DollyWitch
Junior Member
I have an Acer Aspire 6920G (Gemstone Blue) which I got as a gaming laptop. I've had horrible experiences with Acer Technical support and the laptop is on it's last legs.
I'd like something a bit better.
Basically I want a decent multimedia laptop. I'll be using this mostly for watching stuff in bed, taking home to my parents and playing gigs. Something slightly smaller/lighter than my 6920G would be nice(it's quite a large laptop).
I'm in Ireland and my budget extends a little over 500. I've been trying to find laptops that have decent built in sound, as when I'm in bed I can't really wear headphones or hook it up to speakers. I've decided I'll probably go with clip-on speakers like the Logitech Z205, but I hear that has some issues so I may look at another one(suggestions welcome). I could probably just about afford one of the "Beats Audio" laptops, if I got a refurbished one/second hand, but I hear that's not great. The Tuba thing in my Acer is actually really good, so it'll be a shame.
One of my other big issues is with the display. The screen on my 6920G isn't great, but certainly passable. The old Zepto I had, had a better screen but that was a little more expensive. So I'm settling for one around the same as the 6920G. I've been checking Notebookcheck to look at Contrast Ratios and black levels.
One laptop I Really liked the look for was the Lenovo G580/Z580, however, it's contrast ratio/black levels are awful. Not what I want.
The other laptop that seemed decent was a Samsung 355V5C. It looks a bit boring to take to gigs maybe, but it seems fairly solid. Samsung don't seem to have a great rep for build quality like Lenovo though, which is a shame. The *580 looked really cool as well.
The Samsung does also have a decent graphics chip - I'm not getting this as a gaming laptop but the more recent an era's games it can play, the better selection of stuff I have to do when I take it home to my parents. Technology has slowed down a bit in recent years, which is a plus. A HD4000 would be sufficient for me, and the chip in the Samsung is meant to be a little better(though the AMD processors will be a little weaker, the A8 in the one I'm looking at ranks higher than a lot of i3s).
Take home to parents also involves train journeys, so if I could get close to 3 hours of watching videos that'd be very nice. My Acer never really got more than 2 doing this, and 2:40 doing lighter tasks - now it maybe lasts an hour and 20 minutes for watching videos. Seeing these claims of 5 hours battery life on a lot of laptops seems almost alien to me.
What should I do? Are there any suggestions I'm missing?
I'd like something a bit better.
Basically I want a decent multimedia laptop. I'll be using this mostly for watching stuff in bed, taking home to my parents and playing gigs. Something slightly smaller/lighter than my 6920G would be nice(it's quite a large laptop).
I'm in Ireland and my budget extends a little over 500. I've been trying to find laptops that have decent built in sound, as when I'm in bed I can't really wear headphones or hook it up to speakers. I've decided I'll probably go with clip-on speakers like the Logitech Z205, but I hear that has some issues so I may look at another one(suggestions welcome). I could probably just about afford one of the "Beats Audio" laptops, if I got a refurbished one/second hand, but I hear that's not great. The Tuba thing in my Acer is actually really good, so it'll be a shame.
One of my other big issues is with the display. The screen on my 6920G isn't great, but certainly passable. The old Zepto I had, had a better screen but that was a little more expensive. So I'm settling for one around the same as the 6920G. I've been checking Notebookcheck to look at Contrast Ratios and black levels.
One laptop I Really liked the look for was the Lenovo G580/Z580, however, it's contrast ratio/black levels are awful. Not what I want.
The other laptop that seemed decent was a Samsung 355V5C. It looks a bit boring to take to gigs maybe, but it seems fairly solid. Samsung don't seem to have a great rep for build quality like Lenovo though, which is a shame. The *580 looked really cool as well.
The Samsung does also have a decent graphics chip - I'm not getting this as a gaming laptop but the more recent an era's games it can play, the better selection of stuff I have to do when I take it home to my parents. Technology has slowed down a bit in recent years, which is a plus. A HD4000 would be sufficient for me, and the chip in the Samsung is meant to be a little better(though the AMD processors will be a little weaker, the A8 in the one I'm looking at ranks higher than a lot of i3s).
Take home to parents also involves train journeys, so if I could get close to 3 hours of watching videos that'd be very nice. My Acer never really got more than 2 doing this, and 2:40 doing lighter tasks - now it maybe lasts an hour and 20 minutes for watching videos. Seeing these claims of 5 hours battery life on a lot of laptops seems almost alien to me.
What should I do? Are there any suggestions I'm missing?
