Sub £300 Laptop

olykun

PC World have a fairly decent laptop for £297.86 its got a DVD Writer, Wi-Fi, and 512MB of RAM, which for this price is pretty good. Delivery is £14.95, but you can collect in store if you prefer. Add your Quidco discount into it and delivered its £294.04 or if you pick it up £288.92. Not bad. The brand is PC World's own, but you get one year warrenty with it, somewhat more than Dell's 90 day offering.

On top of that you can have an extra battery, if that takes your fancy, for a tenner!

Cant work out how to make a link directly to it, but this should do, its not a refferal by the way, just a strange link: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1472018564.1162399708@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccejaddjffjmkjecflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=919877&category_oid=


Specs below:

Features for this EI SYSTEMS 3083
- Intel Celeron M 380 Processor 1.6GHz
- 400 MHz FSB
- 1 MB Cache
- 512 MB RAM
- 40 GB Hard Drive
- DVD ReWriter MultiDrive
- 14.1" TFT Display
- Microsoft Windows XP Home
- 64 MB Shared Graphics
- 1 Year Free Warranty

Specification for this EI SYSTEMS 3083
Processor Type Celeron M 380
Processor speed 1600 mhz
Memory Size 512 mb
Memory Type DDR333
Hard Drive Capacity 40 Gb
Optical Drives DVDRW
CD-ROM Speed 48 x
CD-RW Speed. 24 x
DVD-ROM Speed 8 x
DVD-RW Speed 4 x
Floppy Disk Drive No
Screen Size/Type 14.1" XGA
Graphics Card Type Integrated Graphics
Graphics Memory 64 shared mb
TV-out No
Sound Type AC97 16bit
Modem Type 56k
Wireless Enabled Yes
No. of USB Connections 4
No. of Firewire Connections 0
Infrared Port Included No
Other Interfaces 10/100 LAN Ethernet
Battery Type Li-ion
Battery life (up to) 1 hours
Software Titles Included Works 8.5
Operating system WIN XP
Weight 2.8 kg
Height 32 mm
Width 326 mm
Depth 258 mm
Colour Silver

IClaudius

Can any techie's comment as to whether this is a good deal?

codetown

I am looking for a decent laptop myself, and warn any potential buyer: check out the battery life!

This is absolutely the weakest point in most cheap laptops I see on sale now. They have hugely powerful CPUs, but consume far too much for the battery packs they are bundled with. If you keep your notebook always at home it is not a problem, but for any regular traveller a batteyr life below 3-4 hours is extremly poor.

The laptop above shows a battery life of up to 1h, which is frankly unacceptable for a mobile use!

RedOnRed

IClaudius wrote:

Can any techie's comment as to whether this is a good deal?

It does look very good for the price.

As a "techie", my main concerns would be compatibility and reliability for a unfamiliar brand.

Compatibilty in so much as you do connect a lot of things into laptops and also you might want something like a port replicator and WILL need a replacement battery eventually.

Reliability in so much as are parts going to be readily available and what's the warranty like. Laptops tend to be less reliable then PC's and parts for them tend to be more bespoke.

Personally, i'd spend a bit extra and look out for a bargain branded laptop.

DonGotti

It's a great laptop and includes a usb stick that allows you to connect to the net wirelessly. HOWEVER the battery life is awful, and don't expect more than 1 hour 15 minutes battery life on a full charge.

RedOnRed

I thought hardly anyone ever actually used a laptop just on battery power. All the laptop users I know use them on mains only.

Any place where you'd want to use one on the battery alone is a place where you'd be likely to get it robbed in this day and age and even on some train carriages they have places to plug them in to the mains.

barbel_2

laptop users beware !
Constantly charging of your laptop battery will cook it better than Gordon f£c*ing ramsey .
Deplete and then re charge , This will extend the life of any laptop battery.
all the best .. 1hr 15 mins for a battery... mine lasts 5hr 19 at 98%

RedOnRed

barbel wrote:

laptop users beware !
Constantly charging of your laptop battery will cook it better than Gordon f£c*ing ramsey .

That's a new one on me. Every time you plug it into the mains you're charging it.

Coldfinger

A word of warning on power leads.

If you use the charging lead while you have a laptop on your knee, bed etc then beware of putting any force on the power plug as you move it. The sockets cost about 75p each. If the socket snaps off the motherboard or you otherwise damage it then you are looking at a fix costing from £75 - £150 as the whole laptop must be stripped down.

See http://www.thisisbroken.com/b/2004/03/compaq_laptop_p.html

and http://www.laptop-repair-service.co.uk/power-socket-repairs.htm

This is a common problem, I just repaired one for a friend.

codetown

RedOnRed wrote:

I thought hardly anyone ever actually used a laptop just on battery power. All the laptop users I know use them on mains only.

Any place where you'd want to use one on the battery alone is a place where you'd be likely to get it robbed in this day and age and even on some train carriages they have places to plug them in to the mains.

I use laptops a lot travelling, running from an airport to a train station, abroad, in meetings etc. Not always is easy to have time/possibility to recharge. Lots of times I could simply not use the laptop becuase it had flat battery and far too many times I had to stop my work because of lack of power. Even at home I tend to use the laptop on my lap sitting in the garden or anyway not at a power cord distance of a power plug.
Also most of the complaints I ever hear from collegues are: battery life (too little) and weight (too much). None is ever worried about lack of CPU power....

So, it all depends on what usage you plan to do with your lappy.
I sent just a warning. I was about to go with an extremly tempting offer (much more tempting that this) just a few days ago, but desisted because the battery life was rated up to 2 hours, which today is insufficient for me.

Anyone has its own needs of course, so if you run the laptop from home desk all the time, simply disconnect your battery pack and enjoy any of the laptops on offer!

Frugal_Moose

Coldfinger, I have just this problem and now use my laptop without the power lead in. Its my first laptop so I live and learn.
I have taken out a 3 year collect and return extra warranty from Dell so when it gives up the ghost I am (hopefully) covered. It cost £95 so its not bad given those quotes above.