*Updated* help needed to buy a laptop in the next few days

Savvybunny2009

I have a maximum budget of £400, I don't know enough about laptops to know exactly what I am looking at or how reliable the brands are.

My previous laptop was a Sony Viao which had a hard drive failure after 2 months, I was swayed to buy it as it was pleasing to the eye and the specs were quite good for the price range. It was a clearance deal and the company were unable to replace it as it was sold out.

I will mainly be using my laptop for word processing and multi tasking with several browsers/tabs open, I would like it to keep up with me lol. It would be good to be able to watch films and possibly play games too but this is secondary. I also would like something pleasing to the eye too as I am going to be spending some time looking at it :rotfl:

Please could you help and let me know which laptop you would buy or pass on any suggestions? I have been sat here for a fair few hours and still haven't come any closer to finding anything.

TIA

macman

Absolutely any modern laptop will do the very low-end tasks that you have specified.

Savvybunny2009

Well yes, pretty obvious lol. I would like the best machine for my money really. Theres not much use spending my money on a brick when I could have a laptop which is much better value for specs.

I'm not a techie sadly so I don't know much about laptops and I was hoping someone could help.

free4440273

try and go for the new Sandy Bridge architecture with an i3 or i5 processor .

John_Gray

The Lenovo G570 (M5134UK) at around £399 was classed as Best Value laptop in PC Pro's review of 20 laptops. See this month's copy of the magazine...

Savvybunny2009

I am between these two laptops, which one is the better deal and are they reliable?

Dell Studio 1558
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Processor Intel i5-430M(2.26GHz)
Hard Disk Drive 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Memory 4 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Media Bay Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
NoteBook Screen Display : 15.6in High Definition (1366X768) WLED
Video Graphics : 512 MB ATI Mobility Radeonâ„¢ HD 545v
System Color Midnight Blue with Microsatin Finish
Network Interface Card Wireless : European Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11 b/g) Mini Card
Software Back Up Media Not Included
£422

Dell XPS L502x
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Processor Processor: Intel Core i3-2310M (2.10GHz, 3MB cache, Dual Core)
Hard Disk Drive Hard Drive : 500GB Serial ATA II (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
Memory 3 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (3 DIMMs)
Media Bay 8X DVD +/- RW DRIVE
NoteBook Screen Display : 15.6" HD WLED True-Life (1366x768) with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera
Video Graphics : 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M Graphics card
Laptop Battery Battery : Primary 6-cell 56W/HR LI-ION
System Color LCD Back Cover : Silver WWAN
Network Interface Card Wireless: Intel Wireless-N 1000 Card
Software Back Up Media Not Included
£406

TIA

RussJK

The Dell XPS L502x is overall a better deal - slightly faster CPU, and a new generation; also the graphics card is significantly better. Great deal, wipes the floor with my laptop.

Only drawback is the memory, 3GB instead of 4GB, but again you won't notice this and it'll be more than enough. For the difference in price, one could always upgrade the memory anyway.

Savvybunny2009

Thanks for the advice, it's sold out now so back to the drawing board

RussJK

What kind of games would you play on it?

Savvybunny2009

I'm not much of a game player but others in the household will be likely to play wow, and that's about it.

Savvybunny2009

Any suggestions, I am still at the computer needing to buy a laptop today?