I'm going to regret asking this, but hey.

Current laptop (Acer 8371) is faulty, retailer gone under & have no more so probably going to end up with a refund.

Requirements:
<15" screen,
8+ hour battery,
<£400 (unless exceptional value),
Dual core CPU (not an Atom),
RAM unimportant (DDR3 would be nice, got 8GB spare),
GPU unimportant (HDMI would be nice, though),
HDD unimportant (500GB HDD spare),
OS unimportant (Got a spare copy of Windows 7 Ultimate),
Happy with a refurb/second hand as long as its worth it.

I use my laptop for Uni, which means it needs to have a long battery life so it can go all day without charging, and it's used for coding / databases / graphics work (next year) / the odd report.

Best i've found so far.

(and the first person to suggest a 15.6" laptop with a 3 hour battery life deserves a banhammer...)

Remember "up to 8 hours battery" is in ideal conditions - Screen so dim you can't see it, wifi and all other wireless gubbins turned off, no CPU+GPU intensive programs running.

Why can't you take a charger to uni with you? They're not too much extra weight to carry and if your uni is anything like the one I go to there's always sockets you can steal some electricity from.

Anyway, that Acer looks fine to me.

Quite cheap and have Sandy Bridge processors. It's 15.6" tho. With one of the i3 processors it shouldn't be too power hungry.
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K53SV/

If you don't give a crap about sandy bridge (don't need the performance), and you don't need 6 GB RAM, then the Acer you've found looks better for your purpose.

Quote from mr_x :

Remember "up to 8 hours battery" is in ideal conditions - Screen so dim you can't see it, wifi and all other wireless gubbins turned off, no CPU+GPU intensive programs running.

My laptop's brightness is always on its lowest, and it's usually used for basic notetaking most of the time. My current "up to 8 hours" laptop gets ~6, my "up to 6 hours" got about 4. Thus why I want 8.

Why can't you take a charger to uni with you? They're not too much extra weight to carry and if your uni is anything like the one I go to there's always sockets you can steal some electricity from.

Cant charge in lectures, not always convienient and it's a ballache to remember to throw it in my bag each day & unplug it from the desk & do it all again when I get in. Plus I can just pick it up & go when i'm not taking anything else (I often take my laptop to my GF's house as she goes to bed really early for example)

Quote from RasmusL :

Quite cheap and have Sandy Bridge processors. It's 15.6" tho. With one of the i3 processors it shouldn't be too power hungry.
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K53SV/

If you don't give a crap about sandy bridge (don't need the performance), and you don't need 6 GB RAM, then the Acer you've found looks better for your purpose.

Battery life of that? I do have an Asus fetish I'd love to indulge...

Quote from Jakg :

I often take my laptop to my GF's house as she goes to bed really early for example

This can give you ideas...

Quote from Jakg :

Cant charge in lectures, not always convienient and it's a ballache to remember to throw it in my bag each day & unplug it from the desk & do it all again when I get in. Plus I can just pick it up & go when i'm not taking anything else (I often take my laptop to my GF's house as she goes to bed really early for example)

wouldnt it be easier to buy a second power brick thats always in your notebook bag then?

HP dm1z or Lenovo ThinkPad x120e.

Quote from Shotglass :

wouldnt it be easier to buy a second power brick thats always in your notebook bag then?

Yes. But I change laptops very often (previously every 9 months, this one I wont even of had for 6 months) so getting new chargers is a pain, plus its still a pain having to find somewhere to charge it up in Uni.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

HP dm1z

I had a Compaq Mini 311 (same chassis as the DM1) and wasn't overly happy with it

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Lenovo ThinkPad x120e

Looks perfect - but I can't seem to find any in the UK? Also, whats the Intel equivalent of the AMD Zacate E350?

EDIT - Seems the DM1 & DM1Z are totally different chassis, retract what I just said.

http://www.medion.com/gb/elect ... s&utm_term=30011839A1

Bargain. Probably what I'd buy to replace my 3 year old Dell XPS. Battery life is probably around 3hr, but buy another battery!

EDIT: Holy crap, that Asus looks good. Is it available over here?

Quote from Jakg :

(and the first person to suggest a 15.6" laptop with a 3 hour battery life deserves a banhammer...)

Quote from TiJay :

http://www.medion.com/gb/elect ... s&utm_term=30011839A1

Bargain. Probably what I'd buy to replace my 3 year old Dell XPS. Battery life is probably around 3hr, but buy another battery!

Too big

Too expensive

Too shorter battery life


Just... no.

Expensive? Maybe too high for your budget, but can you find another similarly specced machine for the same money?

I probably could find something better, and I could afford it - but I don't want to spend £500 on an i5 for the basic stuff I use it for.

if you can still find a ul30vt or a used one you might have something that fits the bill quite nicely

other than that the only laptops id personally consider buying right now are the lenovo x220 and the new hp business line
all down to how much im fed up with the screen on my ul30vt... and basically any other laptop

Quote from Jakg :

I had a Compaq Mini 311 (same chassis as the DM1) and wasn't overly happy with it Looks perfect - but I can't seem to find any in the UK? Also, whats the Intel equivalent of the AMD Zacate E350?

EDIT - Seems the DM1 & DM1Z are totally different chassis, retract what I just said.

The dm1z and x120e are essentially the same system hardware-wise. The x120e is a bit more "business class" and has a better keyboard, but functionally they're pretty identical.

I think Lenovo is dithering about releasing the x120e to the Euro market, which is a shame. I love mine. Got it for $360 too, which was a steal.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

HP dm1z or Lenovo ThinkPad x120e.

Plus one for the Lenovo. Love my 5 year old Z61m that still runs like a champ.

Quote from Dygear :

Plus one for the Lenovo. Love my 5 year old Z61m that still runs like a champ.

Plus a gazillion.

I've owned about 8 ThinkPads, the only one I wasn't entirely satisfied with was the R41 because of its plastic case, which made it the only one I ever managed to break (1 hinge completely ripped out, I did the same to an OmniBook 4150, which actually was a good machine). It still works though and, despite being stationary now, is used a lot, so it's not that big a deal. My current W500 is excellent, I'd only consider an even higher-end ThinkPad to replace it. In fairness though, one major reason for me to stick to ThinkPads is (and this might sound stupid) the TrackPoint. I just can't stand touchpads.