New Laptop

prowla

One thing to beware of in Currys is the extended warranty spiel...

[Deleted User]

Jivesinger wrote: »

Just out of curiosity - do you use it on its battery much?

Not massively.

What sort of battery life do you get?

I used it on battery for a couple of hours, in the bar of a Berlin hotel (no Wifi in the rooms :mad: ) and it was still over 1/2 charged.

I think you could expect ~ 5 hours.

The only thing it lacks, is a DVD drive, but I use one of these, which cost me just £25.

dogstarheaven

Strider590 wrote: »

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.

Hi,

I'm wondering for something similar myself although, my use for it are:
TV streaming (ie. Netflix, iPlayer)
Film watching
Youtube and Spotify
light emailing
once a week, Word and Excel work for a couple of hours

I did have a £400 max. limit for a laptop, but having spoken to my 16yo gaming/college student nephew, he's recommending I should go for a £700 spend. Is this necessary for something that I'd want to last more than 4+ years? Oh yeah, they said to go for one of the top makes like Sony, Lenovo etc.

What do you guys think?

(I need to buy one tomorrow in the shops as this lappie is seriously failing me this Christmas!:o:o

PS. Thanks in advance/

[Deleted User]

If you are going to be doing Word and Excel work, it'd be worth looking for one that comes with a full, lifetime version of Office 2013.

dogstarheaven

Thanks, BB. Can you reccy anything?
http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-g710-laptop-intel-core-i3-4gb-ram-1tb-17-3-black/p1013148
http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-g50-45-laptop-amd-a8-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-black/p1759617
http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-g50-70-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-1tb-2gb-graphics-15-6-black/p1603670
http://www.johnlewis.com/toshiba-satellite-l50d-b-laptop-amd-a8-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-/p1731494?colour=Red

http://www.ebuyer.com/633691-lenovo-essential-b5400-laptop-mb82juk
I've just picked some from this site, and maybe one of these might suit - whadayathink?

[Deleted User]

They're not bad machines, but none of those offers a full, lifetime version of Office 2013.

My Laptop only has a 10.1", which makes it ideal for carrying about (it recently accompanied me to Belgium and Germany, in a little Daysack), and I have a 16" flat screen monitor for when I use it at home.

To my mind, it's easier to plug a small laptop into a monitor, for home, than it is to lug a huge laptop around the world.

dogstarheaven

I don't really have a need to take it away with me, but is the lifetime guarantee Office 2013 with many other models and brands as I'm not sure I can find it that easily?

[Deleted User]

I don't know how common it is, but it came with mine.

As for not needing to take it away with you, would you not then be better off with a PC?

dogstarheaven

Nah; I'm lazy and would be using it mainly in bed!

[Deleted User]

For doing the cyber nasty with your faraway girlfriend?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PzO8XsyCSQ

:rotfl: