Best value laptop hunt - around £500 (merged threads) UPDATED

lilaliboo1

If you visit Comet's web site and search for a laptop by price, there is a catch. The minimum value laptop it allows you to search for is £450. This means you are not offered their best deal, which is a stonking £439 laptop, among the search results. However it is there and I think it's quite good value.

Visit the Comet web site https://www.comet.co.uk and type Amilo L7300 into the search box and you can buy it, with free delivery and the £10 web reduction. The bill comes to £439.99 all in. If you would rather phone the store on 08705 425 425 then they will honour the web price if you ask nicely, but delivery is then extra. For me it would be £19.99 to guarantee a morning or £14.99 for anytime that day.

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo L7300

The features are:

Intel Celeron M 1.5 GHz processor
MS Windows XP
Microsoft Works 7.0
512 Kb cache
15" XGA screen
40 GB storage
256 Mb RAM
It records CDs and will play DVDs
It can also connect to a TV for DVD watching
It has 4 USB ports

Best of all it's silver!

When you buy it there is the chance to purchase a half price laptop bag if that floats your boat, for less than £20.

I realise this product is not quite on the cutting edge of technology and it is not the lowest price in the world ever. However for me and what I want, it was £150 ahead of the competition that I saw in the shops and online for its spec and looks.

The cheapest laptops regardless of specification that I saw via other retailers were as follows: Unbeatable.co.uk £549, PC World £450 in store or £399 web exclusive but less spec. and not as nice, in Dixons it was well over £500 and in Curry's also over £500. Happy hunting xxx

trevor_john

Good spopt mate.
I am still a bit dumb with comps.

Can i connect to my broadband with this and is it wireless?

Edinburghlass_2

It has no modem or wireless card to connect to the broadband BUT you can put in a wireless card or a usb dongle if you have a wireless router on your main pc.

suroben

Seen in another thread that it does have wireless.

Edinburghlass_2

Okay for clarification my laptop bought from Comet at the above price does not have wireless connection included

suroben

Thanks for clarifying this edinburghlass. As you may have guessed I'm looking for a laptop as well.

redfox

well there's still the offer on for the Dell Inspiron 1000 at £399 inc. vat and delivery

lilaliboo1

I agree the Dell one is a great price. It does have a smaller screen and slightly less HD capacity that the Fujitsu Siemens one though so it's really just down to preference.

I do think Dell do great PCs but I also find their web site a bit too intense for me. When you click through to buy, they add over a hundred quid for a support package which you then have to manually remove, then there are so many options of other things to buy or upgrade to that I'm like a rabbit in headlights. When I finally click on buy now the page freezes 9 times out of 10 and it loses the previous info.

Perhaps I will just pick up the phone next time! ;-)

mak_attack

hi edinburghlass,

i am also looking at the comet fujitsu

how is it for:
word processing, presentations, internet, email, photo viewing, rare photo editing, dvd viewing and a few other non taxing thing

i need a budget laptop for the above purposes. how have you found it so far? reliable? how's the battery? speedy? slow?

any positive info on the laptop is much appreciated. any pics of it in action?

thanks.

Edinburghlass_2

mak_attack wrote:

hi edinburghlass,

i am also looking at the comet fujitsu

how is it for:
word processing, presentations, internet, email, photo viewing, rare photo editing, dvd viewing and a few other non taxing thing

i need a budget laptop for the above purposes. how have you found it so far? reliable? how's the battery? speedy? slow?

any positive info on the laptop is much appreciated. any pics of it in action?

thanks.

You want a pic of me in action with my laptop :o

To be honest I have, so far, only browsed the web with it and kept up with MSE. Haven't even tried a DVD in it but I will now while I type this on the pc. I was looking for a basic laptop for browsing and email, didn't require DVD RW as I have one on the pc, nor will I particularly download photos on to it as once again I will use the desktop. This laptop was suggested in the Great Laptop Hunt thread in the techie board here and it suited my needs. Follow the link through to the Comet website and there are pics there.

I have now bought another 256RAM half price at PCW to upgrade it but haven't done so yet and I use a USB wireless dongle to connect to my wireless router. I also bought a USB wireless mini mouse from Lidl yesterday for £7.99 which is a godsend for the times that I find the touch pad tricky. Should I find a good offer on a wireless card for the inside of the laptop (sorry not sure of the term for it) in the future I will probably go for that as well as sometimes I find the dongle gets hit and puts me offline.

Just checked the archive backup dvd that I put in now and its playing away fine with good picture quality.

HTH

jeff26r

Just got mine and it only looks to have 192Mb of RAM and no modem cable. Please can anyone confirm these two points for me?

I was hoping it may have a modem cable and it's listed as having 256Mb of RAM, does anyone know how this memory is configure, like 1 x 256Mb module?

Thans in advance.