Laptop for 12 year old son under £350?

quiffsmum

I've posted this elsewhere on MSE but someone suggested I post over here too so hope you don't mind.

My son is twelve next week and has asked that he gets money for his birthday so he can purchase a laptop for school and social use on the internet.
Could we get a laptop that he could use for school work and other use that will last him a few years for under £350?
Can anyone recommend where I can look and any good ones you can suggest to look at?
I think we'd feel safer looking at well known name brands.
Many thanks:)

Hammyman

You can just about buy a new laptop under £350 but whether it'll last a few years is a different story, especially in the hands of a teenager. Far better to buy an older business class laptop such as Dell Latitude range, IBM Thinkpad, Toshiba Tecra. They're built a lot stronger. They're not the prettiest nor shiny but they'll stand up to a lot of grief.

totalsolutions

Read the A List, https://www.pcpro.co.uk

As mentioned any PC would do in your budget.

Donnie

Under budget: MSI CR610 £300

Over budget: Toshiba Satellite L500-1XD £384

I'm of the opinion that you should get a laptop suited to your usage, rather than paying a premium for the 'latest thing'.

The cheaper laptop has most of the functions a young person is likely to use.

AMD Turion 2 Ultra dual core M300 processor.
2.00GHz processor speed.
4GB DDR2 RAM.
16in screen size.
Resolution 1366 x 768 pixels.
320GB SATA hard drive.
Multi format dual layer drive.
ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics.
256MB graphic memory.
Multi card reader.
3 USB ports.
e-SATA port.
Bluetooth.
HMDI.
1.3MP webcam.
802.11 b/g/n wireless enabled.
Windows 7 Premium operating system installed.
2.5-3 hours battery life.
Weight 2.5kg.

bob_man_uk

it may be hit and miss, but try your local cash converter, cash generator, cex.

I got a decent netbook for just over £120 i still have it and its still going strong.

you could even try gumtree, i know a lot of older and quite robust acer aspires used to go for just over £100 but they werent really worth much anyway

nottseagull

Perhaps we should point out to anyone who may have stopped the MSI download as soon as they saw "ebay" in the URL that this isn't a second-hand auction and, indeed, the deal carries a year's warranty. It's certainly an impressive spec for the price, and having read netbook reviews extensively I can vouch for the growing reputation that MSI is gaining for its products.

bob_man_uk

i can definitely vouch for msi in the top few makers i would recommend for netbooks

asus
HP
and MSI

being the top 3 i would recommend, guess its just finding the best deals.

JABWootton

Got one from the argos clearance site on ebay with a 1 year warranty (£250)

debitcardmayhem

I would suggest a desktop to be honest, they tend to be easier to upgrade and thus will be future proof for at least until he is 13.

Lil306

bob_man_uk wrote: »

it may be hit and miss, but try your local cash converter, cash generator, cex.

I got a decent netbook for just over £120 i still have it and its still going strong.

you could even try gumtree, i know a lot of older and quite robust acer aspires used to go for just over £100 but they werent really worth much anyway

Whilst the choice of sites to save money is useful, netbooks are not.

My opinion but netbooks are nothing but underpowered pieces of crap

You can get laptops for around £300 with a decent speak

Also try eBay, I got my laptop for £100 on there, does the job

Syman

Donnie wrote: »

Under budget: MSI CR610 £300


The cheaper laptop has most of the functions a young person is likely to use.

AMD Turion 2 Ultra dual core M300 processor.
2.00GHz processor speed.
4GB DDR2 RAM.
16in screen size.
Resolution 1366 x 768 pixels.
320GB SATA hard drive.
Multi format dual layer drive.
ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics.
256MB graphic memory.
Multi card reader.
3 USB ports.
e-SATA port.
Bluetooth.
HMDI.
1.3MP webcam.
802.11 b/g/n wireless enabled.
Windows 7 Premium operating system installed.
2.5-3 hours battery life.
Weight 2.5kg.

I have one of these, bought from the ARGOS clearence shop through ebay.

Nice bit of kit, for the money.