The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Kanny_katwoman

I'm looking for a laptop to take away on long sailing trips so it won't always be possible to plug in to mains power. Can anyone advise which makes have the best battery life? Somebody recommended the Dell Latitude E6400 but it's very expensive. Anyone know if the battery life would be significantly better on it. Thanks.

boobbby

Kanny_katwoman wrote: »

I'm looking for a laptop to take away on long sailing trips so it won't always be possible to plug in to mains power. Can anyone advise which makes have the best battery life? Somebody recommended the Dell Latitude E6400 but it's very expensive. Anyone know if the battery life would be significantly better on it. Thanks.

Take a spare battery/external charger and when you are able to get a mains supply charge both your laptop and spare batteries up at the same time!!

littleange

Kanny_katwoman wrote: »

I'm looking for a laptop to take away on long sailing trips so it won't always be possible to plug in to mains power. Can anyone advise which makes have the best battery life? Somebody recommended the Dell Latitude E6400 but it's very expensive. Anyone know if the battery life would be significantly better on it. Thanks.

I would recommend that you always take the battery out when it is charged and use the mains wherever possible (with the battery out - except when charging) to make sure your battery lasts as long as possible.

My husband and I both had the same laptop and he didn't bother to take his out much and I took mine out all the time and used the mains a lot. His battery only lasted 6 months and mine is just starting to show signs that it is isn't lasting as long after 18 months.

nanker

Thanks susank, this one looks promising especially since it's now reduced by £20.

Does it come with a 6 cell battery? cannot find this out on the comet website.

GunJack

GUys, someone a few pages back recommended Bigpockets for their cheapie refurb laptops....has anyone bought from them before, and what sort of service/standard of lappy did you get ?? Any help appreciated.....

JDPower

debjay wrote: »

Thanks for all of your help.

Do you mean that if I put the laptop model number in this website it will pick the correct upgraded memory for it? How easy is it to fit?
Does it make it confusing that there are different version of the Acer 5920g on the market?

You can enter the details in the dropdowns, that way you can check the prices before you buy the laptop (to save time I've just entered the laptop details for you, click THIS LINK to see the results).
Or you can run the scanner tool on the laptop when you get it by clicking on where it says "Scan my system" on the Crucial home page.

Memory is easy too fit, in fact crucial normally send instructions and advice on how to fit it with the memory you order. On most laptops it's usually just a case of unscrewing a small panel on the bottom, unclipping and sliding out the old memory them slotting in the new.

And no it doesn't really confuse matters with all the variations of that laptop as they will probably all use the exact the same type of memory anyway.

But, although more RAM is never a bad thing, you probably don't need to worry as 2GB is a perfectly reasonable amount (the maximum you can use is 4GB anyway)

debjay

Thanks. I have ordered the laptop. I went for the one from simplyacer in the end having considered the options and listened to your advice.
Cheers

JDPower

debjay wrote: »

Thanks. I have ordered the laptop. I went for the one from simplyacer in the end having considered the options and listened to your advice.
Cheers

Glad to help, and I think you've got a cracking laptop for the money (if I was in the market for a new laptop I'd be seriously considering that one myself )

ItsaBoo

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of upgrading my laptop - I have a HP 530 Notebook PC that my parents bought. I'm applying to enter uni Sept/Oct 2009 and want it to last for the 3/4 year course and then some so that I don't feel the need to upgrade again before I can afford to. Will my current laptop be sufficient? 1015 MB RAM, Intel Celeron M 520 @ 1.60 GHz, Windows Vista Basic. If not, the focus points of the upgrade would be speed and battery life. Maybe a switch to XP, or Linux if it's easy enough to use.

Also, my friend (not a user of MSE) is looking to buy a laptop for uni to last even longer (medicine student). Her budget's about £900 at the maximum, any better suggestions?

General laptop recommendations would be great, since we'll be buying in May-July.

**woody123**

I'm interested in these 2 cheap laptops.

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/637224

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-4147.aspx

Its for my mum and dad just for internet use and getting to know computers. On camparison the tesco one looks the best. Just thought i would put them on here encase anyone had missed them.