The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

littleange

This suggests batteries are getting better, but will cost a bit more!

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49298530,00.htm

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_latitude_e6400?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

Omega_1

Sorry if in wrong place but quite some time ago 'Dead_Eye_Jones' posted somewhere in MSE Forums that he was scouring everywhere at the time for a pocket book sized lap-top that was capable of e-mails and other light applications, could play DVD's and had a very good battery life. The other criteria was a cheap price because at the time prices were falling. Does anyone have suggestions to match this criteria please ?

whiterose11

found this laptop, really cheap only 299 just a little worried about processor, do i need dual core? i will only really be doing internet, email, msn, and a bit of word and excel once in a while.
do people think this is good enough thanks in adavnce

Web exclusive product - Emachines 15.4" widescreen laptop with Intel Celeron mobile processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive and Windows Vista Home Premium.
Screen size: 15 inches
Processor: Intel Celeron Mobile
Memory (RAM): 2048 MB
Storage (hard drive): 160 GB
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/480932/EMACHINES-EME510-1A2G16?cm_sp=FeatureEnd-_-Laptops-_-position1

JDPower

whiterose11 wrote: »

found this laptop, really cheap only 299 just a little worried about processor, do i need dual core? i will only really be doing internet, email, msn, and a bit of word and excel once in a while.
do people think this is good enough thanks in adavnce

Web exclusive product - Emachines 15.4" widescreen laptop with Intel Celeron mobile processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive and Windows Vista Home Premium.
Screen size: 15 inches
Processor: Intel Celeron Mobile
Memory (RAM): 2048 MB
Storage (hard drive): 160 GB
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/480932/EMACHINES-EME510-1A2G16?cm_sp=FeatureEnd-_-Laptops-_-position1

It will do fine for what you require it for but personally I wouldn't buy a single core laptop. Applications are going to grow increasingly dual core dependant and you could probably get similar spec with dual core processor for similar money (£300-350) anyway.

proxima_2

drunknmunky wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm after a fairly basic spec laptop:

Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
2Gb RAM
160Gb hard drive
17 inch screen
Intergrated Web Cam

...however the main thing is that is that it should have very long battery life. (it's going to be used at clients houses for around 4 hours where I can't really ask to recharge the battery)

Budget is around £600, although obviously the lower the better.
I'd stick to the reliable manufacturers i.e. Sony, Toshiba, Acer etc as i'm buying this on behalf of someone else.

I have found this one http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/5817056/Sony-Vaio-AR71-J-Pentium-Dual-Core-T2370-1-73GHz-3GB-200GB-17-DVD-SM-Vista-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html
but its seems to be pretty over-specced for what I require, and just over the £600 budget.

Does anyone have any recomendations, or ideas on how I can find out which laptops have a good battery life? I've been searching google for the past hour without much luck.

Thanks in advance.

The bad news is that looking for a laptop with long battery life and a 17 inch screen is a bit of an ask, unfortunately.

The good news is that Dell have released some laptops with ridiculously long battery life, if you're willing to sacrifice a couple of inches of screen size:

www.dell.co.uk/latitude

There are quite a few options on screen size, not sure how closely the spec matches your requirements though.

elly2

hi my dd wants a laptop for christmas i have £300 max to spend, she mainly needs it for school work and msn etc etc , she doesnt play games and battery life isnt that important. she would prefer a widescreen if poss and it needs to be wireless does anyone have any ideas please tia.

proxima_2

elly2 wrote: »

hi my dd wants a laptop for christmas i have £300 max to spend, she mainly needs it for school work and msn etc etc , she doesnt play games and battery life isnt that important. she would prefer a widescreen if poss and it needs to be wireless does anyone have any ideas please tia.

Might be worth checking out the eBay outlets mentioned by bugeyed... they have some excellent deals on laptops which have been reconditioned.

bugeyed wrote: »

As this thread is huge I apologize if someone has posted the same.
Ebay hosts 2 major computer manufactuers factory outlets. HP and Dell.
Search for 'hp_marketplace_uk' and 'dellfactoryoutlet' (try searching product description if you dont find them straight away)....

Or, PC World are doing a nice little Packard Bell for £300.

HTH

real1314

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-6256.aspx

This seems decent? for £349

2.2ghz proccy core 2 duo, 4mb cache, 2gb memory and 160gb hdd. Standard intel x3100 gfx.

JDPower

real1314 wrote: »

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-6256.aspx

This seems decent? for £349

2.2ghz proccy core 2 duo, 4mb cache, 2gb memory and 160gb hdd. Standard intel x3100 gfx.

Another nicely specced Acer for reasonable money from Tesco :money:

minxtress

bugeyed wrote: »

As this thread is huge I apologize if someone has posted the same.
Ebay hosts 2 major computer manufactuers factory outlets. HP and Dell.
Search for 'hp_marketplace_uk' and 'dellfactoryoutlet' (try searching product description if you dont find them straight away)
They sell off three types
reconditioned/refurbished - been found faulty and returned = now perfect
Old stock - Lines no longer produced/replaced by newer model
Overstock - Ordered more than they think they can sell

:money:

Hi I have tried searching on Ebay for dellfactoryoutlet but it isnt bringing up any results, can anyone help?Am I searching in the wrong place, can someone tell me where to type this to bring it up please. I found the hp one using the item number given but no luck with Dell thanks.

Found it!!!Thanks anyway