Cheap Good Laptop

[SarahH]

A group of us are planning on clubbing together for my friends 30th to get her a laptop as her home PC is on it's last legs and plus she has just gone back to Uni after having her kids.

Can any of you recomend a cheap(ish) laptop, good make. Doesnt need to be fancy...

 

[Becky]

The best thing to do is keep an eye out for the big brands having offers on (Dell, HP, Sony).

You can get a great laptop for around £370 from Dell at the moment Dell.co.uk

Just make sure that if it's Windows Vista it has 2gb RAM.

 

[fran_23]

I got a fujitsu-siemens one from PC world with lots of extras like norton, a bag and wireless mouse for
£300- its really good- i'm not all that up on stats and stuff but it had more memory than the more expensive ones!

 

[SarahH]

I'm keeping an eye on play.com, currys, comet etc websites as they are all on Quidco so I will get money back too!!

 

[maybebaby]

I got mine from a refurbished website. It's got ones that have been returned to the manufacturer because they don't work, but they're mended and tested over and over so as good if not better than new. We got one with a 17" screen, dual core processor & windows vista (plus lots of numbers I don't really understand ) for £300. And it still has a 6 month manufacturer's warranty.

The website is http://www.buyit247.net/ if you want a look.

 

[Sherlock]

Dell only sells online and tbh their after sales service is known to be shit. So avoid them if you can I would advise. If there are any problems it would probably be a lot of hassle to resolve.

 

[Becky]

To be fair to Dell, I've got a Dell (our second laptop), my sister and brother have Dell PCs. We had to send our first laptop back for repair and it was delt with very well. The other PCs and laptops we have had no problems with and the build quality is very good.

I know Dell have a bad reputation but other manufacturers have equally bad reputations and from my experience it just depends on who you talk to. I've had a good experience with Dell, others will tell horror stories - but the same can be said about a lot of PC manufacturers.

 

[Sherlock]

To be fair to Dell, I've got a Dell (our second laptop), my sister and brother have Dell PCs. We had to send our first laptop back for repair and it was delt with very well. The other PCs and laptops we have had no problems with and the build quality is very good.

I know Dell have a bad reputation but other manufacturers have equally bad reputations and from my experience it just depends on who you talk to. I've had a good experience with Dell, others will tell horror stories - but the same can be said about a lot of PC manufacturers.

I think the only one with a really good rep is Apple. We've found them to be excellent in every aspect. And at least if bought in store you can go back and wave the receipt and warranty at them the same day if need be.

 

[jenni32]

Dell only sells online and tbh their after sales service is known to be sh*t. So avoid them if you can I would advise. If there are any problems it would probably be a lot of hassle to resolve.

We've found Dell good, had a replacement power supply the day after we phoned them about it. They are also selling at Tesco now.

 

[Emma79]

Just make sure that if it's Windows Vista it has 2gb RAM.

Oh no, why?? I've just treated myself to a HP with Vista and only 1gb - have I made a mistake? Not very computer literate to say the least

BTW, got mine from tesco direct with a bag + mouse for £314.

 

[Mildly]

I would recommend Acer and Toshiba as good cheap laptop makes. However it is difficult to recommend anything specific without knowing exactly what your friend will be using it for. To be honest if she is not going to be taking the laptop to college you would get more for your money i.e. better specs by getting her a desktop.

If it comes with Vista I would recommend a 2gb RAM minimum as Vista takes up a hell of a lot of memory just to run the operating system in fact I would rather have 4gb but obviously that will increase the price way too much.

Emma79 don't worry about your 1gb too much. If you find the laptop slow to respond when running programs you can turn off a lot of unnecessary processes to help speed things up. Also the only upgradable part of a laptop (although you can buy additional batteries and HDs) is the memory so if you really find it to be slow you can purchase more RAM.

 

[LilysMummy]

Keep an eye out at Tescos I got a new HP laptop about 2months ago. Should have been £400 I got it for £339 in one of their random sales

Dells are good though never had a problem with them, we have always had them and my Dad uses them to supply his business.