Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Deep_Ocean

I have had my Acer 3660 for about 6 years and it has now given up the ghost so it is time for me to invest in a decent laptop and so I wondered if you guys who are more knowledgeable than me could point me in the direction of a good value laptop?

The laptop will be used for Bookkeeping and for personal use i.e. surfing the web and word processing. It won't be used for gaming but will be using it to create and edit youtube videos.

I am in a good position whereby I can claim VAT back with help from one of the companies who I work for on a self employed basis. In addition the company will pay for the laptop and I will reduce the amount that I invoice them to cover the cost of the laptop meaning I will save a further 20% in the way of Income Tax. For this reason I am not exactly looking for a dirt cheap laptop but a very good laptop at a very reasonable price meaning that I get a lot for the money I spend.

In regards to spec I want a laptop from a reputable brand, maybe HP, Sony, Samsung, Dell? I think these are reliable brands? My Acer was rubbish, it has never worked properly, but I accepted the fact that I occasionally got the blue screen of death, and that the battery died after about 12 months. I don't believe I would have such issues from a more reputable brand. Plus I would like it to have good longevity as I won't be replacing for at least 5 years. If I buy high end now it should be a while before it become noticeably old.

I am not sure what the terminology is but I would like to be able to use my mobile phone network to access the internet from my laptop when not in a wireless area.

I believe the i7 processor is the best at the moment?
I guess I will have to have Windows 8? Any reason why I shouldn't?
SSD would be great but I think this is out my price range, no more than £1,000?
17.3" Display
8GB RAM

Some examples that I have seen are:

http://uk.insight.com/en-gb/productinfo/laptops-and-notebooks/0001747122-00000001 - £692.35

Buy Price - £692.35
Price excluding VAT - £576.96
Savings from Income Tax - £115.39
Total cost before cashback - £461.57
5% Cashback from Quidco - £34.62
Total overall cost to me - £426.95

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-17r-se-7720/pd?oc=n0017s32&model_id=inspiron-17r-se-7720 - £859

Buy Price - £859
Price excluding VAT - £715.83
Savings from Income Tax - £143.17
Total cost before cashback - £572.67
8% Cashback from Quidco - £68.72
Total overall cost to me - £503.95

http://h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=ECC_BUNDLE_3836471&opt=&sel=PCNB - £999

Buy Price - £999
Price excluding VAT - £832.5
Savings from Income Tax - £166.50
Total cost before cashback - £666
8% Cashback from Quidco - £59.94
Total overall cost to me - £606.06

closed

buying lower end is more cost effective in the long run, browsing and bookkeeping and word processing are trivial tasks for I3's and I5's, and 8GB of ram will be sat there doing little.

battery problems and blue screens can happen on any machine

Deep_Ocean

closed wrote: »

buying lower end is more cost effective in the long run, browsing and bookkeeping and word processing are trivial tasks for I3's and I5's, and 8GB of ram will be sat there doing little.

battery problems and blue screens can happen on any machine

Any recommendations?

closed

depends exactly what you want/need, 17" screens limit choice and increase price (compared to a 15.6") a little

http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/inspiron-17-deals-codes-coupons/

coupon codes and cashback are usually available for Dells and other brands.

an i5 or i3 with 4GB of ram should keep you going happily for some time, and would be half the cost of your highest spec.

For laptops, it's a good idea to browse in a shop first, to make sure the feel of the keyboard and mouse are to your liking, and then use the web, cashback sites and voucher codes to get the best price. There are lots of new threads on a daily basis asking much the same question, and posts on hotukdeals which may give you some other options

Thinks like batteries often come from the same supplier, but fitted to different brands, after a couple of years, they all deteriorate.

The advantage of lower end is, you can buy another new one in a few years, which will be better spec, and still be within your orginal budget with two laptops around.

google tethering or mifi for internet while out and about

what happened to the acer?

grumpycrab

A quick heads-up on the 2 latest dell deals:-

13.3" Vostro laptop 3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3227U processo, 2 years onsite warranty. £287
(no CD/DVD drive)
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-vostro-3360-laptop-13-3-1-67kg-i3-3227u-4gb-320gb-7-200-win8-pro-2-year-onsite-1566746

17" dell inspiron £254
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/279-89-dell-inspirion-17-laptop-dell-1563679

Bunny82

My dad is looking for a laptop for simple tasks like web surfing, a bit of Word, bit of video, nothing too taxing at all. He's seen a couple in PC World he likes the look of (he won't buy off the net for security reasons!). Out of the two, which would be the better buy?

One. Two.

I'm thinking the one with the i3 processor for £40 more but less storage. Is the Celeron 1000m processor really terrible?

JDPower

Bunny82 wrote: »

I'm thinking the one with the i3 processor for £40 more but less storage. Is the Celeron 1000m processor really terrible?

I agree

The Celeron isn't terrible, but the 3rd gen i3 is good enough to be worth the extra forty quid

Bunny82

Thanks for the reply JDPower. I can get an Acer Aspire E1 for £349 with an i5 processor and a 500GB HDD. Would that be better? He has a maximum budget of £350.

JDPower

Bunny82 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply JDPower. I can get an Acer Aspire E1 for £349 with an i5 processor and a 500GB HDD. Would that be better? He has a maximum budget of £350.

The processor may be better but, for starters, an i3 will be plenty for his needs, secondly I'd never choose an Acer over an Asus

Bunny82

Yeah, I did think of that. Asus are much better I've heard. What about if I can get the Acer from the Argos outlet for £260? Would you take a punt on it for that price?