The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Aiadi

toasterman wrote: »

Item not found.
Although theres now this one of identical spec but with smaller hard drive for £430: http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/products/details/index~modelcode~ING-PSAAPE-00D004EN.htm
A typo in the original perhaps?

Same one I think from eBuyer:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125319/rb/27656133245

toasterman

Aiadi wrote: »

Same one I think from eBuyer:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125319/rb/27656133245

Yeah I think so too.
Although most reviewers give it 5 stars, at least half the ones on the first page say they bought it as a bundle with an additional 512mb of ram. Majority say giving Vista 1gb made a noticable difference....I'm not surprised.

Same price as my XP-Home HP510 I bought a week or so ago. Slightly faster Celeron processor on the Toshiba, but I wouldn't buy a Vista laptop unless I could afford to up it to 1gb.

Interesting review by one person on Ebuyer who seems disappointed that Vista was "just a jazzed up operating system". I'm not sure what he/she was expecting.....must have been taken in by those "WOW" adverts where people compare using Vista to everything from the miracle of birth, to curing cancer, or landing humans on Mars :rolleyes:

Alienfingers

Okay, how much hard work is it trying to make sure you get the best cheap laptop!! and all because I'm trying to be nice and treat my g'friend for her birthday! If anyone can help, I've trawled all the sites and forums-its mainly going to be used by her to do bit of office work, bit of surfing, certainly not any serious games or anything.

I need it to be around the £300 mark so I've narrowed it down (possibly) to these two from ebuyer:

Fujitsu Siemens V3515 Laptop Celeron M 430 1.73GHz 512MB 60GB 15.4" TFT Dvd+/RW DL Windows XP Home, which would work out at £302 with the £10 off for google checkout.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126845/rb/27740254886

OR

HP RU962AA 510 Laptop Celeron M 360 1.4GHz 512MB 60GB DVD+/-RW 15.4" TFT WLAN WinXP Home which would work out at about £290.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123093/rb/27740254886


the fujitsu does seem slightly better spec (processor/ram speed and max capacity) but is it good reliable make, I've heard of HP plenty but not so much about fujitsu.

Also, just to open up the search again, has anyone had any experience of the DELL refurbished laptops through MCSCOM.CO.UK. There seems to be some really good prices popping up on there from time to time, has anyone ordered from them before?

codetown

alienfinger,
they are both good machines and up to the task of running all modern programs. Thinking to the future and a possible switch to Vista within 2-3 years, the support for up to 2GB of RAM is certainly a clear advantage (in fact the machine is also judged Vista-ready) for the Fujitsu laptop.

Fujitsu has always been a very good brand and it continued so also after joining with Siemens. It is reliable and with good shapes.

toasterman

I'd disagree about Fujitsu. They are known for making desktop machines quite well, and for making a lot of hard drives a couple of years ago that mostly died. They don't put their own hard drives in their own machines anymore, because of the bad reputation they had.

Fujitsu laptops - they look alright, but I don't know anyone in my local IT industry who would think Fujitsu if they were buying a laptop.
Thats not to say they're bad - but they don't make a lot and you don't see them about very much.

I have just bought the HP one you're considering. Bit slow for my needs (sound editing) but its a nice looking screen, and I was being a bit optimistic with what I wanted it for and the money I had.
If its for office, email, web access, watching dvds etc.. then its fine.

Neither is going to be great for video/sound editing or games, because Celeron just isn't.

Battery life on both will likely be shocking - mine gives me maybe an hour and three quarters from fully charged if you're very lucky...but its the hit you take for not having the money to buy a centrino.


And forget Vista. You're (and I'd say most people are) never going to upgrade to Vista, with upgrade charges being what they are.
Plus you'd also need a ram upgrade to do it.

If you're seriously considering Vista at the moment, spend an extra £50-£60, get a machine preloaded with Vista and that already has 1gb of ram.
If like most people, you've not heard anything that makes you HAVE to have it - then go with XP Home.
Vista will be around in the future with more drivers and better support - and if you buy a laptop this time next year, it'll come with Vista whether you want it or not.
XP is being supported til 2010 at least, so its not like Microsoft have given up with it.

Edit: and I wouldn't touch refurbs on laptops. For one it doesn't come with an operating system, and I doubt they guarantee the batteries. Even 1.5 hour battery life is preferable to one that is completely shot - and replacement batteries can be expensive.
Dell outlet might be able to save you some money, but probably not by the time you hike on Dell's extreme delivery charges.

[Deleted User]

Does anyone know if Dell have any special offers coming up soon?

albertross_2

Dell offers change on Thursdays, they are listed here:

https://www.dmxdimension.com

Sky_Digiman

Toshiba Satellite Pro A100-622
With a built in DVDRW this model is ideal for professional users who need to share data while on the move. The widescreen display is ideal for working with spreadsheets, while the built in wireless networking makes surfing the web easy.

* Processor: Intel Celeron M 430 1.73GHz
* RAM: 1024MB DDR2-533MHz - Low Cost Double Memory Offer - Call For Details!
* Hard Drive: 80GB
* Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT (1280x800)
* Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer
* Graphics: Integrated Graphics supporting 128MB
* Wireless LAN: 802.11b/g - Call for advice on Wireless Networking
* Weight: 2.7 kg
* Warranty: 1 Year - Upgradeable to 3 Years!
* Operating System: Windows Vista Home Basic Edition
* Fast Ethernet 10/100
* 6-in-1 Memory Card Reader
Available from:
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_A100-622_PSAAPE-00F005EN/version.asp

-Seems like a bargain to me.

Sky_Digiman

I want a simple laptop for watching movies and browsing the net, is this any good?
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_A100-415_PSAAPE-00D004EN/version-1.asp

sihart68

Sky_Digiman wrote: »

I want a simple laptop for watching movies and browsing the net, is this any good?
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_A100-415_PSAAPE-00D004EN/version-1.asp

Why are they selling a machine of that spec with Vista? First thing you will have to do is buy more memory. Vista needs a gig, preferably 2. There are some good recommendations here: http://www.pc-how-to.com/hardware/newlaptop.htm.