Lidl Laptop , is it any good ??

Verdammt

Just got a flyer in the store today for a laptop that they will be selling on the 1st of April. Does anyone know if its anygood ?? €1399 for an AMD 2800 +.

See link below.

Lidl Laptop

Boston

Excellent Laptop, Have one myself. What do you want to know.

Capt'n Midnight

What's the keyboard like ?

Vorrtexx

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
What's the keyboard like ?

Do you mean the look or feel.

This is how it looks:
http://vorrtexx.ionichost.com/keyboard.html

It feels pretty good to use too, the keys don't stick when you press them, they're fairly springy, yet easy to press.

bk

If you don't mind me asking Vorrtexx, what sort of battery life do you get?

a) doing normal office work (or programming)?

b) watching DVD?

c) playing games?

I'm interested to know if it a desktop replacement type of machine (therefore crap battery life) or a decent portable.

Thanks.

Vorrtexx

Battery Life would be about 2.5 hrs doing programming work.
I guess it would be more of a desktop replacement than a decent portable, however, it wouldn't be as bulky as a desktop replacement laptop.

Centrino laptops are probably the only decent portables you are are to get that will have a good battery life.

I usually always work mine from the power supply anyway, so portabilitty without power supply wasn't my main concern.

Seraphina

i recently discovered even trains have plugs!

my laptop was well pleased, and we continued with our cartoon enjoyment.

ozmo

Originally posted by bk
If you don't mind me asking Vorrtexx, what sort of battery life do you get?

a) doing normal office work (or programming)?

b) watching DVD?

c) playing games?

I'm interested to know if it a desktop replacement type of machine (therefore crap battery life) or a decent portable.

Thanks.

Great laptop - but on batteries (like most/all amd laptops) as it runs at half speed when unplugged - so no good for games on batteries.
Battery life depends on how much you are doing with it - Lasted for a full 90 minutes playing a full dvd for me - which I think is good.
well recommended if you can get one.

Capt'n Midnight

All of the above is probably academic.

LIDL in Lucan had people outside the door at 8am yesterday and of the 40 they had for sale only 3 were left at 7pm last night.

No idea if you can back order.

bk

I got an Aldi Desktop instead.

If I was to get a Laptop, I'd want 3 hours on DVD and/or programming.

savemejebus

went to lidl in nenagh, early 7.30ish as i figured that loads of people would be wanting to get a cheap laptop.

i was the only person there until 8.55 - you cannot imagine how stupid i felt, still i don't mind cos i got the laptop and must say it is a lovely piece of kit, well please d with it. don't know if they have any left but i know demand was different in each area, heard that Roscrea only got 4 and they were gone at 9.02.

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by bk
I got an Aldi Desktop instead.

If I was to get a Laptop, I'd want 3 hours on DVD and/or programming.

Centrino
Powerbook
Spare Battery
UPS
Inverter
In sunnier parts of the world you can run them off solar panels.

Or just spend more money and get one with longer battery life :rolleyes:

ozmo

Originally posted by bk
I got an Aldi Desktop instead.

If I was to get a Laptop, I'd want 3 hours on DVD and/or programming.

Afaik - there is No gaming capable machine that can do better*. the Laptop has the best available mobile gaming chipset and so is heavy on power (6 Amp power supply :O )
What it is great for is going lan gaming - no monitor needed, just a keyboard and mouse

ps. make sure you apply the latest patches from their site - makes a huge difference.

Too scared to update the bios - but heres the other good stuff you need.

Chipset: http://service.targa.co.uk/dokumente/VIA_Hyperion_4IN1_V449vp2.zip
VGA: http://service.targa.co.uk/dokumente/xpvga791.zip


{edit} * Refering to battery life here. There are better gaming laptops out there but any I've seen cannot do much better battery wise and I wouldnt expect them to. {/end edit}

bk

Originally posted by ozmo
Afaik - there is No gaming capable machine that can do better. the Laptop has the best available mobile gaming chipset and so is heavy on power (6 Amp power supply :O )

Well I wouldn't quiet say that, Alien PC make pretty mean gaming laptops, but for the price you are right.

My ideal PC would be the new Toshiba Protege. Centrino, Pentium-M 1.6 GHz and it is also a tablet PC.

However I couldn't really justify it.

Vorrtexx

Originally posted by ozmo
Too scared to update the bios - but heres the other good stuff you need.

ozmo, I updated the BIOS on it and it went fine. Only thing I'll say is that the instructions when you boot the BIOS update on CD are in German, hehe. So I didn't know what they meant.
I there was just 2 options, and it was the first one.

savemejebus

Thanks for those update links ozmo.

Got the laptop on thursday and noticed a couple of strange things, just wondering if anyone else has experienced them. Here they are

1) I know that when running off battery the cpu drops back to almost half speed, and then when running off the mains it picks back up, but i've noticed that sometimes when i look at the system tab, the machine is running on low when it's plugged in. is this normal

2) When the machine is running the WinXP theme the display seems to act funny, for example if i've more than one window open the text seems to flicker, the problem goes away when i switch to the windows classic view, is this normal?(this machine is the first computer i've owned with XP so if this is a stupid question sorry)

ozmo

Originally posted by savemejebus
Thanks for those update links ozmo.

Got the laptop on thursday and noticed a couple of strange things, just wondering if anyone else has experienced them. Here they are

1) I know that when running off battery the cpu drops back to almost half speed, and then when running off the mains it picks back up, but i've noticed that sometimes when i look at the system tab, the machine is running on low when it's plugged in. is this normal

2) When the machine is running the WinXP theme the display seems to act funny, for example if i've more than one window open the text seems to flicker, the problem goes away when i switch to the windows classic view, is this normal?(this machine is the first computer i've owned with XP so if this is a stupid question sorry)

Both not normal.

There is a FAQ that mentions problem 1) you are having - I think its fixed by one of the updates or the bios update. I noticed this problem also - but havent seen it in a while. Enter your serial number into the above site and read the faqs that come up.
I havent seen 2) but then I always use the classic desktop.

Only problem I have is the PSU is so noisy when used at night in a quiet room. Bzzt Tick Tick Bzzzt. Cannot notice it really during the day or if there is a PC turned on it the room.
It anoyed me so much I bought a replacment PSU. Should have sent it back but it would involve sending the whole laptop back even though I know it just the PSU - and its probably normal for it anyways.
:dunno: