Aldi laptop any good ?

[Zoulz]

Gericom Laptop £999.99
Multi Format DVD Burner DVD. For watching and burning DVDs/CDs. Intel PRO/WIRELESS LAN 2200 b/g. ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 128MB. 80 GB Hard disk. 512 MB DDR RAM 333MHz. 4 in 1 Card Reader. 16bit Soundsystem, SB-Pro-compatible +AC 97 CODEC, 2 internal speakers, internal microphone. High Speed Interfaces. Audio & Video interfaces 1x PCMCIA Type II Card Bus supported Modem and LAN. 56k Modem V.90 and fast ethernet 10/100Mbit LAN (includes telephone cable) Battery: SMART LI-ION Battery.

one question, do you reckon you could play games on this ?
iam thinkin about gettin it for the gf and she plays games sometimes.

Thank you

ps i was told that the processor is 1.7ghz centrino

 

[Reefsmoka]

Hey Dude, Welcom .

I'm not a laptop person meself, but from that spec it should handle most games you throw at it. Saying that, you will have to take down a few of the settings on the game, maybe take down the resolution aswell. It looks pretty good for a laptop spec though.

Does it have to be a laptop? Because you could get a really nice desktop pc for that price.

 

[ChristopherP]

Reefsmoka - bear in mind that most Laptop screens can only display 1024x768 resolution...

 

[Zoulz]

iam gettin a laptop mainly for the freedom of use within the house, its kinda a desktop replacement, but misses will be usin it mostly,,,wireless option so she can use it anywhere she wants.

 

[Shorty]

Hell yes you can play games on that!

Radeon mobility 9700 with 128mb dedicated memory.. I've seen a similar model in real life... they play games very nicely

That is an excellent specced machine for the money and should handle about anything you throw at it. However, I would imagine that won't be that light in weight.

1024*768 is no longer the de-facto standard for laptop screens Chris. Not for the last 6-12 months. Most laptops optimal resolution is 1280*1024

What you should consider is this. The price is great for what you get. However... what about the warranty? What does it cover?

If it dies in 6 months.. will ALDI simply take it away and take an age to refund you? Or will they send it away and you wait 2 months for a fix??

While the price is keen, the support may be lacking when you need it most. My ACER came with three years two day turnaround (including accidental damage).

 

[Reefsmoka]

Reefsmoka - bear in mind that most Laptop screens can only display 1024x768 resolution...

I was talking about the in-game resolution. That will have to be low, especially if trying to play Doom 3 or Far Cry.

 

[Shorty]

I was talking about the in-game resolution. That will have to be low, especially if trying to play Doom 3 or Far Cry.

Thats fair ... even with a 9700 & 128mb dedicated memory. Unless you set details at low

 

[Zoulz]

wont be playin those high end games, only games currently gettin played are medal of honor and eve online, and maybe when world of warcraft is out,,, she plays a few silly games that require nothing anyways.

 

[GONNA-GET-U]

only thing that put me off that laptop is the cpu speed at only 1.7

goto www.dealtime.co.uk and serach for laptop !


*you should take a good look around before you get something at a £1 000 *

 

[ChristopherP]

a 1.7 CENTRINO is comparable to a good P4

 

[quark]

I got one of these laptops this morning. Really nice looking unit - nice and shiny - no dead pixels. I'm very pleased with it.

It's got a 15.1" SXGA screen with 1400 x 1050 res
The processor is a Pentium M 1.7GHz which is equivalent to an athlon 2.5GHz
400Mhz FSB, 2MB L2 cache
Wireless LAN b/g (54Mbit)
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128MB
512MB DDR RAM
80GB HDD ( it's a 4200 so I might upgrade to a 7200 in the future if it is a problem)
DVD +/-R/RW - Multiformat
56K Modem
LAN - 10/100 Mbit LAN
3USB 2.0, Mic-in, Liine out, parallel port, firewire, VGA outm TV-Out (S-Video), 4 in 1 Cardreader, PCMCIA

It took just under two hours to fully charge the battery and 4.5 hours on it's still going strong (supposed to last 6 hours - we'll see).

Good bundle of software inc WinXP Home Ed, DIVX Pro Codec and Player (saves the download), MS Works Pinnacle Studeo 8.0 etc

The added bonus on this relatively hi spec machine is the 2 year warranty including full insurance cover.

I've had plenty of good stuff from Aldi and had no problems. I did get a tV from Aldi a couple of years ago though and it died the death after 6 months (it was a Bush pure flat screen). Despite the warranty information which involved calling a number to arrange for a repair, I just took it back to the shop and told them that was faulty - they gave me a full refund on the spot - can't do better than that.

Hope this helps

 

[Thermaltke]

I purchased items from Aldi too, they are highly reliable, after all it is high market stuff from Germany. Plus Aldi staff are very friendly... they get paid alot too.

 

[ChristopherP]

... they get paid alot too.

Couldn't help but be intruiged as to why you know this - "Excuse me kind sir, whats your hourly rate?"...

 

[Thermaltke]

i know my ways, it's about £9 an hour for sitting on a till, wow, although they have to memorise every item and all the prices,

 

[old men and gadgets]

I bought one too, lovely fast little machine. I'm not a games person (ahem) but, everything Aldi wedges in to their Laptops, is worth having. I bought their Medion one, 2 years ago in Germany, and never had any bother. That was well loaded for it's time.
The only thing I cant find on this one, is the IR. If anyone knows, I'll gladly take advice......
I also own a compaq SR1080, the Medion Lappy, a G4 iMac, A G3 iMac, a G4 cube(and an external 250GB HD, cloned, to take with). They are all interconnected for wireless usage, and are all in full working order. (hard to think that 5 years ago I had a sort of Computer Phobia).

PS: 6/9. 21.30 I just found out, from Gericom, that this lappy, does NOT have IrDA

PPS: Today, we drove round the area where we live, and checked out the wireless receiver/transmitter, and logged on to UN-locked wireless net connections. Only about a 3rd were secure. Surprising.....? I could have www'd around the world for nothing...in fact, I did, for a while....

PPS: it broke......touchmouse froze.....won't move, AND, we found 2 together DEAD Pixels (well hidden) but BLUE, it looks like a closed up ; Now we put Aldi to the test of their word. I'll keep you informed.

 

[muckshifter]

old men and gadgets

I just love that 'handle'

Thank you for your "everything Aldi wedges in to their Laptops, is worth having." ... they also sell some good food stuffs.

Welcome to PCR

 

[Jel]

I am very interested in buying one of these, but I want to be able to transfer VHS-C video to DVD. Would this be suitable. I am a bit ignorant about how this can be done. Does it have a TV capture card?

 

[old men and gadgets]

Hi, me again......

We spoke, lenghthly, with gericom, makers of the Aldi laptop. It was a BIOS problem that they were aware of. The mouse, and other bits CAN stuff up. To cure this, you have to burn an update CD using nero 6 (we only had nero5 so had to "borrow" some from the demo site).

The mouse works again after 6 (sometimes inadequate, confusing, or misleading) phonecalls. I have reported all this to Aldi, also complaining about the broken adjacent blue pixels.

It's good that I have someone here that knows a bit about what to do, because I would have been well up the spout otherwise. (thanks Jamie).
Greetings to 1 & all,
OMAG

ps_to see what I'm on about, see my first letter

 

[Andrewolu]

Hello Guys,

I was really looking forward to buying one of these Gericom Laptops (Gericom Radeon 9700 £999) . I had just saved up the money, I went to my Local Aldi and they said that they had all been sent back due to poor sales!! You can imagine my dissapointment.

I just wanna ask as I have no experience with Aldi Are Aldi likely to re-release the Laptop later on?? And If so is it likely to be at a reduced price??



Thanks

 

[old men and gadgets]

Number 1, you could write to here, and ask if they would be prepared to sell to direct.

ALDI​

471 Springfield Road,​

Chelmsford CM2 6AP​

Number 2, Aldi have (usually) four Computer offers a year. 2 desktops, 2 laptops. They are usually the very latest Hi Spec, and crammed full with gadgetry (wedged in)

This last offer was, by far, not the best they have had. Perhaps this was why many were sent back. I'm guessing here, but usually, the PC's have been sold out within a few hours.
I don't think it will be released cheaper for sale there or elswhere.
In any case, you should put WWW.uk.aldi.com on your "favourites" list, and just have a check of their weekly offers, and watch out for forthcoming PC offers.
Regards,
OMAG