What Laptop?

Ok so I have decided on a lappy over desktop, can anyone recommend me any if you have gotten one recently? Or at least point me in the right direction? And does anyone have any advice on Dell?

Thanks guys!

will be watching this thread with intrest, I think dougies killed the pc up the road.

I have a HP Entertainment Pavilion which I got in 2008. I have to say that it is excellent. Very quick (no lagging), never crashes, BRILLIANT for game playing and watching DVD's and great for everything else; Internet, word processing, etc. Nice slim size, light, nice black finish, good built in webcam. I would definitely recommend it. The only downside is the battery life isn't great. I keep mine plugged in all the time, but you only get about an hours worth of battery life if you don't keep it plugged in.

Oh sorry I should have said, budget around £500-£700, and I just want it for normal stuff but quite fast, can't be doing with slow computers, that drives me insane. Able to run a few things at once as i'm usually on here and working and sometimes chatting too. Oh, and able to work photoshop without panicing and shutting it down, lol. Obviously the cheaper the better for me as I can treat myself with something extra with the change but I don't need anything too flash.

I'm so glad you said that, as this is what I have been looking at.

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 about this time last year. I've always liked Dell's since I worked on them at AXA Insurance.

This one is fab, I love it, although if I was you I'd go for Windows 7 rather than Vista. Vista is like having a 5 year old stood behind you all the time "What are you doing? Can I help? Why have you done that? Ooh you've done that wrong!"

If you do go for a Dell try and wait until March, I've read this is when they start discounting ready for new models in April.

Anyway I like mine because it's a good size, it has plenty of memory and the battery life is pretty good too. The Dell's at work were always very relaible and had a nice feel to them.

Mine feels very much like a desktop and I've written 5,000 word essays on it with little problem.

Ooh but more importanly............it's RED!

Ahh, very good choice if you go for it. I put up with years of awful desktops (including expensive ones) that broke within 6 months, so having this is very pleasant in comparison.

I'm running 5 word documents, a game and 6 internet tabs at the moment, so it's quick. My old desktops would crash if I ran more than one of any application.

Oh but mine would be PINK!
Now you have thrown the spanner in as I had it between a Dell and labradork's HP and I thought oh well the HP now and yet here you are putting me back to square one woman.

No thanks though, sounds good! But I really couldn't wait 'til March, i'd be lucky to wait 'til next weekend.

Sounds fabbbb! This is exactly what I need, my desktop used to be ok but it needs all updating, but I think I would keep it as backup, just incase.

As per the thread in this section about Lore's netbook, you'll get great performance out of a Linux machine for not too much £££ & with modest hardware. Here's my list of vendors.

Linux Emporium have some nice lappys and desktops but it might be worth having a look at the lists to see if you can find someone local for the easier support arrangements...

I have mainly Dell machines at home & have found them to be OK. HP are also pretty good. Most of these makes kit seems to work really well with Linux. I spotted some Lenovo stuff on the Linux Emporium site though. They're supposed to be really good.

Dell for me too Kel and we have Lenovo at work and I'm not impressed. Check Dell's website though because they've got offers on at the minute.