Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

JC383

I'm after a new laptop and have wittled it down to one of these two

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083259/Trail/searchtext%3ETOSBIHA+LAPTOP.htm

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186604

Which is the better of the two? It would seem that the processor is better on the Toshiba but the Compaq has the greater HDD and more memory.....can anyone help???

harz99

JC383 wrote: »

I'm after a new laptop and have wittled it down to one of these two

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083259/Trail/searchtext%3ETOSBIHA+LAPTOP.htm

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186604

Which is the better of the two? It would seem that the processor is better on the Toshiba but the Compaq has the greater HDD and more memory.....can anyone help???

Usual thing - you need to give more info on what you want to use it for and how portable/long on battery you will want etc.

techtitch

Just a quick heads up on the Argus refurbished offers on ebay. They are very cheap indeed, and Medion Akoyo have impressed me in terms of quality, but the company Argos seem to be using for the refurbishment, called J&H Henry, have been horrendous. The first laptop they delivered had had a screwdriver rammed into the case under the DVD drive, resulting in a half-inch gap underneath it and a 2 inch crack in the bottom of the case. They insisted on receiving the laptop before sending a replacement, so I had to wait another week and wait in the house for another 2 days for pickup and delivery. The second laptop was a free upgrade from the one I'd paid for, from last year's model to this year's, and supposedly checked personally by their senior engineer, so I was pretty delighted, until it turned out that the battery wasn't working and the wrong operating system had been installed on it (32 bit windows on a 4GB RAM system - so it worked, but ignored 1GB of RAM).

They were hugely apologetic and dispatched a replacement battery but it turned out to be the charging circuit inside the laptop that was faulty. I emailed at 2pm and they haven't got back yet, but I've now wasted so much time waiting while deadlines approach, I can't afford another week without a laptop.

I wouldn't have reported a single error hastily remedied but this is beginning to look like a pattern. I've only seen great reviews online, but perhaps Argos have changed refurbishing company or something.

I will make sure I post any updates but I thought an early heads-up was in order for others browsing this thread. At the moment I would have preferred to order a new laptop for £50-£100 more and saved myself a couple weeks' delay and a lot of stress and uncertainty, eg, no point installing my software and documents until I know I'm keeping the laptop. It is possible they will cooperate and send a replacement for arrival in a couple days that'll solve all the remaining problems. On the phone they tend to be friendly although not very responsive by email. Fortunately I have the geek-powers to swap the hard disk so presuming they send the right (upgraded) laptop and it works, I'll be immediately productive and slightly consoled, probably an advocate of Medions but probably still not of Argos refurbs.

Nosmo_King_2

Regarding Argos/J & H Henry, I suspect that a lot of "refurbished" laptops are actually returns that haven't been checked properly/at all. They then only need to check/repair the ones that are then returned to J & H Henry?:think:

JC383

JC383 wrote: »

I'm after a new laptop and have wittled it down to one of these two

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083259/Trail/searchtext>TOSBIHA+LAPTOP.htm

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186604

Which is the better of the two? It would seem that the processor is better on the Toshiba but the Compaq has the greater HDD and more memory.....can anyone help???

harz99 wrote: »

Usual thing - you need to give more info on what you want to use it for and how portable/long on battery you will want etc.

Sorry would probably help, mainly going to use it for internet, low end gaming (Football Manager), general computing i.e spreadsheets/word etc and streaming music and footy. Not too worried about battery life and also the size of the hard disk as I use external hard disks to save photos, music etc.

My question therefore should have been is which is better a Core i3 processor 2.13GHz with 2GB DDR3 RAM or a Pentium T440 2.2GHz with 4GB DDR2 RAM. According to the websites quoted in this thread the Core i3 is the better processor by I didn't know if the RAM would make a great deal of difference. I know both are upgradable to 8GB but I was looking for performance straight out of the box so to speak.

re-rewind

The I3 is a much faster and better working processor, not sure if it will run hotter or not however. RAM is easily upgradeable, the processor is not. RAM is also quite a cheap upgrade, the graphics cards are onboard which does put more strain on the processor so you will want the best you can get.

The hard drive is smaller on the Toshiba, but again this is upgradeable when you run out and you can also replace the hard drive with a bigger one or buy an external hard drive.

I would personally go for the Toshiba

shimsham_2

Hi.Looking to get my first laptop,i would like a dell but people keep saying they are difficult to get repaired or seviced without contacting someone in India is this true.

Sandra

doodlesmum

I had a Dell Inspiron 1545 never again awful laptop it went wrong within the first week then i had other issues with it.
You get put through to India if you contact Dell get put on hold forever ,would never ever buy Dell again but that just my thoughts other people may have had more luck than me

Doodlesmum.

JDPower

doodlesmum wrote: »

I had a Dell Inspiron 1545 never again awful laptop it went wrong within the first week then i had other issues with it.
You get put through to India if you contact Dell get put on hold forever ,would never ever buy Dell again but that just my thoughts other people may have had more luck than me

Doodlesmum.

Indeed, there are probably horror stories with every manufacturer. For what it's worth my Dell laptop is nearly three years old and (touch wood) not a single problem.

techtitch

Update re J&H Henry: They emailed this morning to promise to look for a solution by the end of the day and get back to me by close of business. They haven't so I've contacted Argos too.

Further update re J&H Henry: When I contacted Argos they managed to arrange between them to send me a replacement laptop on the same day they picked up the faulty one, as long as I gave them my credit card details, which they'd charge if I failed to return the broken laptop - seems fair and cooperative. They also agreed to let me swap the hard disks round to save me reinstalling everything (including the operating system as they'd installed the wrong one).

Final outcome: A couple weeks of a lot of hassle chasing emails and calls getting replacements, I could have been unlucky but there were a few slip-ups, but an incredibly cheap high spec laptop (Medion Akoya P6613 - T4200 2GHz dual core, 4GB, 320GB, nVidia geforce) at just £256.

So if you urgently need a laptop up and running in a few days and have no time to chase, avoid them, but I would recommend Argos clearance if a couple weeks' delay won't be too much of a problem and you've time in case something goes wrong.