Laptop Purchase Advice

Gunderful

Hi,

It appears my laptop has given out (see other thread). Looking for a basic laptop with wireless, internet, excel and that's it. Don't need large hard drive and won't be used for gaming.

Any advice much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

plenty of basic laptops around £300-350 pc world currys comet tesco dell etc etc

m5rcc

Or a half-decent second hand one on eBay for sub £250

Donnie

woodbine wrote: »

plenty of basic laptops around £300-350 pc world currys comet tesco dell etc etc

This from a Tech forum??

m5rcc

Donnie wrote: »

This from a Tech forum??

Genius, isnt it?

ses6jwg

You could go for a Netbook for around £150-220?

Smaller screens though.

m5rcc

Heavily advise against a netbook

mdean

m5rcc wrote: »

Heavily advise against a netbook

No explanation as to why ?

I purchased a netbook £220 from ebuyer at xmas ... and love it
Battery lasts for ages
internet easy
typing fine
can listen to radio and watch video - great

got mine from the excellent ebuyer.com

JasX

m5rcc wrote: »

Genius, isnt it?

I agree, dell etc seem to have plenty around the £400 mark and the new i3 processors are suprisingly powerful let alone the i5s.... pair that with windows 7 64 bit and you'll have a laptop that'll last as long as any other you'll buy today.

you could save a little getting one with a 'low power/performance' chip but not much

m5rcc

1. Small screen. The small size of a netbook means that its screen is small. Though the typical resolution for a 10” netbook is 1024x600, which isn't much less than the standard desktop resolution, the pitch (distance between pixels) is smaller and that is why the onscreen image on a netbook is smaller.

2. Less powerful processor. Netbooks ship with special processors (different from those in laptops and desktops) and these processors are less powerful. Still, 1.6GHz is quite enough for most tasks a typical user uses a netbook for, so it is hardly likely that the less powerful processor is of that much importance.

3. No CD drive. Most netbooks come with no CD. There are some netbook models with a CD but this automatically increases their weight. No CD could be a disadvantage but when one has USB sticks, memory cards, or a cable, the lack of CD is not a problem for data transfer.

4. Difficult/impossible to upgrade...need I go on?

DRiz

There are alot of pro's too:
They are smaller, lighter and easier to carry. As pointed out already a CD drive really isnt necessary as you can store most applications and files/movies on USB stick nowadays, so thats a big lump of extra weight gone.

I purchased a powerfull 15" laptop recently (which my wife uses mostly now) and I now want a netbook for its simplicity.
If its mainly for the house and seldomly taken out then I would get a laptop against a netbook. If you intend taking it out and about alot and just using it for internet/word etc. then a netbook would really suffice and be more comfortable and cheaper.

I would agree that no need to spend more than £220 on a netbook as there are deals about.