If Vista bothers you so much then wait and get Windows seven in October. There are the free upgrade packages that people mention but by the time you've got stuff installed it might be hassle (I've no faith in in place upgrades of MS products without buggering the system up).
For the service thing, we've had a lot of Dell kit here and they're not so bad but my experience is that companies are all a bit random with the smaller customer. (If you ask ten people who've dealt with companies as individuals they'll all have a very different experience as to whether the customer care is OK because it's all so variable).
For the usage pattern you have (nothing demanding, no carrying about) then it's those things which are not on the tech specs which will matter -- CPU, motherboard, memory, speed, battery life, graphics card are unlikely to be an issue. (Any modern laptop will run what you want just fine and you're not carrying it out of the house or away from a plug so weight and battery are unlikely to be an issue). Instead, you probably want to focus on things like "do you get on with the keyboard" or "is the screen readable from a number of angles".
I suggest then that you go into a salesroom which you know will have both models and have a good old play, type on them look at the screens from different angles and see how they "feel".
I am vaguely bothered about Vista due to comments from other people about how useless it is - I use it at the Bunker (client site) and it's mostly ok, though their system does seem to unnecessarily suffer from unexplained bugs and glitches.
Possibly I need to revisit the Dell option, the Acer was the only one which "spoke" to me when we went laptop sightseeing recently.
OK -- windows seven things may be an issue so I would be even more wary of "upgrade packages". If vista bothers you it's probably better to wait (assuming the glitches are not the product of a botched site install).
There won't be any free in place upgrades for Win7 in the UK. Microsoft have been forced to only offer a full install option in the EU, which a number of manufacturers say they won't support.
Oh yes... it seems that it is technologically difficult for MS to upgrade Vista with Explorer to the EU Windows seven without Explorer. (They really are a bunch of chuckle-heads aren't they?)
Given that I wouldn't trust a windows upgrade procedure not to trash data it was always a slightly forlorn hope.
It is rather unbelievable that they can't manage that. They have an uninstaller for IE, how hard can it be to do the upgrade and run the uninstaller as one of the final steps?
I'd always back up data before attempting an upgrade, so a failure is more of an inconvenient annoyance than a disaster.
I do find it somewhat disingenuous of the manufacturers to be advertising an "upgrade" that they won't support, particularly given that they will certainly be releasing PCs with Win7 once it's released, which they will be supporting. I doubt they'd offer downloadable versions of their pre-installed software for upgraders to reinstall. (OK, so most of it I wouldn't want to reinstall, but my laptop came with quite a good DVD player and a surprisingly functional version of Nero)
I'd always back up data before attempting an upgrade, so a failure is more of an inconvenient annoyance than a disaster.
Yes.. but my experience is that even if you have your "data" persuading an MS operating system that your software is installed and recognising what that data is post upgrade is a nightmare. Hence I would be very very wary of the "upgrade" option anyway. Also there's the installed software issue you mention.
For the service thing, we've had a lot of Dell kit here and they're not so bad but my experience is that companies are all a bit random with the smaller customer. (If you ask ten people who've dealt with companies as individuals they'll all have a very different experience as to whether the customer care is OK because it's all so variable).
For the usage pattern you have (nothing demanding, no carrying about) then it's those things which are not on the tech specs which will matter -- CPU, motherboard, memory, speed, battery life, graphics card are unlikely to be an issue. (Any modern laptop will run what you want just fine and you're not carrying it out of the house or away from a plug so weight and battery are unlikely to be an issue). Instead, you probably want to focus on things like "do you get on with the keyboard" or "is the screen readable from a number of angles".
I suggest then that you go into a salesroom which you know will have both models and have a good old play, type on them look at the screens from different angles and see how they "feel".
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I am vaguely bothered about Vista due to comments from other people about how useless it is - I use it at the Bunker (client site) and it's mostly ok, though their system does seem to unnecessarily suffer from unexplained bugs and glitches.
Possibly I need to revisit the Dell option, the Acer was the only one which "spoke" to me when we went laptop sightseeing recently.
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Given that I wouldn't trust a windows upgrade procedure not to trash data it was always a slightly forlorn hope.
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I'd always back up data before attempting an upgrade, so a failure is more of an inconvenient annoyance than a disaster.
I do find it somewhat disingenuous of the manufacturers to be advertising an "upgrade" that they won't support, particularly given that they will certainly be releasing PCs with Win7 once it's released, which they will be supporting. I doubt they'd offer downloadable versions of their pre-installed software for upgraders to reinstall. (OK, so most of it I wouldn't want to reinstall, but my laptop came with quite a good DVD player and a surprisingly functional version of Nero)
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Yes.. but my experience is that even if you have your "data" persuading an MS operating system that your software is installed and recognising what that data is post upgrade is a nightmare. Hence I would be very very wary of the "upgrade" option anyway. Also there's the installed software issue you mention.
Reply
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