Please Help! Need Laptop advice

amievox

Hey,
I am currently looking for a laptop but there are so many to choose from I'm not really sure where to start!
My budget is about £300. I will use it mostly for the internet but will be using Office software (mainly Publisher) and maybe Photoshop.
I've never bought a laptop brand new and my last purchase was a Dell netbook from ebay. It worked fine for the internet but there was no space on it at all- not even for Publisher!
Anyway, the hard drive just decided to die and so I've been borrowing a laptop that belongs to my boss! (I am undecided on whether to buy a new hard drive for my Dell or just sell it as I need a laptop with more memory, hard drive space etc.)
I think it's finally time to buy a new laptop that will last me!
Does anybody have any advice or recommendations for me please?
Your help would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance, Amie

Hammyman

£300 will not buy you a new laptop with any longevity. £300 will however buy you a very good second hand business class machine thats built like a tank.

Take a look at the Lenovo Thinkpad T61. If you want something lightweight like your netbook take a look at the Thinkpad x60s (Intel Core Dup processor) or x61s (Intel Core 2 Duo version of x60s) - I sold my last x60s and x61s's for under £200. The Thinkpad x200 is a cracking thing but they're usually around the £300 mark.

50Twuncle

Hammyman wrote: »

£300 will not buy you a new laptop with any longevity. £300 will however buy you a very good second hand business class machine thats built like a tank.

Take a look at the Lenovo Thinkpad T61. If you want something lightweight like your netbook take a look at the Thinkpad x60s (Intel Core Dup processor) or x61s (Intel Core 2 Duo version of x60s) - I sold my last x60s and x61s's for under £200. The Thinkpad x200 is a cracking thing but they're usually around the £300 mark.

£300 will also buy you a new low spec HP G56 from PCWorld
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-g56-100sa-15-6-laptop-black-08702362-pdt.html
I bought one before Christmas and am impressed with it - it does everything that I want (albeit not that quickly) - it cost me £229 (with £70 part ex on my old machine) - runs 64bit Win 7 premium a dream.....

gonzo127

there are a couple on ebuyer which look reasonable for the price, as Hammy has explained thou at such a low price point they will not be the best laptops in the world but would suit your basic needs

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237715
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251960
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/254093

Hammyman

gonzo127 wrote: »

there are a couple on ebuyer which look reasonable for the price, as Hammy has explained thou at such a low price point they will not be the best laptops in the world but would suit your basic needs

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237715
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251960
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/254093

You have to forgive me - I'm one of those people who think its far better to have a plain looking used corporate laptop maybe a 1-2 years old that cost over £1200 new with the balance of the 3 year next day onsite parts and labour warranty than a low rent glossy shiny thing. I think its because I know that at 5 years old it'll still be going strong, long after the low rent glossy thing has been flogged on Ebay for parts.

MarkBargain

You could buy a new Acer laptop with a P6100 procesor and 3GB memory from Ebuyer Express (see Ebay item 280684695814) for £249.99 delivered, then buy a 3-year warranty from Ebuyer for £37.98 (I think that is compatible). Change from your £300 and you're covered for three years. :-) There are loads of deals out there though and I am sure many are good.

MarkBargain

21Twinkle wrote: »

£300 will also buy you a new low spec HP G56 from PCWorld
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-g56-100sa-15-6-laptop-black-08702362-pdt.html
I bought one before Christmas and am impressed with it - it does everything that I want (albeit not that quickly) - it cost me £229 (with £70 part ex on my old machine) - runs 64bit Win 7 premium a dream.....

The V140 processor is relatively slow though and HP laptops seem to be especially prone to faults, so I wouldn't go for that deal.

stilltheone

Hammyman wrote: »

£300 will not buy you a new laptop with any longevity. £300 will however buy you a very good second hand business class machine thats built like a tank.

Take a look at the Lenovo Thinkpad T61. If you want something lightweight like your netbook take a look at the Thinkpad x60s (Intel Core Dup processor) or x61s (Intel Core 2 Duo version of x60s) - I sold my last x60s and x61s's for under £200. The Thinkpad x200 is a cracking thing but they're usually around the £300 mark.

Which operating system will likely be installed with these machines? Looking at the age of them it could be Windows Vista or Windows XP. Not ideal.
In addition, they appear to have no optical drive installed or maybe just a CD writer.

The build quality might be good, but there are quite a few caveats.

I have never paid much more than £300 for a laptop. They still seem to be ticking over nicely years later. Though I'm a careful user.

Perhaps the Lenovo/IBM are useful as a child's first computer.

stilltheone

amievox wrote: »

Hey,
I am currently looking for a laptop but there are so many to choose from I'm not really sure where to start!
My budget is about £300. I will use it mostly for the internet but will be using Office software (mainly Publisher) and maybe Photoshop.
I've never bought a laptop brand new and my last purchase was a Dell netbook from ebay. It worked fine for the internet but there was no space on it at all- not even for Publisher!
Anyway, the hard drive just decided to die and so I've been borrowing a laptop that belongs to my boss! (I am undecided on whether to buy a new hard drive for my Dell or just sell it as I need a laptop with more memory, hard drive space etc.)
I think it's finally time to buy a new laptop that will last me!
Does anybody have any advice or recommendations for me please?
Your help would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance, Amie

What is model number of the DELL? A much larger hard drive and more RAM won't set you back much.
£60 at the most. for that expect at least an 160GB HDD and another 1GB RAM module.

macman

I agree. If you're happy with the Dell replace the hard drive and bump the RAM up to 2GB. Both jobs you can easily do yourself.

CoolHotCold

MarkBargain wrote: »

The V140 processor is relatively slow though and HP laptops seem to be especially prone to faults, so I wouldn't go for that deal.

Especially if its going to be used for PhotoShop.

The laptops recomended here are all a bit low on specs (especially the ebuyer ones with 2GB of RAM). You will really strugle to find a decent laptop with decent specs for £300.

I would save up personally and spend a extra £100 on a better system. Something like This Asus Would be perfect for Photoshop & Office (and I personally like Asus and Toshiba laptops for longevity for Win 7 systems)