I'm considering getting Sian a laptop for her birthday (probably be a joint present as she's not bought anything for my birthday yet :( ) and had a quick look at some refurbished ones last night. Quite a few Dell 630s out there for under £200. Any ideas what they are like?

Would it be worth spending a bit more (hopoefully not lots more) on a new one which I assume have better screens and multitouch trackpads (I /hate/ trackpads). I'll have to check Sian is happy having a second hand laptop first. The websites say they will show signs of use but I suppose it's just luck how much it's worn.

Also I feel like playing Frontier. Used to love that game.

I'd love to be able to justify a 15" retina one, shame there's no 13" retina/high res model.

I'd obviously stick Win 7 on it, but they look niiiiice

Um, not in the slightest. I can quite easily tell the difference between 220ppi and 110ppi. Have you actually looked at a retina display?

If they subsequently increased the res to 440ppi then yes, the difference would be barely noticeable and more akin to getting 200fps.

Well if it was for me I'd take the trackpad out and replace it with a block of cheese. Or maybe a pair of boobs. Although some laptops already come with nipples. I did find the multitouch scrolling pretty useful on my mother in law's laptop recently. Still prefer a mouse though.

I'd forgotten how bloody annoying the combat is in Frontier :(

And eBay looks like it could be a decent place to get a second hand laptop if I'm lucky. I shall keep an eye out.

I read something yesterday that said the maximum selectable resolution on the new macs is lower than the screen res so probably some scaling going on.

I should have been asleep ours ago.