The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

nej

There is a thread about it in the "Shop But Don't Drop" board called £299 laptop at Tesco" or words to that affect.

If you look at the Comet site at their Acer for £349 it's the same one. There is nothing about it on the Tesco website though.

Holeypockets

Tesco are advertising it as a 'back to school' promotion that appears on leaflets in the local free papers. I have just connected one of my 2 £299 acers to my wireless network and I must say I am ver impressed. The screen is superb, speed is good, 2 hours battery life - it is ideal for my 2 kids

phatty_2

the Tesco offer is great:money:, I think there are a lot of laptop snobs here who ridicule buying a laptop with 256MB Ram from Tesco

Kilty_2

Heh, I ridicule buying an ACER with 256mb RAM Just my personal preference though.

My cheap Dell with 256mb RAM is great, just needs more RAM for the use I put it to.

FrappaMCL

So after 800+ posts (including three entertaining squabbles) is the present conclusion?...

...if you're looking for a laptop for around £500 for web browsing, emails and word processing (i.e not for gaming) some options to consider are:

Dell Inspiron 1300 (£349)

Acer TM2414WLMI (the £299 one from Tescos) - similar to Dell Inspiron 1300 but battery life not as good

Acer Aspire 3633 Stock No : LX.ABU05.068_LSB (£400)

Dell Inspiron 6400 (£519)

I appreciate you get what you pay for. Some models according to this thread appear to offer better value overall than others (based on the criteria of what it wil be used for above).

On this basis I'm minded to go for the Dell 6400 but tempted by the Acer for £299 as I really will only use it for the limited purposes I mention (I note the warranty point about repairs taking longer if you buy from Tesco etc).

Anyone able to make my mind up for me?! No liability to those who do ;-)

Meatbingo

Well, I went for the Tesco £299 Acer. I'll post my impressions once I've set it up and had a play with it.

Holeypockets

Anyone able to make my mind up for me?! No liability to those who do ;-)[/QUOTE]


Well, as I say, I set up a lot of laptops for a living and I'd say the Acer tops VFM - which is what moneysaving is all about.

espresso

Kilty wrote:

Heh, I ridicule buying an ACER with 256mb RAM Just my personal preference though.

My cheap Dell with 256mb RAM is great, just needs more RAM for the use I put it to.

It's just as easy to add RAM to an Acer so why the ridicule?

:rolleyes:

FrappaMCL

Be aware that the Dells now have an ExpressCard slot rather than the much more common PCMCIA expansion slot, which may be a problem as the cards are almost as rare as rocking horse !!!!!!.

HTH

:eek:

akcl

I am thinking of buying the following Dell, any comments, I need it for the end of the month, do you think I can get a better deal by then? Thanks.

SYSTEM COMPONENTS
N08642 Inspiron 6400 Qty 1
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2050 (1.60 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2 (incl Symantec PC Restore Recovery) Unit Price Excl. VAT £539.00
Catalog Number: 202 N08642
Module Description Show Details
Base Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2050 (1.60 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2 (incl Symantec PC Restore Recovery)
Memory 1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
Keyboard Internal Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
Video Card Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory
Hard Drive 120GB (5,400rpm) Hard Drive
Floppy Drives No Floppy Drive Option
Modem 56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter
CD/DVD Drives Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW with Software
Sound Cards Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD™ Audio- Trial Version
Wireless Local Area Networking Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card for Duo Processors
Shipping Documents System Documentation
Gedis Bundle Reference List N08642 - BSD 6400 (2)
Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Works 7.0 - English
Standard Warranty 1-Year Collect and Return service
Cover It with Dell Support Services No service upgrade selected - 1-Year Collect and Return service only
AntiVirus & Security Software No Security/Anti-Virus Protection
Power Supply 65W AC Adapter
Digital Photography Combo: Paint Shop® Pro and Photo Album® Trial
Order Information Inspiron Order - UK
Primary Battery 9 Cell, 80Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Carrying Cases No Carrycase
Dell System Media Kit No Resource CD
Ghost 10 Ghost 10 - 90 Day Trial
Colour Choice No Snap on LCD Back Cover
Dell Media Experience Dell™ Media Experience 3.0 Basic
Adobe Reader Adobe Reader 6.0 - English
Promotions Hidden Option Class Memory Upgrade from 512MB to 1024MB
Dell Internet Order Dell Internet Order.
Network assistant Network Assist - 90 Day Trial
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

TOTAL Excl. VAT:£539.00

Kilty_2

espresso wrote:

It's just as easy to add RAM to an Acer so why the ridicule?

:rolleyes:

FrappaMCL

Be aware that the Dells now have an ExpressCard slot rather than the much more common PCMCIA expansion slot, which may be a problem as the cards are almost as rare as rocking horse !!!!!!.

HTH

:eek:

Build quality is the reason I ridicule them.

I've held the same model that Tesco are selling in a Comet store, was considering buying it for £399 at the time.

Compared with this Dell, it felt like paper.

As for ExpressCard vs PCMCIA, the only thing that I can think of that you'd need would perhaps be a 3G data card, in which case you'd be better buying a machine with PCMCIA.