Cheapest netbooks discussion

kiranj

I bought a 'refurbished' laptop from these guys a couple of months ago.... nightmare!
The first one had a dodgy screen so had to go into their process for 'repair / replacement' service with D&J Henry Ltd. It was a with them for a full week before they even opened the box. To speed things up, they decided to send me a replacement instead of repair.
The replacement had clearly been used for at least a couple of months... and was consequently scratched and scuffed. And the stickers showing the spec of the laptop were half peeled off. I complained, as the faulty one had been cosmetically immaculate - and was told by Argos that the replacement should also have been in perfect condition. They agreed to replace it.
The replacement arrived... and it was worse than the previous one! It was scuffed and scratched... and was covered in what looked like melted chocolate!!! !!!!!!....?!!!
What's worse is that they would not replace the laptop till they had received each scuffed one back... despite this being my 3rd laptop from them! So this thing dragged out for over 3 weeks... during which time i had no laptop despite having paid, and it being their fault. In the end I was so fed up I decided to get my money back, and go elsewhere.
Be prepared for a lot of hassle if you get a dodgy one! And be preapred for what you get to be 'second hand'... NOT refurbished!!!
K

Donnie

kiranj wrote: »

I bought a 'refurbished' laptop from these guys a couple of months ago.... nightmare!
The first one had a dodgy screen so had to go into their process for 'repair / replacement' service with D&J Henry Ltd. It was a with them for a full week before they even opened the box. To speed things up, they decided to send me a replacement instead of repair.
The replacement had clearly been used for at least a couple of months... and was consequently scratched and scuffed. And the stickers showing the spec of the laptop were half peeled off. I complained, as the faulty one had been cosmetically immaculate - and was told by Argos that the replacement should also have been in perfect condition. They agreed to replace it.
The replacement arrived... and it was worse than the previous one! It was scuffed and scratched... and was covered in what looked like melted chocolate!!! !!!!!!....?!!!
What's worse is that they would not replace the laptop till they had received each scuffed one back... despite this being my 3rd laptop from them! So this thing dragged out for over 3 weeks... during which time i had no laptop despite having paid, and it being their fault. In the end I was so fed up I decided to get my money back, and go elsewhere.
Be prepared for a lot of hassle if you get a dodgy one! And be preapred for what you get to be 'second hand'... NOT refurbished!!!
K

Clearly this isn't everyone's experience and you did get your money back.

Would the like of Comet or Dixons give you your money back after a couple of months, regardless of new or refurbished?
Most people receive machines in new condition. Failing that, return it.

Roger_Rampant

You can tell whether their customers are generally satisfied or not by their feedback on eBay. As they have 99.3% positive feedback from over 378,000 customers, I think it's not unreasonable to say that your experience does not reflect what most people experience when buying from them.

Donnie

Actually I too was irritated that I had to wait for a replacement when I found I had a dead pixel on a laptop screen. But just being irritated doesn't mean that they are giving you bad service.

Again, buy a new laptop from Comet or PC World and see what kind of customer service you receive if there is a dead pixel on the screen.

I had the hassle of returning and waiting with Clearance Bargains, but the service and value is still better than many high street retailers. Keep things in perspective. Many people are getting decent bargains. Things do go wrong, but I certainly wouldn't describe kiranj's experience as a 'nightmare'. It appears to have been amicably resolved.

Now do a search for PC World.

Donnie

Roger_Rampant wrote: »

You can tell whether their customers are generally satisfied or not by their feedback on eBay. As they have 93.3% positive feedback from over 378,000 customers, I think it's not unreasonable to say that your experience does not reflect what most people experience when buying from them.

That would be 99.3%

Devin_Shockwell

Here is some good ram for the u100 at just over a tenner with postage...

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=1GB_DDR2_SODIMM

Installed this in mine and it works a treat! I can actually play the game Homeworld 2 with the atom CPU at 2ghz and internal graphics pushed to 400mhz, even with the settings on low it's an impressive game to play on my humble netbook.

gibbon123

We bought the MSI Wind U100 £150 and are really pleased with it. Good screen size, quick to start up and great for browsing the net or watching tv whilst washing up! It had one rubber foot missing and is a bit dirty under the keys but fine apart from that.

rcthelp

jackieblack wrote: »

Hi
I've been looking at loads of netbooks on different websites and have totally confused myself.
Could someone please advise me, what are the basic differences that are actually relevant, that I should be looking out for?
I want a netbook mainly to take with me when travelling so I want it to be light.

What is probably most important for weight is size of screen, and the claimed battery life. Expect it to be heavier the larger the screen and the longer the battery life due to the batteries being bigger and heavier (with a caveat below).

jackieblack wrote: »

I will use it mainly for emails/internet, but probably also for storing photos & possibly some music.

Any netbook will fill those requirements, but consider the quality of the sound you may want either through the internal speakers or headphones. The quality of the sound card and built-in speakers is important here. Think of disk size, if you are a photo/music squirrel you should consider the few extra pounds for a 250GB disk rather than the more common 160GB.

jackieblack wrote: »

Are all netbooks wi-fi enabled? Can they be connected to the internet by plugging in a cable if needed?

Pretty much all are WiFi enabled, some also have bluetooth, and an ethernet LAN interface (for the cable). If you cannot get a WiFi signal, but can get onto the internet from your mobile phone, it is sometimes possible to use Bluetooth to get your netbook to talk to your phone to talk to the internet.

jackieblack wrote: »

Is 1GB RAM enough to run Windows7 and also run other tasks efficiently? I have no experience of Windows7, my home PC is Windows XP, I notice some netbooks still available with Windows XP (and are a bit cheaper) what ae the advantages/disadvantages?

Windows 7 is the latest operating system. It can take a while to get used to as the interface is quite different to XP. I have a Windows 7 1GB netbook, using it for the same kind of things as you, and am happy with it. Consider though whether it is possible to easily upgrade the memory in the future. My netbook is sealed with no obvious way of getting inside to add memory.

One of the key differences between the Win 7 and XP netbooks is that the Win 7 machines are newer models that use a newer Intel Atom N450 processor. This is the same processor speed as the older N270 on XP machines, but has integrated graphics and thus no separate graphics card and therefore a lower power consumption, so the battery lasts longer between charges. If games and/or watching HD movies are a goal, go for netbooks that have a separate graphics card, one that is HD capable.

jackieblack wrote: »

I would be grateful for any advice, I have scanned through this thread but my brain appears to have turned to scrambled egg!

Donnie

gibbon123 wrote: »

We bought the MSI Wind U100 £150 and are really pleased with it. Good screen size, quick to start up and great for browsing the net or watching tv whilst washing up! It had one rubber foot missing and is a bit dirty under the keys but fine apart from that.

I would have sent it back and asked for a replacement or refund. Refurbished shouldn't mean there are parts missing or dirty.

jackieblack

rcthelp wrote: »

What is probably most important for weight is size of screen, and the claimed battery life. Expect it to be heavier the larger the screen and the longer the battery life due to the batteries being bigger and heavier (with a caveat below).
Any netbook will fill those requirements, but consider the quality of the sound you may want either through the internal speakers or headphones. The quality of the sound card and built-in speakers is important here. Think of disk size, if you are a photo/music squirrel you should consider the few extra pounds for a 250GB disk rather than the more common 160GB.
Pretty much all are WiFi enabled, some also have bluetooth, and an ethernet LAN interface (for the cable). If you cannot get a WiFi signal, but can get onto the internet from your mobile phone, it is sometimes possible to use Bluetooth to get your netbook to talk to your phone to talk to the internet.

Windows 7 is the latest operating system. It can take a while to get used to as the interface is quite different to XP. I have a Windows 7 1GB netbook, using it for the same kind of things as you, and am happy with it. Consider though whether it is possible to easily upgrade the memory in the future. My netbook is sealed with no obvious way of getting inside to add memory.

One of the key differences between the Win 7 and XP netbooks is that the Win 7 machines are newer models that use a newer Intel Atom N450 processor. This is the same processor speed as the older N270 on XP machines, but has integrated graphics and thus no separate graphics card and therefore a lower power consumption, so the battery lasts longer between charges. If games and/or watching HD movies are a goal, go for netbooks that have a separate graphics card, one that is HD capable.

Thank you, that's really helpful. I guess I probably knew some of this but my scrambled brain has got to 'doubting myself' stage!

One more thing, if I may ask, is it worth paying extra for a brand name? (I'm not normally a 'brand name junkie')
and what (if any) brands are considered to be worth paying extra for?