Touchscreen PC or Laptop

[Adrena1in]

Looking for a bit of advice. My long-lasting laptop finally died a few weeks ago, so looking to replace it with either another laptop or a touchscreen PC.

All I really want it for is surfing the web, storing my photos and videos, and perhaps the odd game.

The Laptop will be cheaper, as something like a bog standard 15.6" would be fine...can get new ones for not much more than £200.

A Touchscreen PC will start at around £450, but be a bigger screen, much nicer for viewing my images and videos, better for on-line videos and iPlayer and stuff, and double as the output for the PS3.

Only trouble is I'm not very familiar at all with Touchscreen PCs, other than a bit of a play in PC World. Anyone got any recommendations?

 

[Leftie]

In true Forum answers, I can't help you regarding touchscreens but I'll post anyway (another post to the total )

But I do have to ask why? . What's wrong with using the mouse or touchpad thingy?

 

[PhilTheFragger]

As a PC Engineer, im always asked by customers to comment on new bits of kit, Touch screens being the latest fad.

The main problem with a stand alone touch screen is that you have to reach out full stretch to use it, this makes the arms and shoulders ache after a few minutes.

If you move the screen lots closer, then its like being in the front row at the cimema, its just too big.

Also you get finger marks everywhere.

Now with a laptop, its not so bad as the screen is generally closer to you.

However the best way to use one is horizontally, on a flat surface, then you dont get arm ache so bad.

So im not a great fan

Same with 3D, bonkers if you have to change glasses all the time, next thing will be Laser eye treatment so you wont need 3D glasses.

Fragger

PC Hero to the Gentry

 

[Oddsocks]

One of my close friends has just purchased one of the latest hp touch screens units from pc world he hates it already and it's only 3/4 weeks old.

I'm a massive fan of conventional units, if you want to upgrade any part of the machine it's so much easier with these. My work pc is pretty much upgraded as much as possible with the exception of bigger drives, the mist recent upgrade was a new graphics card so Ivan run two monitors back to back

 

[Lump]

hate me or not, but buy a Mac book.

For what you want (Basically the same as I do) a Mac book will suit your needs to perfection.

I've now had my Mac book pro for over a year. It still boots within a Min (when i say boot, I mean to the home screen and be able to launch a program).
I've never had a single virus, never blue screened, basically never set a foot wrong. (It also looks the dogs bollocks! )
I have a dual boot on mine too so I can play games.
One other plus is Macs hold their money really well, unlike other laptops/desktops.

Que the haters!

 

[GB72]

hate me or not, but buy a Mac book.

For what you want (Basically the same as I do) a Mac book will suit your needs to perfection.

I've now had my Mac book pro for over a year. It still boots within a Min (when i say boot, I mean to the home screen and be able to launch a program).
I've never had a single virus, never blue screened, basically never set a foot wrong. (It also looks the dogs bollocks! )
I have a dual boot on mine too so I can play games.
One other plus is Macs hold their money really well, unlike other laptops/desktops.

Que the haters!

Totally agree with everything said here. My wife has a Macbook and if you have the ash for one there is nothing better. It is everything you could want in a laptop, fast easy to use, no viruses, no problems and if you have an ipod and iphone, so easy to sync up. Give me a Mac any day.

 

[Macster]

This always comes down to cost etc, but having just been abroad for 9days with my iPad, I simply can't speak highly enough of it.

I converted to Mac's about 3yrs ago, but have never owned a 'laptop', and after looking at the iPad, decided it did all I would need in a mobile device. In a nice leather Case, it slips easily into any bag, and the touchscreen is simply superb, and cleans easily with a screencloth etc.

Watching films is superb quality, it stores all my music in iTUnes, and the web browsing is unparraleled, I'm writing this from a train as if sat at my desk at home ! Photo storage is fabulous too, and the number of App's available (games etc) make the iPAd perhaps the best entertainment device.

Sure, if you need to be able to store/transfer files, then the lack of USB would be a problem, but otherwise it is simply superb to use.

 

[Aztecs27]

hate me or not, but buy a Mac book.

For what you want (Basically the same as I do) a Mac book will suit your needs to perfection.

I've now had my Mac book pro for over a year. It still boots within a Min (when i say boot, I mean to the home screen and be able to launch a program).
I've never had a single virus, never blue screened, basically never set a foot wrong. (It also looks the dogs bollocks! )
I have a dual boot on mine too so I can play games.
One other plus is Macs hold their money really well, unlike other laptops/desktops.

Que the haters!

Totally agree with everything said here. My wife has a Macbook and if you have the ash for one there is nothing better. It is everything you could want in a laptop, fast easy to use, no viruses, no problems and if you have an ipod and iphone, so easy to sync up. Give me a Mac any day.

Another vote here too.

Used Mac's for the last 8 years and wouldn't even entertain the idea of having a windoze PC/laptop again.

My Macbook is awesome but getting a bit long in the tooth. Still works perfectly, just a bit slower in it's old age, so I'm looking to upgrade to a Macbook pro as soon as I possibly can.

They get alot of stick, but really Apple are awesome and Mac's cannot be faulted IME.

And also, people moan that they're "over priced", but I've never had any problems with my Macbook in the 5 years that I've had it. If i'd had a PC/Laptop for the same duration, I'm sure it would have been upgraded to keep it running well and I would have had to fork out for repairs and software to stop it from getting viruses/malware.

 

[RichardC]

hate me or not, but buy a Mac book.

For what you want (Basically the same as I do) a Mac book will suit your needs to perfection.

I've now had my Mac book pro for over a year. It still boots within a Min (when i say boot, I mean to the home screen and be able to launch a program).
I've never had a single virus, never blue screened, basically never set a foot wrong. (It also looks the dogs bollocks! )
I have a dual boot on mine too so I can play games.
One other plus is Macs hold their money really well, unlike other laptops/desktops.

Que the haters!

Totally agree with everything said here. My wife has a Macbook and if you have the ash for one there is nothing better. It is everything you could want in a laptop, fast easy to use, no viruses, no problems and if you have an ipod and iphone, so easy to sync up. Give me a Mac any day.

Another vote here too.

Used Mac's for the last 8 years and wouldn't even entertain the idea of having a windoze PC/laptop again.

My Macbook is awesome but getting a bit long in the tooth. Still works perfectly, just a bit slower in it's old age, so I'm looking to upgrade to a Macbook pro as soon as I possibly can.

They get alot of stick, but really Apple are awesome and Mac's cannot be faulted IME.

And also, people moan that they're "over priced", but I've never had any problems with my Macbook in the 5 years that I've had it. If i'd had a PC/Laptop for the same duration, I'm sure it would have been upgraded to keep it running well and I would have had to fork out for repairs and software to stop it from getting viruses/malware.

Another MacBook Pro user here.

I will never go back to a Windows machine at home.

 

[Macster]

See the theme building here ??

Anything wIndoze is built to fail/frustrate/cost, - anything Mac just works, and works well.

 

[Adrena1in]

I had thought about a Mac of some sort, and thought an iPad would be a good idea, but one of the things I want it for is playing DVDs when away from home...what's the score with playing DVDs on an iPad, as I assume they don't have a built-in drive?

(Portability also makes a touchscreen PC seem a bad idea, but you don't HAVE to always touch the screen with such machines...they do come with mouse and keyboard generally. I just thought the image manipulation would be cool, (though there I guess the novelty would wear off...touchscreen PC might be out, but I still want to possibly run the PS3 through whatever I get, and I'm thinking Laptop or Mac might not be any good for this! Nor iPad!)

Perhaps I just need a MAC and a little telly.

 

[Aztecs27]

I had thought about a Mac of some sort, and thought an iPad would be a good idea, but one of the things I want it for is playing DVDs when away from home...what's the score with playing DVDs on an iPad, as I assume they don't have a built-in drive?

(Portability also makes a touchscreen PC seem a bad idea, but you don't HAVE to always touch the screen with such machines...they do come with mouse and keyboard generally. I just thought the image manipulation would be cool, (though there I guess the novelty would wear off...touchscreen PC might be out, but I still want to possibly run the PS3 through whatever I get, and I'm thinking Laptop or Mac might not be any good for this! Nor iPad!)

Perhaps I just need a MAC and a little telly.

You can't watch DVD's per se on the iPad but you can buy/rent films in HD from the iTunes store. Or you copy your DVDs and convert them into a video format (Handbrake is best) and then load them onto your iPad using iTunes.

I would sooner get a 13inch Macbook or Macbook pro though. The iPad is a great bit of kit, but at least you have the flexibility with a Macbook.

 

[Adrena1in]

I'll see what sort of price a basic Mac starts at.

Cheers all...