Student Laptop

Broke_Student

Rosieeex wrote: »

Got a letter from UCAS yesterday which had an offer of an Acer Laptop (1GB Ram, 120GB HD, intel core 2 due processor with Vista Home premium) with a Printer, headset and a bag for £589. Seems like a great offer, apart from the Acer laptop.

I got the same mailing from UCAS.

The offers are from www.one4uni.com/ucas

For £589 you get:
Acer Laptop
Canon multifunction printer/scanner
Targus Laptop Backpack
Microphone Headset (with free 400 minutes internet phone account)
3 year warranty on the laptop

The laptop specs are also respectable:
Core 2 Duo T5500
120GB HD
15.4" display
Vista Home Premium

For the price I think it this deal is worth it for anyone who needs all the extras and doesn't want the hassle of finding deals on each thing seperately. The laptop will last a good few years (unlinke the low spec Toshiba at bargain crazy) and will do everything a typical student requires (except play demanding 3d games). The extended warranty alone is worth £150+!

ixwood

I'd buy a 2nd hand one cheap off ebay. There's no way they'll need a powerful new one for normal browsing, office apps etc.

IBM thinkpads are very well regarded for their quality and durability. There's a huge techie fan base and amount of support available.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/

celticfcz

I've been accepted into university to study business and we all need a laptop in that course and apparently the university is doing a deal with a company to get us a laptop with all the best features for £500. Looks like I will be getting that!

If I were your sister I would look for the best features and see which one she will really need ie windows vista etc?

ixwood

Why would you possibly need vista? As part of a course? That can't be right.

I wouldn't be very surprised if the uni's not doing well out of the "deal" too.

My money saving advice would be to get a good quality 2nd hand laptop.

Stubert

princesslizzie wrote: »

I think PC World do discount through NUS.

You have to have NUS EXTRA in order to get the discount which you have to pay for.

CrispyUK

Stubert wrote: »

You have to have NUS EXTRA in order to get the discount which you have to pay for.

NUS Extra card is well worth paying for IMO, I've easily recouped the cost of the card several times over with discounts. Although I wouldn't buy anything from PC World myself if I could help it

Buying a new laptop isn't a bad idea, the prices are coming down pretty low now and at least you know you're getting something with a warranty and in a clean factory state - if you're not totally sure on what you're doing a 2nd hander might need Windows reloading fresh, etc. which is OK if you're competent in that sort of thing - a pain if not.

Dell usually have a variety of offers and their kit is fairly good - I've also been very pleased with my Acer laptop which has been going for 2.5yrs now trouble-free (other than one battery fault which they replaced no quibbles under warranty). http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk are pretty good and have plenty of choice.

Don't just buy into student laptop deals blindly - they're often nothing special - not worth 'holding out' for them - just see what's out there now. As an example that previously linked one doesn't look too fantastic to me...

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5613AWLMi_LX.AY10X.065/version-1.asp

Is very similar spec to the offer one, but has a faster processor and is only £399.97

Extend the warranty for £50 if you want to, can get that printer for £35 delivered free from Amazon, similar Targus backpack is £26 on laptopsdirect, they'll also give you a free £50 VoIP phone with that laptop if you click the package deals tab.

Totals about £510, saved you £80 and you've got better stuff too (faster processor, nice VoIP phone instead of cheapy headset!)

Or of course you can mix and match as you want, warranty is up to you, you might want a different printer, might prefer a messenger style bag instead of rucksack, your call

That laptop by the way will be absolutely fine for all your uni stuff, office, e-mail, web, digital photos, etc. - it's only gonna fall on it's face if you want to use it for 3D gaming and such.

Hope this helps some of you

CrispyUK

Just to add,

Quidco cashback is 2% on laptops direct so probably just under a tenner if you had that laptop, warranty and backpack.

Also if anyone is doing the Dell route there's currently 4.5% cashback on Quidco for them

melancholly

i'd recommend dell - i haggled with them on the phone and got great specs for £420ish.

Strangled

Have you thought of an Apple Macbook ? Phone the online store and you'll get student discount & 3 years Applecare for £50, normally £300ish.
If you need Windows XP/Vista, with the new intel chips you can partition the drive and install either alongside OSX (Apples OS)

kr15snw

PC World only do discount on the accessories, not on the actual computers! (Which kinda sucks, lol)

I would also reccomend Apples, I couldnt live without mine!