It is really astonishing to look at the progress laptops have made in just a few years. Last quarter, laptop sales

overtook desktop sales for the first time in history. These days the pricing of low end PCs, both laptop and desktops are similar and so it has become worth wondering whether to buy a desktop at all. In a few months I will purchase my first notebook PC and being fifteen, I am not able to buy a 17 inch widescreen Dell XPS or the Savrow line of laptops. Instead I look through the budget, the low price, and the beginner laptops for one that will catch my eye.

These days the features and specifications of cheap laptops surprise me several laptops around the £500 mark include DVD burners and integrated WiFi receivers, which at the beginning of the year were only in the £1200+ laptops that would not be within the reach of the first time buyer. Of course there are some such as the Lenovo IBM ThinkPad R50e which does retail for £505 and only have 256MB of RAM and no DVD burner and no integrated WiFi. I should not be disappointed. One year ago, those would be acceptable specifications for a mid range laptop and today they are unacceptable for a bargain PC such as the Dell Inspiron 2200. How things have changed.

Recently Apple upgraded their iBook range, which starts at £700, and the laptops now include Bluetooth and WiFi as well as 512MB RAM and a 40GB hard drive. The 12inch iBook is pricey, at £200 more than two of its Windows competitors, the Acer 3502WLMi and the Dell Inspiron 2200. Both the Acer and the Dell have slightly faster processors, DVD burners (which Apple calls the SuperDrive) and the world’s favourite operating system. I love Apple computers, but I cannot buy an iBook and feel that I have made the best decision. Even the expensive PowerBook lines are bad value when compared with the Sony Vaios, IBM ThinkPads and Dell Precision lines.

The reason that the Windows laptops are better is the processor, the number of features and the fact that Apple’s care and attention to detail is not worth £200 to a person like me. I appreciate their efforts but when they lose out on the first time buyers, they may set a trend. The buyer brings home their brand new Windows laptop and all the feelings of euphoria are now attached to a Windows laptop, and not the iBook. Apple cannot afford to continue doing this and hopefully the Intel switch will bring down prices or save money, letting them add features such as the SuperDrive.

Dell makes laptops in every segment of the market. Their high end laptops are well made and have some quirky touches like the lights on the XPS. Of course when a company sets out to make budget laptops, cost cutting is an integral part of the mix. Dell immediately threw out build quality and attention to detail. They added the DVD burner and the WiFi which I appreciate but if my laptop creaks as I open it, as a year-old Inspiron 1000 does, I will feel quite disappointed. The Dell does only have a 40GB hard drive which is adequate for now but 60 or 80GB is better.

IBM does put the effort in to make quality laptops. This means their ThinkPad R50e does not have the same features, no DVD burner and no WiFi but the excellent keyboard and the pointing device, are better than Dell’s cut-price keyboard and the slippery trackpad. I am a person who values the extra features, the DVD burner is very important and Acer’s Aspire 3502WLMi has a dual-layer burner which means almost 10GB of data on one disk. Since I don’t want to skimp on the quality so I cannot see myself buying the poorly made but inexpensive Dell Inspiron 2200.

Asus is a relatively unknown PC company who, like IBM , value quality but unlike IBM don’t price it highly. Their laptops are made out of metal and have a small form factor while maintaining a long list of features. However, they only have 256MB RAM in the A3L-5001H which is a beautiful machine, more attractive than any other Windows laptop in this price range. It has Windows XP Professional which is far superior to Windows XP Home Edition, a comparison on Microsoft’s web site shows how significant the gap is between the two versions. However, there is no DVD burner. WiFi is included. The best thing is that Asus offers 1GB of RAM for only £90. This upgrade usually costs around £250-£400 in most laptops. A Celeron M 370 and a 60GB hard drive are just icing on the cake.

The lack of a DVD burner is offset by Windows XP Professional and the fantastic amount of RAM does mean the price is higher than I would normally pay. £640 is tantalisingly close to an iBook, but the iBook has 20GB less space and 512MB less RAM. RAM is so important that spending a little more on it is worth every penny. So all the big names are beaten by an unknown manufacturer. Seems like a bad decision but knowing that my machine looks and feels expensive while having 1GB of RAM and Windows XP Professional are more than enough to make up for it.

The other option is Acer’s Aspire 3002LMi, with 512MB RAM, 60GB, Windows XP Home Edition and a dual layer DVD burner, WiFi but an AMD processor. Acer’s Aspire 3502WLMi has 20GB less, an Intel Celeron M 360 and costs the same. The Aspire 3002LMi can be bought for £501 which is unbelievably cheap. When compared with the Asus, the upsides are £210, a DVD burner and a widescreen display. The downsides are Windows XP Home Edition, half the RAM and the aforementioned build quality.

Of course if you are in the market to buy a new laptop and need one now, then consider these options. Otherwise, wait for Windows Vista (or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) in 2006 and laptops with more RAM, larger hard drives, bigger screens and DVD burners and WiFi as standard.