Considering an Amilo Xi 2428

Hello,

This is my first visit to this forum.

I've been on the lookout for a new laptop for a while now, and after a lot of research and messing around, I find myself quite interested in the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Xi 2428.

I'm British but living in the Netherlands, and this is one of the only places that I've seen it available over here:

https://www.dynabyte.nl/artikel/23955/Fujitsu-Siemens-AMILO-Xi-2428

Luckily, there is a DynaByte shop quite near my house.

By the way, 898 EUR = 1,392.89 USD = 708.92 GBP at the time of writing.

So, I know that I'm not really asking a specific question here, but does anyone have any comments / advice / thoughts?

I'm basically looking for a decent Office / Internet / DVD-movies / gaming machine.

Many thanks!

 

Yes, it's pretty good. But you might want to fill out the FAQ to get a bit broader view. I personally would look a laptop with atleast 8600M GT, HD2600 or 9500M GS graphics card, if I was planning to play any latest games. I would propably look for this one: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-X55SV.8510.0.html
And if you can order from Germany, you can get it from many stores with same price (849 € + shipping) as that Fujitsu: http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a339060.html

 

Hi; thanks for your reply.

Yes, I might fill out the FAQ some time for some more suggestions, although I've already spent ages researching different options, and I've got it fairly well narrowed down... I think. There's so much choice, but my girlfriend and I are pretty picky.

Indeed, we've been considering getting an ASUS, but I'd not heard of the X55sv model because they don't seem to have it in the Netherlands. It looks pretty sweet. A numpad on a 15.4"?! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Keyboard stiffness is one of our main priorities, and it's the main reason we haven't gone with cheapo plastic things like Acer.

One of my main concerns now is the Vista language. Clearly I'd want English; my Dutch is bad enough, but a German version would be hopeless. They don't seem to mention the language on these websites very often. What to do?

Thanks again.

 

If you absolutely want the best build quality and keyboard (and still retain gaming capabilities), you should be looking at business line notebooks of some manufacturers. However, they tend to cost a lot more (almost double) than the mainstream laptops with similar specs. Here's few examples (again, prices in Germany): http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?cat=nb15w&bpmax=&asuch=570m&asd=on&pixonoff=off&sort=p
In case you are wondering 570M graphics card in all of those is about as powerful as 9500M GS or 8600M GT. Also note long warranties, high quality screens, robust chassis designs, spill-proof keyboards, shock protected HDD etc..

You are right that usually you get Vista installed with language used where the laptop was bought. You have four options:
1. Get a laptop with either Vista Ultimate or Enterprise and you can download any language pack for it from Microsoft site.
2. Buy a new English version Vista disc separately.
3. Ask the laptop seller, if they could install English version Vista and/or include English version disc with your laptop before buying it.
4. Use Vistalizator program to change the language. However, there's currently atleast one downside to this (quote from Vistalizator help):

 

Hi; thanks for your response.

Yes, we had been looking at "business" notebook, specifically the Thinkpads and the Dell Vostros, but indeed they are a bit expensive and we couldn't find one with the right components for a reasonable price.

Furthermore, I was a bit confused as to how the Quadros relate to the equivalent GeForces, but following your comment I've done a bit of research on that now and I have a clearer picture. I think that the 570M is perhaps a bit too much for us. It seems that most of the less expensive business notebooks come with the 140M.

Thanks for your help re: the languages. However, now I'm worried about the keyboard! For instance, a QWERTZ keyboard from Germany would be very annoying; we regularly jump from one computer to another (which has a UK keyboard).

Anyway, the search goes on. Thanks again for your help.