Which laptop?

tobys_mummy_2

Should I get Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Siemens, Acer, Dell, HP ... the list goes on and the mind is boggled even more!!

Also I have quite a lot of music and pictures - what sort of size hard drive should i be looking for?

frogman_2

Hi tobys_mummy, that is such a hard question to answer but in order to help you, please give us just a little more information.

1. What is your budget (VAT?)?
2. What are you going to do with the laptop (applications)?
3. Have you had a laptop before?
4. How important is the brand to you (image, style)?
5. Are you comfortable buying online?
6. How much support do you need?

I'm sure others may have more questions but this would help me to undertand what you may want.

BTW, you may want to move this to the Techie Board.

alikat_3

I bought a lovely IBM, don't buy a Dell they really are cheap crap. Look around & find what you like. Look for build. I got myself a £1000 plus IBM on Ebay for £550, a bargain.

yehehehes

http://www.johnlewis.com/Computing/Computers/Computers/Laptops/398/230397909/Product.aspx

This is a good one. Think you might be able to get cash back too via quidco. Also someone had £1200 john lewis vouchers.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=259278

Nesima

alikat wrote:

I bought a lovely IBM, don't buy a Dell they really are cheap crap. Look around & find what you like. Look for build. I got myself a £1000 plus IBM on Ebay for £550, a bargain.

I would have to strongly disagree with this statement concerning Dell Laptops.
Both my father and I bought £350 Dell Laptops (Inspiron 1300's) in February this year and have been extremely pleased with them, both in terms of build quality, screen and performance.

Since then 2 friends have also bought Dell Inspiron 1300 Laptops after seeing and using mine. That makes 4 very satisfied customers.

I have worked in the IT industry since 1986 so I have used a lot of PC's and Laptops during that time including Toshiba's and HP's. Therefore as an experienced user I can highly recommend the Dell Inspiron as a very good value for money purchase.

Ensure you get a Laptop with a minium of 512mb of RAM (memory), a 60Gb hard drive, a DVD writer drive and built in Wireless card. You will get all this in a Dell for less than £400 delivered.

It is not worth spending a £1000 on a Laptop that will be available for £700 next year. Avoid unreliable (shark infested) sources such as eBay.

Have a look at https://www.dmxdimension.com for Dells latest best offers.

Once you have found what you like go to the Dell site via Quidco (free to join) and receive perhaps 4% of the net purchase price (before VAT) in cashback.

xxxdarlingxxx

Hello there

I have an Acer Aspire 3000 and it's great. No problems at all, great widescreen for watching DVDs and very speedy. I got it from Comet back in Jan for £499.00

xxxdxxx

Caramelapplebetty

I have to agree with Nesima about Dell - we bought my dad a laptop from Dell and it has been great. My OH has a long history of working in the IT industry and he made the purchase for us and we have a Dell PC that we got at a fantastic price as the result of a glitch posted on this site - very happy with that too.

smellybum

There is nothing wrong with dell.
The restaraunt I manage uses dell. I know of 14 other bars and restaraunts in my area that also use them.

Yes in the past they were a little slow but it looks like they have got that sorted.

To answer the question we do need to know what your budget is.
If there is a staples near you they currently have a siemans 40gb dvd+/-rw for £399 with a laptop case

Or you could just try haggling.
I got my laptop for £130 of the list price from pc world as I was paying cash.

Kilty_2

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1300 and love it.

Cost me £350 and is rock solid, both for build quality and performance.

The only thing I'd say is bad is the fact the casing is made of plastic and nothing else, if you drop it from a height it's gone. Not a big deal unless you are going to be taking it to environments where it could succumb to such damage though, and even then, just make sure your home contents insurance covers it.

Obviously if you spend more you get magnesium alloy casing that would provide much more protection.

Repo

alikat wrote:

I bought a lovely IBM, don't buy a Dell they really are cheap crap. Look around & find what you like. Look for build. I got myself a £1000 plus IBM on Ebay for £550, a bargain.

Absolute rubbish - I've sold hundreds of Dells and used just about every model they make.

We used to use Dells at work (22,000 employees) but switched over to HP/Compaq as they were cheaper. They were less reliable than the Dells so we switched back very quickly!

Becles

I got a Fujitsu Siemens one from Dabs, and I'm more than happy with it. The keyboard is the most comfortable one I found for typing on which was the most important thing for me.

I'm currently laying on the sofa posting which is far more comfy than posting from the PC on my desk