The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Ramz_3

I have one of these:

Samsung R20 WVP T5300 2GB 120GB 14.1" 14.1" WXGA Core 2 Duo T5300 (1.7GHz) 533MHz FSB with 2MB Cache 2GB (2x1GB) 120GB 5400RPM SATA DVD Super-Multi Dual Layer Standard 4 Cell Li-ion ATI Radeon X1250 (unt Gfx) 10/100, 56k Modem 802.11 b/g 3 x USB 2.0 4 in 1 Card Reader Piano Black Windows Vista Home Premium 2.4kg

£599.99

http://www.microanvika.com/product.asp?PNO=SAM14522

Ems*Honie

1961templar wrote: »

For internet/email use this is ideal:

Gateway ML3108b 14.1" Laptop - £299.00
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-5655.aspx

They also have more expensive Gateway models with faster processors & greater memory.

Would this be ok for someone just to surf on, I cant find the battery size. I just wondered if more than one person thought it was a good deal.

GileZ

The best way to check the Specification is probably to go on the Gateway Website and find the Laptop- you should be able to use the code for this.

Honestly though, unless you are going to need to take your laptop with you for work etc it is probably better to get a desktop. They are cheaper (for the spec) and are easier to upgrade. The main problem with laptops is the fact that they are out of date months, even weeks, after you buy them, so its better to pay more and get something thats still going to be useful in a few years time. That said, i'm still probably going to get a laptop anyways!

Ems*Honie

Thanks Gilez,

I have a desk top, although I do work on a comp, so could do with a laptop when funds allow

THis is for a friend who is taking up the internet later in life (she's my surrogate mum friend) and she wants to be able to sit on her terrace with it (pluggedinto an extension I should imagine, not being able to find the battery spec) All she will do is t'internet and email and won't be interested in upgrades or such, or being up to date, so long as it works.

Oh well, she liked the price, so I'm ordering for her in the morning, next day del is reasonable.

lolly1963

Hi,
I am buying a laptop for a friend in Turkey and have narrowed some choices down, but need some help with choosing please.
they are
Toshiba Satellite L30-10v FROM LAPTOPS DIRECT £369.97 plus delivery
Intel Core Duo T2080
ram 1GB DDR2
60GB Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Basic

Dell Inspiron 6400 £351.32
Intel Core Duo T2080
1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM(2x512)
120GB Hard Drive
Windows XP Professional

Acer Aspire 5613AWLMI Plus free VOIP Phone & delivery £399.97
Intel Core Duo T2350 Intel Centrino Duo L2 Cache 2MB Cache memory
1GB RAM DDR 11 SDRAM 2 x 512MB
120GB Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium

Please can you give me an insight as to which one is the best buy please as am very novice with technology.
Many Thanks and please fire away!!
Lorraine

dazzer21

...but here's what I'd get:

Apple MacBook
13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM(2x512mb), expandable to 2GB
80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor
24x Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately)
built-in iSight video camera
Gigabit Ethernet port
built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWirer 400 port;one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue
Scrolling TrackPad
the infrared Apple Remote
60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

As I said, not the cheapest with regards to the hardware on its own but:
The iLife suite is worth its weight in gold - wait until they ship with iLife 08 (06 is is good but 08 is the business) - Photo management, movie editing, DVD authoring, Music creation (brilliant), website creation (again, brilliant). Has the most advanced and intuitive OS (MacOS X 10.4 Tiger) AND (killer feature), with a copy of "Parallels", will run virtually all Windows applications seemlessly. Only thing I would add to the original spec is a RAM uprade to 1.5Gb or 2Gb (any laptop shipping with 256Mb RAM, as has been previously suggested, these days belongs in the bin).

Jigsaw do it for £692 inc VAT (You can probably get one slightly cheaper if you look around). Crucial will do you a 1Gb stick of RAM for £30 (replace one of the 512s for it and you'll have 1.5Gb) or the full 2Gb for £60. Parallels is about £40. You'll need a copy of Windows if you're going to run it but thats about it. For about £750, it's just about all you'll need in a small, cheap laptop. I'm not a Windows basher (I'll admit I prefer Macs to PCs) and it's just my opinion, all things considered.

As laptops at this price have been mentioned previously in this thread, I think it's relevant - on the flipside this is obviously all about getting cheap laptops (hence a lot of people also looking at really cheap re-furbs) but I think that as a brand new, future-proof (relatively speaking, of course) machine, pound for pound, I think it's quite difficult to beat...

gazz7878

Vostro Dell Laptop range Sempron 3500+, 1gig, 120GB, dvdrw 15.4" screen

Was just wondering if anyone has one of these?

any good? just thinking of buying one for a small business...

cheers!

thamesmatt

Ramz wrote: »

Well, a decent laptop you can get for £600 is the Samsung R20 @ John Lewis.

CD / DVD optical driveDVD Super-Multi Dual Layer DimensionsH25.5/38.5 x W340 x D259.5mm FireWire / IEEE 1394 ports1 Graphics cardATI Radeon X1250 Graphics card - video RAMInformation not available Hard drive120GB Memory card slot4-in-1 Model name / numberR20 Modem56k Operating systemWindows Vista Home Premium ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo T5300 Processor speed1.73GHz RAM2GB Screen resolution1280 x 800 Screen size14.1"

seen this for £475 online! I'm thinking of a R20 too. Actually arrived on here to ask a the advice of the experts here! it looks to good to be true being what i consider a decent name

timlaw

looking for a laptop for uni ive seen loads of cheap deals on the american ebay would there be a problem, apart from the plug with buying an american laptop?

withabix

timlaw wrote: »

looking for a laptop for uni ive seen loads of cheap deals on the american ebay would there be a problem, apart from the plug with buying an american laptop?

Problems:

Customs & Excise would charge you UK VAT (17.5%) via the carrier BEFORE letting you get your hands on the laptop, unless you were very lucky and it slipped through (IT WON'T!). VAT charged on purchase price and shipping costs.

There isn't any Import Duty on computers, so nothing to add there!

You will also probably get charged a Customs Clearance Fee by the carrier.

Warranty: You might have to return it to USA for warranty repair. Warranty might not be valid in UK.

Damage: Will it be covered? Will you be able to get a refund?

Payment: Don't use ANYTHING other than Paypal.

Keyboard layout: It will be American and that can be REALLY annoying.

PSU: Might not be universal input voltage (but probably is) , so you might need to buy a new one for 240V. USA is 110V.