �300 to �400 will do very well.

[trish432]

"I need it for writing Word documents and emailing mainly. "

For this purpose, and including a dvd rewriter and decent ram etc I think �300 to �350 would be about right.

What about this one Toshiba Satellite Pro L300-1AD - C 575 2 GHz - 15.4 Inch.

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/toshiba_laptop/ cat.asp

Only 1gb ram but my daughter`s has only half a gig and runs ok apart from starting up and shutting down a bit slowly, she`s on vista home basic, the extra half gig should make a difference.

[trish432]

Sorry forgot to say it`s �309.97 and it`s Vista Premium. Never had a laptop myself, but I believe Toshiba to be recommended on this site.

[fo3nix]

Dell make decent laptops that aren't that expensive.

Acer, Toshiba and Fujitsu make good laptops that are quite well made for a decent price. ASUS probably fits in here too.

Sony are overpriced hardware that isn't that well made. Avoid if possible.

Lenovo make very good laptops, specifically their Thinkpad range (used to be IBM). Known as being about the best you can buy in terms of reliability.

Macbooks are very good though, and in your price range. Given that Macbooks come with Mac OS X, I would go with this over any other laptop if possible every time. If you specifically need something that's Windows-only, you may want a Windows laptop (or install Windows on the Macbook too), but otherwise I'd go the Apple way.

[Nogod888]

ACER....its value for money!!! Mine has lasted 3 years now without a hint of trouble.

[zinnie]

Hi 'chirpychirpy' ....go to the PCadvisor website ...they have done a review of laptops this month ...you don't have to take their recommendations , but it gives you a good idea of some of the laptops 'out there', and some of the features to 'look for'.