The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

hakko

We generally buy Samsungs and Toshibas due to purchasing and discount agreements.

Samsungs have been very reliable. Toshiba's not so. We had 3 Portege R500s, 2 of which had a fault with the DVDRW drive, and both were returned. We've had a several Toshiba Tecras fail for one reason or another. But overall I'd say Toshiba and Samsung are above average in terms of reliability.

Laptops to avoid:
Advent (rebadged Fujitsu laptops?)
Packard Bell
Medion

Acer is somewhere in the middle... and Dells are ok too.

My favourite laptops are Sony Vaio's, because of the keyboard. I like the shape of the keys and CTRL is on the outermost left corner (and not Fn key like in Samsungs and other laptops). But sadly the software support is poor and they don't come in XP Pro, only Vista, and they cost ~£600 +

What's appears important to people seems price and specification, whereas with me I want after sales support. Which usually depends on the retailer, but sometimes they defer to the manufacturer (e.g. Laptopsdirect). Support from Lenovo, HP, Toshiba has been good/above average. But then we are business customers.

For a budget laptop:
1. Check you are happy with the keyboard and screen, although some people can adjust. Best to check the laptop out in a shop first before ordering online.
2. Get the best spec for the money, AMD/Intel doesn't matter. If an AMD has more RAM and NON-intergrated graphics such as Nvidia and ATI, then get the AMD machine.
3. Get XP Pro, not Vista. It's wrong to get a Celeron/"Pentium Dual Core" with 1GB ram and Intel graphics, and hope to run Vista. You'd be mad! You can compensate a weak CPU (celeron/"Pentium Dual Core") with 2GB RAM and Nvidia/ATI graphics.
4. Try and get a laptop with 2GB RAM, or at least 1 stick of 1GB (and not 2 x 0.512GB sticks)

jaydeeuk1

If it is just a laptop for basic surfing in bed, then you need spend no more than £299.

All laptops nowadays come with built in wireless internet. The only things that need concern you are:

1) The quality and size of the screen, and how easy you find typing
2) If it runs Vista (will be most likely be vista basic) then as long as you have 2gb ram it will be fine. An ATI or nvidia graphics card will make stuff all difference in vista basic. As for processor, a celeron will be fine for your needs, but if you can find a dual core whether it be intel or amd, then I would go for that.
3) Hard drive space, most come with at least 80gb. For internet use that is fine, no point spending more money for a larger drive.
4) Battery life - I assume you won;t want wires hanging around everywhere. The one problem of cheaper laptops is usually battery life. Batteries usually come in 4cell, 6 cell or 8 cell varieties. The more cells, the longer it will last before being recharged. 2 hours quoted time would be the minimum I would look for.
Other than that, find one you like the look of most, and has the best warranty.

I use my laptop in bed watching films, its an Asus EEE PC. May be too small for your needs but is perfect for browsing the internet etc.

Jake'sGran

Jaydee, I laughed at your last sentence as I had kept last Sundays paper and in the motoring section (?) there is an article about ASUS. I thought it was just the job until I saw that it was only very small. Definitely too small for me. The price I had in mind was £300 so I will see if I can get something decent for that...for what I want it for. I would prefer XP because I am used to it. Why do I need graphics? I never do gaming or anything (you can see that I am a little technically challenged).

When you say they all come with built in wireless Internet does this mean I don't need a router? Re the battery: my SinL says the quoted time is often less. I will go hunting and keep your recommendations to hand. Thank you.

siliconbits

Guys, I've written a 14-page article entitled Dirty Dozen : The Top 12 UK £299 laptops where I list and describe 12 laptops that are available right now for under £300 including VAT and Delivery.
Some of them are white, come with dual core processor, 2 of them have 2GB of memory, one has a Firewire port and one comes with Windows XP. Your feedback is most than welcomed on any mistakes that I've made or observations that you deem important for other readers.
All of these laptops should be available for purchase. Give me a shout if there's OOS situation.
If there's anything wrong with what I am doing, thanks for letting me know and I amend this post

jje_2

Jake'sGran wrote: »

When you say they all come with built in wireless Internet does this mean I don't need a router? u.

You need a wireless router to connect to . Laptop has a built in wireless receiver that picks up the signal broadcast from a wireless router .

jje

Endecay

We're looking to get our first laptop. Theoretically we have up to £500 to spend but obviously, everyone loves a good bargain.

Spotted this on Simplyacer.com (have bought my Mum's laptop from there and was really impressed, plus they're based 5 minutes away so it's a local company :T ). Is it as good a deal as it seems.

Acer Aspire 9304wsmi, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56, 17" Screen, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, 2048MB RAM, 160GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Dedicated Graphics, BLUETOOTH, LX.AWR0X.135 http://www.simplyacer.com/Product/id/405002

Also, we want something that should be fairly easy to record guitar and vocal demos onto so a decent soundcard would be good. Nowhere seems to mention about soundcards anymore.

Help please???

siliconbits

Endecay wrote: »

We're looking to get our first laptop. Theoretically we have up to £500 to spend but obviously, everyone loves a good bargain.

Spotted this on Simplyacer.com (have bought my Mum's laptop from there and was really impressed, plus they're based 5 minutes away so it's a local company :T ). Is it as good a deal as it seems.

Acer Aspire 9304wsmi, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56, 17" Screen, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, 2048MB RAM, 160GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Dedicated Graphics, BLUETOOTH, LX.AWR0X.135 http://www.simplyacer.com/Product/id/405002

Also, we want something that should be fairly easy to record guitar and vocal demos onto so a decent soundcard would be good. Nowhere seems to mention about soundcards anymore.

Help please???

Depending on whether you need an extended warranty or not, I would advise you to go to Dell or to one of their numerous refurbishers around.
Go for the no-frill Vostro 1700 range if you are looking for a 17 inch monitor. Type NB417014 in their search and you will get a nice laptop for less than £410 delivered.

If you are really after sound card, why no try the external Asus Sonar card at around £50 at ebuyer.

JDPower

siliconbits wrote: »

If you are really after sound card, why no try the external Asus Sonar card at around £50 at ebuyer.

Almost exactly what I was gonna say. Don't worry too much about the soundcard included within the laptop. Don't pay over the odds for a laptop with a top end soundcard as you will almost certainly be better off getting a cheaper laptop and buying an external soundcard for the important stuff you mentioned

jje_2

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139121

just come through my post box from ebuyer .

jje

rhodyate

is this laptop a good deal?
<H1>TOSHIBA SAT A210-1CO

Product code 441252

• Screen size: 15 inches
• Processor: AMD Turion 64 x2 Dual Core
• Memory (RAM): 2048 MB
• Storage (hard drive): 120 GB
• Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium

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• All specification features
• Accessories & offers

Product price

£399.99
Save a total of £150


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