Laptop or Tablet

generalmental

Hi all laptop is on the way out. Gonna have to buy a new one but I'm also thinking I could buy a tablet.

What would you do if you had €400 - €500 to spend on a laptop/tablet

Also what make would you buy for the price range.

Thank you

wheresmybeaver

I'm microsoft-biased but if i had up to 500 quid to spend I'd get a surface 2. Initially without the keyboard (extra 80 quid approx if you shop around).

its a handy tablet for Facebook, games, browsing the web, photos, videos etc. It does NOT support non-appstore software so if you have special windows software you need to install then this isn't the laptop for you. But if you already have a regular windows computer in the house then the surface is a great little addition to the household.

generalmental

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

I'm microsoft-biased but if i had up to 500 quid to spend I'd get a surface 2. Initially without the keyboard (extra 80 quid approx if you shop around).

its a handy tablet for Facebook, games, browsing the web, photos, videos etc. It does NOT support non-appstore software so if you have special windows software you need to install then this isn't the laptop for you. But if you already have a regular windows computer in the house then the surface is a great little addition to the household.

First of all thanks very much for taking the time to answer.
I will be putting my FL studio production software on it. Its not specifically made by by Windows but its only made for Windows.

Do you have a Windows 8 pc are they any good?

wheresmybeaver

Yeah i have a Sony Vaio z21, its 2 and a bit years old and was a bit pricey when i bought it but it'll last me another two years years easily. Great quality and performance wise still excellent. I use lightroom on it with 24mb raw files and it flies. I installed Windows 8 on and even without a touchscreen it is an excellent upgrade to 7. You can happily ignore the new start screen and apps if theyre not to your liking.

If you'll be doing serious music production on your laptop then spend as much as you can and you will genuinely get a return on it. You'll also get a higher resolution screen which will allow you to view more tracks and controls at once. More memory will also help (4gb minimum, ideally 6 - 8 gb). The surface 2 will not suit you so, but i might recommend having a look at Sony's range. A touchscreen will not really help with flstudio but a high res screen will, so don't be tempted by a bog panel (say 15 inches) with a poor resolution (say less than 900px vertical).

if you spot a laptop that you think ticks all the boxes sure just post it up here and we'll give you an honest opinion!

generalmental

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

Yeah i have a Sony Vaio z21, its 2 and a bit years old and was a bit pricey when i bought it but it'll last me another two years years easily. Great quality and performance wise still excellent. I use lightroom on it with 24mb raw files and it flies. I installed Windows 8 on and even without a touchscreen it is an excellent upgrade to 7. You can happily ignore the new start screen and apps if theyre not to your liking.

If you'll be doing serious music production on your laptop then spend as much as you can and you will genuinely get a return on it. You'll also get a higher resolution screen which will allow you to view more tracks and controls at once. More memory will also help (4gb minimum, ideally 6 - 8 gb). The surface 2 will not suit you so, but i might recommend having a look at Sony's range. A touchscreen will not really help with flstudio but a high res screen will, so don't be tempted by a bog panel (say 15 inches) with a poor resolution (say less than 900px vertical).

if you spot a laptop that you think ticks all the boxes sure just post it up here and we'll give you an honest opinion!

Thanks for answering. I ended up getting a HP pavilion lean GP6 I only got it last night but it seems to be the really cool. It's screen is great much better resolution than my last laptop. It has 1TB of memory but that was never the problem as I have a 2TB media player.

I didn't go for the touch screen as I didn't really like it the one I looked at felt finnicky just didn't feel right.

You say I can bypass the new start menu may I ask how as I find it a bit confusing.