MID-RANGE LAPTOPS £1300 – £1500

The price range of £1300 – £1500 is one in which the buyer can choose from a great variety of machines, not only laptops but also the most powerful desktop PCs. Therefore, many buyers opting for a laptop will be looking for a space saving machine, but one that will still perform the same tasks as a desktop PC. These buyers demand a similar level of connectivity and performance, and they’ll also appreciate large display screens and fast graphics cards. Mobility in the form of laptop size, weight and battery life, is less important, although the ability to take the machine on the road, albeit occasionally, is a bonus. Other buyers, however, are looking purely for mobility.

This is hard to find at the budget and entry-level price ranges, so buyers often start searching in the mid-range group. For these users, size, weight and battery life are paramount, but the days of compromising on processing power to get them are receding. Graphics power is likely to be less important, and small screens enhance portability. Mid-range specifications offer a degree of future-proofing with plenty of headroom in terms of processing speed and storage space. Intel holds sway with its choice of high speed desktop processors as well as its Mobile offerings. We would also expect a 60MB hard drive fitted as standard, along with 512MB of memory. DVD rewriter optical drives are becoming increasingly common in this price bracket.

Acer TravelMate 371TMi
Asus M5606NBP
Evesham Cinebook
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D 1840 Widescreen
Hi-Grade C7000-1700
Mesh Power View 17.1
Rockdirect Quaddra XT Pro
Sony VAIO PCG-FR415S
Toshiba Satellite P10-804

REVIEW CO-ORDINATORS:
Michael Browne
Roger Kirkwood

PHOTOGRAPHY:
Adrian Lyon