What to buy? (£600 to spend)

[philiporchardphiliporchard is verified member.]

My wife has been told to choose herself a laptop for up to £600 from her work.

I'm a Mac man myself, so any advice would be great.

Best make, good deals, what to steer clear of...

Thanks

 

[seanc]

a mac

PC = waste of time

 

[philiporchardphiliporchard is verified member.]

If only... £600 won't touch a Mac, so a PC it has to be.
Surely there must be some decent laptops for £600...

 

[Blossom]

a mac

PC = waste of time

For £600? You'll be lucky.


Depends what her priorities for & what she's using it for. Whistle stop guide:

Acer - Generally known for being best value, spec-wise
Samsung - Look nice, good compromise between spec & looking shiny
Sony - Good build quality but can be overpriced

Not sure I would go for any outside these brands, I've had a Sony, a Samsung laptop, Samsung netbook & Acer. Sony died after about 4 yrs but this was a few years ago now. Samsung's been going strong for 3 yrs and battery hasn't even died yet. Netbook is a few months old. Acer is looking good after about 6 months & has by far the best spec of all of them, unsurprisingly.

I'd read some user reviews on amazon or dooyoo.co.uk. I don't tend to read 'official' reviews posted by tech sites and the like because they tend to fall into one (or more) of three categories a) used the laptop for 5 mins b) compare it to previous model in range, which is misleading and c) sponsored & so encouraged say good/bad things by manufacturer or competitor.

I'd start on Amazon and search by price, then use reviews & spec to narrow it down. & probably a good idea to come up with a few options - you know what us women are like Plus, if she ultimately chooses it, then you can't be blamed for it!

 

[philiporchardphiliporchard is verified member.]

Thanks Blossom
V Helpful

 

[jimm]

Id always go HP business if its a work laptop. Sure its not as high spec as some 'consumer' stuff but they are very reliable, enough spec to run work stuff and not huge prices.

 

[mallymally is verified member.]

I've recently ordered this one for £599

Quad-core Intel® Core™ i7-740QM (1.73 GHz)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 4GB
500GB
DVD writer


pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-a660-18d-refurbished-laptop-07586200-pdt.html

 

[mallymally is verified member.]

I say I recently ordered it, here's my delivery tracking info

05/12/2010 10:42:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
04/12/2010 16:43:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
03/12/2010 14:22:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
02/12/2010 16:50:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
02/12/2010 15:42:00 In Transit GATESHEAD SERVICE CENTRE
01/12/2010 17:52:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
01/12/2010 17:44:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
30/11/2010 18:13:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
29/11/2010 19:12:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
29/11/2010 19:11:01 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
29/11/2010 11:15:00 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD SERVICE CENTRE
29/11/2010 11:05:00 Out for delivery GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
29/11/2010 09:00:00 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
29/11/2010 07:30:00 Delayed due to adverse weather GATESHEAD HOME DELIVERY
27/11/2010 08:49:00 Passed to delivery courier GATESHEAD SERVICE CENTRE
27/11/2010 07:12:00 Arrived At Depot GATESHEAD SERVICE CENTRE
26/11/2010 22:18:51 Departed Depot HATFIELD TERMINAL
26/11/2010 22:16:00 In transit to delivery depot HATFIELD TERMINAL
26/11/2010 22:15:55 Arrived At Depot HATFIELD TERMINAL
26/11/2010 12:29:00 Parcel Picked Up DSG CUSTOMER LOCATION
26/11/2010 00:00:00 Parcel data received awaiting coll. LINCOLN SERVICE CENTRE

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

Samsung are good for quality. Dell are good for value and pretty reasonable for quality. I usually buy Dell myself.

Personal experience with HP (hard drive failure) and Toshiba (became very slow to boot) have not been so good, but this may not be representative.

Not that keen on Sony as they add a load of custom software usually.

Make sure you put a lot of RAM in it, 4GB.

Feel free to use the retailer links on my wireless laptops site, although the site does need a bit of updating.

Rgds

 

[max99x]

ive had dell all my life and apart from problems with chargers they have been great for me.

I do only keep them for about 2 years tho

 

[droid]

I've recently ordered this one for £599

Quad-core Intel® Core™ i7-740QM (1.73 GHz)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 4GB
500GB
DVD writer


pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-a660-18d-refurbished-laptop-07586200-pdt.html

I would go for a Sony Vaio every time but the one ordered by Mally seems an exceptional deal.

Gary

 

[Blossom]

It makes me slightly suspicious that they have more than one of those in refurb stock, but I guess there could be a good reason.

I would choose a Dell only if the budget was really low or I only wanted it for a couple of years.