The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

pavlovs_dog

FrappaMCL wrote:

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)

cheers for this. Ive finally decided that i do need a new puter, and that im going to loose my laptop virginity. ive been lost in a see of deals and info overload, so it was nice to have a few pointers in a sensible direction.


im rather taken by the dell inspirion 6400 - its a very nice looking piece of kit. specs aren't bad either.

Module Description BaseIntel® Core™ Duo Processor T2050 (1.60 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
Microsoft Operating SystemGenuine Windows® XP Home Edition,
SP2 (incl Symantec PC Restore Recovery)
Memory1024MB 533MHz
Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
KeyboardInternal Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
Video CardIntel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memoryHard Drive60GB (5,400rpm)
Hard DriveFloppy Drives
No Floppy Drive Option
Modem56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter
Fixed Internal 8x DVD/24x CDRW Combo Drive With SoftwareSound Cards
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD™ Audio- Trial Version
Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card for Duo Processors
Microsoft® Works 7.0 -
English Standard Warranty1-Year Collect and Return service
No service upgrade selected - 1-Year Collect and Return service only
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection
Power Supply65W AC Adapter
Primary Battery 6 Cell, 56Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
No Carrycase
No Snap on LCD Back Cover
Dell Media ExperienceDell™ Media Experience 3.0
BasicAdobe ReaderAdobe Reader 6.0
Promotions Hidden Option ClassMemory Upgrade from 512MB to 1024MB
LCD15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

total price £568.99 (inc vat and del..and hopefully cashback via quidco?)

not being one to rush in, i was wondering if anyone knows of anything of a similar spec for less money? i need it for uni work, and would be taking it on an 80 mile round trip on board a coach several days a week, so portability is a must, as is a good battery life.

specs wise, it will mainly be used for coursework (predominantly essay writing with some light presentation/slideshow/dtp work thrown in). i am a heavy net user (although i am a comparatively light downloader) - house and campus both fully wifi enabled and on line

in short: light, fast, reliable, affordable..and if possible nice to look at :beer:

forgot to add.. budget wise, can go to £400-500, bit more if i find something i really really like.

FrappaMCL

Obviously lots of demand for the £299 special, the local Tesco Extra sold out and has now started stocking a £349 model TM2423WMX3...[doh!]

akcl

Does choosing Small Business option at the Dell website, make any difference to the prices at all?

Moonlight_2

Below is a why to get a good spec laptop without the expense:

At Dell.co.uk a particluar XPS laptop can cost 1600 pounds, the same laptop at dell.com costs $1200 (approx 600 pounds), a big saving!

You can not purchase one of these from outside the US/canada, so if you do not have any relitives or friends in the US that you can use, then there is a way around this.

https://www.parcel2go.co.uk (part of DHL) has a delivery address in the US that you can use to get purchases sent to (there is a cost to get a US Address with them, 9.99 pounds), it is not a PO Box that company like dell will not ship to, once they recieve the item you have to pay for them to forward the laptop to the UK, Yes, you will get hit with Tax by customs, but after all the costs outlayed to get it sent over here, it is about a extra 250 pounds, so in the end that 1600 pound laptop from dell.co.uk, can be got from dell.com for around 850 pounds.

nej

But what happens if it goes wrong and needs to be sent back for repair?

pgb2006

The tesco in wokingham (berkshire) had 3 or 4 in stock of of the £299 acer laptops whe I left work at 10pm tonight (8.8.06)

tomS_4

One thing to note, a lot of the cheaper laptops come with Intel® Media Accelerator 900/950 graphics cards. I'm no expert, but i was reading up on laptop graphics cards and apparently these don't run the new shiny Aero interface of the Windows Vista beta.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3056&guide=Graphics+Card+Guide+2006

LadFromWales85

Looking at the Medion Pentium M 1.7 Notebook @ Woolworths
http://www.woolworths.co.uk/ww_p2/product/index.jhtml?pid=50701533
I'll be able to buy one of these for £319.99 (work for them) this weekend...I want it for my mother, she generally only browses the web, email etc, flash games and stuff like that. Looks good apart from the fact that it only has 256MB of ram...

For the money, is this a good deal, or can better be bought for up to the £400 mark?

The ability to run Vista/Linux XGL in all its glory would be nice too, although not essential

Any advice appreciated

Kilty_2

tomS wrote:

One thing to note, a lot of the cheaper laptops come with Intel® Media Accelerator 900/950 graphics cards. I'm no expert, but i was reading up on laptop graphics cards and apparently these don't run the new shiny Aero interface of the Windows Vista beta.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3056&guide=Graphics+Card+Guide+2006

In all honesty, are people paying £300 for a laptop going to pay £1-200 for Windows Vista?

Kilty_2

LadFromWales85 wrote:

Looking at the Medion Pentium M 1.7 Notebook @ Woolworths
http://www.woolworths.co.uk/ww_p2/product/index.jhtml?pid=50701533
I'll be able to buy one of these for £319.99 (work for them) this weekend...I want it for my mother, she generally only browses the web, email etc, flash games and stuff like that. Looks good apart from the fact that it only has 256MB of ram...

For the money, is this a good deal, or can better be bought for up to the £400 mark?

The ability to run Vista/Linux XGL in all its glory would be nice too, although not essential

PS, as for memory, https://www.lowestonweb.com do a 512mb stick for £25.98. Works fine in my Dell laptop and is the same type that the Medion takes.

Any advice appreciated

I'd say £320 for that would be a bargain, although as said above it wont run Vista in all its glory as it will use the Intel 900 graphics (like the Dell 1300 does, Acer too I think).

Only thing that worries me with the likes of Medion is the availability of another battery, it is inevitable that you will buy another during the machine's llife.

Another 512mb of memory is £25.98 from LowestOnWeb.com . As long as that machine has an easy access memory bay, it would take you 5 minutes to install.