Which Laptop?

[shortcuts]

I'm thinking of buying a laptop but don't know which one to get!

Will be using it for (mostly) playing 'borrowed' 1080p HD movies (.mkv) to a large screen HDTV, some gaming and 'photoshopping'.
Consequently HDMI and surround sound out are a must.

Any advice and recommendations from those 'in the know' appreciated as it seems a bit of a nightmare narrowing down the field.

[O2 Steve]

how much are you looking to spend??

Acer and Dell are doing HD screens (and some with Blu Ray players and recorders). I'll do some digging when I get 5 mins

[Ian]

I'm just about to get a Dell XPS 1530 which has HDMI output and optional blu-ray drive (although at £230 it's an eye-watering option I won't be bothering with...)

Ian

[shortcuts]

[quote='O2 Steve' pid='26722' dateline='1222072890']
how much are you looking to spend??

The answer to that is "i don't know" but I expect upwards of £800 but certianly no more than £1,100 (ono!)

[Angry Dan]

Let me have a look and see what I can find £800 is far too much I will see what I can dig up.

Ian what is it going to cost you for your Dell I get a discount from Dell so if you tell me the model and spec I can see if I can get it cheaper if you would like.

[Ian]

Thanks, but I have a relationship with Dell too, so I am receiving favourable pricing...

For me, I'm moving my life over to the laptop, and I run a lot of heavy software for video editing, development etc so I want a very hi-res screen, big hard-drive etc and the XPS makes sense... There are much cheaper options for those who don't need such a heavyweight machine!

[Angry Dan]

I have had a quick look and this looks like it will do everything you want Shortcuts

Acer Aspire 6920G

The 8920G is a beast but is a bit more expensive

Aspire 8920G

2.5% Quidco discount at PC World also

[Woody]

If you plan to take your laptop on holidays with you to monitor your dive photos then (look no further!) the Advent 4213 is what yoiu need, I got one the other weeks, weighs only 1.4kilos and has a 10 inch screen, 160GB Hard drive and a gig of RAM which can be upgraded to 2gig, has an intel Atom processor too, and you can also stick a 3G sim card in it, as wll as the onboard wifi and bluetooth, buy a dvd drive seperate for the odd time you need to use one, its brilliant!

[Ian]

Not going to get much production quality photo editing done on a 10" screen though...

[Woody]

Enough while your away from your desktop PC tho! But if thats all you have then a good point, you can also wire it into your home TV if it has the sockets needed, and a bigger keyboard and mouse of course