student laptops

magoogy

can anyone advise me as to the best place to get my daughter a laptop please? need a brand new one though not reconditioned as i dont trust them - i like a guarantee with my stuff....

also, do comet,etc do student discounts please?

thanks

giraffe_2

might be a good idea to get one from john lewis as all their laptops come with a two year guarentee as standard...

elona

I got a smashing laptop from Tesco - it is an Acer and is 512 rather than 128 so is really fast - daughter loves it and it was around £400.

She went to friends house ( her parents are really well off) and friend has a Dell - DD comes back saying how much better and faster the one she got from Tescos is! :j

indiegirl_2

I would recommend finding one locally that you like the look of (and also to give yourself a ballpark figure to prepare for the cost!) and then going through a couple of price comparison sites to see if you can find it lower.

As someone who works in IT (for a school), I have my recommendations on the 'good' and 'bad' makes, but as long as you get a warranty it shouldn't matter. I've seen teachers abuse and misuse laptops til kingdom come!

Going directly to some manufacturers might get you an 'educational discount' (it might be worth ringing them and asking), but generally online places knock laptops out in bulk at discounted prices.

At the end of the day laptops are excellent for portability, but remember that the initial cost is higher, and the chance of them breaking down is greater as they're sturdy, but not built to withstand everything!!

magoogy

i was looking at one of the acer ones but as i dont recognize the make i was unsure as to whether they would be any good - the one i was looking at was £500 from comet...so, will maybe go for that one....

didnt realise john lewis did laptops - i thought that was a clothes shop....

thanks for all your tips....

pavlovs_dog

if anyone is looking for a household pc at the mo, woolies has a fairly decent package for £500 quid

http://www.woolworths.co.uk/ww_p2/product/index.jhtml?pid=50482892

pavlovs_dog

dell is very popular in education establishments - my uni has millions of dell pcs, as did my secondary school.

apple (if your daughter is so inclined) definately give educational discount...it depends on what specs she needs i guess.

good luck with your quest!

ag359

For what it's worth, I had an acer laptop in my first year of uni and it was bloody useless, before finally packing up just after the warranty expiry.

I know have a Toshiba which has been much better (18 months old and no problems so far). The OH has a Dell which she has had for three years with no problems, although she doesn't use it for much, other than word processing and internet.

To the poster who said it doesn't matter as long as it has a warranty, I disagree. Most computer firms are notoriously bad for requiring you to travel the length and breadth of the country at your own cost to get the laptops repaired, and they often, in my experienec take a couple of weeks or more to fix the thing, which is no good if you have a coursework deadline to meet! If I were you, I would try and get a make with a good reputation for reliability, as you don't want to be getting it fixed if at all possible, even if it is under the warranty. It'll be especially problematic if your daughter doesn't have a car at uni.

David88_2

Most computer firms are notoriously bad for requiring you to travel the length and breadth of the country at your own cost to get the laptops repaired,

If you get a Return to Base (RTB) warranty then this may be the case (although I think normally you can send it by courier?), but if you get an Onsite Warranty (more expensive) then they will send out an engineer to you who will fix it at your home.

pavlovs_dog

i've just seen that tchibo will be doing a laptop for £399 from the 20somthing of this month, but they wont release the specs until next week.

i have had nothing but good experiences with them thus far, so could be worth a punt

i know they offer a 3 yr guarantee on all their electricals - not sure if this will apply to the laptop or not, but i will post when i get more info

indiegirl_2

ag359 wrote:

To the poster who said it doesn't matter as long as it has a warranty, I disagree. Most computer firms are notoriously bad for requiring you to travel the length and breadth of the country at your own cost to get the laptops repaired, and they often, in my experienec take a couple of weeks or more to fix the thing, which is no good if you have a coursework deadline to meet! If I were you, I would try and get a make with a good reputation for reliability, as you don't want to be getting it fixed if at all possible, even if it is under the warranty. It'll be especially problematic if your daughter doesn't have a car at uni.

To defend my point here - I was aiming at the fact that buying from anywhere that provides a warranty is notoriously better than buying from - say - eBay where often a warranty isn't provided.

As David88 says, Return To Base warranties do of course involve sending the laptop away, which doesn't guarantee an immediate turnaround, but onsite warranties will get your system fixed quickly (but they are much more expensive!).

As all universities give students access to ICT, most with 24hr computer rooms for those last minute essays, I don't think that it'd be necessary to shell out the extra for an item with an onsite warranty. If your daughter regularly backs up the work she needs onto CD(RW)/DVD(RW)/USB key, then she'll always have a backup IF it does go wrong.

Interesting point about the Acer laptop also by ag359 - that's exactly my experience of them.

In my educational institution, we have both Dell and HP...