Laptop advice

[Mon Ami Mate]

Chaps,

I need to buy a new laptop, but am a complete cretin when it comes to technology. I need it strictly for business use (I'm a PR consultant), but need to be able to send large-ish images to journalists on it, so need to be able to connect reliably when out and about. I won't be playing games on it. Obviously I want to spend as little money as possible but want something reliable and with good support. Any ideas?

[ThePassenger]

Dell + Best Waranty possible.
Rock + Best Waranty possible.
Lenovo (IBM Thinkpad, the ultimate in generic business laptop, not the best spec'd machines but...) + Best Waranty possible.
Toshiba + you've guessed it.

To be honest anything from Dell, Lenovo or Tosh won't stand out on the boardroom table, even their basic range of stuff has built in WiFi and if you get 1Gb+ of RAM then heavy image work should be okish.

I'm not kidding about the Waranty thing, after all, it's your laptop (in effect) do you want to be out of action for 3 weeks whilst it's shipped back or 1 business day whilst an engineer appears?

[Jinx]

Probably an idea to get yourself some remote storage (external harddrive) so you can back up the machine on a regular basis. These are extremely cheap (£100 = 400 gigs even at PC world).

[deva link]

ThePassenger said:

Lenovo (IBM Thinkpad, the ultimate in generic business laptop, not the best spec'd machines but...) + Best Waranty possible.

My Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpad T43 is just superb - I bought it with my own company money after years of corporate supplied Dell/Gateway/Dell/Compaq/HP (all are at home and only the first Dell isn't used anymore, but it still works). I went for the 14" 1024x768 screen as the whole machine is a little smaller (than 15" ), but 15" screen size is available too.

I use its built-in bluetooth together with GPRS on my mobile phone for connectivity while on the road (where wireless broadband isn't available).

I'm not a gadget or a brand freak, but sometimes in meetings someone will turn up with a 17" widescreen silver Dell (or whatever) and they just look ridiculous. The smaller Black Thinkpad's are very professional looking.

3 yr warranty is standard (paid a little bit more for on-site). Not a cheap machine though.

Edited by deva link on Tuesday 9th January 11:06

[ThePassenger]

deva link said:

I'm not a gadget or a brand freak, but sometimes in meetings someone will turn up with a 17" widescreen silver Dell (or whatever) and they just look ridiculous. The smaller Black Thinkpad's are very professional looking.

I really can't see the point of a 17" laptop being used as an actual laptop. They're heavy, cumbersome and generally speaking not very portable. Now as a mobile workstation... going from desk to desk... brilliant.

[aranell]

deva link said:

ThePassenger said:

Lenovo (IBM Thinkpad, the ultimate in generic business laptop, not the best spec'd machines but...) + Best Waranty possible.

My Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpad T43 is just superb - I bought it with my own company money after years of corporate supplied Dell/Gateway/Dell/Compaq/HP (all are at home and only the first Dell isn't used anymore, but it still works). I went for the 14" 1024x768 screen as the whole machine is a little smaller (than 15" ), but 15" screen size is available too.

I use its built-in bluetooth together with GPRS on my mobile phone for connectivity while on the road (where wireless broadband isn't available).

I'm not a gadget or a brand freak, but sometimes in meetings someone will turn up with a 17" widescreen silver Dell (or whatever) and they just look ridiculous. The smaller Black Thinkpad's are very professional looking.

3 yr warranty is standard (paid a little bit more for on-site). Not a cheap machine though.

Another vote for the T43 here I had a T42p and we had loads of T43s and found they were fantastic as a generic machine. Really quick (although I think the 'p' spec is slightly higher than the standard spec) and reliable, as well as sturdy (dropped it so many times and it was still fine). However, DO go for the warranty - if you don't, you have to send you laptop away to be fixed. They do have a tendancy to blow their USB ports up so it's well worth having the warranty so you know it will be fixed the next day (supposedly anyway....!)

[bobthemonkey]

I'd consider a Dell,the Latitude range have built-in 3G modems for total internet access, if you need uninteruped intenet access.