sub $1200 laptops

[zxz]

my old laptop was damaged and is being replaced under my contents insurance, but i am allowed to pay a bit extra and upgrade if i want, but i dont know laptops well enough to know the best choice.

my old lappy was an asus fe3s or something, and in the 2 years i owned it, it got knocked around a fair bit, dropped a few times and generally went everywhere with me. it was always good on battery life and it didnt die until it got knocked off the kitchen bench onto tiles...

the insurance company have said they will replace it with an Asus K52F-SX625X (1Y) but i have been told by a mate that although it would be a little faster than the old one, it is still pretty crap.

i can pay an extra $250 and get a Toshiba Satellite A660/07P Notebook
but when i did a search on here, it looks like toshys have a bad rep for breaking

i have asked for the upgrade amount for either an ASUS K52JC-EX145V or an ASUS N53JQ-SD086V as they looked ok, but the insurance co reckon that they are out of stock as the products are all being upgraded.

so... any recommendations on what i should ask to upgrade to?
i mainly use a lot of photoshop and i might use it to play the odd game now and then, and i would prefer to stick with asus as my last one proved its durability, but it is hard to search for products when i can only use my phone

[cplagz]

have got 4x tosh laptops and none of them have broken. All Sat Pros.

Got two of these before xmas - http://www.cybershop.com.au/products/Toshiba-Satellite-A660%7B47%7D07S-%28%241299-after-%24100-Cashback%29.html

They will price match down to match this place - http://www.wireless1.com.au/Notebooks/Toshiba/TOSHIBA-SATELLITE-A660-07S.html

I think it was like $1307 plus $100 cashback...

[Alt_F4]

have got 4x tosh laptops and none of them have broken. All Sat Pros.
+1
Had mine +5yrs and has never missed a beat.

[Mad_Aussie]

Macbook Pro.

[Missile]

HP 3132TX

i7 core. Harvey Norman had them for under $1k not long ago.

[zxz]

our last hp burnt out in the motherboard or something and it became a heavy doorstop, so kinda not so keen on them anymore

so looks like toshibas arent so bad then?

[mitchy]

no idea on the other brands, but my Dell is great and the customer service i rate very highly!

[Skitzo]

Are samsung laptops any good?

[bhappy]

dickies have some good specials at the moment on hp laptops.

[dstyle]

asus g73

[j3rk]

Dell XPS 15 is the best I've found so far, cliff notes:
i7 740, 2GB graphics card, 8GB ram, 640gb hdd, 1080 led monitor... $1300 from jb.

[FitzyB]

^ Mate had an older XPS, went great, till it would eat a mobo every 6 months or less without fail, in the end had to bring the ACCC in since dells solution was to clock it down so far it would hardly do anything, and it was still breaking.

Got a brand new one after 3 years of this BS cause dell had sold a product that wouldnt meet the original promised performance...

[cplagz]

DELL are SHIT. I used to deal with them when I worked at Uni of Qld. Their tech told me all the parts they replace in laptops are RMA gear (second hand). Once a part has been replaced 3 or 4 times and continues to fail, then they will consider replacing it with new hardware.

[djkice]

go for a sandy bridge based laptop, its new technology and is roughly 40% faster.

at the moment I think harvey norman have a few(look for Gen 2 Core i7)

asus have a few which are due out early feb which will dominate. g53sw with a gtx460 and gen2 core i7

[Mad_Aussie]

DELL are SHIT. I used to deal with them when I worked at Uni of Qld. Their tech told me all the parts they replace in laptops are RMA gear (second hand). Once a part has been replaced 3 or 4 times and continues to fail, then they will consider replacing it with new hardware.

I've always found Dells to be a prick when working with their desktops - but my little bro has a i7 XPS and as far as I'm aware it's been running every day for 12 months flawlessly.

[Joe]

Yep, never had an issue with any of my Dell laptops.

[shifted]

Had issues with Dell, Compaq, HP, Sony... not with Toshiba though.

My current Toshi has lasted a good 3 years and is still going, the previous one was from 2001 and still kicking hard. If you get a decent Toshi, it will last... my opinion anyway.

[Skitzo]

Are samsung laptops any good?

I beleive this guy asked a question.

A few that i am looking at:

http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/p...=specification (http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-pc/performance/NP-RF710-S04AU/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=specification)

http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?...kp1JkGDszZURNq (http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_ID=dmkp1JkGDszZURNq)

http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?...VTJThr36Jox9Cf (http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_ID=QAVTJThr36Jox9Cf)

What are people's thoughts on Lenovo laptops?

[djkice]

samsung no tanks

lenovo = expensive ibm

[duste]

+1 for Dell. I wouldn't recommend HP purely based on how bloated they come from the factory in terms of software.