Buying new laptop advice

mrscb

I'm looking at getting a new laptop that will hopefully see the eldest through Uni from Sept so one with a decent warranty or would buy a separate warranty if needed. Needs to have a cd/dvd drive and card reader as she uses her camera a lot. As up to date as possible ,budget around £500. Not into gaming.TIA

Mr_Toad

There are loads in that price range.

Take her to have a look at PC World, John Lewis or elsewhere and then see what price you can get on-line for the one she likes/is best suited.

Don't forget to check with her Uni what format they want her to do her assignments in and budget for the software.

When my daughter was at Uni they required mainly MS Word documents or occasionally PDF files.

If it's to be MS Office you can get a student copy for less money.

You can of course opt for the free Libre Office and save in MS document format but my daughter gave up on this very quickly after it became obvious that some of the expected formatting didn't work that well.

Documents and spreadsheets looked fine on her version of Libre Office but when the same document was opened in her tutors version of Word or Excel things often looked very different and tutors, for the most part, aren't people with the time or inclination to put up with it.

If it doesn't instantly conform to what is expected it gets returned and dates can be missed while trying to sort it out.

After installing MS Office she had no more issues and the lack of hassle was worth every penny.

On the other hand when the lad went to Uni, Computer Science, everything was Linux and any student caught using Windows had to buy the tutor a pint in the Union. Which is why I suggest you check the requirements.

Anne_Marie_2

On top of the other advice, think about weight of the laptop too if it's going to be getting carried about on a daily or regular basis.

Does she really need a cd/dvd drive which adds to the weight of a laptop?

Cisco001

I suggest you have a look at dell outlet.
Go to business section.
Choose dell Latitude laptop. Those business laptop would have 3 years warranty.
With £500, you could get something with i5-4XXX or i5-3XXX.