Hello All,
I've been reading this forum along with another in the UK and have got some excellent info from both.
I posted a Q in the UK forum and received a couple of good answers and wondered if anybody here could add to them.
I was originally comparing three models (the above title plus the Pro M50 but I've since ruled the latter out as I don't need portability that much so would value a larger screen instead).
I've never bought a laptop before and my (somewhat limited) knowledge of PC specs is mainly desktop based so getting clued up was the task for the last two days after my sister said she wanted to buy a laptop.
I've used Toshiba's and HP's with my work and found them both very good machines. Looking at prices for entry level kit it seems that Toshiba has much more to offer so went down that route.
Here are the two shortlisted.
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi.../version-1.asp £429.96
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi.../version-1.asp £475.95
My sister will be emailing, browsing, photo editing, watching DVDs output to the TV and some MS Office work. Nothing too taxing.
The key things that I wanted was a "M" processor, 512meg of RAM, DVD writer, wireless LAN and TV-Out.
These laptops are the minimum priced versions in their model class (A100,L20) that satisfy the above requirements.
I'm interested to hear if anybody has any views on whether there's any tangible benefits with going for anything other than the L20 at the lowest price out of the two. Does the other model have some benefits that are worth paying the extra for? Or can you seasoned laptop users recommend a better spec'd product from another top notch manufacturer that betters these models?
The screen display ratio isn't that important, not looking to be watching too many widescreen movies on it but will be using photo editing programs so thought that a 4:3 screen would better suit since digital cameras take pictures in the 4:3 ratio.
One more thing. I've read the horror stories about people buying LCD monitors and laptops that arrived with dead/stuck pixels and having to put up with them because they fall below the 6 dead pixels limit, etc.. I don't believe I'm wrong in thinking that if I've spent £500 on something then I'd like it to be 'perfect' when it gets to me; and this includes not having black or coloured dots littering my screen from the get-go. Does anybody have any experience in returning laptops to the vendor under the Distance Selling Regs for a refund based on the fact that there are one or two dead/stuck pixels on arrival? And anybody know laptopsdirect.co.uk response to this? (I'm assuming that I can carefully take the laptop out of its packaging, turn it on, check for pixel problems then carefully repackage it and it would still qualify as " pristine re-saleable" as per their Terms; or would turning it on trigger some Windows XP setup program that I'd have to get through to look at the screen, thereby meaning that I've setup the machine and it is not pristine and re-saleable?)
Sorry for such a long message. Thanks once again for all the info that's already been posted and I look forward to reading any comments you lot have.
Cheers,
Jon
I've been reading this forum along with another in the UK and have got some excellent info from both.
I posted a Q in the UK forum and received a couple of good answers and wondered if anybody here could add to them.
I was originally comparing three models (the above title plus the Pro M50 but I've since ruled the latter out as I don't need portability that much so would value a larger screen instead).
I've never bought a laptop before and my (somewhat limited) knowledge of PC specs is mainly desktop based so getting clued up was the task for the last two days after my sister said she wanted to buy a laptop.
I've used Toshiba's and HP's with my work and found them both very good machines. Looking at prices for entry level kit it seems that Toshiba has much more to offer so went down that route.
Here are the two shortlisted.
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi.../version-1.asp £429.96
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi.../version-1.asp £475.95
My sister will be emailing, browsing, photo editing, watching DVDs output to the TV and some MS Office work. Nothing too taxing.
The key things that I wanted was a "M" processor, 512meg of RAM, DVD writer, wireless LAN and TV-Out.
These laptops are the minimum priced versions in their model class (A100,L20) that satisfy the above requirements.
I'm interested to hear if anybody has any views on whether there's any tangible benefits with going for anything other than the L20 at the lowest price out of the two. Does the other model have some benefits that are worth paying the extra for? Or can you seasoned laptop users recommend a better spec'd product from another top notch manufacturer that betters these models?
The screen display ratio isn't that important, not looking to be watching too many widescreen movies on it but will be using photo editing programs so thought that a 4:3 screen would better suit since digital cameras take pictures in the 4:3 ratio.
One more thing. I've read the horror stories about people buying LCD monitors and laptops that arrived with dead/stuck pixels and having to put up with them because they fall below the 6 dead pixels limit, etc.. I don't believe I'm wrong in thinking that if I've spent £500 on something then I'd like it to be 'perfect' when it gets to me; and this includes not having black or coloured dots littering my screen from the get-go. Does anybody have any experience in returning laptops to the vendor under the Distance Selling Regs for a refund based on the fact that there are one or two dead/stuck pixels on arrival? And anybody know laptopsdirect.co.uk response to this? (I'm assuming that I can carefully take the laptop out of its packaging, turn it on, check for pixel problems then carefully repackage it and it would still qualify as " pristine re-saleable" as per their Terms; or would turning it on trigger some Windows XP setup program that I'd have to get through to look at the screen, thereby meaning that I've setup the machine and it is not pristine and re-saleable?)
Sorry for such a long message. Thanks once again for all the info that's already been posted and I look forward to reading any comments you lot have.
Cheers,
Jon
