Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

jax.26

Hi
My DD has chosen this laptop from curry's for her 21st and I am wondering if this is a fair deal. Also, I have looked to see if maybe I could get a better price anywhere.
Is there a comparison site for laptops?

HP Pavilion g6-1010sa 15.6" Laptop - Luminous Rose

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1010sa-15-6-laptop-luminous-rose-09797940-pdt.html

closed

has she been in the shop and tried the keyboard and mouse out, some of hp models have lumpy touchpads, and one piece mouse buttons

jax.26

closed
No she hasn't, I never though about that.
She only picked this one on the internet today. Since then I have been checking to see if I could purchase this cheaper.

My problem is, it is from currys which I have never found to be very good when anything goes wrong.
Thanks

closed

Was it because it was purple? It's best to get a feel for laptops before purchase because the keyboards/mousepad/mouse button(s)/screens vary so much, and then research the prices on the net, and look for voucher codes. If you buy in shop, don't let them push you into buying an AV package, some of the free ones are just as good or better.

There is a reliability graph somewhere in this thread, HP don't come off very well, but it's based on older models.

ROSIE1313_2

The laptop posted by Jaydeeuk1 sounds really good for the price and spot on for me in terms of spec. Just a quick question thou about the processor (Intel Celeron SU2300).. I was put off buying a laptop recently because I was told that the Intel Celeron processors were really slow. Is this the case? I was told they are single cell and to shy away from these, although on the intel website this processor is listed as having two cores.

Pretty confused. Can anyone help?

grumpycrab

ROSIE1313 wrote: »

The laptop posted by Jaydeeuk1...

Great cheap netbook (NB. NO CD/DVD DRIVE).
With 12 months warranty this is fine for web browsing, email, basic office stuff.
About the processor, yes its slow and will take a while to start up but just use hibernate instead of shutdown (will take a fraction of the time to startup and shutdown). I'm using a similar spec processor.
If you need an external DVD drive they're about £20 (or less on flea-bay).

EDIT: you can compare laptop "power" as follows. Here's the benchmark for this netbook.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+SU2300+%40+1.20GHz

For £260 you can get this laptop. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/241595
It has a benchmark approx 50% higher http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Celeron+Dual-Core+T3500+%40+2.10GHz
Browsing speed may not be much different but startup and shutdown will be quicker.

Sorry, its a Celeron again. Fine for basic stuff. But not games.

jax.26

closed wrote: »

Was it because it was purple? It's best to get a feel for laptops before purchase because the keyboards/mousepad/mouse button(s)/screens vary so much, and then research the prices on the net, and look for voucher codes. If you buy in shop, don't let them push you into buying an AV package, some of the free ones are just as good or better.

There is a reliability graph somewhere in this thread, HP don't come off very well, but it's based on older models.

Yes, she would prefer a purple or white.
She also saw a toshiba white laptop... maybe this would be best? I'll get her to visit curry's and make a choice then start looking for vchs etc, as you advise.

Thank you

jaydeeuk1

ROSIE1313 wrote: »

The laptop posted by Jaydeeuk1 sounds really good for the price and spot on for me in terms of spec. Just a quick question thou about the processor (Intel Celeron SU2300).. I was put off buying a laptop recently because I was told that the Intel Celeron processors were really slow. Is this the case? I was told they are single cell and to shy away from these, although on the intel website this processor is listed as having two cores.

Pretty confused. Can anyone help?

No, not all celerons are 'single cell' (or single core as they're usually referred to as. In fact, the dual core models are pretty decent. You're right to avoid the single core stuff, the su2300 however is a dual core, for a low powered chip, its not bad.
Its quicker than all the atom CPUs found in netbooks, and quicker than my dual core L315 athlon in my acer ferrari, and that boots up in seconds. Remove all the preinstalled crap that comes with the laptop, and for most things it will fly along nicely.

qprjon99

Hi guys, first post on here.

I'm looking for a laptop around the £350 mark (not looking for gaming or anything, just to use Word, internet, watching films, etc.)

I've narrowed it down to two that have been previously mentioned, the Acer Aspire 5742 (£350) or the Samsung R540 (£360). Both have Intel Core i3-380M Dual Core Processor, 15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 4GB DDR3 RAM. Acer has 320GB hard drive, Samsung has 500GB.

The specs look incredibly similar - I can't choose between them! Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks.

grumpycrab

qprjon99 wrote: »

...
I've narrowed it down to two that have been previously mentioned, the Acer Aspire 5742 (£350) or the Samsung R540 (£360...

Cheap Acer's aren't supposed to be very reliable so I'd look at 3 year warranties e.g. £30
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130547611199
There's a similar Samsung warranty for £50. I know this blows your budget; should be able to fins an Acer i3 nearer £320?