Buying laptop from Currys PC World. Need pointing in the rright direction please.

Penny_Farthing_2

Hi
I need a laptop and I have a voucher for Currys/PC world. I don't know too much about the technical side but I know what I'd like to use it for:-

word processing/publishing
digital photos
watching iplayer
music (good sound without extra speakers or earphones would be nice)
making cds
putting old video onto digital storage
connect to a tv in future?
fast surfing and start up

I'd like it to last a long time as I don't want to be swapping to a new laptop frequently (fairly slow learner )

I'm happy to wait if the Windows 7 is worth hanging around for.

From what I've read on here, Toshiba seem the most reliable but on the shops' websites, they seem to be only available online.

I've been going round in circles now. Can anyone please point out ones to look closely at/avoid.
Thanks very much.

4743hudsonj

Penny_Farthing wrote: »

Hi
I need a laptop and I have a voucher for Currys/PC world. I don't know too much about the technical side but I know what I'd like to use it for:-

word processing/publishing
digital photos
watching iplayer
music (good sound without extra speakers or earphones would be nice)
making cds
putting old video onto digital storage
connect to a tv in future?
fast surfing and start up

I'd like it to last a long time as I don't want to be swapping to a new laptop frequently (fairly slow learner )

I'm happy to wait if the Windows 7 is worth hanging around for.

From what I've read on here, Toshiba seem the most reliable but on the shops' websites, they seem to be only available online.

I've been going round in circles now. Can anyone please point out ones to look closely at/avoid.
Thanks very much.

what sort of voucher is it? a replacement one?

-TangleFoot-

Penny_Farthing wrote: »

music (good sound without extra speakers or earphones would be nice)

Unless you're spending upwards of £550, you can forget trying to find an affordable laptop with good speakers - get yourself a set of these instead, and put the money you've 'saved' towards something useful, like a mortgage.

Other than that, it shouldn't be too hard to find something that fulfils the rest of your requirements. A DVD±RW drive is a must, as is a HDMI port for connection to these 'future' televisions of which you speak. Fast start-up could be taken care of with a Splashtop derivative or something similar should you find waiting thirty seconds or so for Windows to load too taxing.

As of tomorrow, if you buy from one of the bigger suppliers you should - according to this - get a 'free' upgrade to Windows 7 when it is eventually released, but should you find that your purchase is not covered under the terms of the 'Tech Guarantee' all is not lost as you can apparently pre-order a copy (at a considerable discount) in a few weeks' time.

crampo_2

Penny_Farthing wrote: »

I'm happy to wait if the Windows 7 is worth hanging around for.

Thats Your Answer.

At this point in time you are better of (unless your desperatly needing one) waiting.

Apart from that. Whats your budget.

For the connecting to the TV - Your best of with a laptop with a built in HDMI Out port but these are not common in most laptops. so if your budget is low you want a VGA Output.

Old Video to digital Storage - You will want a big HDD so a good from 250+ will be good enough.

Making CD's - Most laptops come with DVDRW CDRW built in. If you got a big budget then one with Blu-ray Reader would be better but not nessercery.

If your willing to wait, then laptops with Windows 7 will be better when you come to get one.

Marty_J

Penny_Farthing wrote: »

Hi
I need a laptop and I have a voucher for Currys/PC world. I don't know too much about the technical side but I know what I'd like to use it for:-

word processing/publishing
digital photos
watching iplayer
music (good sound without extra speakers or earphones would be nice)
making cds
putting old video onto digital storage
connect to a tv in future?
fast surfing and start up

I'd like it to last a long time as I don't want to be swapping to a new laptop frequently (fairly slow learner )

I'm happy to wait if the Windows 7 is worth hanging around for.

From what I've read on here, Toshiba seem the most reliable but on the shops' websites, they seem to be only available online.

I've been going round in circles now. Can anyone please point out ones to look closely at/avoid.
Thanks very much.

From what I've seen, Apple and IBM make the most reliable laptops.

An Apple would come with music recording, video production and photo editing software, boot up and start from sleep very quickly, and come with, by many measures, the fastest web browser there is. Apple also regularly top consumer polls; they've been the top rated computer manufacturer in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index for the last 5 years. They're currently a whopping 10 points ahead of their closest rivals Dell.

You don't say what your budget is though, so I don't know if an Apple is a viable option.

ABH_3

Marty_J wrote: »

From what I've seen, Apple and IBM make the most reliable laptops.

An Apple would come with music recording, video production and photo editing software, boot up and start from sleep very quickly, and come with, by many measures, the fastest web browser there is. Apple also regularly top consumer polls; they've been the top rated computer manufacturer in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index for the last 5 years. They're currently a whopping 10 points ahead of their closest rivals Dell.

You don't say what your budget is though, so I don't know if an Apple is a viable option.

Trying to push an Apple product on someone unsuspecting now that's just the lowest of the low. Is this the depths to which you Apple Aficionados have to sink to get people ONTO your bandwagon these days.

Stinks of desperation to me, not enough people buying into Apple you think Steve Jobs might get bored and walk away, so you've got to drum up more support I suppose.

(shakes head in disappointment, you've shattered my high opinion of you there Marty, you really have)


Oh yes and to the OP - DO NOT BUY FROM CURRYS, PCWORLD OR DIXONS - EVER!

If anything goes wrong, they tend not to think that the Consumer Legislation in the UK doesn't actually apply to them.

That said Dell have their equipment made AT the SAME factory as APPLE products! And Dell are very reliable I've found, my Father has a Dell system for the last 4 years or so and it's still going strong, likewise friends who have purchased Dell laptops don't seem to have any problems either and neither do I come to think of it as I own one of theirs too.

HTH

Penny_Farthing_2

Thanks for the replies.

My vouchers are gift vouchers for £500 but I could add a bit more. Conversely, I could do with buying 2 (one for son) so going cheaper would be good.

I do need to buy from these retailers because of the vouchers. My mate is Trading Standards so I can get advice if needed. (I did get Currys to replace a dishwasher that I thought wasn't an A grade wash but that's another story.)

Will check whether they sell Apple IBM

Also it does look as if waiting for Windows 7 would be a good option. Thanks for all the other very useful advice.

My main question now would be which of these brands is most long-lived/reliable? Which should I avoid?

Acer Advent Asus Compaq Dell EI Emachines HP Packard Bell Samsung Sony Toshiba(may not be available in store)

I know the answer would be quite subjective and there will be horror stories about most of them, but I'd appreciate comments anyway.
Thanks

isofa

The IBM laptops are now Levono and very high quality, but in the same ball -park as Apple prices.

Sell the vouchers on eBay and go and spend the money at a better store / online.

prowla

When I bought a laptop recently, the choice came down to Apple and Dell.
Apple are expensive, and Dell do all sorts of discounts (you can search the well-known discount voucher sites).
In the end I chose Dell because the equivalent performance model worked out at about half the price of the Apple and it had one feature that I had listed as a requirement (a very high screen resolution).

Toshiba, HP, Lenovo (was IBM) and others make good machines, but when looking at "brand reliability" bear in mind that the manufacturers make top-end systems and also cut-price budget models, so the figures may be skewed.
I've seen an Acer and would not buy them.

People have written in these fora about the sales tactics with the extra warranties in PC World (and just yesterday about them (allegedly) trying to get out of honouring one of their accidental damage clauses when a cistern broke and ruined a laptop), so go in there with your eyes open and remember that a 3-year warranty is really only two years extra.

People seem to be hung up about Windows 7 at the moment; I expect there are other people who are going to buy after the release and want to downgrade to Vista (or even XP).
If you buy Apple then it runs OS X rather than Windows (Windows is an option), and a lot of people think it is better than Windows.

For TV out, some systems have an HDMI connector and others have an S-Video (als known as S-VHS). Some TVs have S-Video connectors (that's how I connect my Sky box up), and you can get switcher boxes to allow you to connect several units to a single TV socket.

totalsolutions

My preferred brand names taken from your list : Asus Compaq Dell Samsung Sony

Avoid the others.

Read PcPro mag. latest edition in the shops now.

£$&*"($£&(

I thought that from today there will be vouchers to upgrade to Windows 7 included with new PCs and laptops so no need to wait. Looking at the PC World site this is mentioned on selected laptops. Not much choice there - generally overpriced and underpowered. Perhaps the Dell for £399. The ones to really avoid are the Dixons Group own brands Advent and EI Systems and the cheap Acer brands Packard Bell and Emachines. I would probably avoid Acer as well.