Mel B Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Okay, as I’m gonna be leaving work, I’ve decided to treat myself to a laptop, especially since we will be doing more travelling in our motorhome so I'll be using it quite a bit to type up our diary, look at the web, email, sort out my photos etc, and, whilst our HP netbook is great, trying to use it for any length of time would drive me absolutely nuts!!!! 8-) The minimum ‘must have’ requirements are: • AMD Phenom II Quad Core or Intel Pentium i3 Dual core, 1.8 ghz • 15.6 widescreen - LED as uses less power • Good battery life - the longer the better and ideally quick to re-charge (from 12v or inverter) • 4gb RAM (DDR3) • 300gb HD • DVD RW • 2.5kg weight, or there-abouts • Price range: £350-£500 absolute max • Full-sized keyboard with a good ‘touch’ and non-slippery keys (number pad at side isn’t necessary) The ‘good to have’ requirements are: • Separate graphics card • Bluetooth • Web Cam • HDMI slot I don’t need something that is aimed specifically for gaming etc as I don’t play many, the only real ‘graphic hungry’ one is “Tomb Raider” and it would work with the above specification with some margin to ‘future proof’ it a little. I just want a good 'all rounder' really with good speed and nice to use, nothing cheap or crappy as I don't want to be replacing it in a couple of years time. I’ve seen some HP ones and some seem to have a good battery life, and from experience I know HP products last well and are reliable. But obviously there are other makes out there who others have experience of. So come one, who can tell me what is worth looking at and where to get it from - there are soooooo many on the market now it is very confusing!!! Oh, one other thing ... if it was purple I’d be ecstatic!!!!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 The one I'm using at the moment is about that spec' and is great. It's and Acer Aspire Timeline X model 4820T and was just over £400 in January this year. 8 Hr battery life if you're not doing loads of graphics all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 We bought a Lenova last year and best laptop we have ever had. powerful, light, slim, 6 hr battery life and DVD player...sound not bad either. It was on offer from their own site and cost £350 a real bargain...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly58 Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 I have just bought a Dell Inspiron 15 fron john Lewis best price and best of all a 2 year warranty just a little over £400 its the best laptop I have owned . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tugga Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Hi Mel I too endorse Dell. I have a very elderly Dell laptop that I take away with me and although I don't use it much, only when there is free wifi, the battery seems to last well, plus one of our Sons bought one on our recommendation and he has had his for 5 years and it still does all he wants (he is a gamer). He bought his from the Dell website so he was able to "build his own" with the options available and he got exactly what he wanted. Never had any problems with his or ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broc Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I manage a school network with over 700 laptops so I get to see how good the suppliers are for support, warranty, & durability first hand. I would recommend DELL or Lenovo. If you can live with minor cosmetic defects, consider buying a factory refurbished unit from somewhere like MCS Technology at http://mcscom.co.uk/ Often you can get the balance of three year warranty included. DELL Latitude E series laptops are designed & built for business use & are my preferred choice for reliability; I use an E5500 myself (I bought three from MCS earlier this year), & with an extended battery it lasts all day in a busy work environment. Whatever you consider, I would recommend you consider buying with 3 year next business day warranty support; a lot of manufacturers offer a return to base warranty, sometimes taking weeks or months to repair when they go faulty. You often find the manufacturers website is a good indicator of how good they will be; does it have user community support groups, or driver downloads, or BIOS updates available? DELL has a very good website, as has Lenovo..... compare these to other less well known brands & you will see what I mean. Another benefit of sticking with a major brand is spares; I know I can buy spares for 6-7 year old DELL laptops, there are an awful lot of cheap laptops on sale where the spares cease to be available almost as soon as they are shipped! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antony1969 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Bought Acer Aspire last week from Direct Laptops . Grade 2 return , which means its never been used but may have scratch etc somewhere on the laptop . After inspecting in store the assistant and myself found a tiny scratch on the cover. Great laptop , 270 quid for laptop , bag and mouse and extra no quibble 12 month guarantee . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Sorry to hijack your thread Mel:D........But as its about pooters;-) does anyone know if the 3G kindle is the only bit of kit around that will receive free emails?..........Yes I know I can drive to Mc Crap and get free wifi but I'm thinking about being parked up on a site in Spain charging 3 euros for an hours wifi8-) By the way I have a Compaq that seems to have amazing self healing qualities8-).......................don't know if it has all the gubbins your after though(lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 Found this HP Pavilion G6-1112 Laptop (AMD Phenom II, 4GB, 640GB, 15.6" Display) on Tesco's website: http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.212-0561.aspx What do you think? :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 Oops :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 pelmetman - 2011-09-14 9:42 PMSorry to hijack your thread Mel:D........But as its about pooters;-) does anyone know if the 3G kindle is the only bit of kit around that will receive free emails?..........Yes I know I can drive to Mc Crap and get free wifi but I'm thinking about being parked up on a site in Spain charging 3 euros for an hours wifi8-) By the way I have a Compaq that seems to have amazing self healing qualities8-).......................don't know if it has all the gubbins your after though(lol)There's a refurbished one on Amazon at mo for £79.99 .... be quick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Mel B - 2011-09-14 10:09 PMThere's a refurbished one on Amazon at mo for £79.99 .... be quick! Quick..................I was like a rat up a drain pipe:D.........B******d if I can find it though:-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 Typical ... here you go ... you'll be wanting me to buy it for you next ..... *-) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B002Y27P46/ref=dp_olp_refurbished?ie=UTF8&condition=refurbished Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Mel B - 2011-09-14 10:43 PMTypical ... here you go ... you'll be wanting me to buy it for you next ..... *-) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B002Y27P46/ref=dp_olp_refurbished?ie=UTF8&condition=refurbishedThanks Mel:D.............Unfortunately that's the basic version, and to get the free email facility I need the 3G version £1528-)..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 like Broc says if you stick witrh Lenova or Dell you will be fine...we have 2 Dell laptops for 5 years for my kids and believe me they get some abuse!. Both still working fine, You can get the bits from 3rd party suppliers forever, so easy to keep going... I would only have Lenova (or maybe a Mac) from now on..We bought a Lenova Idea Pad U series U450P last year and it is brilliant! We payed £350 for it (nearly half price at the time !) as it was a special offer on their site. They are a proper pro machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 The search is over ... I've just ordered a HP Pavilion G6-1155sa for £379.00 less £10.00 for spending over £75.00, and I'll get £7.58 in clubcard vouchers worth £22.74 in deals, making it £346.26 overall, even at the full price of £379 it would still have been an absolute bargain for a laptop of this spec, especially as it's the latest Intel Core i5 2410 processor, rather than the i5 480M: Tesco HP site spec We'd seen it on the site before but unsurprisingly it had already sold out and we didn't think they'd get it back in again but we signed up for their email to tell us if they did ... which came this afternoon (whilst we were traipsing round the computer stores yet again) so it was a very pleasant surprise when hubby checked his email: After spending ages scouting around the web and visiting shops to see some of the laptops in the flesh I'm very happy with this as HP laptops in the price range I was looking at have the keyboard is centrally located, rather than offset, as it doesn't have a number pad - as a 'proper' typist I found the offset keyboard a bit irritating on the other laptops, but could have put up with it if needs be. I was seriously considering a refurbished Acer i5 but on the old processor at £374 from Argos ebay outlet, however the sound was awful, as it was on all Acers that I tried - they were so quiet even one of the shops had put external speakers on one of the Acer laptops as you could hardly hear the demo music compared to the other makes of laptop which were much, much better, the only positive was that it had 6gb of memory rather than the 4gb that the HP comes with, but it is upgradable to 8gb so that's not an issue. As if all my dreams have come true, the HP comes in purple too :-> ... but the one at the special price on Tesco direct is charcoal grey so I've had to settle for that :-( ... no point paying another £50 or more for a purple one! *-) Yes I may be female, but I'm not a one that has a hissy fit if I don't get the colour I want ... well not always. :D I'll just have to get myself a nice cover for it instead. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCC Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 May I suggest that you check the specification carefully when you get the laptop. I had a bad experience with Tesco - they sent me a laptop which did not include all of the advertised features. When I complained they said it was a mistake with the laptop that they'd sent me and exchanged it for another that was exactly the same. It turned out that their description was wrong and in the end the laptop went back for a refund, but it was a lot of hassle and Tesco were no help whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Hi PCC, fear not I've already checked the spec very carefully - the details on the Tesco site aren't correct anyway, so I checked with the manufacturer's website and others too so I should be getting what I think I am! We've never had a problem with Tesco and we've bought loads of stuff of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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