Laptop,Netbook or Tablet Advice for 9yr old and mum!!

3littlegems

Hi

I know this has been asked alot and i have been trawling through the threads but cant find a complete answer.

Sons 9th birthday is approaching and he has requested a netbook or something similar.

It would be used by him for writing up homework (hopefully) games,movies,surfing.

I would also like to be able to use it for surfing,banking,ebay,photos,etc

We do have a home pc but we are wanting something more portable.

Now from reading threads i have picked up the following with good reviews.

HP Touchpad (missed this one)
AICS X220 currently good reviews on amazon and found it on a thread on here
Vega ebay/currys again found on here.

Would any of these be good for our needs,would any of them require further programs to update them as have read people are having to do this. Im ok with computers but not a whizz!!

Budget is about £150-£200 maybe a little bit more. Its a small budget for what we need,i know!!

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

fwor

You don't really seem to have decided what you need.

If you don't need it to be truly portable, you may find the small screen and keyboard on the smaller netbooks irritating.

On the other hand, if you aren't expecting to type in lots of text and need something really portable, a tablet would be better.

If you want a big screen and full-size keyboard and it will mainly be used at a desk or table, then a laptop.

You may get a better idea what suits you by going to somewhere with a large range like PC World and trying out what they've got on display - though of course you are likely to get a better price by buying elsewhere...

3littlegems

fwor wrote: »

You don't really seem to have decided what you need.

If you don't need it to be truly portable, you may find the small screen and keyboard on the smaller netbooks irritating.

On the other hand, if you aren't expecting to type in lots of text and need something really portable, a tablet would be better.

If you want a big screen and full-size keyboard and it will mainly be used at a desk or table, then a laptop.

You may get a better idea what suits you by going to somewhere with a large range like PC World and trying out what they've got on display - though of course you are likely to get a better price by buying elsewhere...

Im happy to have either of the three,which ever one suits needs and budget. Wouldnt want a 7inch tablet would have to be 10 or above.

I guess any major writing would be done on the home pc so if it can browse,play films,store photos,do ebay,play games whether that be on a desk,on the sofa or in bed then im happy!!! I hate being tied to the computer desk!!

Will go to a store and have a look,but its knowing what to look for in terms of memory etc.

Thank you

mwddrwg

How important is the gaming side of what you want a new PC to do? If you want to play the latest games then only the best laptops will do the job properly as they need to be a similiar RAM (say 4MB-ish) to a desktop PC and have a decent graphics card with at least 1MB of dedicated memory. Netbooks are generally rubbish at proper PC games and have no DVD drives in the main. Tablets for decent games? - in a word, no. Laptops can be difficult to use with games unless you get a separate mouse and don't use the touchpad.

3littlegems

mwddrwg wrote: »

How important is the gaming side of what you want a new PC to do? If you want to play the latest games then only the best laptops will do the job properly as they need to be a similiar RAM (say 4MB-ish) to a desktop PC and have a decent graphics card with at least 1MB of dedicated memory. Netbooks are generally rubbish at proper PC games and have no DVD drives in the main. Tablets for decent games? - in a word, no. Laptops can be difficult to use with games unless you get a separate mouse and don't use the touchpad.

Apologies i should have been clearer. He likes to play online games like Top Gear,Moshi Monsters,Club Penguin,cbbc stuff no actual pc games as we have Wii,xbox ds`s for that.

gonzo127

i would be careful with tablets, mainly because the browser based games will not nessesarily lend themselves to a touch screen interface, yes some might have apps which have been designed with this interface in mind but not all of them will. so some games will not be playable on a tablet

Timalay

If you can pick up Micro Mart magazine in town, they some really good deals advertised in there.

They also have classified ads, so you may be able pick up a better deal.