Recommendations for a Laptop

[Bloodnok]

Looking for a laptop at the moment. Something 15" to 16" - not something mega large, as it does actually move about, it's not just for moving between two desks at home. Anyone want to recommend me something - I'm finding it rather hard to fight my way through the websites of some of the contenders, in particular the set who believe you should go to your local retailer and hope that the one model of 200+ they make that meets your needs is one of the 3 that retailer stocks...

My current laptop (a Thinkpad Z61m) is showing it's age (4 years 7 months now) - it's been through 5 batteries, it's on it's second hard disk, the bluetooth has died, the screen backlight is on the way out, and the graphics chip just isn't quite up to the job any more.

So I'm looking at my options for a replacement.

Absolute requirements include:
* a proper English keyboard as used in England (none of this yank stuff). That means a two-row vertical enter key, and the backslash key on the LEFT of the keyboard.
* a real graphics chip (must run 3DSMax and speedtree).
* a decent screen - I'm looking for 1600x900 at an absolute minimum, and would prefer higher.
* a windows version of at least "professional" - I already know "home premium" isn't going to cut it for my usage.

I have previously been looking about - and I found a Dell XPS 15 fit the bill. Unfortunately, I've spoken to their Australia/NZ sales people, and they are insisting I order through Dell UK if I want the proper English keyboard layout. And Dell UK will only deliver to a UK address, will only honour warranty while in Britain, and will provide a UK spec power brick. While understandable, that kinda makes this machine a little awkward to order and own. Particularly given that the keyboard will be a field replaceable part, and there are two options listed in the machine configuration.

I'm happy to replace the keyboard myself if I can't order it built-in but can get it as a replaceable part (I've replaced laptop keyboards before - one for one of my previous laptops needed two warranty replacements on the keyboard, both of which were just posted out to me.)

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[Vectracious]

was about to just say the Dell XPS - they have a 30% off sale at the moment. I got the XPS 15 a few months ago and love it. I've always used keyboards with a 2 row Enter key and I was thinking I would have a problem with this one, but I found I got used to it pretty quickly (although having the same type of keyboard on all the computers at work meant I had to)

not sure why you'd want the backslash on the left - thats just weird

otherwise the laptop itself is really well built with real metal case (although that adds to the weight of it) and the JBL speakers in it are nothing short of brilliant. Keyboard itself is fantastic to type on and the trackpad is huge (about the same size as the Apply Macbook ones) and it came with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (so can use all of the 8GB of RAM)

Hope you can get the keyboard issue sorted.

[Bloodnok]

Hope you can get the keyboard issue sorted.

I think I just might have. Could be a challenge to get it here, given they only ship to .uk, but that's what parents are for, right?

[Vectracious]

I think I just might have. Could be a challenge to get it here, given they only ship to .uk, but that's what parents are for, right?

hmm - keys look different to what my keyboard is like - but then again they may have changed the model slightly and I cant look up an detailed pics on the dell website (or at least havent seen any when I quickly looked before)

[Bloodnok]

hmm - keys look different to what my keyboard is like - but then again they may have changed the model slightly and I cant look up an detailed pics on the dell website (or at least havent seen any when I quickly looked before)

Yours might be this one.

I actually like the look of that keyboard better - and I'd prefer that one if they happen to be interchangeable...

[Vectracious]

Yours might be this one.

I actually like the look of that keyboard better - and I'd prefer that one if they happen to be interchangeable...

yep - thats the keyboard I have.