Putting the Laptop Feelers out

[BKGarry]

To All,

 

I am currently looking (for next financial year) for general costings of our next lot of student laptops, we got HPs this year, and while the 4340s series are nice, The return to base warrantee for accidental damage and the having to register all the devices for their warrantees/care packs have just been a bit of a nightmare.

 

I am looking at getting machines of the following spec

 

Has to look aesthetically pleasing (we find if they look nice our students appreciate them more than if the look like a T series Thinkbook)

13" Screens (as I find 15" can be a bit cumbersome carrying them around)

i5 Processor desirable but i3 will do

4gb of RAM (not gone 64bit yet)

maybe SSDs around the 200gb mark but if not 500gb HDDs

need to have 3 years onsite accidental damage coverage

battery coverage for 3 years is desirable

A/G/N wireless for our N based Meru Wireless LAN

Good customer support (this is a must)

must run Windows 7 over windows 8

 

Does anyone have any suggestions who to go with, just putting the feelers out there, official quote will not be until after April for a July delivery, ready for the summer holiday.

 

All the best,

[teejay]

I'd be looking at Dell, their newer Latitudes look quite nice now and if you go with the Pro Support warranties their support is fantastic. Just don't go down the consumer Dell laptops as they are well, not as good.

 

You could also have a look at the VeryPC laptops, haven't used their laptops personally but they are a great company,

[BKGarry]

I may have to take a stroll over there at BETT :-)

[featured_spectre]

Lenovo laptops have been pretty solid. Might be worth a look there. Avoid Acer, as the build quality isn't what it used to be.

[synaesthesia]

Acer's build quality has always teetered between "did you buy this at Aldi" and "you paid £40 from a chinese street vendor? Get a refund!" - how could it possibly get any worse?

Without questioning reasons behind the choice of laptop etc, definitely go with SSD, it'll increase lifespan & decrease chance of shock related problems with hard drives. Lenovo kit is usually sturdy but I can only really recommend the enterprise level Dell kit for that application. You will pay a premium though

Edited January 9, 2014 by synaesthesia

[hallb15]

You could look at a VeryPC laptop.

They do a 13.3" Ultrabook designed for eduction. Its not on their website at the moment - I think they're waiting on an updated version.

Get in touch with @VeryPC_Colin_M for pricing. They'll send you a demo model - I'm eagerly awaiting mine as we too are looking to replace our older, Windows XP laptops.

[BKGarry]

Sounds very interesting, I will have to take a look :-)

[TheScarfedOne]

Have a chat with Stone @StoneComputers.... Got over 200 of their laptops here and work well