New Laptop

itsakidsworld

Hi everyone,

We are looking to buy a laptop in next dew days and wonder if anyone can point us in the right direction? The laptop is for general browsing, emails, music but not online gaming. This one looks decent:

HP Pavilion 15-p189sa 15.6” Laptop - White

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance and seasons greetings to all.

[Deleted User]

A little more detail would help.

Will it be mainly used at home, or for a lot of travelling? by public transport, ie. aeroplanes, trains, coaches, etc.

If the latter, will it be used a lot on the internal battery?

Will you be doing any/much office type work?

itsakidsworld

Hi Bedsit Bob,

Sorry for the lack of info-it is to be used mainly at home for our son. It wont be used much with travel. He told us he wont be using it for online gaming.

[Deleted User]

If it's to be used at home, wouldn't a PC be a better option?

prowla

Pretty much any machine is suitable for that.

So, in general you can try for a brand you've heard of, look at the guarantee, see if it includes software, see if you like the feel of the thing.

Criteria you can use are:
Screen size: 15" is a good size, whereas 14" is more convenient for on the move (but smaller to look at).
Screen resolution: HDMI TVs are "1080p"; I think that buying lower resolution than that is not so good. (But budget laptops can be.)
CPU; Anything these days should be adequate; I try and buy over 2 GHz, but some of the budget ones are lower.
Memory (RAM): I don't think you can get a machine with less than 2 GB these days; 4 GB or more is better.
Hard disk: Most disks these days are big enough; 500 GB is ample, and 300 GB is adequate,
Wi-Fi: Most machines will include that.

Though you've said you don't need gaming, if the question does come up then game-capable machines tend to have more powerful graphics, which can lead to a higher price.

NiftyDigits

I would never knowing buy an HP laptop. Sorry HP.

Strider590

If you don't need gaming, then my money would be on a refurbished business grade machine.

Everytime I strip down my IBM T41 to clean and regrease the system fan (which has been on pretty much 24/7 for the last 8 years), I'm greeted with a system so easy to strip down that it's actually a pleasure. Every screw hole marked and labeled, telling you what it's for and what size screw to use, a total strip down and rebuild takes less than 30 minutes.

The last time I took apart a cheap consumer grade laptop (4 years newer than mine), I was pulling my hair out after nearly 2 hours of wrestling with it, I had to photograph every few minutes so I knew what went where, the parts were so flimsy I was concerned it would break and whilst the spec was higher than mine, the memory was of such a low quality that it was actually slower.

Cheap laptop, 2007 £400 new, ready for the tip after 3 years.

My laptop 2004 £1600 new, but bought for £150 in 2007 as a 3 year old refurb, will probably run for another 10 years. In fact it's predecessor, an IBM 770X, is now 16 years old and still works.

itsakidsworld

Thanks for your input folks-all very helpful in making a final decision. He has a pc(which is quite old now) and now wants a laptop which is fair enough. He has told me that the one i showed here is bigger than he wants- he has seen some small screen ones and i will pass the info from here to him so he can choose.

The problem we have (me especially) is that when you go into the shop(Curry's) they bamboozle me and i seriously have not got a clue what they are on about-hence getting all the info first.

Thanks once again

[Deleted User]

If it's a small screen he wants, I've got a 10.1" Medion Akoya E1317T LAPTOP (MD98448).

Win 8, with touch screen

It's lightweight (less than 48 ounces including battery), small size (10.5" X 7.25" X 1") and comes with a FULL version of Office 2013 Home & Student.

£196, including shipping.

http://www.medion.com/gb/shop/budget-laptops-medion-akoya-e1317t-laptop-md98448-30016317a1.html?wt_mc=gb.sea.google_pla.product%20listing%20ads.MEDION%20AKOYA%20%20E1317T%20Laptop%20(MD98448)&wt_cc1=&adtype=pla&gclid=CLuj4bPt5cICFezHtAodc0IA5g

itsakidsworld

Cheers Bedsit Bob,

I'll show him

Jivesinger

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I've got a 10.1" Medion Akoya E1317T LAPTOP (MD98448).

Just out of curiosity - do you use it on its battery much? What sort of battery life do you get?