That time of year -Laptop Halp!

[Adam]

O Hai.

Whilst I'm still actually trying to secure the funds for it. I'm going to be starting laptop hunting this week as mine won't survive in Germany.

My budget is £250-300 though I'm happy so spend less or more if it's justified. I need a laptop with a strong battery (doesn't exist) and that's about it really. Vague requirements I know but I'm long over the whole need to have power at my fingertips kind of thing. If I had the money, I'd go all out and get a Qosimo but I don't so theres no need to pay for more than I need.

The main requirements are really: WiFi, a nice screen (not necessarily big, just not a cheap glary, reflective piece of crap), Memory at or above 3gb (I can't handle laptops that choke, they're too easy to throw when they're on my lap and playing up) and that's pretty much it.

I don't need graphics (though I did used to LOVE playing WoW on a laptop -I've long gotten over it having not been able to play it since Cata on my old laptop), I don't need a 64 bit processor (though I never say no) and I don't need that much disk space as it will only have programs like Photoshop and Office on it and any media will be streamed to it. I just need something that can be turned on and worked from in comfort

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated I'm off into town to check out what's on special offer in the stores

[MarkuzR]

You lost me at £250-300 mate, sorry!! I didn't even know you could get laptops that cheap, I thought it was all netbooks below £400.

Had a look on Ebuyer....

Acer Aspire 7741z Laptop, Pentium P6100 2.0GHz, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 17.3" TFT, DVDRW, UMA, Webcam
http://www.ebuyer.com/241612-acer-as...p-lx-py902-037
£318

Dell Inspiron M5030 Laptop, AMD Athlon II P360 2.3GHz, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.6" LED, DVDRW, ATI HD4250
http://www.ebuyer.com/268864-dell-in...ptop-5030-8503
£268

Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-16N Laptop, Core 2 Duo T6670 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.6" HD, DVD±RW, GMA
http://www.ebuyer.com/258876-toshiba...sc0me-01s00sen
£299

[Adam]

Cheers Chief :

I know its not much cash but its suprising what you can get for those amounts. Lappys like those Dell's are ideally priced considering I won't need it for much and when you think that Netbooks are what you typically pay that much for, it's stupid not to just take a laptop. I did look at picking up a netbook but I can't find them with more than a gig of ram in that sort of bracket.

Very very helpful Thank you

[justbiglee]

why are you buying a new laptop for germany - just take mums

[The Author]

This is helping me too actually. I really need a laptop now, to help with moving out. And writing the article that's floating in the back of my skull.

[The Rook]

I've thought about a laptop from time to time, or an ipad. Maybe someday I'll decide if I want either and which it will be.

[Van-Fu San]

MarkuzR has already put his vote in for a Dell, and I will second that with the Inspiron 15, going for £299. I am pleased with both of my Dell's. But if you can scrape another £120 together, go for the Inspiron 15R range. But make it Dell, whatever you do.

[MarkuzR]

MarkuzR has already put his vote in for a Dell, and I will second that with the Inspiron 15, going for £299. I am pleased with both of my Dell's. But if you can scrape another £120 together, go for the Inspiron 15R range. But make it Dell, whatever you do.

Just want to lay my cards on the table here... I would never recommend a Dell if I had a choice. They use a lot of proprietary stuff and aren't easy to upgrade or maintain if need be. The only reason I even mentioned Dell is because of the price restrictions, otherwise I'd recommend going for Samsung or Toshiba. I just don't like how Dell operate, and would never buy one myself. I've had one Sharp (Actius A100) one Samsung (NE300 I think) and seven Toshibas. In fact, the last Tosh was something like six years old and still capable of running recent games - fantastic machine.

So yeah, I stand by my recommendations but don't want anyone thinking that I'm actually recommending a Dell, because I'm far too discerning a consumer to use Dell.

[Adam]

Of all of the ones on the table, I was looking most at the Toshiba -A good little setup and has more room to upgrade too. I do like how reliable dells are and to buy from dell is always good as you do get really fantastic support if you know how to make use of it. But yeah, as Mark says, they use a lot of propietary stuff and so upgrading and making any changes that circumvent Dell is both a hassle and voids the previous part.

I have had a wee look around on some of the big (read: stupid) retailers, wondering what people think about this one?

ACER Aspire 5552 15.6" Laptop - Black
AMD Athlon II Dual-Core P320
- 2.1 GHz
- 1MB L2 cache size
3GB, DDR3, Maximum memory 8 GB
Integrated, ATI Radeon™ HD 4250, 256MB of dedicated system memory

EMACHINES E642 15.6" Laptop - Black
AMD Athlon II Dual-Core P340
- 2.2 GHz
- Front Side Bus: 1066Mhz
- Cache size: 1MB L2
3GB, DDR3
Integrated ATI Radeon™ HD 4250, 256 MB of dedicated system memory

Oh and thats thoughts other than "ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" by the way I know they're bad but they fit the bill and seem good value, just want to borrow the expert eyes of you all incase you see something that makes you think 'No, don't -that thing there on it will do x and you won't like that'

[The Preacher]

Wouldn't touch a Dell with a ten foot RAM stick. Toshiba and Samsung are the best laptops around at the moment (have a Samsung, had a Tosh), and Fujitsu Siemens were okay when I last had one of their machines a few years ago.

I don't know about EMachines, but my mother had an Acer and it was nothing but ballache from the day she bought it to the day it met an insurance accident and was replaced with a Samsung. I'd avoid that one.

If you can afford it, I'd go with the Tosh Satellite Pro Mark found.