69 replies to this topic 2 votes

[peacemf]

try the samsung series 9
asus ultrabook

otherwise i cant think of any

[philcruicks]

Yeah for £500 you'd gonna struggle to find something of "good" build quality (aluminium body etc..) but yeah Lenovo probably have the best build quality on the market but they don't look very night in my opinion.
HP's Envy range is meant to have good build quality and probably just in your price rage...might have to push is a bit....other than that try and go for Business ranges...always better build quality than home ones.

[Luis Mazza]

I think you can exceed the 500 cap if you tell your mother that it is a computer for long-term use (ex- more than 5 years). Then she can spend the money on a Macbook Air with an external hard disk or even the Retina Macbook Pro (13" rMBP expected for october release).

People spend a lot of time on computers... It is an important investment that you can't deny.
You wouldn't buy a cheap refrigerator for long-term use, would you?

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

MsftGaurav, on 24 September 2012 - 19:16, said:

. Apple does one thing better - the trackpad and its gestures. But then I am not personally fond of button-less trackpad design.

off topic - i use a program called TwoFingerScroll , its pretty cool, enables alot of the gestures found on the multi-touch macs
http://www.howtogeek...indows-laptops/

[xendrome]

greenwizard88, on 24 September 2012 - 18:58, said:

Get her a vizio, thinkpad, or dell vostro.

Did you seriously just recommend a vostro (Dell's budget line) in with a thinkpad?

[Mindovermaster]

xendrome, on 24 September 2012 - 19:32, said:

Did you seriously just recommend a vostro (Dell's budget line) in with a thinkpad?

IIRC, Vostro was Dell's business class notebooks. They are better made than the Inspirons.

[McDave]

I_Kaplan, on 24 September 2012 - 19:12, said:

I recently bought a laptop from comet for £350 not too heavy feels very smooth and has a great screen imo.

http://www.comet.co....K-Laptop/668638

Your going to have to double your budget to get apple aluminium finish. As above the Samsung feel pretty good but would also suggest you look at Sony. I would just say go your local stores and have some hands on time. Have you considered an tablet i.e. iPad2 very easy to use and no servicing or management required on part of your nan, mine loves hes and it's simplicity.

[greenwizard88]

Mindovermaster, on 24 September 2012 - 19:35, said:

IIRC, Vostro was Dell's business class notebooks. They are better made than the Inspirons.

Yup. I've had mine for 2 years now, and it's definitely held together better than my girlfriend's inspiron (which is held together by hello kitty duct tape currently )

In all seriousness though, they're Dell's non-enterprise business end laptops, and in the 18 months that I've owned it the worst that happened was I dropped a brick on it and dented the lid. So I guess if you plan on dropping bricks on them, they're no good... but I wouldn't consider anything besides a Panosonic Tough Book in that case

[xendrome]

Mindovermaster, on 24 September 2012 - 19:35, said:

IIRC, Vostro was Dell's business class notebooks. They are better made than the Inspirons.

Vostro is the small business/budget line of notebooks, Latitude is the regular business class notebooks. I would put the Latitude up there with Thinkpad, but not the Vostro. You get what you pay for.

[IceBreakerG]

The samsung series 7 and series 9 laptops and the hp envy ultrabooks are nice (got my sister a 15.6" envy ultrabook for college last week and it feels really nice).

[Enron]

All Apple sells now are Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs. To get the "pro" equivalent in build quality on the PC side, you will need to buy a business/enterprise laptop, which costs a bit more than the cheap $300 consumer laptops you find at Walmart. As for the Macbook Air, most of the Ultrabooks I've seen look pretty good, but I haven't ever used one so I can't comment on their construction.

[+jamieakers]

None close to Apple. Unless of course you enjoy paying well over the odds for last year's Tech.

I'd recommend either a trip down to your local PC shop or spotting a deal on HotUKDeals. Some good bargains to be had there.

[Mindovermaster]

xendrome, on 24 September 2012 - 19:43, said:

Vostro is the small business/budget line of notebooks, Latitude is the regular business class notebooks. I would put the Latitude up there with Thinkpad, but not the Vostro. You get what you pay for.

And yet, my Vostro 1500 from 2007 still works fine as the day I bought it. Was probably different back then.

[blizeH]

Thank you all so much for the responses! Lots of great laptops to check out then, and to be honest I would've instantly disregarded Lenovo (unsure why) so very glad you guys mentioned them.

For what it's worth, I think something as close to a MacBook Air as possible would be awesome, with the following features in order of priority:

1) Nice trackpad (big, and without the awful two buttons at the bottom)
2) Nice feel to it (not heavy/bulky)
3) Nice keyboard
4) Good spec (SSD would be amazing)

So yeah, mostly it is all about the build quality etc. I'm not fussed on it being brushed aluminium or whatever, she would never really take it out of the house AFAIK and isn't particularly clumsy so having something really robust and sturdy like that isn't a priority.

Will hit up Ebuyer and Amazon now and look at these laptops you've all recommended, looks like an Ultrabook is the way to go

(edit) Just looking at Lenovo now and can see why I had originally omitted them from my thoughts... they look like something from the 1980's, and unfortunately I think my mum really would want one that looks at least semi nice. Damn, what a shame

[blizeH]

Just found this and it looks perfect - http://www.amazon.co...48569376&sr=8-3

Her birthday is very early December though, so will probably buy it late next month and hope to get one with Windows 8 on... though I may have to pay a lot extra for that I guess