Laptop - A little bit of everything - help appreciated

G

Guest

Guest
Hey,


1_What is your budget?

£650 (ish) (British Pounds)

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

No smaller than 11"
No bigger than 14"

3_What screen resolution do you want?
No real preference

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portability is important

5_How much battery life do you need?
Wanted over 4+ but over 6 would be highly desirable

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Definitely want to play games.
Civ 4 (high)
Dragon Age (Medium/High)
World of Warcraft (Medium/High)
Sims 3(Medium/High)
Call of Duty: MW2 (Medium/High)

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Watching movies
Music
Multi-tasking (spreadsheets alongside presentations and word processing)

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
200gb+ ideally

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 3 years, a level of future 'proofing' is what is really needed.

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Dvd Rom/Writer is needed.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
No preference really, you guys are the experts!!

13_What country do you live in?
Great Britain

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Dedicated Graphics are a must. Though my game choices don't seem the most intensive I do like the odd first person shooter.

Thank you for any help and advice!!

Thom
 

bharms

Distinguished
Jun 11, 2010
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I've been spending lots of time for the last week looking for a laptop similar to what you're describin, and today I'm going to order the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/ideapad/y-series/y460 (review here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364038,00.asp).

According to the benchmarks listed in this review, as well as the opinions I've read from scouring a variety of forums, the Y460 outperforms virtually everything in it's class with regards to video, and also does very well in terms of processing power. I also appreciate the manner in which they incorporate switchable graphics, between the integrated and the discrete GPU. It's a switch on the front of the laptop which you manually slide on or off, which in my opinion is much better than the having software turn on/off the discrete GPU as it is needed (if I'm on battery I don't mind waiting a few extra seconds for the integrated graphics to perform a task - I don't want it on even though it might help a little, as the power drain would be huge). From what I've read you can expect ~2.5 hours of use with the discrete GPU enabled, and ~5 hours of life using the integrated.

Specs aside, I think the Y460 is well made, with attention to detail. The speakers are on the top side of the keyboard (rather than on the bottom/front edge of the laptop, which really annoys me with some brands) and are said to be high quality. There are physical buttons for volume control. The touchpad is said by every review to be well built and easy to use - and it features two distinct mouse buttons (as opposed to a rocker bar). Most reviews speak highly of the keyboard, though some are disgruntled that it doesn't have the chic-let style made popular by MacBooks. Also, the fan has a substantial vent on the side of the lapop, as opposed to the bottom, which will provide for better cooling. Finally, the AC adapter plugs into the model very unobtrusively. Many laptops have long pins that plug into the side/back of a laptop and stick way out, getting in the way of books/the mouse, etc. The Y460 adapter plug has a 90 degree bend in it, so the cord plugs in the side then snakes unobtrusively back, leaving space along the side of the laptop free. This sort of attention to detail, aside from making the product easy to enjoy, gives me the feel/hope that the same attention to detail was used in designing the interior of the machine - something which I understand Lenovo is known for.

If you order by June 20th you get 15% off for Father's Day sale, just use the eCoupon code on the page where you select the model you would like.

Now my only question is whether to get the accidental coverage or just a basic warranty.