Looking to buy a laptop

JimmyTheWig

Hi,

I'm thinking about getting my wife a laptop for her birthday.
Doesn't need to be anything special. Will be used mainly for Facebook, eBay, Hotmail, online banking, spreadsheets, etc.

Is there anything wrong with this one for £250?
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-g61-410sa-04127309-pdt.html

Sounds incredibly cheap, but maybe they are these days.

Would rather buy from a known name retailer than some unknown internet site.
Definitely want Windows.
Will need Microsoft Office. I believe we qualify for the Student edition, if anyone knows anything about how much this is, etc?


Thanks,

Jim

JimmyTheWig

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Is there anything wrong with this one for £250?

They don't seem to have it in stock anywhere, though I'm not convinced I believe them.

maryke

If that's all you're going to use it for it's definitely going to be adequate.
There's nothing wrong with buying a laptop from the internet but most people I know who did that bought straight from the company website.

Microsoft Office student edition costs $150 according to their website.

System

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Hi,



Would rather buy from a known name retailer than some unknown internet site.

maryke wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with buying a laptop from the internet but most people I know who did that bought straight from the company website.

are you suggesting that pc world isn't a reputable online reseller?!

maryke

the_r_sole wrote: »

are you suggesting that pc world isn't a reputable online reseller?!

Nope, I'm not suggesting that since I don't know them. They could actually be better for all I know.

I was just stating that I know people who bought online and were very happy with doing that. They happened to buy from the company websites (most of them anyway).

Limey

Check out the Dell Outlet store Jimmy, I picked up an Inspiron 15R with i3 processor for £280 delivered (usually £400+). they've got some great deals on recon/returned laptops. All that was wrong with mine was a couple of bubbles on the lid cover, which is replaceable anyway. :cool:

For word processing I use Openoffice suite, it pretty much does everything MS Office does (apart from Outlook) and is free to download.

NeverAgain_2

I see the linked laptop is showing as available to collect in-store.

It's also available as a bundle with Home Office Student, or whatever it's called.

Would that not suit?

JimmyTheWig

NeverAgain wrote: »

I see the linked laptop is showing as available to collect in-store.

It's also available as a bundle with Home Office Student, or whatever it's called.

Would that not suit?

Showing as available to collect until I put in any postcode I care to think of when it says not available in stores near me. Doesn't say what stores it has checked, though. Get the same message if I put in "xyzzy" into the postcode field, so I'm wondering if it's working.

Saw the Office bundle. Thought it was expensive. Thought the student edition was much cheaper than that.
Might need to consider OpenOffice, then, though I wasn't impressed the last time we used it.

JimmyTheWig

Limey wrote: »

Check out the Dell Outlet store

I've gone to http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/laptops?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&redirect=1 but wherever I click "Check Prices" it tells me there's no inventory matching my filter.

NeverAgain_2

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Showing as available to collect until I put in any postcode I care to think of when it says not available in stores near me. Doesn't say what stores it has checked, though. Get the same message if I put in "xyzzy" into the postcode field, so I'm wondering if it's working.

Saw the Office bundle. Thought it was expensive. Thought the student edition was much cheaper than that.
Might need to consider OpenOffice, then, though I wasn't impressed the last time we used it.

All the sub-£300 laptops are much of a muchness, so your local PC World should have one to suit.

Open Office hasn't changed much, so I doubt you'll like the latest version.

Open Office is apparently no longer being supported, so the current free recommendation is Libre Office.

You've nothing to lose by taking a look: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

Limey

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I've gone to http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/laptops?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&redirect=1 but wherever I click "Check Prices" it tells me there's no inventory matching my filter.

Their stock varies quite a bit, there are plenty of 15Rs available at the moment, but they might be a bit above your budget £230+VAT and above.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=7&fid=1212

17R?

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=7&fid=2222