advice on laptops

TakeThis

The Toshibas are going fast. It all depends on what is expected from the machine. An ACER may have an HDMI output and a 1.3MP webcam. Expect to pay around £260.

If you can live without the HDMI out and scrape by with a VGA(0.3MP) webcam, then don't discount the Toshiba.

deselby

Dell are usually a sound buy for the first-time user. Although as has been stated before, a Netbook should more than do the job and at a considerably cheaper rate than you would pay for a fully-fledged laptop. I'm actually using one myself right now! Avoid Celeron / Centrino processors, and depending on what its intended usage will be, aim for at the very least 2Gb of RAM. Storage would probably be wise, and on a Netbook for that sort of price range, I'd expect something in the region of at least 150Gb.

Hammyman

scotty1971 wrote: »

i'm looking to spend around £200 on a laptop for my 10 year old,has anyone got any recommendations on a half decent one.

cheers

scott

Thinkpad T60. Built like a tank. Core 2 Duo processor so it will go quite well.

Hammyman

bruticus wrote: »

The D620 is about 3-4 years old now, if they have a sellers warranty then fair enough, but itll be one year max, but I wouldn't trust it to last more than a year or two if that, I definately wouldn't pay £200 for one.

You what? They are corporate class machines which cost over £1000 new, not the cheap plastic tat you buy at Currys or PC World. They'll be going strong long after the one from PC World is in the bin.

I've sold 5 year old D610's that have been flawless. My friend still uses some old C series Dell Latitudes which must be going on for 10 years old now.

Hammyman

TakeThis wrote: »

The Toshibas are going fast. It all depends on what is expected from the machine. An ACER may have an HDMI output and a 1.3MP webcam. Expect to pay around £260.

If you can live without the HDMI out and scrape by with a VGA(0.3MP) webcam, then don't discount the Toshiba.

And expect both of them to be falling to bits after a year...

Hammyman

deselby wrote: »

Avoid Celeron / Centrino processors,

Centrino is a platform, not a CPU, and includes everything from Pentium M to Core 2 Duo processors.

scotty1971

TakeThis wrote: »

The Toshibas are going fast. It all depends on what is expected from the machine. An ACER may have an HDMI output and a 1.3MP webcam. Expect to pay around £260.

If you can live without the HDMI out and scrape by with a VGA(0.3MP) webcam, then don't discount the Toshiba.

it will just be for surfing the net,and playing games,but not playing games on the net

TakeThis

Hammyman wrote: »

And expect both of them to be falling to bits after a year...

I know you like to sell that old stuff... but I'm sure the OP's son doesn't want some old machine with XP Professional with an 80GB HDD and DVD Writer if he is lucky....a half eaten battery and only 3 to 6 months guarantee...simply in order to get a robust case.

I'd rather spend my £250 on a new, more well specified machine and just take care of it.

TakeThis

scotty1971 wrote: »

it will just be for surfing the net,and playing games,but not playing games on the net

Remember that you can order a machine and try it out for up to seven working days.

Hammyman

TakeThis wrote: »

I know you like to sell that old stuff... but I'm sure the OP's son doesn't want some old machine with XP Professional with an 80GB HDD and DVD Writer if he is lucky....a half eaten battery and only 3 to 6 months guarantee...simply in order to get a robust case.

I'd rather spend my £250 on a new, more well specified machine and just take care of it.

You have no idea what I sell because I have never put a link to any of my listings on here or even remotely hinted at my business name.

The laptops I now sell are at most 3 to 4 years old but nearly all of them have been in storage with little use. I've sold 4 year old Thinkpad x60s's with battery charge cycle counts of 1 - the one I put on. They've never been used - the keyboard doesn't even have the tiniest hint of wear on. I like to sell them because they are bomb proof and never come back. And I don't sell them with half eaten batteries and even if they were, as they did over 5hrs new, they'd still get more on a charge than 99% of those in PC World and still last longer. I've sold 5 year old Dell Latitude D610's with the original batteries that are still giving over 3hrs on a charge and 4 year old Thinpad x60s's giving over 5hrs on a charge.

And with mine, most of the Thinkpads I sell typically have 12 months or more Next Day Onsite Parts and Labour warranty far better than anything you can even buy in PC World. Put in a claim at 3pm and an engineer will be on the door the following morning and they won't even ask how you did it.

As I recall, PC World will leave you without a laptop for at least a fortnight assuming they'll do anything at all.

And whilst you can buy a £250 machine and take care of it apart from the fact the battery will be virtually duff after 12 months, do you think a 10 year old is likely to do the same?