laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

As per title.
My wife needs a new laptop.
Under £1000 (sub £600 would be nice) :D
11.5-14" screen
i5 or i7 Haswell
4gig RAM minimum
128gig ssd would be nice
Prefer if it had win7 on it but that's looking impossible so 8.1 will have to do.
Not a Mac.....

Anyone have any ideas as I'm going round in circles atm.....:banghead:

---------- Post added at 16:57 ---------- Previous post was at 16:24 ----------

Something like this would be nice but it's coming from the states :(

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

wave a grand and then be happy to just spend over half what chance does that give us lol lol

windows 8.1 can look and feel just like 7 easy

why only a smaller than normal screen?

---------- Post added at 20:30 ---------- Previous post was at 20:28 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_...3G/version.asp call for ram upgrade

You could if you wanted source an optical bay adapter and put the existing HDD in that and add your own SSD. ( I rarely read discs now btw this may not suit you or maybe if rarely us optical bung the drive you take out into a slim external
caddy maybe)

---------- Post added at 20:33 ---------- Previous post was at 20:30 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsu...UK/version.asp touch screen again upgrade the ram this has the ssd

---------- Post added at 20:33 ---------- Previous post was at 20:33 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenov...UK/version.asp this is win 7 upgrade ram

---------- Post added at 20:34 ---------- Previous post was at 20:33 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenov...96/version.asp

---------- Post added at 20:35 ---------- Previous post was at 20:34 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Fujit...GB/version.asp upper limit

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Is the sub £600 so you can get goodies for your PC :angel:

Always worth looking at Dell's lappys - check the small business offerings for Windows 7 alternatives. They have a Windows 8 licence downgraded to Windows 7 Pro so if you wanted to you can install Windows 8 (if you find the Dell OEM disks they don't supply).

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Dell lappys build quality isn't all that :(
Win 8 isn't all that bad (had a play in pc world today) and I think I can get Mandy to accept it. :dozey:

---------- Post added at 22:06 ---------- Previous post was at 21:33 ----------

Thoughts on this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1213587485...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
?

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

its used

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Yep. Might not be a problem.....or are you always leery of used kit?

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

I do tend to be unless I know its history. :) specially when it is in the hundreds of pounds

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Hmmmm.....that is what's stopped me going for it. Decisions, decisions.....
I really like your Samsung recommendation but the processor seems a bit weedy/unknown :confused:

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

it is not meant to be a desktop replacement :)

---------- Post added at 23:28 ---------- Previous post was at 23:22 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_...03/version.asp there is this ultra book top end of budget

---------- Post added at 23:29 ---------- Previous post was at 23:28 ----------

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Gigab...F1/version.asp

---------- Post added at 23:30 ---------- Previous post was at 23:29 ----------

lots of nice ultra books at top end of budget

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Sounds like you want... pretty much any ultrabook on the market right now.

Macbook Air also fits the bill perfectly, if you can stomach running Windows on a Mac. Course that does give you the opportunity to buy Windows 7 yourself and install it.

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

You could have ago at putting your own Laptop/Notebook together here... http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Personally I would avoid DELL too, they don't tend to use propriety components.

I have an ACER and my daughter has my old one, a friend and his wife also bought ACER on my recommendation.

Win 8.1 takes a bit of getting used to but once you are, it's brilliant; boot up time c. 20 secs!

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

I disable the fast start up features of windows 8 as it does not really perform a full shut down which I have found over time creates problems I can wait the extra 30 seconds to do a proper cycle lol

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

That Gigabyte one is pretty spot on. I'm amazed at he price though since it's been out for almost two years now!
I'm also surprised at the cost of laptops compared to the last four times I've had to buy one! They seem to be more expensive in comparison and are holding their prices for a lot longer.

---------- Post added at 11:38 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------

That is really rather good! :tu:

£698.00 inc VAT and Delivery!
I'm trying to find the catch!

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

you do not want a V300 SSD the recently changed the NAND and you do not want to get stuck with one of the newer models

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Changing to a 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD takes it to £716 which is still ok.
Looking at the CPU, it's not one of the Haswell i7's is it?
What benefit would choosing an mSATA SSD bring?

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

negative

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

All laptops use proprietary components... That's not an argument to avoid any manufacturer.

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

How about buying from the USA? Much cheapness:
link
Guessing I'd need to source a UK power lead/adaptor

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

I don't know why people are wary of Dell if they are just looking for standard kit. It's all we've used at our office for the last 10 years. In that time many PCs have been in daily use for 6-7 years. One boss, who is very hard on his kit made his lappy last 6 years before he accepted it was really underpowered.

If you are looking to import from the States, remember you might not get a warranty in the UK, and you could get stung for customs duty.

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

Just take the wife and kids to Disneyland

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

I don't know why people are wary of Dell either. It's been a few years since I worked in laptop repairs but Dells were not only above average in serviceability, we also saw a lot less of them coming in, especially remarkable when you consider they proportionally should be bringing in the most.

The couple times I've seen a Dell laptop fail, we managed to get an engineer out the next day, take the laptop apart, and replace the motherboard at the user's desk.

Re: laptop/ultrabook recommendations
 

I buy from Currys (over a month now).
HP Pavilion 17-e153sa
Screen size:- 17.3
CPU:- Intel Core i5 4200M
Windows 8.1
Memory:- 8Gb
Hard Drive:- 1 Tb
For £550
What do you think guys?
If you think its not good then do you think currys will let me swap it? I haven't hardly used it. Its still like new. No software install. Only put username and thats it.