Recommend good laptop in the €400 price-range

Jarndyce

Hi guys,

As the title suggests, I'm looking for a laptop in the €400 price-range.

The purposes for which it will be used are pretty basic:

- playing video files
- checking email
- general websurfing
- word/excel documents

That's about it.

I was checking out the Acer laptop linked in the 'Bargain Alerts' forum http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056009369&highlight=laptop
however the reviews of Acer generally seem to be pretty negative.

Any information/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

dazzday

The build quality of acer was a concern of the past, but tbf the quality of models has improved dramatically over the last few ranges. Id be much more wary of Dell these days.

The new timeline X range is arguably the best range of ultraportables on the market at the moment with affordable prices. And the new Ethos range are looking very promising.(11 hours in the readers battery test for a 15.4 inch multimedia machine...yes please!). Its just a shame they are so hard to locate in the Irish market!!

Personally, I still dont think you can beat acers bang-to-buck ratio.

Over the one in bargain alerts Id reccommend the 3810tz, which is a steal at €430.

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_Timeline_3810TZ_Windows_7_Laptop_LX.PE602.039/version.asp?switchc=e

SU4100 is a dual core ULV which has will hit 8Hrs battery life, while seeing a huge performance increase over the cpus in netbooks. Excellent for multi-tasking, HD playback...tbf anything that you have stated. Unless you are big into cpu intensive tasks like video-encoding, matlab etc it will be more than capable.
Comes with 320Gb hdd, 4gb Ram, an awesome webcam (quality is great), no optical drive but they are becoming more and more defunct these days.

you could go for the 3810TZG for an extra €60 which has the HD4330 which will be able to game at low settings.

or
http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_Timeline_4810T_Laptop_LX.PBA0X.206/version.asp?PID=494

for a bigger screen and better cpu.

Jarndyce

Excellent post dazzday. Thank you very much.

Jarndyce

dazzday, I have a quick question. You mentioned the 4810T as having a bigger monitor and better cpu. However, in comparison to the 3810TZ, the specs of the 4810T seem inferior in some respects. Below are the specs for the 4810T with, what this layman considers, the better specs of the 3810TZ in bold.

* Screen size - 14 in - 1366 x 768 (13.3)
* Processor - Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 - 1.4 GHz (1.3GHz)
* RAM - 3 GB (4 GB)
* Hard Drive - 250 GB (320 GB)
* Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit))
* Optical Drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
* Graphics - Intel GMA 4500MHD
* Webcam - Integrated
* Warranty - 1 year warranty

So what I'm asking is, apart from the screen being .7 inch bigger and the cpu being a big faster, does this outweigh the inferior hard drive and operating system?

TheBlackBuck

I bought the 3810TZG about a month ago and I'd highly recommend it. It looks expensive (but it's a steal at these prices) and it feels very solid too. The reason these are fairly cheap now is because the newer range (Timeline X) is out with the new iCore processors.

The 4810T has the larger screen and it also has an optical drive. However I think the 3810TZ's processor is much faster than the 4810T's (I could be wrong about this though). The 3810TZ has a dual core as opposed to a single core on the 4810T.

So if you can live without the DVD drive then I'd go for the 3810TZ or 3810TZG. The slightly larger screen of the 4810T won't make much difference as they have the same maximum resolution and it adds size and weight.

dazzday

My bad i miss read the 4810 cpu. However,In terms of the cpu, its debatable to rank them.

4810 - Core 2 solo, SU3500 has a TDP of 5.5 wat, 3mb cache, has VT, better clock speed.
Significantly here, VT allows XP compatibility mode to be run in Win Pro and above. However I dint think that will be much of a concern for you.The SU3500 is going to be thinner,run cooler and give better battery life.

3810 - Dual Core, SU4100 has a TDP of 10 watt, 2mb cache,Multi-core.
Less powerful than the above in single tasks. However the dual core = better multitasking. It will boost applications that aren't multi-core aware, allowing the OS to utilize one core and the dedication of the other core to the application. However it will uses double the power consumption of the SU3500, therefore theoretically higher operating temps and shorter battery life.

TBF though as the 4810 has an optical drive and larger screen, the battery life differences will cancel out and the temp differences will probably be negligible. Ideally the common ground would be the Dual Core SU7300.

From what you have compared, its hard to avoid the 3810TZ. The extra RAM is going to make it snappier, HDD space is always nice, Win 7 >> Vista any day of the week and the dual core will be ideal for your purposes. I personally think the resolution suits the 13inch screen more and lighter the better!

* Screen size - 14 in - 1366 x 768 (13.3)
* Processor - Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 - 1.4 GHz (1.3GHz)
* RAM - 3 GB (4 GB)
* Hard Drive - 250 GB (320 GB)
* Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit))
* Optical Drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
* Graphics - Intel GMA 4500MHD
* Webcam - Integrated
* Warranty - 1 year warranty

However BlackBuck is right, if you need an optical drive and prefer the larger screen the 4810 is not a bad alternative. Id advice to go to PC World or the likes and compare 13 and 14 inch screens, nothing beats personal preference.
Its great to see the Timeline series at affordable prices!

Shame im after the timeline x 3820TG, that is only readily available in Germany and Taiwan...sigh.