Which laptop for < £350?

[Berlin]

I need a new Laptop and I have up to £350 to spend. Whats the best and where from? All opinions welcome.

... and anything except Dell! :)

Is it worth buying secondhand?

C

[metalmonkey]

Why not dell?

[beabert]

go refurbished from curry/comet/dixons more for you money with guarantee. Just make sure you at least get a dual core processor.

New 379 http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/615161/ACER-AS5738-653G25MN

[Berlin]

Why not dell?

Because I bought three of them and they were the biggest waste of money I've ever spent. The batteries are programmed to give up after a year, so are the power supplies. We've had three new batteries and five new power cords in three years and two on the new ones are now broken too.... Which costs more than the laptops. The paint rubbed off with your fingers, they keep crashing (hardware) they all have loose power connections to the mother board.

Utter rubbish.

C

[Viney]

So Dell is a maybe then ;)

Try Laptops Direct

[punyXpress]

ebuyer ?

[keithd]

Have you tried Dell?

[yorkie_chris]

Because I bought three of them...

2 laptops and 2 desktops here working fine. Oldest laptop is 4.5 years old and is fine except for battery life getting slowly worse.

[beabert]

Because I bought three of them and they were the biggest waste of money I've ever spent. The batteries are programmed to give up after a year, so are the power supplies. We've had three new batteries and five new power cords in three years and two on the new ones are now broken too.... Which costs more than the laptops. The paint rubbed off with your fingers, they keep crashing (hardware) they all have loose power connections to the mother board.

Utter rubbish.

C

Snap, in 3 years ive had 4 adapters, the paints come off, the hinges have broken twice and battery went in 12 months lol. Inspiron 6400

2 laptops and 2 desktops here working fine. Oldest laptop is 4.5 years old and is fine except for battery life getting slowly worse.

You dont use it alot then lol.

[yorkie_chris]

You seen my post count, it has been used. Though mostly on a desk rather than up trees and dropping it off the settee.

[metalangel]

An old Mac off ebay! Got an iBook G4 for £450 five years ago and it's still going strong.

My Dell Inspiron is eight years old (!!!) and still works. Except the battery only lasts ten minutes, and it's been in for repair four times.

What do you want the laptop to do?

[Bluefish]

Work, lol edit, +1 on ebuyer

[rowdy]

I've got an HP G7000. This was £350.
However, as a few people have mentioned with their laptops, the battery only lasts 10 minutes (it is now 2 years old).
I received an e-mail from HP, stating that some battery packs were being replaced in a recall. It listed the model of laptop that I have and it listed some of the battery pack codes that were faulty. Turns out that the code on my battery pack was one of the ones listed, and the fact that I can't use my laptop on my lap for more than 5 minutes without getting third degree burns would be enough to warrant HP sending out a new battery pack, as the recall was because of overheating battery packs (my laptop often cuts out because it overheats)

I e-mailed HP back but they are not willing to replace my battery pack. Barstewards.

I can't give any recommendation as to what laptop to get, but I am not that impressed with this one or HP customer care.

[barwel1992]

i dont like dell but i cant complain about my vostro 1000 (businesses lap top) cost me £250 3 years ago and has been droped down the stairs, sat on, dropped out side and has only just needed a new battery and charger ohh and on a 9cel battery i get about 3 hours bat life ;)

but if i had the choice i would go acer

[Jamesy D]

Pay a visit to Tescos. I've got a lovely quad-core, 3GB RAM, 256GB HD, 17.3" screen Acer waiting for me in two weeks, when the money from some selling I did clears. Admittedly it's £400, so a little over what you are looking for, but cracking bit of kit.

I'm even biting the bullet and buying the new Photoshop for it... it'll be nice to use it again after three years of Ubuntu...

[punyXpress]

What do you want the laptop to do?

Reckon yorkie_chris is going to cobble up a Power Commander / ECU / etc gadget for the Minitwin project. ;)

[beabert]

Pay a visit to Tescos. I've got a lovely quad-core, 3GB RAM, 256GB HD, 17.3" screen Acer waiting for me in two weeks, when the money from some selling I did clears. Admittedly it's £400, so a little over what you are looking for, but cracking bit of kit.

I'm even biting the bullet and buying the new Photoshop for it... it'll be nice to use it again after three years of Ubuntu...


Quad core fr £400? which one.

[Berlin]

Pay a visit to Tescos. I've got a lovely quad-core, 3GB RAM, 256GB HD, 17.3" screen Acer waiting for me in two weeks, when the money from some selling I did clears. Admittedly it's £400, so a little over what you are looking for, but cracking bit of kit.

I'm even biting the bullet and buying the new Photoshop for it... it'll be nice to use it again after three years of Ubuntu...

Thats the kind of thing I'm looking for. I have no idea what a this that and the other are and its all a bit confusing. I must be getting old! :)

So thats a bargain is it?

I'm looking for something to run web sites from, talk to mates all over the world, tinternet stuff, ofice stuff, run a company on, etc., etc.

C

[Jamesy D]

Just did a quick search and came up with these:

Linky 1 (http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-2571.aspx)
Linky 2 (http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-0828.aspx)

Both will do exactly what you ask of them, and are bang on budget for you. Hope it helps!

[cholley]

Try uk.insight.com some good laptops on here http://bit.ly/bnkftI

[maxinc]

£350 isn't going to buy you too much quality. I had a DELL before which cared for nicely would last you a few years but I agree the plastics are quite fragile and general build quality is rather on the low side.

[wyrdness]

go refurbished from curry/comet/dixons more for you money with guarantee. Just make sure you at least get a dual core processor.

New 379 http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/615161/ACER-AS5738-653G25MN

Refurbished laptops are good buys. They're in 'as new' condition and are tested more thoroughly than new laptops.

[keithd]

has anybody suggested Dell?

[Sir Trev]

<talking about Dell PCs> 2 laptops and 2 desktops here working fine. Oldest laptop is 4.5 years old and is fine except for battery life getting slowly worse.

Several thousand Dell PCs working fine here in my office and the in-house tech support guys report hardly any breaking down.

You can now specify which battery pack you want in Dell lappies. I have the standard one in mine which lasts about three hours but the long life ones last all day.

I used to work for EDS and after we were taken over by HP we were able to get employee discounts on HP kit. The desktop I bought is OK but the casing and finish is no better than my work Dell.

Plus the Latitude E6400 I have is no better or worse than the Vostros or Minis or Precisions some of our sales guys use. Or the Inspiron I bought my mum with my new employee discount... Did I say I work for Dell?

[ophic]

Did I say I work for Dell?
did you say "discount"? :D