Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Looking for a laptop in the £350 range, give or take a little. I don't really know whats good. It will be used for general stuff, but probably not gaming.

So far, I reckon 15" screen or more, 250gb HDD or more, Dual Core Processor? 2gb RAM or more.

I know most of the online sites to check, Ebuyer/Dabs etc, but to be honest, PC World seems on par with them.

Here is an example...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-a...06777-pdt.html

Anyone got any other suggestions or help?

BIG WULL

iTrader: (5)

i'm in the same situation at the mo. just cant decide. nice car in your sig btw, how do you find it?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I love it!!

Here are some better pics.

https://passionford.com/forum/pictur...egane-r26.html

SS1

iTrader: (3)

Worth a look

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Laptops

Jay246

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...CER+LAPTOP.htm


£399 as from today.....

wirralphil

Have you a CostCo nearby?

Have a look for there deals, they might be a little more expensive but they have a very good 5 year guarantee on the Laptops/PC's/TV

Davemurphy007

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/l...e/eclipse.html

Brilliant spec for the money and Novatech really look after their customers. Have been going there for years for all my computer bits. If you want Windows 7 pre-installed it's only £80 extra or you can install your own operating system if you want.

BigChuck

i was looking it to this for a friend, a couple of weeks ago, avoid pc world/ currys, the stuff in there seems to be a bit expensive, have a look at dell and ebuyer, my mate ended up getting a dell one that was advertised it the paper, it turned out to be a great spec at £380 iirc for 4gb ram and a decent processor and hard drive, pc world had similar at £550

Ginge !

aint they ment to be cheeper being that they area trade wholesale type place that you need special terms to be a member,,,,,, sort of seems pointless if its MORE than buying in shop IMO

wirralphil

£20 membership per year. Why not?

My suggestion was for the guarantee side of things.

Dlatch!

shop at tesco? have points saved?

its double up on vouchers until 5th December (electrical goods) guy at work walked out with a £450 laptop last week only cost him £60

well if you discount all the cash he spent getting the clubcard points but hey you gotta eat lol

Rick Astley

Personally I'd gor for a 17 inch screen. Most specifications will suit day to day usage. I'm of the opinion that most are probably over specced for home use anyway.

We seem to always want things faster and faster but would a home user really notice the different between a 2ghz and a 1.8ghz processor.

R5FORD

iTrader: (1)

id start off in the apple shop

Rick Astley

Eye spy with my little eye something beginning with APPLE WHORE!

danb21t

hmmm, true..very true.

that being said, if you only buy a laptop every 3-5 years then buy the best you can for your budget. with tech moving on so quickly things are fast out of date.
truth be told stuff that is on the shelf today is already out of date.

however dont agree on the 17".. laptops of that screen size just look awkward to me. Hefty and not very practical.

also I would go for something that is a well known brand, component are generally (generally!!) of better quality and standardised.
I have recent had a friends laptop in for repair which was from PC World - an Advent infact and do you think I could find a copy of the BIOS anywhere on the tinterweb. Components are rejects from the depths of middle east and no one seems to know anything about them.

DaveEscos

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...co=MTM3NjU5MzU

Adrian

Go to Tesco and have a play with whats on the shelf. Screen saver/presentation password is usually the store number. And with all the Christmas stuff being put on the shelves it fairly easy to find.

Got a Dual core, 200gb HDD, DVDRW 15.6" screen last year for under £300.

Obviously MACs wont be in your budget from new, but go in the Apple store in Norwich and have a look also. May be able to pick up a 2nd hand one somewhere within your price range.

DaveZS

If you do go to PC world:

£15 off all laptops over £299 (excluding Apple) PC15QUID, and 3% back through quidco.

ballin

iTrader: (1)

Which? have a free magazine out this week answering this very question

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Update...

1. Dell Inspiron 1545. Pentium Dual Core T4500 2.3ghz. 320gb HDD. 3gb RAM. 1-year warranty. £399.

2. Acer Aspire 5741A. Pentium Core i3 350M 2.26ghz. 320gb HDD. 3gb RAM. 3-year warranty. £399.

So, both exactly the same price and very similar in spec overall. The Acer seems slightly better in some respects (Core i3 vs Dual Core?) and with a standard warranty that is 2 years longer than the Dell. Does the Dell name outweigh the differences?

danb21t

The i3 is a newer architecture and will perform quite a bit better (from the quick bit of reading I did). It also boasts a better intergrated graphics architecture.

Acer stuff seems to have come a long way in the last few years.

However Dell are well established and have been for many, many years. But their standard end user support is as the rest of the companies.
At work we have their Pro support package and its all based in country and I cant knock it.

Its a difficult decision really. Anywhere local that you can go and look at the Acer to get a feel for the build quality.
If build quality is good I would lean towards the Acer.

AGAR-COSWORTH

I've been using my own Acer Aspire 5290G laptop every day for over 3 years with no problems whatsoever. My father's and sister's Acer PC's (approx 5 years old) are still going strong too. Compared to the Dell machines that my mates own, our Acers have easily out-performed them in terms of reliability.

Jay246

2. Acer Aspire 5741A. Pentium Core i3 350M 2.26ghz. 320gb HDD. 3gb RAM. 3-year warranty. £399.


Reserve it from argos on tuesday evening before 10 pm and then head down on the wednesday to the store you purchased it from. It will pay off.....

muz

I'm scared to touch anything that isn't Apple now. I paid (through work) £900 for a Lenovo something laptop 18 months ago (to replace a Dell laptop which turned out to be an expensive coaster after 12 months), the battery wont hold charge, the webcam no longer works, the wireless no longer works, had nothing but problems with it since the day I bought it.

None of my apple stuff have ever had problems.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Jay246 - Thanks for the tip. I appreciate it. However, we have pretty much found the winner.

Acer Aspire 5742. It is Pentium Core i3-370M, 4gb RAM, 320gb HDD and is £399 in John Lewis, so of course comes with their 2-year warranty. We can get a bit of additional money off it too as we have family that work there. So, looks like a good one.

Thanks for the input guys.

DanRSturbo

Mr C doesn't really need to worry about an operating system ;o) And get what you can for the budget, I got the wife a Netbook for £230 from PC world with 250 gig hard drive, 1 gig ram, 2 gig chip, screen is small at only 10 but it's light and easy to carry around.

matts1

I bought an acer the other year from tesco for £400. Not had any issues with it. The guy we spoke to was really helpful checking what we would use it for and steering us off more expensive models explaining that we just wouldn't need to spend that much for what we wanted which was basically looking at porn, I mean web browsing.

I use macs for work, but for home use the pc does the job for a fraction of the price.

ECU Monitor Enthusiast

iTrader: (1)

I just got a really cheap net book... Tesco Direct £180 delivered with windows XP. 1 gig ram, 250gb HD, wifi, webcam
Ideal for most needs except gaming and DVD copying...LOL!

DazC

iTrader: (1)

I use Toshiba machines at work and none of them have ever given us any real problems apart from an 8 year old machine needing a hard drive about 12 months ago. They are on 12 hours a day and used constantly. Can't fault them and my next machine will be another Toshiba.

www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

BIG WULL

iTrader: (5)

You got one yet? I just cant decide.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Not got it yet, getting it this week.