which laptop

[Bushcraftsman]

Hi guys.

I have just found out that my nana is kindly giving me 400 quid for Christmas! She was going to buy me an iPad but since I have a galaxy s3 I jus don't think I really need a tablet. I said to her I'd rather have the money for a laptop or something that I need and can use for work and college and personal etc. So what laptop do any of you guys recommend for that price range. All I need it for is the usual. Watching films. Microsoft office stuff. browsing obviously. Perhaps some photo editing and rare game playing. So an all rounder really.

Thanks in advance

P.s - currently have a desktop computer that serves all these things just the portability of a laptop that I like. I'd probably use the desktop for storage

 

[Shewie]

The new Chromebooks look good

For the last 15 years I've used nothing else but Dell machines, they've been great, the only thing I've had to replace is batteries after four or five years.

HP seem to be plagued with power related issues. The power input jack is famously weak.

 

[mountainm]

Get the surface and keyboard, it does office stuff too.

 

[resnikov]

We have Dell's and HP's at work and whilst these are business machines the new HP are rubbish and keep failing with hardware issues, the older dells just keep going and if they do need to be fixed they are very easy to do so.

 

[Filterhoose]

Dell. Or wait for 3 more xmases and get a Macbook.

Windy

 

[Bushcraftsman]

Not a fan of the chrome book. Don't you have to he connected to internet to use it? And yeah I was thinking a Dell inspiron or something along those lines

 

[ZEbbEDY]

I got a 17 inch core i5 ,6gb ram and 1tb hard drive with dedicated graphics for 375 from the dell outlet

factory refurb but it was immaculate and has a warranty so no complaints, would use them again defo, especially when you see the adverts on tv for celeron and core i3 going for the same kind of money

www.dell.co.uk/outlet

new ones come on thrugout the day so keep checking if nothing decent there

 

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Not a fan of the chrome book. Don't you have to he connected to internet to use it? And yeah I was thinking a Dell inspiron or something along those lines

Prity much, you have some basic local storage but the OS is essentially just there to launch the web browser, and then it has very limited computing capabillitys.

 

[rik_uk3]

Get the surface and keyboard, it does office stuff too.

But your limited to what programmes you can install and run which is why I'm waiting for the Surface Pro to launch...one will be mine

Laptop choice is very subjective, your best bet is to spend some time online looking through reviews and maybe on so forums rather than one of us saying whats best. My 'best' laptop is a Sony Vaio but they are out of your budget (but an excellent machine).

 

[dwardo]

Give the guys at www.europc.co.uk a call.
They deal in business stock thats been unboxed, missing a manual, tiny cosmetic damage etc as-well as new. They all have a manufacturers 12 month warranty so no worries there.
When my customers ask its where i send them Just call tell them your budget and they will see what they have in stock be it new and unopened or the odd bargain where there is a half inch scratch on the bottom that cant be seen.
No affiliation etc.

 

[Elen Sentier]

I've used Dell for the past 20 years with no complaints, just good straight machines that seem to keep going well. Currently have a laptop which I use for everything, including photoshop.

I might give your contact a ring, Dwardo, when I next want a new machine just to see what they feel like - am open to change if it works

 

[sandbender]

My father in law was looking for a new laptop in the summer, a little google-fu suggested that the Lenovo machines were quite a good buy. He has been using his for a few months with no probs, it seems well built, it has a nice keyboard and came with Windows 7 which seems less terrible than some of the other MS OSs. His older machine was an Acre, it seemed nice anough if a little slow, it was supplied with MS Vista, when he was done with it I installed XP instead and it now runs much faster and works well as a back up machine.

I am a long time user of Apple machines, I'm not sure that even a reconditioned Apple laptop will fall within the OP's budget however even if it did I wouldn't recommend one, whereas the machines I was buying in the late nineties and early 2000s were very well built, long lasting and supplied with an OS that allowed me to accomplish even basic tasks with about half the number of mouse clicks that a Windows machine required, the hardware Apple has been producing of late is frankly no better than the machines produced by other manufacturers, seems more prone to failure and is practically impossible to repair. Add to that an OS that is all whizz, bells and whistles. I will not buy another Apple product.

The Chromebook does actually appeal, but then I don't use photoshop and most of what I do day to day in terms of writing and communicating I can do through a browser, they will work without and internet connection and synch up your work when one becomes available, something to think about if the OP only needs to check his email, sites and do some basic text or image editing maybe.