Laptop buying is so confusing

Hi

I want to buy a laptop mainly for business use but also I would like to play the occasional game on it not bothered about running massively high specs but got to be able to play them. I have narrowed it down to 2 or 3.

the main ones im looking at are the acer 1691 and the 5024 both look good but i cant decide which is going to be best. battery life isnt that much of an issue as it will mainly be plugged in. I have read both reviews on here.

can anyone help poke me the right way choosing a laptop is so hard!! if theres another laptop in the same price range that someone things is better than those 2 please feel free to make a suggestion. Thanks for your time and advice :decision:

 

We need more info that what you have provided to make a clear cut decision...

However, if you plan on playing games, then I'd get whatever laptop had more Video RAM.

You might consider completing the FAQ (link is in my signature) and posting a thread about "What should I buy" in the hardware forum.

 

sorry, well my work will involve using corel draw and excel mainly, I dont know which is preferable, the intel or the amd. i had a quick look at your faq thankyou

 

The Pentium M will offer the best battery life to performance ratio. Given so little information, it is hard to help.

 

Acer Aspire 5024


* AMD Turion ML34 1.8GHz Processor
* 512MB DDR SDRAM
* 80GB Hard Drive
* DVD Dual Layer Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD- and large Dual Layer DVD
* 15.4" XGA Acer CrystalBrite Widescreen TFT Screen
* ATI Mobility Radeon X700 PCI-E 128MB dedicated graphics
* Integrated gigabit LAN
* Integrated wireless 802.11g LAN
* Integrated 6-in-1 card reader – reads Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card, SmartMedia Card and XD Picture Card
* Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre Loaded
* 1 year warranty


Acer aspire 1691

* 1.6GHz, 533 FSB, 2MB L2 cache -- Pentium M 730
* 15.4 Inch WXGA Crystalbrite TFT LCD
* ATI X700 Mobility Radeon with 64MB VRAM
* 80GB HDD 4200RPM
* CD Car-Stereo type loader that writes DVDs and CDs
* 512MB DD2 -- Dual-channel supported
* 802.11b/g wireless Lan
* XP Home Edition
* Various USB 2.0 and other ports

but then theres the 1692

# Intel Pentium-M Processor 1.7GHz 740
# 512MB DDRII SDRAM (2GB Maximum)
# 80GB Hard Drive
# DVD Dual Layer Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD- and large Dual Layer DVD
# 15.4" XGA CrystalBrite Widescreen TFT Screen
# ATI Mobility X700 PCI-E 128MB dedicated graphics
# Integrated gigabit LAN and 56k v.90 data fax modem
# Integrated wireless 802.11b/g
# Integrated 4-in-1 card reader – reads Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card
# Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre Loaded
# Includes Cyberlink Power-DVD and NTI CD-Maker
# 3 USB 2.0 Sockets
# 4-pin Firewire (IEEE 1394) Port
# 3.5-hour Battery Life
# Weight 3kg


If thats enough info to help id appreciate it I will mainly be doing word processing but like to play the odd game like age of empires and possibly stuff like farcry if one will play it. Battery life im not overly bothered about as it will be in the wall mainly. is there anything else i need to tell you?

thanks for your help/advice!

 

im gonna have to stop browsing it makes things even more confusing!!

i found these two better brand?

well the last two that i will take into contention unless anyone has better around this price.

Fujitsu A1167G

# AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+
# 1GB DDR SDRAM
# 100GB Hard Drive
# DVD Dual Layer Multi Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD-, large Dual Layer DVD and DVD-Ram
# 15.4" XGA Widescreen Crystal View Bright TFT Screen
# ATI Mobility X700 PCI-E 128MB dedicated graphics
# Integrated LAN and 56k v.90 data fax modem
# Integrated wireless 802.11g
# 3 USB 2.0 Sockets
# Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre Loaded

thats £900

or theres

Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M 1437G

# Intel Pentium-M Centrino Processor 1.73GHz
# 512MB DDR SDRAM (2GB Maximum)-
# 60GB Hard Drive
# DVDRW± Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs and DVD+ and DVD-
# 15.4" XGA Widescreen TFT Screen
# ATI Mobility X700 PCI-E 128MB dedicated graphics
# Integrated gigabit LAN and 56k v.90 data fax modem
# Integrated wireless 802.11g
# Integrated 4-in-1 card reader
# 4 USB 2.0 Sockets
# 4-pin Firewire (IEEE 1394) Port
# Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre Loaded
# 2-hour Battery Life
# Weight 3.1kg
# Includes 1 Year Warranty

 

I would either choose the 1692 or the 5024. The Pentium M runs cooler and has better battery life as posted by zazonz.

Be sure to get 128MB of Video RAM for games.

 

thankyou, your advice is much appreciated was just a bit wary of the acers because i read one review that slated the screen and the hard drive.