Which Laptop to Buy? Advent, Sony or HP

m5rcc

Figment wrote: »

Care to elaborate on this ?

Other than being expensive and having crap customer service, it's PC World....there needn't be any explanation.

chunter

Another one who wouldn't touch an Advent. The Lada of the laptop world.

tombruton87

I am an ex pc world employee, They are not all bad and at certain points in the year they have some laptop deals that no1 can compete with.

As other ppl have said the entry level ones are built to cost, Id say they do improve in quality a lot around the 400 pound mark.

Me personally I wouldn't buy anything without a uni body design, they are just so much sturdier. Im looking at getting a zen book. Business class laptops are also designed to take a beating my dell studio xps is now 4 years old and working perfectly.

Customer service can be a lottery depending on how you approach the staff and who you approach. There is a lot of pressure put on all staff to sell extras so ppl can be very highly strung as they are always under pressure and threat of losing there job. Laptop failure rate in the first 2 years is around 4% mostly being hard drives going.

Before you go in do your research and know what you want and need. i.e. do you need office and antivirus. Compare prices b4 hand as they will price match any shop in your area and sometimes online retailers. If you don't buy extras the managers will have a go at the member of staff who sold you the item (because in there eyes you didn't buy the extras not because you didn't need them it because the sales staff didn't tell you about them).

The last thing to know about before you go into a store is wateva happens. they will try to sell you this. It can be a good service there are other product protection out there. generally multi-item protection with somebody like protect my bubble works out much better value for money.

23n1th

I don't have a problem with the cheaper laptops, you can get some real good deals on them if you know what to look for. I have an Advent netbook from when they first came out (based on the more expensive Wind) its still going strong running Arch, must be going on 6 years old.

I also have a compaq laptop thats coming up 3 years old and a acer thats near 5. Both cheap laptops both doing their jobs. My GF has a Dell 1525 that is 6 years old running vista.

And I tend to go AMD over intel especially on the budget side.

wookie66

The Sony is a steal at £440 for an i3 core processor.

I personally wouldn't hang around but jump at the chance to buy that model assuming they have em in stock

I can personally vouch for Sony's being in a class of their own when it comes to screen quality and robustness of hardware components....your less likely to encounter a fault compared to other laptop manufacturers ( i have purchased numerous Sony's for myself family and friends)

The HP is also very keenly priced and if your budget is around £380 then it seems a good buy

Personally I would steer away from Advent, not that it isnt a good computer but you are better off sticking with brand names like Sony and HP

An alternative you may want to consider is eBay and the Argos outlet store on there, they often have refurbished laptops which are at least £100 cheaper than brand new ones and to be honest these are excellent buys and I would never be put off by a refurbished laptop.

I have purchased a number which could be easily mistaken as a brand new laptop and never had any problems with them

Hope this helps

Notmyrealname

23n1th wrote: »

My GF has a Dell 1525 that is 6 years old running vista.

Wow, thats amazing. Did she travel in time? Must have done to have a laptop for 6 years that was first released in 2008.

23n1th

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Wow, thats amazing. Did she travel in time? Must have done to have a laptop for 6 years that was first released in 2008.

Ill make sure I chastise her suitably for providing me with false info, how dare she!

Robisere

Try this:
laptopsdirect.co.uk/search?asug=&w=HP+Pavilion+G6-1391ea+Laptop&submit1=+

Whatever model is chosen, I would advise that you remove all the manufacturer's carp (HP, Toshiba, Sony, whatever) I can advise how to do this, it does NOT cancel or invalidate the warranty as that is only applicable to the hardware, IE the machine and its components.

It will make a good machine even better, certainly faster.