Buying a new laptop

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duduwaka

19 posts

Geek

#114772 2-Mar-2013 20:39

Hi

I have been looking at buying a new laptop around the 1000$ mark and have noticed a big variance in the specs of the computer for the same price, the best i could find was these two hp pro books below which seem to be a lot better than any others i have found for the same price. These both have 2gb dedicated graphics, 8gb ram and a dual core i5 processor.

Are these as good as they seem to be for that price or are the differences i'm looking at not the only factors, any advice would be welcome thanks

http://119.47.125.81/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=110038

http://119.47.125.81/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=113219

vexxxboy

4246 posts

Uber Geek

#773750 2-Mar-2013 22:57

the first one is fine but it is slightly cheaper from Elive

http://www.elive.co.nz/hp-probook-4540s-b7c25pa-notebook-XD00090.php

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Dairyxox

1594 posts

Uber Geek

#773772 3-Mar-2013 00:15

Wouldn't touch another probook with a 10 foot bargepole.

Brought the 17" model last jan, and by march it had had their service techs replace the mainboard 5 times. Internal power connector module once, and 1x battery. It was out of action for about 5 weeks while they kept trying to figure out what was wrong/fix it. Had problems charging, indicating weather it was charged, wouldnt charge to 100% and at one stage stopped booting. One time it was 'repaired' and the tech didn't plug the wifi antennas back in O_O
HP's call center routinely lost notes on my case, and made me do arduous troubleshooting, often repeating what we'd already done because of this.

Wasn't till I got all 'consumer guarantees act' in their face that they replaced it with a whole new unit.

The laptop is much bulkier than it appears in pictures, and dont let the 'pro' in the model name fool you. All hp's stuff seems to have shifted down a quality grade, this is firmly consumer rubbish.

Sure this is only one persons experience, but still.

Edit: Also the screen is really crappy, like every HP laptop Ive seen in the last 8 years. If you've only ever had crappy LCDs you probably wont notice. Washed out colors, grey=black, and poor viewing angles. Backlight bleed, and colours at the top are different from the bottom no matter how you angle the screen.

mattwnz

20181 posts

Uber Geek

#773773 3-Mar-2013 00:27

I would agree about checking LCD screens first. There are some really poor screens on some of the cheaper laptops, with poor viewing angles and washed out colours. It really depends what you are using it for. Also try to get one with windows 7 if it doesn't have a touch screen. Windows 8 is really only good if the screen is touch enabled, otherwise it is a pain to use with a trackpad or mouse. There is a big change with LCDs going to touch screen, and eventually most will be. But I suspect many cheap laptops are being sold off, as they aren't touch enabled. It's a bit like trying to use an ipad with a mouse, which would be painful.

duduwaka

19 posts

Geek

#773781 3-Mar-2013 00:51

the screen is something i havn't thought about before actually so i will start looking in to this thanks,
I have also had a lot of trouble with laptop batteries dying in the past. I don't know if this varies between brands but i have had dead batteries on an asus and an hp laptop in the past

Dairyxox

1594 posts

Uber Geek

#773783 3-Mar-2013 00:57

This wasnt the battery, they send me a 2nd battery and it didnt fix anything. (although i got to keep it when they finally replaced the whole unit.

Constructive feedback... would be to look at Asus, Samsung, Apple or even Acer...

At least Samsung manufacture screens, but their budget models probably arn't a whole lot better.
I ended up with a macbook air....it doesnt win the spec wars but its got a pretty damn good (samsung) screen, fast ssd drive, quality components, and only weighs 1.x kgs. Had to buy a copy of windows too (well nobody forced me to, but you know...

jonb

1772 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#783379 18-Mar-2013 12:27

PB Tech are doing a deal on the 4540s for $1067 at the moment..