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Hey guys,

Girlfriend's mum is in the market for a new laptop - guess who gets to advise her?

This thing is going to be a desktop replacement to be used for your average 'mum' stuff (read: internet browsing, video streaming, email and word processing). Build quality and reliability are the key factor shere - which is why I have whittled down my list to a Dell Vostro 3560 and a Lenovo ThinkPad E530.

Both models are entry-level business laptops - both have fairly solid chassis', matte screens and reasonable processors. Battery life and weight are not important as it will spend most of its life sat on a desk plugged into the power.

Dell Vostro 3560 pros
Slightly faster processor (2.4GHz i3 vs 2.3Ghz Pentium)
More memory (4GB vs 2GB)
Faster hard drive (7.2K vs 5.4K)


The two laptops are pretty similar on everything else, although the Vostro is priced at £420, whereas the Thinkpad is £350. But, as I stated, this laptop is to be used for pretty basic tasks - so a solid build and increased reliability wins over raw tech specs any day. A matte screen is also a must because it will be placed opposite a window - and those shiny screens are simply dreadful!


Does anyone have any experience with either of these laptops who would care to chip in their opinions / experiences?


Thanks.

When you're comparing build quality, Lenovo beats Dell any day of the week.

They still make laptops with only 2GB?

I would prefer a Lenovo over Dell any day. But even with price difference, those specs just seem too low on the Lenovo for my taste. Even basic tasks, a business laptop needs memory. (All that corporate software adds up) But for home tasks, 2GB is really just barely enough for Win7.

What's the target price range? And why are you looking at business models which tend to be a little more expensive?


What about this HP Pavilion g6-2022sa?

This is being typed on a Lenovo ThinkPad SL510.

Generally I've avoided Dells, usually I hear horror stories from people, same for Acers. I do not know anything specific to the model you've picked out. So I personally would side towards the ThinkPads, but obviously, my view is a little one sided.

In terms of durability and quality of build, I would say you're looking at very well built laptops with a ThinkPad, there's different ranges of ThinkPads, ranging from the value stuff like my SL510 to top quality T Series and W series.

The main features of ThinkPads I would look out for are:
Lenovo Enhanced Experience. This boosts load times on Windows 7 (I think it's version 3.0 in new builds now) I have version 1.0 on mine and I can still pretty much boot Firefox seconds after Windows 7 has booted. I've had the laptop for nearly 2 years.
Rapid Boot Drive. Uses a SSD to boost boot times. My model doesn't have this.
Rollcage Technology. Not every model has this. This is the technology that gives ThinkPads their reputation, basically it makes their laptops extremely durable.
Active Protection System It detects knocks, drops and bumps and it immediate freezes the hard drive to stop it from sustaining damage.
Shock Mounted HDD Essentially your hard drive has shock absorbs, to prevent damage to your HDD.
Spill resistant keyboard I guess handy just in case.

And of course the screens use steel hinges to add durablility. The rollcage is made of a strong but light allow which holds all of the laptop's tightly together and securely.

Not all ThinkPads have the same durability features. Cheaper ranges have some cutbacks. My SL510 for example has the Active Protection System, the Spill resistent keyboard but lacks the rollcage.

The ThinkPad Edge series (the series you're looking at), they are cheaper ThinkPads, they're like mine, but are meant to be more stylish (and are a newer range). They're a good value for what you're getting. I almost bought an Edge myself. I suspect the Edge, like the SL series, lack the impressive rollcage stuff, but regardless ThinkPads are very well built and would likely have similar features to my SL510. I have actually dropped my laptop a few times and it's done just fine - I've not tried stress testing it though (I don't tempt fate) - plus I know it won't be as durable as a T-Series.

With a Lenovo though, you are paying extra for its durability features. I bought mine because I was buying for reliability and not spec. I think if you're going for a business laptop, it is attractive, because you want to keep your data safe, your hard drive in tact and of course should you drop your laptop, you'll need it to boot...and preferably, quickly. I'd personally argue they earn the extra cost for equivalent spec, naturally that always depends on what a person is looking for an consider valuable.

However, I am very happy with my purchase, I've not had a singe problem with my laptop since I've bought it. I've found it reliable, it's ran nice and cool (and it's pretty quiet, I rarely hear the fan) and it does the job and Windows 7 performs well and the enhanced experience no doubt helps.

Thanks for the input guys - plenty of useful info there.





The reason for choosing the Dell Vostro is because I know a few people who have older models which have lasted for years; the general consensus on the internet is that they are very reliable machines, unlike the consumer line (Inspiron etc.) of which I have heard plenty of horror stories.

The budget was basically anything up to £500 - but I feel bad letting her get a £500 laptop which is potentially overkill for anything she will be doing on it when the money is better spent on the house refurb etc. At the end of the day it's her decision, but I'd feel better knowing the money had been spent on something which was more reliable as opposed to some tech specs monster.



I'm afraid I have to disagree with this statement - my main machine currently only has 2GB DDR2 in it, but it is more than adequate for Windows 7 and I'm hard-pushed to approach the pagefile (I'm not a heavy multi-tasker though, but then again neither is her mother). I do admit though that it is odd to find a laptop in 2012 which has anything less than 4GB RAM in it.




Thanks for that Seppuku, you've just sold the Lenovo to me!

My current memory usage at the moment says 9.23GB. But I'm not the average user.

But even when I first boot up Win7, I have over a GB of ram in use. And I try to keep preloaded crap to a minimum. She starts opening up too many webpages, that 2GB will be gone very quick. You must not do much on your main machine if you don't hit that limit.

No worries.

Sounds like the Dell is more reliable than the ones I'm more familiar with, but I guess you'd expect any business range of computers to be better built than any consumer range ones. I would say the only downside with Lenovos is that they're more expensive per spec...or at least the only downside I've seen. Whilst I rate my laptop highly, like any other product out there, they're not impervious to failure as there can be faulty models (downside of mass production). But you get a 1 year standard warranty anyway and you can also buy an extended warranty through Lenovo. But they tend not to have a reputation for going wrong.

To add, Lenovo doesn't stick a tonne of useless software and trials on their computers. You just get the option to buy MS Office (or input a key), it asks if you want to install Norton 30 day trial and it comes with a Media suite and the ThinkVantage software, which is designed for keeping an eye on your computer's status should you choose to use it.

And, I would also check out any reviews of the Edge, maybe look to any tech support problems to see what kind of problems folk have encountered. It's what I like to do before choosing a product.



I'm running 2gb RAM on Windows 7 Professional and I don't have that problem. Yes, Windows 7 does start up with over 1 gb RAM, but from what I understand, what Windows 7 and Vista do is use more RAM if more RAM is available. I multitask a lot on my machine and don't find I run out of RAM. I use mine for Dark Basic/DarkGDK.NET, Unity3D, Internet, World of Warcraft/Final Fantasy XI: Online, Indie games, Microsoft Office 2010, movies/TV and listening to music. Not all at once, but the 2gb is sufficient.

My win7 laptop has only 1gb ram and well... it runs. Not great, but not unbearable either.

Strange. I knew Vista wouldn't let you install on less than 2GB I think. Guess they removed that check from 7.

If you are using the 64-bit version of Windows, you need at least 2GB of memory even in Windows 7. If you are 32-bit, then you can of course use less.

Personally, if it was my mother, I'd buy her a MacBook Air - good build quality, does just about everything she needs with the stock apps, nice screen etc - but that's also pricier (for a reason, I feel, but you may not be able to justify it).

I don't know about the higher end Dells but one of my friends recently bought a Dell for about $600 and the quality in my opinion is awful (it's an Inspiron something rather). Horrible screen quality, cheap keyboard... the specs inside are just fine, but the outside was obviously subjected to some corner cutting to get the price down.

Hi. I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T150. It's somewhere between 5 and 7 years old. (I need to check the date.) It has 2GB of RAM in it. I've opened up very many web pages (running Windows 7 and Chrome) and haven't had any problems with it. It has a strong build and excellent battery life for its age. I'd personally go with the ThinkPad.

I'll note that the machine is only capable of 32-bit, so of course my experience has been on a 32-bit OS.