Quick laptop advice needed!

abe111

I need to quickly replace daughter's laptop hers has died the day after she went back to Uni, so this is suddenly urgent :mad:

Aiming for quality and reliability,ideally under £500 rough idea of what I'm looking for. 17" screen is also important.RAM 3-4GB, 350-500 HDD- solid processor- but clueless on what so here goes:

Can't link as new poster but my local aldi has several of the Medion's in stock- including inexplicably the same spec of Medion below with 500GB Both with 3 year warranty. Unsure of reputation. Please see aldi site under special buys

Daughter seems to like these:on student computers site Samsung R730 Intel Pentium Dual core T1401300 or R730 i3 from the laptops direct site.

PS If you think these are all a load of rubbish, please suggest make model.
Many many thanks in advance :A
abe

Browntoa

this laptop....

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys2_14476.htm

abe111

Yes that's the one- thanks for providing the link.
Also same spec same price 500GB even though not advertised. Weird or what?!
Anyway any good?

Browntoa

I've never had one so cannot comment on reliability but comes with 3 years warranty as standard unlike most others

additional 2nd hard drive bay , could be used for back ups in case of problems with the machine so at least she has her course work ?

gonzo127

although of course she is going to want a new laptop (who doesnt want a shiney new toy) any more information on 'died' as if its a software fault it can usually be sorted with a bit of effort for free

apart from that the aldi one is pretty good spec for the money

aliasojo

I believe the 500GB version doesn't have the tv tuner that the 320GB version has also the 320 has the 2nd hard drive bay as Browntoa says.

Check the price of the 320 version, our store has reduced it, I'm off to see about one now.

Edit: Should add we've had 2 Medion pc's from Aldi, one did develop a problem but it was repaired and returned and has been fine ever since.

Tigger123

I went to Aldi a couple of Saturdays ago and bought the 500gb one. Got it home and the screen had a dead, very bright red pixel on the screen so I returned it. Got the second one home and the screen was completely different to the last one!!!!!!! It flickered bright then dull and then went to very bright.

Took it back and got my money back. This is the second time I have attempted to buy Aldi Laptops and on both occaisions have ended up getting my money back.

On the plus side though, the Aldi base units that I have bought have been great and I have had no snags.

aliasojo

I bought the 3200GB version this morning. Got it home and noticed there was something that looked like part of a seal sticking out from the bottom of the display just where the screen meets the plastic surround. I switched it on anyway and noticed it was quite bright when it came on. I had a quick look over it then took it back for an exchange because of the seal.

The 2nd one looked fine, nothing wrong with the casing or screen etc and when this one was switched on, the screen was duller than the other one. After checking the settings, I found the 2nd one was set to 'power saving' whereas the first one was set to 'performance'. I wonder if that's why the screens on the ones you had Tigger, seemed different? That doesn't explain the change from bright to dull to bright again though.

At the moment, I'm pleased with my purchase, it's a very quiet machine (a lot quieter than my Dell or Sony) and the display whilst not as good as the Sony xbrite, is still very good nonetheless.

The only thing I'm not pleased with, is the amount of crap they installed before shipping!

abe111

Thanks for your replies folks.
browntoa- second hard drive sounds good
aliasojo-its helpful to know the difference. can you say where your store is located and what the price is now for 320- so I can try to use it as leverage at ours. also reason for reduction-is it last one? etc
gonzo127- yep I reckon she would like a shiney new toy (don't think medion does it for her) but I also know that we've paid twice to have it repaired out of warranty- major overheating problem(unknown to us characteristic of HP pavilions at the time).

No-one's come up with any alternative. It would just be nice to know that I'm on the right tracks. What's the reputation of medion like and does anyone know whether this German brand has a repair centre here and what's the customer service like.
Thanks for your patience folks.
abe

aliasojo

When I first posted this morning, I was under the impression the laptop was now £429 as that was what I'd been told. When I got to the store, it had a £479 sticker on it and the manager said nothing had been reduced to £429 so I can only assume the person who told me had made a mistake. There was only one display box out but there were some in the store room.

When I had to arrange a repair for one of our desktop Medions, it was picked up promptly on the day arranged, taken to Germany and repaired with no question. Only issue I had, was that it was slow coming back but I live in the Highlands of Scotland and often have issues with delivery of things because of the change in couriers on the way and the amount of depot stops involved. I can't in all honestly blame it all on Medion.

I've had much worse service from Dell, at least Medion were easy to deal with (imo).

I've read glowing references and also complaints about Medion, but then I've been trawling through similar for just about every other manufacturer so it's hard to know where to put your money sometimes. We had a £1500 Sony laptop at one point that was nothing but trouble so it's not always a case of expensive = good quality.

The Aldi 30 day money back guarantee was useful for me......there's not many stores that will let you take back a laptop or pc just because you don't like it, so I figured I was covered if I wasn't happy with the laptop. Imagine doing that in Argos or PC World.

If I hadn't bought this one, I may have bought a similar spec Toshiba (I'm not a lover of Samsung but that's personal choice).

Good luck with whatever you decide.

abe111

Please see thread- i'm unable to provide link but it is there- to aldi site, we managed to get one for daughter £100 less than marked price of £499. i3, 3RAM,500GB with 3 year warranty. Obviously can't say whether the price is reduced in all stores where they have them. Worth a try. Good luck.:A