Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Skeenfleent

JDPower wrote: »

Delusional too.

This is a thread about where to find, and get advice on buying, cheap but reasonable laptops (the clue's in the thread title). Your post had absolutely nothing to do with that. If you want to discuss keeping your old laptop going, start (or contribute to) that thread, your overlong rant has no relevance to people coming here looking for a new laptop. And trust me, having been following and contributing to this thread right form the start, once someone has set their heart on a new laptop no amount of advice on tweaking their current one (you're not the first) changes their mind.

So, I'm cr4p at posting on forums.

In a sense what you're saying is it's OK to tolerate those who are delusional [be duped into buying a new laptop when not strictly required] if there's a flashy reason for it [sexy-looking laptops in loads of marketing] and if there's more people doing your type of delusion [e.g. ipods and certain new laptops are popular even if overpriced for the functionality].
Well, it worked for religion. Now for the technology marketing industry. Especially with Apple, note the parallels. :rotfl:

This thread is somewhat about harm-reduction, then, I get it.

Skeenfleent

Emtec_Flash wrote: »

Hello

I was wandering round PCW and spotted an HP G6-1336sa Charcoal for £399.99 in store.

I had a link in here but I'm new so had to remove it but a quick search on pcworld.co.uk should turn it up though the price will be wrong at £429

They look good to me but I know nothing about laptops.

You can get another 40 quid off if you get a gaudy coloured one.

I would appreciate an opinion from those who know more about these things than I.

Cheers

1) It's DSG (Currys, PC World, Dixons, etc) so don't touch them with a bargepole: returns are a known NIGHTMARE. Complex electronics these days are a gamble with reliability, especially laptops, so tread carefully anywhere, but the above shops are really poor in general, read around for why. People have had to take them to court to get their money back and have even met resistance all the way, and if they do one of their cack-handed 'repairs' you lose the item for months on end, when it takes a couple of days in competent hands to fix such items.

2) I read that HP aren't super-reliable, but that was one study only (plus my flatmate's HP laptop being a bit flaky, but I don't know if they abused it or not).

The laptop model looks a fairly good spec for the money, but google shopping only lists the above dodgy shops as stocking it, so I'd look elsewhere, seriously. Try a related model, e.g. a sub-model of the same laptop and see the prices and specs.

m5rcc

HP Pavilion dm1-4125ea 1.65Ghz 4GB RAM 320GB HD Laptop for £261.75 with 'HUGESAVING' Discount Code

Emtec_Flash

Skeenfleent wrote: »

1) It's DSG (Currys, PC World, Dixons, etc) so don't touch them with a bargepole: returns are a known NIGHTMARE.

2) I read that HP aren't super-reliable

The laptop model looks a fairly good spec for the money, but google shopping only lists the above dodgy shops as stocking it, so I'd look elsewhere, seriously. Try a related model, e.g. a sub-model of the same laptop and see the prices and specs.

Well, I've used the PCW a few times (for other stuff) and the only thing that really PO'd me was when, a few years ago, I took a PC to be repaired. I said "mind it's running Windoze 3.11" and the 12 year old techy replied "whats that?" Needless to say it didn't get fixed. Other than that I find them OK.

As for HP, if their laptops are like their printers I'll be well chuffed. I've just "decommisioned" my Laserjet 4L after about 20 plus years (I think). It still works fine if you excuse the odd paper jam and its still on its first cartridge!!! That makes my printing costs about 25 quid a year and even Kodak couldn't claim to beat that haha.

Shopping around did turn up a few other sources (£200 brand new on Gumtree???) but even HP themselves match neither the spec nor the price and I can get F&F discount from them! All the other variants of the model (mostly more expensive) have smaller drives an half the memory though they do run Intel CPU's if thats an advantage.


Anyway I ain't rushing in so we'll see what else comes up.


Thanks for the advice.

JDPower

Emtec_Flash wrote: »

As for HP, if their laptops are like their printers I'll be well chuffed. I've just "decommisioned" my Laserjet 4L after about 20 plus years (I think).

I wouldn't judge HP by their build quality 20 years ago (pretty much ALL electronics equipment was of a far higher build quality then), and as printers go I'd recommend ANY brand over HP

Skeenfleent

Emtec_Flash wrote: »

Well, I've used the PCW a few times (for other stuff) and the only thing that really PO'd me was when, a few years ago, I took a PC to be repaired. I said "mind it's running Windoze 3.11" and the 12 year old techy replied "whats that?" Needless to say it didn't get fixed. Other than that I find them OK.

As for HP, if their laptops are like their printers I'll be well chuffed. I've just "decommisioned" my Laserjet 4L after about 20 plus years (I think). It still works fine if you excuse the odd paper jam and its still on its first cartridge!!! That makes my printing costs about 25 quid a year and even Kodak couldn't claim to beat that haha.

Shopping around did turn up a few other sources (£200 brand new on Gumtree???) but even HP themselves match neither the spec nor the price and I can get F&F discount from them! All the other variants of the model (mostly more expensive) have smaller drives an half the memory though they do run Intel CPU's if thats an advantage.


Anyway I ain't rushing in so we'll see what else comes up.


Thanks for the advice.

Google about, when it goes wrong, it's not just a case of taking it into PC World, demonstrating the fault, getting a refund right then and there (they can take your address or whatever in the unlikely case they find evidence of user-caused damage, right?).
No, even with those large facilities in your local store, instead, they send it off to be processed centrally (ignored, lost, unprofessionally checked with no dialogue between the technician and yourself). Often repaired, excruciatingly-slowly, then by the time you get it back, the warranty only has a couple of months left to run, then the repair itself can fail just out of warranty (for example). My minidisc player had to have this done, even though it was obviously a limited remote-control issue, which could have been sent away separately. Ten years later and they haven't changed. They basically have good prices - on occasion (and uncompetitive the rest of the time) but force customers to do it their way, which is a crap way to do things when they go wrong. They treat the customer as the enemy, unless you're very lucky with getting a professional member of staff...

Also technology (e.g. HP's stuff) was built far better 20 years ago, JDPower is 100% correct.

roddydogs

Ok, so where is better for repairs, Comet? or where? Online where you have to post it back?

grumpycrab

roddydogs wrote: »

Ok, so where is better for repairs, Comet? or where? Online where you have to post it back?

For h/w or s/w repair? If the latter I'd try DIY if you have the time (ask here for advice). Otherwise support your local computer shop.

roddydogs

If its in Gtee, you have no choice! our local shop charges £60 ph.!

Cliffy11

hello,
I`m looking for advice. We are wanting a new laptop, have a budget of about £450 and the laptop is mainly used for emails, ebay, playing games on facebook, forums we belong to and the kids download music as well. We also use it occasionally to watch films etc. We are wanting one we can use for a few years without having to update and one that can cope with using a couple of forums at once, e.g ebay, facebook etc.
We have looked at an 8gb RAM 750 HDD Asus in Comet, £399 only one available in our area which is an hours drive away and we`d have to be quick and reserve it and that`s round about the spec we are looking for.
We have no real idea what to look for but we want as much memory, speed and hard drive as we can get for our money and a reliable machine, battery life isn`t really important as we usually have it plugged into the mains at home.
We are novices really so just pointers to decent, reliable machines that will keep us going a few years would be great.
many thanks