Question:
Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
I am upgrading from my old Toshiba (1.9GHz P4/256MB RAM/30GB HDD) notebook to something a little more powerful, my budget is £400-450. At first I was looking at some £400 DELL E1501's with AMD X2, 512MB/1GB RAM and Xpress 1150. I then saw a Lenovo N100 for only £455 and has some very positive reviews, the specs are:
Core Duo 1.66GHz
512MB
80GB
DVD±RW
XP Home
15.4" LCD 1680x1050 (this is very tempting)
Dedicated 64MB 7300 Go
Intergrated Camera
Fingerprint Reader
So I dont know what notebook to choose from, I like the Lenovo and I dont know how the GPU compares with other GPU's like the Xpress 1150 or a X1300? I looked at this chart to find out a comparsion, and its higher than both.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html
As long as its the same about as a X1300 Im happy. I also have heard some bad issues about the N100 but for only £455 ex VAT, I cant complain much.
Also any other good laptops in this price range? I would want a Widescreen display minimum res 1280x800 and probably at least Xpress 1150 GPU for some lite gaming I do, and my budget is £400-450.
Thanks. :)
Edit: Also, I will be buying vista later this year, and thats why I thought the Dedicated GPU will be better and I will upgrade the RAM to 1GB/1.5GB.
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
the only thing I dont like about the n100 is the lack of 64 bit capability. However, its a good buy. I recommend it. The built quality is definately above the average.
The AMD x2 from Dell lacks a good enough video for gaming but is 64bit. You will have to decide whether you prefer 64bit to a better video.
X1300 is a money for value card, I have it on my laptop and have tested 1-2 games on it on of which was thief 3, nearly full Q settings, and runs just fine.Its powerful enough to handle everything that was out two years ago. You will have problems playing new games in high Q setting but in moderate it should run ok. The nvidia will offer similar performace(not very noticable difference).
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
the only thing I dont like about the n100 is the lack of 64 bit capability. However, its a good buy. I recommend it.
The AMD x2 from Dell lacks a good enough video for gaming but is 64bit. You will have to decide whether you prefer 64bit to a better video.
X1300 is a money for value card, I have it on my laptop and have tested 1-2 games on it on of which was thief 3, nearly full Q settings, and runs just fine.Its powerful enough to handle everything that was out two years ago. You will have problems playing new games in high Q setting but in moderate it should run ok. The nvidia will offer similar performace(not noticable difference).
Thanks for your reply on the graphics, but about using 64-bit OS, I thought Core Duo cpu's were 64-bit?
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/intel...ers-153822.php
This says: "It's been discovered that the processors, deep down inside, are actually 64-bit compatible. Yes, that Core Duo you have right now is a 64-bit chip."
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
I am upgrading from my old Toshiba (1.9GHz P4/256MB RAM/30GB HDD) notebook to something a little more powerful, my budget is £400-450. At first I was looking at some £400 DELL E1501's with AMD X2, 512MB/1GB RAM and Xpress 1150. I then saw a Lenovo N100 for only £455 and has some very positive reviews, the specs are:
Core Duo 1.66GHz
512MB
80GB
DVD±RW
XP Home
15.4" LCD 1680x1050 (this is very tempting)
Dedicated 64MB 7300 Go
Intergrated Camera
Fingerprint Reader
So I dont know what notebook to choose from, I like the Lenovo and I dont know how the GPU compares with other GPU's like the Xpress 1150 or a X1300? I looked at this chart to find out a comparsion, and its higher than both.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html
As long as its the same about as a X1300 Im happy. I also have heard some bad issues about the N100 but for only £455 ex VAT, I cant complain much.
Also any other good laptops in this price range? I would want a Widescreen display minimum res 1280x800 and probably at least Xpress 1150 GPU for some lite gaming I do, and my budget is £400-450.
Thanks. :)
Edit: Also, I will be buying vista later this year, and thats why I thought the Dedicated GPU will be better and I will upgrade the RAM to 1GB/1.5GB.
Hi, did you see that on offer at dabs? I saw that aswell, and searched around for some reviews, take a look here http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebo...00-Notebook/p1
It seems from what i have read, the speakers are pretty crap, the screen isn't the best and can be blocky sometimes when watching movies, its quite thick and ugly, just thought i would let you know some of the negative comments i have seen, as it did put me off slightly!
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
Are you going to buy it? I might get it from dabs if there is no good alternative around the £400-450 price range.
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
Which offer from Dabs? This one uses the Celeron M. I wouldn't recommend the Celeron M unless you don't ever anticipate running anything more than simple applications.
The model with the Core Duo CPU is somewhat more expensive. And at that price range look also at Fujitsu-Siemens, Samsung R40 and plenty of others.
John
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
Which offer from Dabs? This one uses the Celeron M. I wouldn't recommend the Celeron M unless you don't ever anticipate running anything more than simple applications.
The model with the Core Duo CPU is somewhat more expensive. And at that price range look also at Fujitsu-Siemens, Samsung R40 and plenty of others.
John
This offer http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx...J&v=2#infoarea
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
Are you going to buy it? I might get it from dabs if there is no good alternative around the £400-450 price range.
I must admit i am tempted, because it has features which appeal to me, but the battery life is pretty crap too so i wouldnt rely on this laptop if you need to be portable.
For the price of £534.98 inc vat, you cant get a better spec laptop and as all the budget laptops (from all brands) appear to be nothing special in terms of build quality, you may aswell go with the Lenovo N100.
Also, the negative comments do seem to be pretty conistant with all budget laptops, as most budget laptops have crap speakers and low battery life, and while one review said the screen wasnt the best, another reviewer said it was of good quality.
One good point about this laptop, is that that it is very easy to uprgade the ram, as per this review
here is another review i found http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1940183,00.asp
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
I wouldn't recommend the Celeron M unless you don't ever anticipate running anything more than simple applications.
That's rather wide of the mark. The Celeron-M is only slightly less powerful than the Pentium-M (300 series) and Core (400 series) on which they are based. Where they lose-out is the amount of Level 2 cache they have (which makes a difference, but not a huge one) and more importantly complex cpu systems such as hyperthreading and speedstep. Celeron-Ms aren't down on power (especially the 400) but are down on battery-saving and some other more advanced features.
Answer:
Re: Advice buying Lenovo N100 Notebook or similar.
That's rather wide of the mark. The Celeron-M is only slightly less powerful than the Pentium-M (300 series) and Core (400 series) on which they are based. Where they lose-out is the amount of Level 2 cache they have (which makes a difference, but not a huge one) and more importantly complex cpu systems such as hyperthreading and speedstep. Celeron-Ms aren't down on power (especially the 400) but are down on battery-saving and some other more advanced features.
I agree jess, it is wide of the mark, but it also depends on what john classes as simple applications?
You don't need the latest dual core or amd processor, to run advanced 2d applications like photoshop, corel draw and so on, but to many these may be classed as simple applications, because they aren't that demanding on the system aslong as you have plenty of ram.
I would safely say that the majority of customers rushing out to buy the latest dual core or amd, won't even need the power, or will use the power, and could easily enjoy their computer activities with a much older processor.