Best laptop - under £300!?!

paint

Re the router/modem issue; many ISPs will provide you with a free one if you switch to them.

Have just switched to Sky and they provided a free Netgear wireless router/modem; though you have to sign up for 12 months. Must say that Sky have been excellent so far (pay Sky £15 per month for TV, broadband and free off peak phone calls; plus the line rental to BT).

Obviously this has a hassle factor as you'd need to switch ISPs, and you may be very happy with the supplier you already have, but thought I'd toss it into the pot as another option.

bainy

john-306 wrote: »

Unfortunately no stock available for the Acer at both those suppliers,
looks like you emptied them Sarah:rotfl:

Worth looking for again though

Hey John-306 you can still get this laptop but at a different supplier and slightly more money. Its available at eclipse computers and costs £364.19 not sure about postage though. 1 point to note it says on their wesite that this laptop weights 5kg this is incorrect as it weights only 2.5kg.


http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=NBA-5512ZWLMI&af=50


Sarah1971, unfortunately for you that is only a modem. You have a couple of options the first being switch to a new ISP and be locked into a new contract and get a router free, all being well the switch could be trouble free or secondly you could just purchase a new router. The sky router given away free is a Netgear router similar to the one I suggested. If it was me the easiest option would be to buy a router as its the easiest and most trouble free, hassle free, no changing ISP's or email addresses etc but the choice is yours at the end of the day. Good Luck with your choice.

bigweed

Hi all

Just to resurrect this thread, I too am looking for a laptop for around the 300-350 GBP mark for my sister. She only needs it for internet surfing, MS office, DVD movies/Xvid movies playback. It doesnt need to be too portable, as it will be spending most of its time in her bedroom. I have found the following and was wondering if anyone could give me some guidance - or if anyone else has seen anything particularly good value for money??

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_7004_Laptop_LX.AWS0Y.003/version.asp

http://lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=1445584

http://www.technoworld.com/productdisplay.asp?ProductID=50057

http://www.technoworld.com/productdisplay.asp?ProductID=50184&source=html

Long battery life would be nice, but I cant tell which has long battery life and which doesnt?? Also, Im hoping that whichever I go for the seller will put in Win XP Pro and take out Vista - is this likely? As I just dont see what benefit Vista can offer her, but I see a whole host of potential problems, which I will have to sort out for her!! Oh yeah, massive graphics cards are not necessary, neither is future proofing too much, as she hates video games, so very unlikely to need much power, besides using Vista and Aero (if she has to), and playing movies.

Thanks to all! :0)

CHR15

This one seems reasonable to keep it under £300

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/653/860/-/3477502/Acer-Aspire-5315-Celeron-M-530-1-7GHz-1GB-80GB-15-4-DVD-SM-Vista-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html?searchtype=genre

I am not a fan of the GMA950 graphics on laptops.

bigweed

Thanks for that CHR15, that one looked pretty good, sadly its sold out :0(

Sisters prepared to go upto 350, do you think the ones i found will be any better? also, is it best to have the X3100 graphics card instead of the GMA950?

thanks

CHR15

Laptop graphics opens a whole can of worms.

To get truly decent graphics performance really requires big bucks.

My experience with Intel 950 graphics in the past have left me with a lifetime dislike of the chip. Perhaps it is better these days but in the past, the only game you could play with those graphics was minesweeper! really was that bad.

Same as my old experience with Hitachi Deathstar hard drives, I would never go near another one even if it has improved.

If this link works, I have tried to filter a comparison between the X3100 and 950 chip sets

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html?&or=&search=&sort=sorting&type=specs

EDIT} Nah!

Insert INTEL into the filter box, click RESTRICT then click POS

bigweed

thx for the link, had a look, see what you mean, will try to stick to the x3100! hopefully someone can offer me some advice on the laptops i found, as im not sure which to go for!! :0)

fletcher1985

my first laptop this year was a acer for £325 and i had it one day and the mouse pad broke i took it back and there were 2 other people in the que with the same laptop and the same problem, i now have a gateway laptop from tescos for £300 and its great a little slow on start up but other then that is great. i wouldnt go back to acer again.