Which laptop is the best? - Help needed!

hj2k_x

hj2k_x

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Hello there!

My gf is turning 21 soon and she is getting a laptop from her parents as a present. We have been looking at laptops now for some time and have found three that we think we have narrowed it down to..

This dual core Acer on promotion at Incredible Corruption for R8499

This great looking HP also from IC for R7499

This Packard Bell which has great features for its R8499 price tag

What would you guys advise? She needs it basically for varsity to take lecture notes, play music, watch movies and the like. It would be great if she could play the odd simple game like Age of Empires as she does not have her own PC at home..

We were leaning towards the PB because of the great specs for that price. It would need to be less than R9000 and be from somewhere reputable.

You guys got any advice to give?

Regards

Henry
 
I'd go for the PackardBell, most RAM and a better GPU than what the other 2 come with. The acer isn't to bad either, maybe just add another 512Mb, but will doubt she will have the need for a dualcore. The HP has a celeron, stay away!
 
Brawler said:
I'd go for the PackardBell, most RAM and a better GPU than what the other 2 come with. The acer isn't to bad either, maybe just add another 512Mb, but will doubt she will have the need for a dualcore. The HP has a celeron, stay away!
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree no need for dualcore really. Just the celeron M CPUs that all the other lappies come with is slow and has poor poor battery life...

It was just the HP looked so nice. Matt black, smooth lines etc.
 
raVid said:
Have a look at http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/.

They have a good selection and will match other quoted prices.
Click to expand...

H390EA hp Notebook - NX7400 - Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor T5500 1.66GHz 667MHz FSB 2MB L2 cache, 512MB DDR2-667MHz SO-Dimm Memory (1x512), 80GB SATA 5400rpm Hard Drive, 15.4" WXGA Bright View (1280x800 resolution) TFT LCD Display, DVD Writer DVD+/- RW DL SuperMuli - Fixed, Intel Media Graphics Accelerator 950 UMA 224MB, Intel 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 1-1-0 (One-year standard parts and labour warranty)
Click to expand...

For R8820 is not bad either...
 
One thing you should check out is the support and warranty services.

I'm not a huge Acer fan but I must admit, their support is pretty decent. The DVD burner in my Travelmate poked and they fetched it from my doorstep, sent it up to JHB, fixed it and returned it back to my doorstep for free.

Always go for the extended warranty.
 
n1hilist said:
One thing you should check out is the support and warranty services.

I'm not a huge Acer fan but I must admit, their support is pretty decent. The DVD burner in my Travelmate poked and they fetched it from my doorstep, sent it up to JHB, fixed it and returned it back to my doorstep for free.

Always go for the extended warranty.
Click to expand...

Indeed. So much to think about when it comes to choosing the right laptop!
 
In my experience when it comes to notebooks I recommend Acer and Fujitsu Siemens. I've had issues with almost every other brand of laptop, especially HP and Dell.

And whatever you get, make sure it has at least 1Gb RAM. Everything else is gravy.
 
Just make sure that the laptop is Vista compatible.
 
I have a fujitsu siemens, and never had any problems. I bought mine from Makro, and their prices are very very competitive. I searched for almost a year before I bought mine, and what I experienced, is that if you go for a brand like HP or Acer, Dell, or any of those big names, you pay a lot more, for a lot less than what I got. Mine is not very hot, but I played Need For Speed carbon on it, and I never had problems. And thats not a small game. I paid R7000 for mine, but now you can get even better for that price at Makro. You must check their prices, it's worth it. www.makro.co.za
 
jacqvt said:
I have a fujitsu siemens, and never had any problems. I bought mine from Makro, and their prices are very very competitive. I searched for almost a year before I bought mine, and what I experienced, is that if you go for a brand like HP or Acer, Dell, or any of those big names, you pay a lot more, for a lot less than what I got. Mine is not very hot, but I played Need For Speed carbon on it, and I never had problems. And thats not a small game. I paid R7000 for mine, but now you can get even better for that price at Makro. You must check their prices, it's worth it. www.makro.co.za
Click to expand...

Indeed, will have a look there., They have always had some great prices!
 
That's some pretty good advice jacqvt, just wish we had a Makro in Mpumalanga ;)
 
Syndyre said:
Can't you order online?
Click to expand...

No, seems not:

Please note this list is for store shopping convenience. Unfortunately you can't shop online
Click to expand...

I added something to the list and viewed it ;) I do order online quite a lot, but sometimes even Makro beats the price of online stores.
 
hj2k_x said:
Hello there!

My gf is turning 21 soon and she is getting a laptop from her parents as a present. We have been looking at laptops now for some time and have found three that we think we have narrowed it down to..

This dual core Acer on promotion at Incredible Corruption for R8499

This great looking HP also from IC for R7499

This Packard Bell which has great features for its R8499 price tag

What would you guys advise? She needs it basically for varsity to take lecture notes, play music, watch movies and the like. It would be great if she could play the odd simple game like Age of Empires as she does not have her own PC at home..

We were leaning towards the PB because of the great specs for that price. It would need to be less than R9000 and be from somewhere reputable.

You guys got any advice to give?

Regards

Henry
Click to expand...

Packard Bell are a Mickey Mouse company. They make products for home use but they're sort of like the AOL of the laptop/pc business.

I own an Acer, and while Acer was pretty junk until about 3-4 years ago,
the current ones are very good. HP, Dell are also good. Sony is overpriced.
IBM is now made by Lenovo and not really as good as they once where.
Another great make is Toughbook from Panasonic but they're not available
in SA. The nice thing about them is that they're incredibly rugged and
you can drop it onto a concrete floor and it won't get a scratch.

If you want to play 3D games on your laptop you'll need a machine
with a dedicated ATI or Nvidia GPU with it's own RAM. If you want to
run Vista and watch HD-DVD's you'll need a laptop with an HD-DVD
drive and a high res screen 1920by1200 and a GPU capable
of HDCP. What sort of connectivity options do you want?
Do you want it to support wireless networks or WIFI?
802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN fuctionality is a must then.

If you don't need to run 3D games but just watch DIVX movies
and DVDs on your laptop get a cheaper one, with a Celeron
processor. It will still run WORD, POWERPOINT, EXCEL fast
and it will play your iTunes/WinAMP music, DVDs and AVI
video.

Look also at the weight of the machine. Expensive laptops
are usually DTR (Desktop Replacement Machines). They're
heavy, have short battery life and heat up, at the same
time they are blazingly fast and have large HDDs and displays.
 
tibby.dude said:
Sony Viao or Lenovo :).
Click to expand...

If you want a premium laptop by a Panasonic Toughbook
or a MacBook Pro. If you want a premium laptop at
a normal price with good quality get an Acer, HP,
Toshiba or Dell. Heck Fujitsu-Siemens are good too.
However Lenovo are now a wholly Chinese company
and Sony are overpriced. I would avoid both of them
as with a Sony for example you won't get a decent
3D hardware solution but you'll pay for it as though you did.

I use a TravelMate 8104, Pentium M 2GHz, 1GB RAM,
128MB AtiX700 video and 1680 by 1050 res screen
with all the connectivity options available.
I could have paid an extra 1/3 for a SONY
version of this, except SONY did not have
3D accelleration, and a worse processor at the time.
My Singapore bought Acer has survived
with no problems for over a year now.
Great machine no hassles.
The current TravelMates use Core2Duo processors
and comes with 2GB of RAM - I can really recommend
these light weight guys except that they
are a bit pricey - but not as bad as a SONY.

The problem with SONY is that they think that they're
better than Toshiba, Acer or HP. They are not.
Sony products are pretty mediocre and it's only
their declining brand name which holds the prices
up. Sony is not the Rolls Royce of laptops,
they're another Toyota or Mazda with illusions
of grandeur.

IBM ThinkPads were great but when IBM made them
or oversaw their production (since they
were made in China too).
Lenovo is NOT IBM. You may as well get an
Acer or an ASUS, there's no difference,
although those are Taiwanese makes and
not ROC.

If you really want a rugged notebook get a Toughbook,
though. If you want elegant get a MacBook (Pro).

As with all electronics remember,
the much bigger Matsu****a (Panasonic) is your friend,
Sony is not. :)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the feedback guys- great :)

Found another machine at IC today. It seems really great. Can't find the link but these were the specs...

HP with a nice pattern design on the machine itself.
15" crystalbright display
120GB HDD
AMD X2 dual core @1.5GHZ
1GB RAM
Seperate 256MB geforce graphics
5 in one card reader
Windows Vista Premium
R8999 on promotion

It looks great to me...
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure what the newer AMD powered notebooks are like, but my Travelmate (AMD Turion 64 @ 1.8Ghz) gets seriously hot under load.

hj2k_x said:
Thanks for all the feedback guys- great :)

Found another machine at IC today. It seems really great. Can't find the link but these were the specs...

HP with a nice pattern design on the machine itself.
15" crystalbright display
120GB HDD
AMD X2 dual core @1.5GHZ
1GB RAM
Seperate 256MB geforce graphics
5 in one card reader
Windows Vista Premium
R8999 on promotion

It looks great to me...
Click to expand...
 
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