Which Laptop?

lynseydee

I previously posted this on another thread but have had no replies. I was just wondering if anyone could let me know out of the two which is the better laptop or whether they are much of a muchness.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home...IR&lid=SHP_BK1

The one for £369.00

or this one

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/pro...eviews#reviews

For £379.99

I'm kind of tempted to go for the Dell one but only because a friend who has an IT guy for her business told her if you buy a laptop from the likes of Currys/PC World, if something goes wrong the manufacturers don't like to get involved and so you have to go back to where you bought it from. Not sure if this would be the same for Comet (I looked on the Toshiba website and couldn't find this one).

Obviously I don't have any experience of this having never bought a laptop before so not too sure.

Also I don't know if it makes a difference but I will be using it with mobile broadband.

Laz123

If you look at the above threads, and many others, you'll see Dell isn't very reliable anymore.

Knarf44

Generally Toshiba is amongst the more reliable brands but you register your laptop on the Toshiba website and buy your extended warranty direct from them. If I recall you can buy a further 2 year warranty for around £25.

Don't know if these things are important to you but the Toshiba you linked to doesn't have:

integrated webcam/microphone
no HDMI output only VGA
only 2 USB connections

So, as long as you can do without the above, it'll meet your requirements.

Have you browsed the "Sub £350 thread" at the top of this page?

lynseydee

Knarf44 wrote: »

Generally Toshiba is amongst the more reliable brands but you register your laptop on the Toshiba website and buy your extended warranty direct from them. If I recall you can buy a further 2 year warranty for around £25.

Don't know if these things are important to you but the Toshiba you linked to doesn't have:

integrated webcam/microphone
no HDMI output only VGA
only 2 USB connections

So, as long as you can do without the above, it'll meet your requirements.

Have you browsed the "Sub £350 thread" at the top of this page?

What I want the laptop for is general surfing of the internet and e-mails using mobile broadband. If I don't need any of the above then I guess that Toshiba would be ok.

Knarf44

At the sub £400 level laptops are pretty poorly specified. They all have more or less the same performance and will certainly meet the needs of basic internet use and MS Office type stuff. So, then it's just a matter of which brand you prefer.

On the specs unless you plan to or would like to use Skype or Messenger type programs then a webcam isn't strictly necessary and one can always be bought later for as little as £5-£10 if needed. The lack of USB connections might be more of a problem if you have alot of external devices you need to connect but you can get round that by using a usb hub.

Toshiba are generally known as one of the more reliable brands and
their Customer Service also seems to be one of the better ones of the major manufacturers.

jagatia

the £379.99 one, Mainly because of my research that one has better rating

lynseydee

jagatia wrote: »

the £379.99 one, Mainly because of my research that one has better rating

Hi Jagatia

Should I order it from Comet or would I be best ordering it direct from Toshiba?

Donnie

You won't lose much in the way of performance and will gain a webcam with this Toshiba Satellite C650-1CR at £304

If you want to keep the same processor and amount of RAM, but gain a webcam and hard drive space, you can take a look at the Toshiba Satellite C650-15Z at £341.48

If it likely to be used at home as a Desktop replacement, then consider a larger screen altogether; the 17.3" screen of the Toshiba Satellite L670D-10N at £341.48

You'll lose a little processing power and RAM, but will gain more screen space with more space for the keyboard, the webcam and also an HDMI output.
Battery life on the 15.6" models are up to 4hrs 20mins. On the 17.3" model; 3hrs 45mins.

dispossessed

Hi,

In my experience of fixing PCs / Laptops etc. Toshiba hardware is marginally the more reliable of the two. My wife bought a new Toshiba Satellite (from TESCO) about 6 months ago and the build standard is quite impressive to my eye.

However I have a 15 year old Toshiba laptop and a 16 year old Dell Laptop both are still in sound working order. I even managed to install and enable Wi-Fi on the Dell !! So, provided they don't get dropped, I think it is safe to say that the hardware of either should prove reliable.

I hope this is of some help.

Trevor