[Paul4763]

Ok, I'm buying a new laptop and I've filtered it down to these two, they are equally priced. Now let's say I'm Joe Average (hypothetically speaking), I'm 42yrs old, failed marriage, 2 kids, see them only once a fortnight. Been there done that, I'm a distained bachelor. I watch a lot of movies and television and do a lot of downloading. I also have a f**king boring job and sometimes office hours run into home hours, so I gotta do some office type work on my new laptop. Every now and then too I like to let out the 15yr old geek in me and play the odd PC game from 2005.

Ok, that's basically what I'm going to be using my laptop for. A lot of browsing the web, a lot of downloading, a lot of watching and listening to a lot of media. Word and excel processing every now and then and gaming on rare occasions.

I don't know a thing about laptops (assume this is true but actually do know a thing or two), talk to me like a used car salesman would talk to a blind old woman who has just won the lottery. Explain in the most basic terms possible, I can't stress this enough, no mumbo jumbo, SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE. Which of these two is the best for me?

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Fujit...GB/version.asp
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ASUS_M51A-AP078E_Laptop_M51A-AP078E
/version.asp

Thank you for your time.

[Carbon]

Do you end up using this thing more than just at the home or office? Like, actually "on the go"?

Because I'm a big fan of netbooks - for portability, battery life, etc. No serious gaming on these, although depending on what kind of games from 2005 you play you might get away with it. Stuff like Quake 3 works on Low, for example.

I tend to think buying a netbook for portability and a desktop for occasional games gets you much better for your money than buying a laptop for both. Every one of your other tasks is easily handled by a netbook and who wants to lug around a laptop three times the weight or whatever every week just to play a old game every month?

To actually answer your question though: the ASUS is much better in nearly all respects spec-wise. However, higher specs on a laptop isn't like higher specs on a desktop: they often come with penalties (more heat, increased weight, decreased battery life). The Fujitsu also has a very large screen which may seem excellent at first but really is overkill for a laptop, going from "bulky" to well into "insane" category.

ASUS should do maybe 2 1/2hr battery, maybe 6lb and not a lot of heat, if my experiences with similar ones are any indication. Equivalent netbook would probably be half the price, 6-8hr battery, around 3lb. Whether that's advantageous depends on whether you're moving around a lot or just sticking it on your desk.

[philthomas]

Yep .... I agree completely with Carbon ...... this is a superb Netbook for the money ..... and you will have enough left over to buy a games console or a short holiday

[Haun]

Id go with the Fujitsu. I have an asus and like it, but there are some problems with it (heating and keyboard mainly)