Im after some advice

The other half needs a new laptop so Im gonna get her one for Xmas

I've been looking and I'm leaning towards spending around 379-400 on one now and I right in thinking a I3 processor is better than a AMD??

I'm off to PC world in the morning and I'm between models HP, Acer and Toshiba

I've seen there own make spec for Lenovo which looks good

Any views on any of the above would b great

Thanks
Neil

a) PC World probably not the best place to go for price and advice, however you may have no other choice than the high street or retail park (Currys/Comet etc). Can you get to a John Lewis or try online with a quick delivery? ( Have a look at Dell Outlet)

b) HP & Toshiba tend to be very proprietary loads of own make hardware and software

c) Computer Shopper (Feb 2012 - yeah they are way ahead of themselves)

Acer Aspire 5749 (I3) Budget Buy @ £400
Dell Inspiron 14z (I5) Best Buy @ £579
Dell Inspiron 15R (I5) 5 stars @ £500 ( was a Jan 2012 Best Buy)
Lenovo Ideapad S205 (AMD) Budget Buy @ £349 (Jan 2012)

Me, I would buy Dell or Asus. Have had Dell laptops for last 15 years and they have never let me down, I use Asus nettops and netbooks and Acer netbooks similarly with no problems. Samsung do some good stuff too.

HTH  .
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Hi look at electrical deals on the tinternet site is called electrical deals in the search do some very good deals Current tdv8 range vogue 07

Hi GLM,

Are you looking for one that wil last a few years and wear well or something that looks nice and does basic PC use, ie mainly sits with internet open and the odd document and some photo processing(ie being loaded with photos for viewing and saving) then your budget can see good use in a decent Dell or Lenovo machine.

Sometimes Samsung ones can be good but after having literally 100's if not 1000's of laptops through my hands in recent years for repairs, upgrades and so on i know where i'd stick my money(currently being posted from an R400 )

If its not heavy use i'd go for one of these netbook type machines due to wieght ladies often prefer them and they dont suffer as much due lower inertia, and this is from experience as well

Toshiba, Sony, Acer et al are all for making the most money from each machine as possible and massively load bloat-ware on them that harms the performance and feel of the machine from the get go which is a big personal hate of mine.

Here is an Ideapad
Cheap Ideapad I'd stick some more memory in this one though. its only £11 to upgrade to 2gig which will help it a fair bit

PS
Like Joe said, avoid thos profiteers as much as possible, older tech and over inflated prices should steer clear tbh!!

Ciffy


I worked in HP for years . If you are after a laptop rather than an Ipad either choose a Compaq or a HP . Dell use inferior components.

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Last edited by Googsy on 19th Dec 2011 1:09pm. Edited 1 time in total

My back lights gone on mine (It's a 2008 Compaq) it's been good and survived several trips abroad, so will be treating myself to a new Compaq tomorrow.

Would not go down the HP route , been in the Bness for 25 years , 10 years ago i would have said HP Or IBM but no longer. Far to many gone...

If you can, go to John Lewis. They offer 2 year warranties on all laptops.

I agree with the comment about HP laptops. Not a fan of Dell laptops (may have changed over the years but in the past have them not to be sturdy).

Toshiba make good laptops. Something like this

http://www.johnlewis.com/231395885/Product.aspx Paul

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Dell have improved massively over the last 5 years esp Vostro & Latitudes , most reliable units around in the market together with hi end Samsung units.

Cheap is cheap at the end of the day PC World avoid like the plague sell nothing but cheap end crap.
Old story you get what you pay for at the end of the day. Far to many gone...