Wanted: Laptop for under UK£1,200 within the UK by April 23rd

Please give me the three best options (make and model), where it can
be bought, online if possible, at what cost

I need to be able to buy and take delivery of a laptop by April 23rd

I can pay by Visa card

Here are the specifications, in approximate order of importance:

1.	Not a HP laptop. My last one had two hard drive failures in 12 months.

2.	Under UK£1,200, excluding peripherals

3.	Warranty: 3 years if possible

4.	Screen size preferably above 12 inches

5.	Weight: preferably 3kg or less

6.	With external connections by telephone socket, LAN, and wireless Lan

7.	Minimum of two and preferably more, USB ports

8.	Internal A drive (floppy) and CD/Drive, but I could live with
external A drive if necessary (bought at extra cost)

9.	Battery life of 2 hours or more, but I know this can compromise weight

10.	Re-writable CD buy read only DVD is acceptable

11.	Best possible combination of hard drive capacity, RAM and
processor speed, available for the price required

12.	Not huge in dimensions. If possible, up to or less than 29cm x 35cm

13.	Small rather than big adapter/transformer, between wall and laptop

Background: 

I have a desktop, for work at home. 

I travel up to 150 days a year, in Africa and Asia, and this is where
I need the laptop.

It needs to be reasonably rugged and capable of coping with high temperatures

I am usually well away from anywhere I can get specialised tech help with a laptop

I spend a fair bit of time in airports; so wireless internet
connection will become more useful in the future.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 12 Apr 2004 10:03 PDT

Hi rickjd,

Rugged notebooks cost at least twice as much as regular notebooks and
it will be hard to find a new one within your price range that meets
all of your requirements. Have a look at the Panasonic Toughbook CF-T1
and let me know what you think - a near new one is available on eBay.

PANASONIC Toughbook CF-T1
CPU Type  	Pentium PIII
CPU Speed 	866Mhz CPU
RAM 	256MB
Hard Drive 	40GB
Display 	12.1 inch TFT display
Operating System 	MS WinXP Pro
Weight Kg 	1.09
£1479.99
http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/new-laptops-notebooks/PANASONIC-CFT1R64ZVQ-laptop-notebook-new.htm

eBay: "Buy Now": £900.00
Environment:
In use Temperature: 5 °C to 35 °C (41 °F to 95 °F)
Humidity: 30 % to 80 % RH (No condensation)
Not in use Temperature: -20 °C to 60 °C (-4 °F to 140 °F)
Humidity: 30 % to 90 % RH (No condensation)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3474008453&category=177

Regards,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by rickjd-ga on 13 Apr 2004 04:33 PDT

While ruggedness of the computer is desirable, it is not as important
as the list of 13 requirements I have made above. A well know brand is
more likely to be easy to service in many countries than a specialist
brand. I have known one well known 1980's laptop brand that survived
being thrown out of a Toyota 4 wheel drive as it went off the road
unintentionally.

I spend a lot of time in Africa myself (the Gambia more specifially)
and burned to quite a few laptops while being there (dust and humidity
not to mention heat are a killer)
The following companies sell notebooks/laptops that can take a punch
,I don't know anything about their pricing information


http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/

http://www.terralogic.co.uk/

Sorry, my comment in reply was attached to the wrong person's posting
It applies to the posting by corwin02-ga,  not that by hummer-ga
I will check out the Panasonic

Hi rickjd,

Thanks for your note. After you check out the Panasonic, let me know
what you think - if it doesn't suit you, let me know why and we'll
take it from there.

hummer

I think I have found the solution, in my own time i.e. 
Toshiba Tecra M1 (not a HP)
£1,099.00 (xl vat)
3 year international warranty
screen 14.1 inches
weight 2.8 kg
wireless LAN
3 USB ports
6 hour battery life

I will leave this comment up here for 24 hours, and then cancell the question

Thanks to the two people who tried to answer my question

regards, R

Hi rickjd,

I must admit, I was looking for a laptop that specifies a temperature
range. You haven't mentioned the specifications of the Toshiba you are
considering (Celeron? Pentium? Hard Drive size? etc). Here's one
comparison for you - you can fill in the blanks.

Model - TOSHIBA M30-304                 Toshiba Tecra M1 
Intel Centrino 
Speed - 1400 mhz
Memory - 256 mb
Memory - DDR
Hard Drive - 40 Gb
Optical Drives - DVD/CDRW COMBO
CD-ROM - 24 x
CD-RW - 10 x
DVD-ROM - 8 x
DVD-RW - Not Specified
Floppy - No
Screen - 15.4 Widescreen                 14.1 inches
Graphics Card - nVidia FX Go5200
Graphics - 32 mb
TV-out - Yes
Sound - 16 bit
Modem - 56k
Wireless Enabled - Yes                   wireless LAN                
USB Connections - 3                      3 USB ports
No. of Firewire Connections - 1
Infrared Port Included - No
PC Card Slot, SD Slot
Battery Type - Li-ion
Battery life (up to) - 3.7 hours         6 hour battery life
Software  - MS Works
Operating - XP Home
Weight - 2.78 kg                          weight 2.8 kg
Height - 360 mm
Width  - 270 mm
Depth  - 36 mm
Colour Silver
price inc vat  £1,099.99                 £1,099.00 (xl vat)
Delivery £14.99
	

If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.
hummer

To hummer

I went for the Toshiba Tecra

It was the 3 year international guarantee that was the deciding
factor. HP had the same and that helped me over come problems that I
did have with the HP, even while in Australia (though normally
resident in the UK)

regards from R
I will now cancel the question