New mobile laptop required

RugbyFan

Hi,

My aunt needs to buy herself a new laptop. She has some degree of personal mobility impairment and will be carrying the laptop around. This is not a desktop replacement.

Budget - €1,000 to €1,500 (will stretch slightly above that for the right model).

Intended Use - general Office 07 type use, online work, plus as she has a semi-professional photography interest (mostly, but not exclusively, product shots), she wants to take it with her when doing photography work so that she can immediately upload photo to laptop and see how good the photo was, and retake if necessary. She also intends to take a CAD/CAM course so power would be important.

Mobility: Is important, therefore hopefully budget will allow for suitable purchase. Won't be using it for games or DVD watching.

Warranty: My aunt is Office 2007 etc proficient but wouldn't be savvy under the hood of the machine so a hassle free warranty (perhaps 3 years) would be good, if its good value relative to cost of laptop.

I think my aunt would like to be able to go and talk to someone if there ever was an issue.

All advice greatfully received.

Passenger

Are you looking specifically for a PC laptop?

RugbyFan

Passenger wrote: »

Are you looking specifically for a PC laptop?

Hi Passenger,

Yes I am - my aunt is not interested in Mac/Linux.

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

I'd go with a 13". If you go any smaller then it''ll be quite pricey although your budget is quite generous and the small screen may not suit her. Do you think she'd be comfortable a smaller screen like a 12" or 11"?

RugbyFan

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Do you think she'd be comfortable a smaller screen like a 12" or 11"?

I have a 12" Lenovo X61 - don't think she'd go any smaller than that. I think she'd sacrifice a small amount of mobility if it meant she could get a built in optical drive for burning photos, installing software without the hassle of cables etc and extra external weight. Therefore 13" might be more practical/more likely to have built in drive?

AlmightyCushion

The dell xps m1330 might be the way to go so. This one is a pretty good spec, 2Ghz processor, 2GBs ram, 160GB hard drive. You can upgrade to the led backlit screen for around €70 (this is lighter and thinner than normal screens and increase battery life) and upgrade the warranty for three years for €200.

Without any of the upgrades it's €880 excluding delivery and vat so with the 3 year warranty and the led screen it should be well within budget.

If you do want an extended warranty then you may be best just to leave it for now. When the one year ends they send you out a reminder that it's expired and give you the option to upgrade then. It seems to be a bit cheaper if you upgrade after the one year expires.

Voodu Child

13.3" is a nice size, it's a pretty good compromise between portability and useability. I had a 12" ultra-portable for a while and found it grand myself, but i passed it on to an older relative and I don't think it suits her great tbh.

The Dell M1330 as mentioned above is an awesome machine, I had one for a while. Fairly slim & light and can be specced nice and high without breaking the bank too much. Its not an ultra-portable, but i would definitely class it as 'mobile'. The LED screens are very bright and clear, and if you spec it right, you should get great battery life out of it, especially now that they all have the Penryn chips (T8xxx or T9xxx). And it does have the built in optical drive you mentioned she'd like.

If you do end up considering it, keep an eye on the bargain alerts thread, Dell often do 10% off vouchers and other reductions.

RugbyFan

Thanks AC & VC for your help with this.

Will definitely look into the Dell over the weekend.

Any other help greatfully received!