Laptop Recommendations please

[danielf]

Ok, so the wife has kindly decided to drop a mug of tea on our current laptop, and it now fails to boot. Luckily, it's about 3 years old, so due for replacement anyway. Current machine is a Dell Vostro 1700, which replaced an Acer Aspire which was replaced after the wife tipped over a bottle of coke... Luckily she only seems to do this once every three years...

Anyways: new laptop. I wasn't overly impressed with the build quality of either the Dell or the Acer. The Dell had a poor quality keyboard with keys starting to malfunction early in it's life. I also hate the side mounted audio plug which lasted for about 4 months before giving up the ghost as we pump it through external speakers so it always has a plug in it. The Acer was worse. Poor design, produced too much heat and fried the HDD. Two brands I'd rather avoid.

Budget is about £600-£700, use is fairly average. Browsing/word processing and some Video processing. No gaming. I still like to have a fairly powerful machine though, and want a 17" screen. Looking at Laptopsdirect, the following caught my eye:

Toshiba Satellite Pro L770

Looks like a nice Spec. I owned a Toshiba years ago, and that was very good build quality. Things may have changed though.

Samsung RC710

Similar, (slightly better?) specs, and a bit cheaper. I've never owned a Samsun though.

Any thoughts on these machines? Is there anything better out there in the same price range?

TIA,

Dan

Oh. The Samsung specs are a bit confusing. The headline is Core i5-480, the summary says core i3 330, and the tech spec says i5-480. I'm assuming it's the latter. Also, there's no detail on the graphics for the Tosh. The Samsung has a Geforce GT 315, so looks better in terms of processor, ram, HD space and graphics?

Oh again: according to the Q&A the Tosh has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M graphics card.

[MovedGoalPosts]

You may find the Samsung gets a bit warm. I like the one I bought a few months ago, i5 based, but I can't sit comfortably with it on my lap without something under it.

[Hom3r]

Originally Posted by Rob

You may find the Samsung gets a bit warm. I like the one I bought a few months ago, i5 based, but I can't sit comfortably with it on my lap without something under it.

You shouldn't put a laptop directly on you lap, as this can block air vents, plus it can cook a mans 2 veg (cannot think of a family friendly word).

Thats why they are called notebooks by some MFGs.

If a notebook is getting warm I would put it on a fan base that plugs into a USB port.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Yep I usually use a large book so the vents aren't obstructed. The point about heat was more in response to the OPs enquiry for a Samsung's suitability when he'd had issues with an Acer lappy over temperatures.

[danielf]

Cheers Guys. I'm tempted to go for the Samsung on account of the good reviews on that site.

Do we think it's a good spec for the price? I've been out of the loop for a bit, but really need to get a replacement sorted kind of quickly. If I order before 5.30 I can have it delivered tomorrow. Otherwise the missus will have to wait till Wednesday before she's got a new thing to break...

[Lord Nikon]

One good thing about the samsung unless you're into security of your data - no matter what you'll never need to worry about forgetting a password. They can be bypassed by anyone within about 2 minutes, that's to clear both bios and operating system passwords.

[danielf]

Ah. That's good to know. I might even consider starting to use passwords on my machines then.

[Lord Nikon]

Everyone else went for improved security, Samsung provide a password reset jumper next to the memory slot. Once you can boot from alternate media such as USB or CD then Operating System passwords become moot. There's freeware to reset ALL Windows passwords.

[danielf]

Yes, I see your point, but I have no need for a password on my computer. I don't use them and don't plan to use them, so their security or lack thereof is not an issue for me.