Laptop Novice, Buying Help Needed

crisp

Looking to purchase a laptop mostly to watch films online and dvds. Email, wi-fi, some wordprocessing and spreadsheet work too.

I have never purchased a laptop before and would greatly appreciate any suggestions on whats available. It would be a family laptop, although we are not gamers.

From reading around tonight, I have been told that as a minimum spec I should be looking for:

320 GB storage
4GB memory
dual core basic processor
6 hours battery life
minimum 15 inch screen
minimum of 2 x usb
I want to connect it to my tv so VGA out and/or HDMI out required

Does this sound about right? Any changes?

My budget is not more than £450.

The following have come up. Any thoughts on them or other suggestions?

Acer Aspire V3-571
Lenovo Z580
Toshiba Satellite M50-A-11P
Lenovo G500

Knarf44

Any of those will do what you want but go for an i5 cpu if possible, if not an i3 one. You should be able to get a 500Gb hard disk at that price point.

Don't forget that it'll only have a trial version of Microsoft Office so you'll need to factor in the cost of a licence. Alternatively, you can download and learn to use the free office software, LibreOffice. It's MS Office compatible so files can be read in both programs.

Don't forget to make the recovery disks it will prompt you to make and think about a backup plan.

crisp

Knarf44 wrote: »

Alternatively, you can download and learn to use the free office software, LibreOffice. It's MS Office compatible so files can be read in both programs.

thanks knarf44.

is it possible to purchase a laptop without say ms office for a cheaper price and d/load office software or is some sort of software always provided?

I have been reading pcadvisor for some initial help.

Is there a good place with reliable reviews?

grumpycrab

You could get that spec for nearer £300 (but without 6hour battery). If its a family laptop I guess it'll be in the home so battery not important?

I'd prefer Lenovo to cheap Acer/Toshiba. e.g.
http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-g500-laptop-intel-pentium-4gb-ram-1tb-15-6-black/p1157211
John-Lewis provide 2 year warranties but price is higher than other places.
Get the best CPU you can afford (why the previous chap said go i5).
The linked laptop is the best at that price point at John-Lewis. Compare CPUs at cpubenchmark
e.g. just google "cpubenchmark Pentium 2020M"

An MS office suite is about £100. Or could try and install Office 2010 starter (free ad supported but a pain to install - see youtube). A free suite may be applicable.

Knarf44

I'm pretty sure that whether you buy a laptop with Windows 7 or 8 it will include a trial version of MS Office. If you don't plan to activate it you can either ignore it or uninstall it. Downloading and installing and using LibreOffice won't be affected by having an unactivated version of MS Office on your system.

However, if you uninstall it and at some later point you decide you don't like LibreOffice then you would need to restore your laptop back to its factory image using the recovery disks you made when first using the laptop.

I'm pretty sure Windows 8 comes with a 60 day trial of MS Office 2013 after that it needs activating. The Home and Student version is around £100. So it's worth getting to know LibreOffice and perservering with it.

securityguy

crisp wrote: »

minimum 15 inch screen
I want to connect it to my tv so VGA out and/or HDMI out required

Do you intend to carry it anywhere? 15" laptops are large and heavy, and are more luggable than portable.

You almost certainly want HDMI to connect to a TV; fewer and fewer televisions have VGA. However, if you might want to connect it to a projector in an office or school, VGA is still more common.

crisp

securityguy wrote: »

Do you intend to carry it anywhere? 15" laptops are large and heavy, and are more luggable than portable.

You almost certainly want HDMI to connect to a TV; fewer and fewer televisions have VGA. However, if you might want to connect it to a projector in an office or school, VGA is still more common.

mostly around the house and sometimes to a relative/friend, but not internationally.

crisp

grumpycrab wrote: »

You could get that spec for nearer £300 (but without 6hour battery). If its a family laptop I guess it'll be in the home so battery not important?

I'd prefer Lenovo to cheap Acer/Toshiba. e.g.
http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-g500-laptop-intel-pentium-4gb-ram-1tb-15-6-black/p1157211
John-Lewis provide 2 year warranties but price is higher than other places.
Get the best CPU you can afford (why the previous chap said go i5).
The linked laptop is the best at that price point at John-Lewis. Compare CPUs at cpubenchmark
e.g. just google "cpubenchmark Pentium 2020M"

An MS office suite is about £100. Or could try and install Office 2010 starter (free ad supported but a pain to install - see youtube). A free suite may be applicable.

Would the intel pentium be sufficient for my needs for watching films online? If so then I think its the one (lenevo) for me.

Do you have a suggestion of something with a similar spec but i3 or i5? Is the difference with the intel pentium noticeable for a novice?

grumpycrab

crisp wrote: »

Would the intel pentium be sufficient for my needs for watching films online?

Should be fine. (Note Windows8 doesn't have a program to play DVDs. VLC is suggested to do that.)

crisp wrote: »

suggestion of something with a similar spec but i3 or i5? Is the difference with the intel pentium noticeable for a novice?

i5 suggestion is a refurb (but 12 months warranty) from PCWorld (not good)
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/refurbished-laptops/hp-pavilion-15-n097ea-refurbished-15-6-laptop-goji-berry-21932083-pdt.html
To answer your last question if its mostly for watching DVDs/online it should be fine.