MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Need something suitable for one to one presentations and running small business accounts but have no idea what's I should be looking at.
MacBook Air looks good but a bit £££££. Any others, preferably cheaper I should look at?
Thanks in advance.
You could also take a look at the Toshiba "Z" range. I use a Z830 that is not only ultra light and thin, but packs an I5 processor, 6gb ram and a 1tb SSD rive into a machine that is very very light.
My current work laptop is a Fujitsu 13" lifebook; Very light, i5 processor and hood battery life. quite impressed .
Currently using a Dell Latitude E7440 for work. Light, great battery life.
Also using a Dell Latitude E7440. Light, metal case, great battery life and an SSD.
No experience of other makes, we just get pretty much what we're given, but it's the best laptop I've had.
Just bought this for the wife: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/acer-aspire-es1-111m-11-6-laptop-black-10029088-pdt.html#cat-0
Its very light (about the same as an iPad1), good battery life. Not MacBook Air quality but quite a bit cheaper. Will do presentations and accounts. Mini HDMI if you want to plug a bigger screen or projector in.
This Lenovo is pretty good
£449 gets you an I3 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB hybrid drive plus 1920 x 1080 touchscreen.
Buying from John Lewis gets you a 2 year guarantee.
I have a Lenovo with a similar processor and it is well up to the tasks that you mention.
Dell XPS 13 is a cracking laptop. The wife has one and loves it. Get a refurb direct from Dell and save on the full price if you can, you might just get a bargain.
Got Katie a Lenovo Yoga for Uni. Great bit of kit
Any experiences of chromebooks?
Woody I use a Chromebook. I [i]wanted[/i] a Macbook Air but couldn't really justify the cost for what was a secondary machines.
[b]Pros[/b]
Cheap
Light
Great battery life
So many great cloud-based apps these days that a "proper" computer with local apps and data isn't needed for many people
Disposable - perhaps not a good point in itself, but the advantage of the Chromebook approach is that the hardware is "dumb". If you lose it/drop it/break it all you have to do is sign into a new one with your Google account and you're back to where you left off.
[b]Cons[/b]
Quality - screen and keyboard aren't great but you get what you pay for
Needs internet - although Google Drive has offline access (e.g. for docs, spreadsheets and presentations) you do really need internet to get the most of them. This has not proved a problem for me and how I use mine, even in meetings in the pub where inevitably there is wireless.
Apps - not everything is available as an app for a Chromebook. Check what you need to do with it and make sure there is a cloud-based option.
Envy - if you're like me you will still envy those who paid 5 times as much to get a spangly Macbook Air 😆
[EDIT] - I wouldn't be happy if my Chromebook was my only machine since the screen isn't good enough for photo viewing/editing, but as a second, portable, device it is great.
I'm using a Dell Venue Pro 11 tablet with their Mobile Keyboard.
Windows tablet and if you dock it to the keyboard it's more like a netbook plus the Mobile Keyboard has an extra battery in it. So can use it for casual tablet style stuff, and then for doing accounts and stuff where touch is fiddly, just dock the keyboard (in fact I've even got Visual Studio on it for light dev work if I'm not near a desktop).
HDMI port to connect to displays, but it can also wireless project in Win 8.1 if your display or TV supports it.
There are different versions, one being a Bay Trail Atom based version, low power, flash memory, and the other is an iCore beast with an SSD drive. The latter is more battery hungry and not sure but think it has a fan in it too. I've got the Atom based one, and that's perfect for what I do, and not particularly slow.
Like many flash memory tablets the storage space could be better, but everything is stored in "the cloud" these days.
One option is to get a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Ultra-Slim-Aluminum-Keyboard-Windows/dp/B00BKW2410
I've been very pleased with my Samsung Series 7 ultrabook, which I've had for nearly 4 years now. It is more powerful than my office desk pc, and the combination of low weight, small size and enough grunt to do things like show complex 3D pdfs to clients makes my life easier.
Love my Surface Pro 3. Not cheap, but ultra light and great performance - worth the cash