Club Laptop

[moray]

Club requirement: miniumum resolution: 1400x1040 px.

I've got two leads so far, but above the budget discussed before.

In PC World the other day, I spoke to someone who said the cheapest laptop they had at the required resolution was 1920x1080 px.

It's an Acer Aspire 8930G, priced £799.99:
4GB - RAM
500 GB hard drive
18.4" screen
Intel Core 2 Duo

Technical specifications     

    * Shimmering design, scintillating 16:9 view

    * Leading a new era of notebook design, the Aspire Gemstone Blue is lively and stylish with striking features like multi-layered 3D depth, an iridescent finish, contrasting textures, a chic blue-black-silver colour scheme, and interior/exterior lighting effects. The huge 18.4" 16:9 LCD boasts 24 percent more screen space than 17", 16:10 displays as well as deep colour, a fantastically wide viewing angle and the 16:9 golden aspect ratio for perfect cinematic viewing, ideal for HDTV and the latest Blu-ray Disc™ format -- empowering you with native widescreen resolution. Discover visually superior, HD entertainment as it was originally created, without distorted images or black bars.

    * Ultimate entertainment performance

    * The Aspire 8930 is the world's first notebook to feature built-in multi-speaker True5.1 surround sound through six speakers. Contemporary entertainment plays flawlessly via the latest and most powerful dual core processing technology, ensuring smooth playback and multitasking, even with graphics intensive multimedia applications. The NVIDIA® GeForce® 9700M GT discrete graphics card features NVIDIA® PureVideo™ for high-quality scaling and pixel calculation at resolutions up to 1080p -- essential technology for the intense HD experiences delivered by the Blu-ray Disc™/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive and HDTV-ready TV-tuner.

   
AS8930G-584G32Bn Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium , Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache), 18.4" WXGA Acer CineBrite™ LCD TFT, 2*2GB RAM, 320GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive, 2X Blu-ray Disc™/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive, NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GS - 512MB VRAM, Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® , 8 cell Li-ion Battery, 6-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MMCplus™, MS, MS PRO, xD), 1.0 MP HD Crystal Eye Webcam, Bluetooth 2.0, Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, Dolby® Home Theatre Digital Surround Sound Technology, McAfee® Internet Security Suite 60 Day Trial
Part NumberLX.AC20X.039

Operating System    

    * Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
    * Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate

Processor & Chipset    

    * Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology, featuring:
    * Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor with up to 6 MB L2 Cache, supporting Intel® 64 architecture
    * Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset
    * Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100/5300 (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® network connection, featuring MIMO technology, supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology
    * Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5150/5350 Wi-Fi®/WiMAX™ dual-mode module, supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology

Memory    

    * DDR2 memory, upgradeable to 4 GB using dual soDIMM modules
    * Intel® Turbo Memory supported
      (manufacturing option)

HDD    

    * One or two S-ATA hard disc drives

Storage    

    * Blu-ray Disc™ (BD)/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive or
      DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
    * 6-in-1 card reader, supporting Secure Digital™ (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC), MultiMediaCard Plus (MMCplus™), Memory Stick® (MS), Memory Stick PRO™ (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card™ (xD)

Display    

    * 18.4" WUXGA (Full HD) 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, high-brightness (300-nit), Acer CineCrystal™ TFT LCD, two lamps, supporting simultaneous multi-window viewing via Acer GridVista™, or
    * 18.4" WUXGA (Full HD) 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, high-brightness (220-nit), Acer CineCrystal™ TFT LCD, two lamps, supporting simultaneous multi-window viewing via Acer GridVista™, or
    * 18.4" WXGA ( HD+) 1680 x 945 pixel resolution, high-brightness (220-nit) Acer CineCrystal™ TFT LCD, supporting simultaneous multi-window viewing via Acer GridVista™
    * 16.7 million colours
    * 16:9 aspect ratio
    * 8 ms high-def response time
    * Up to 90% color gamut

Graphics    

    * NVIDIA® GeForce® 9700M GT with up to 2303 MB of TurboCache™ (512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 VRAM, up to 1791 MB of shared system memory*), supporting NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD technology, OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 4.0, Microsoft® DirectX® 10
      (* depending on size of system memory)
    * NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT with up to 2303 MB of TurboCache™ (512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 VRAM, up to 1791 MB of shared system memory*), supporting NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD technology, OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 4.0, Microsoft® DirectX® 10
      (* depending on size of system memory)
    * DualView™ support
    * MPEG-2/DVD decoding
    * WMV9 (VC-1) and H.264 (AVC) decoding
    * HDMI™ (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support
    * Acer Arcade™ Deluxe featuring Acer CinemaVision™ and Acer ClearVision™ technologies

Multimedia    

    * Optimized 2nd Generation Dolby Home Theater® audio enhancement, featuring Dolby® Digital, Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® Pro Logic® IIx, Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Natural Bass and Dolby® Sound Space Expander technologies
    * Acer CineSurround with five built-in speakers and one Acer Tuba CineBass booster supporting low-frequency effects
    * True5.1-channel surround sound output
    * Digital( DVB-T) TV-tuner supporting hardware MPEG-2 stream encoding and DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard (6 to 8 MHz)
      (manufacturing option)
    * High-definition audio support
    * S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) support for digital speakers
    * MS-Sound compatible
    * Acer PureZone technology with two built-in stereo microphones featuring beam forming, echo cancellation, and noise suppression technologies

Communication    

    * Acer Video Conference featuring integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam, supporting enhanced Acer PrimaLite™ technology
    * Acer Video Conference Manager software featuring Video Quality Enhancement (VQE) technology with H.264 video compression, supporting 640 x 480 resolution online video calls with drag-and-drop Picture-in-Picture (PIP) interactivity
    * Acer PureZone technology
    * Optional Acer Xpress VoIP phone
    * Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100/5300 (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® network connection, featuring MIMO technology, supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology, or
    * Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5150/5350 Wi-Fi®/WiMAX™ dual-mode module, featuring:
      •Wi-Fi® (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® network connection, featuring 1x2 or 3x3 MIMO technology, supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology, or
      •WiMAX™* (single-band 802.16e/2.5G ) WiMAX Forum Certified™ WAN (Wide Area Network) connection, featuring Mobile WiMAX™ and MIMO technology, supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology
      (* depending on network readiness)
    * 56K ITU V.92 modem with PTT approval; Wake-on-Ring ready
    * Gigabit Ethernet; Wake-on-LAN ready
    * Bluetooth® 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
      (manufacturing option)

I/O Interface    

    * 1x ExpressCard™/54 slot
    * 6-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MMCplus™, MS, MS PRO, xD)
    * 4x USB 2.0 ports
      (1x USB 2.0 port combined with eSATA port)
    * 1x HDMI™ port with HDCP support
    * 1x Consumer infrared (CIR) port
    * 1x external display (VGA) port
    * 1 x RF-in jack
      (on models with TV Tuner only!)
    * 1x Headphones/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support
    * 1x Microphone-in jack
    * 1x Line-in jack
    * 1x Modem (RJ-11) port
    * 1x Ethernet (RJ-45) port
    * 1x DC-in jack for AC adapter

Security    

    * Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, featuring Windows® log on, computer protection, FingerLaunch, ProfileLaunch, MusicLaunch, password bank, MyLaunch, Acer FingerNav
    * Slot for Kensington lock
    * BIOS user, supervisor, HDD passwords

Power Supply & Battery    

    * ACPI 3.0 CPU power management standard: supports Standby and Hibernation power-saving modes
    * 71 W (8-cell) Li-ion battery pack
    * Up to 2.5-hour battery life
    * Acer QuicCharge™ technology:
      • 80% charge in 1 hour
      • 2-hour rapid charge system-off
      • 3-hour charge-in-use
    * 90 W AC adapter
    * Energy Star®

Keyboard & Special Controls    

    * 105-/106-key keyboard with inverted "T" cursor layout, 2.5 mm (minimum) key travel
    * Touchpad pointing device with Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint reader, featuring Acer FingerNav 4-way control function
    * 12 function keys, four cursor keys, two Windows® keys, hotkey controls, standard numeric keypad, international language support, independent US and Euro dollar sign keys
    * Empowering Key
    * Easy-launch buttons: WLAN, Internet, email, Bluetooth®*
      (manufacturing option)
    * Acer CineDash media console capacitive human interface device, including:
      • Acer Arcade™
      • Volume meter (volume up/down)
      • Menu navigation (enter/back/left/right)
      • Media control (play/pause, stop, previous, next, fast forward, rewind)
      • Mute and hold keys

Weight & Dimensions    

    * 441.4 (W) x 300 (D) x 40.2/44.2 (H) mm
      (17.4 x 11.8 x 1.58/1.74 inches)
    * 4.1 kg (9.04 lbs.)

Quality & Reliability Tests    

    * Temperature & humidity test
    * Free drop test
    * Acoustics test
    * Weight and Pressure tests
    * Spillage test
    * Shock and Vibration tests
    * Electrostatic discharge immunity test
    * MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) test
    * Hinge life test
    * Keyboard-switch life test

Software    

    * Acer Empowering Technology (Acer ePower, eAudio, eDataSecurity, eRecovery, eSettings Management)
    * Acer Arcade™ Deluxe featuring Cinema, Album, Music, Acer HomeMedia
    * Acer InstantOn Arcade
    * Acer Bio-Protection
    * Acer Crystal Eye
    * Acer GridVista™
    * Acer Launch Manager
    * Acer GameZone
    * Acer Video Conference Manager featuring Video Quality Enhancement (VQE)
    * McAfee Internet Security Suite 60-day trial version
    * Adobe® Reader®
    * CyberLink® PowerDirector® trial version
    * NTI Media Maker™
    * Microsoft® Works 8.5 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial

Options    

    * Acer Xpress VoIP phone and Acer Video Conference Manager pack
    * Acer Media Center remote control
    * Memory expansion modules
    * Additional battery
    * Additional AC adapter
    * External USB floppy disk drive

Warranty    

    * One-year International Travellers Warranty (ITW)

_________________________________

The other lead, at £799 including VAT, was from Dell.  I spoke to a guy who said they have a non-advertised model called the S1545, which they sell to photographic clubs.  I free upgrade to Windows7 would be included (but delivery charges would be incurred).

Both have 4GB RAM and 500 GB hard drive.  The Acer has a slighter bigger screen, but maybe thta's not really relevant.
 
Studio 1555 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz) 
   
Item Description  Quantity  Total Price 

Black chainlink  1  £694.78 
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)  1   
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 (64 BIT) - English  1   
Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word)  1   
2Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays  1   
McAfee® Security Centre - 36 Month Protection - English  1   
15.6in Widescreen Full High Definition (1920x1080) WLED with TrueLife  1   
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]  1   
500GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive  1   
512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570  1   
Fixed Internal Blu-ray Disc (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM) Slot Drive including SW  1   
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery  1   
Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard  1   
No Bluetooth Upgrade  1   
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera  1   
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard  1   
1 Meter Power Cord (3 Wire) - UK  1   
English - Documentation Studio 1545  1   
N0953508  1   
1Yr Limited Warranty - Collect & Return  1   
Studio 1555 Order - UK  1   
No Carrying Case  1   
Studio 1555 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)  1   
90W AC Adaptor  1   
Wireless Label (Intel Wireless Cards) - Core 2 Duo  1   
Silver chainlink palm rest – with Black Chainlink cover only  1   
Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic  1   
No Accidental Damage Support  1   
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year  1   
 
Subtotal:  £694.78 
Freight:  £0.00 
Total Net:  £694.78 
VAT (Rate %):  £104.22 
Total:  £799.00 
 

[Linda]

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/laptops_great_deals/fs.aspx?refid=laptops_great_deals&s=dhs&cid=HDLaptop&cs=ukdhs1&dgc=IR&lid=NHP_BB1

16.10.09

[moray]

Thanks Linda, I'll have a look.

Since I posted the first two, we've discovered we can get a USB display adapter to alter the resolution to the projector, so we can get a lower res (and much cheaper!) laptop.

At least they all seem to have Windows 7 advertised now, so hopefully we can make a decision soon.

[moray]

These are the ones we are considering now,  we want to keep things in the 450-550 area.
 
NEP:

Acer Aspire 5536   £479

• 3GB RAM
• 500GB HD
• Dual Core AMD
• 4 USB
• Radion dedicated graphics card

PRO: local help, good price, 500GB drive
CON: 3GB RAM

Unknown – Operating System, license issue, USB adapter needed?

 
ACERDIRECT:

Acer Aspire 7735G-654G32Mn Laptop £569 (reduced from £660) (Still advertised with Vista)

• Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T6500
• RAM - 4 GB (installed) 4 GB (max)
• Hard Drive - 320 GB
• Screen - 17.3 in
• Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 with 512MB - DDR2 VRAM
• Native resolution - 1366 x 768

PRO: Fastest processor (Core 2 Duo), 4GB RAM
CON: most expensive in shortlist, 320GB drive, have to wait will it’s out with Windows 7


PCWORLD:

Acer Aspire 7535G ZM-82 Entertainment Laptop (Vista) £549.97

• AMD Turion x2 Ultra processor ZM82
• (2.2Ghz, 2MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
• 4GB Memory
• 500GB Hard drive
• ATI Radeon 512mb graphics
• Screen Size/Type 17.3" WXGA

PRO: 4GB RAM, 500GB drive, 2MB cache
CON: Price 2nd highest, Vista


Acer Aspire 7540 Laptop  £499 (Windows 7)

• AMD Athlon II processor M300
• (2.0Ghz, 1MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows(R) 7 Home Premium
• 3GB Memory
• 320GB Hard drive
• Screen Size/Type 17.3"

PRO: Price in the middle, Windows 7
CON: 3GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, 1MB cache

The versions keep changing all the time, but I don’t think there’s much change likely in the next few weeks.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot in it, 3GB v 4GB RAM, 320GB v 500GB hard disc, etc.

If going local with NEP isn’t the main factor, then I’d suggest either of the middle two options.

The hard disk drive isn’t so essential here, but having the more RAM and faster processor will help future proof the laptop.

My laptop I got 3 years ago has 1GB of RAM.  This seemed not too bad at the time, when 512MB was common and 2GB was almost seen as overkill, but 3 years on it is barely adequate.  So really 3GB RAM is a minimum.

Moray

[Linda]

If I'm the only other person using this forum I should comment on this. Though to be honest I'm not very knowledgeable on the hardware, but your research has impressed me. Hope the club appreciates you!

I can comment on operating systems though; mainly to mention the bleedin' obvious -- that you might not want to own a new laptop with crappy Vista. Although its early days for Windows 7, it is promising to be a better option.