what laptop

micksjoiner

need a new laptop and got £400 to spend
so many to choose from, head hurts

101_North

Specs are pretty similar across the brands at that budget. Most in that bracket will have an integrated graphics card but if you choose an AMD chip over an Intel the integrated card will most likely be an ATI card which should be better than the Intel one. You should be looking at 3/4GB ram and least a 320GB HDD. Most laptops under £400 will have a recordable DVD drive - rarely get Blue Ray at this budget. Bluetooth doesn't feature much either in this price range but a bluetooth USB adapter costs about a fiver so it not worth worrying about.

An HDMI port is worth looking out for is you want to connect to an HD TV. A multicard reader should also be included along with a built in webcam.

What are you wanting it for?

A few in your budget would be:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Asp ... 40885.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Asp ... 40886.html

101

meanredspider

First you need to decide what you want to do with it. Then someone might be able to help.

What are the important things to you? Screen size, battery life, graphics, hard disk space, processing power, portability, reliability, operating system etc etc.

I bought my daughter a nice Acer - very portable, great (8 hour) battery life, 500GB hard disk, 4GB RAM, dual core processors, Bluetooth BUT no DVD drive (no need) and XP/Vista as an operating system, 13" screen. It was half price at 350GBP. Suits her perfectly.

Also came from SaveOnLaptops - good service.

Slamdunkin

This stands out at 299

LENOVO G550
15.6" LAPTOP

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-LE ... =tsid:8361

Review here

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac ... 946/review

101_North

Slamdunkin wrote:

This stands out at 299

LENOVO G550
15.6" LAPTOP

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-LE ... =tsid:8361

That's what I have. Didn't realise the price on Comet or I may have recommended it. The one I have has dedicated graphics and bluetooth - otherwise the spec is the same as the one you linked - you might be lucky enough and find the Comet spec is wrong! Very good for the money. I've been very pleased with mine - paid 370 last year. For sub 300 the spec is great. I'd be happy to recommend it.

Only issue is that it had a very noisy fan when I bought it but Lenovo brought out a BIOS fix which can be downloaded from the Lenovo site - sorted the noise out fine - worth getting if you buy this laptop.

101

warm18

what do you want it for?

thel33ter

Slamdunkin wrote:

This stands out at 299

LENOVO G550
15.6" LAPTOP

That sounds a very good deal, only 4 hours battery life though, not sure wether that would cause problems.

I've also been looking at laptops, and this caught my eye. It has then new i3 processor, which are faster than the Dual cores. Bang on budget too

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-5741- ... 3cb39fd204

bike-a-swan

I don't think that's got enough travel for my liking.

Slamdunkin

Acer Aspire 5742 15.6 inch Notebook ( Intel Core i3-370M processor 2.4GHz, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, DVD, Webcam, Wireless, Windows 7 Home Premium

£379 @ amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ukdeals-21

thel33ter

Slamdunkin wrote:

Acer Aspire 5742 15.6 inch Notebook ( Intel Core i3-370M processor 2.4GHz, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, DVD, Webcam, Wireless, Windows 7 Home Premium

£379 @ amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ukdeals-21

Ignore me, buy that, major bargain, now where's that £200 I need :roll:

Slamdunkin

Samsung E452-JA01UK

Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor: Intel CoreTM i3 Processor 350M (2.26 GHz, 3 MB)
System Memory: 2GB (DDR3 / 2GB x 1)
Display: 15.6" LED HD (1366 x 768) 16:9 Gloss
Graphics Processor: Intel GMA HD (Int. Graphic)
Integrated Camera
HDD@ 320 GB (5400 rpm S-ATA)
ODD: DVD (S-ATA) / Super Multi Dual Layer (S-ATA)
Wireless LAN: 802.11bg/n
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0 High Speed
I/O Ports: VGA, HDMI, Headphone-out, Mic-in, Internal Mic, 3x USB 2.0 Multi Card Slot (3-in-1 (SD, SDHC, MMC), LAN, DC-In (Power Port)
Battery: 6 Cell
Software:
Safety: Samsung Recovery Solution, Samsung Support Center, McAfee Internet Security (Free 60-day Trial), HDD Password
Utility: Easy Speedup Manager, Easy Network Manager, Battery Life Extender, Easy Display Manager, Samsung Update Plus, Chargeable USB, Easy File Share, Easy Content Share
Multimedia: CyberLink YouCam, Game Console
Dimension (WxDxH): 379.6 x 255.5 x 32.4~38.25 mm
Weight: 2.4 kg


£379 @ play

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/17494522/ ... hotukdeals

Slamdunkin

Dell Inspiron 15R Core i3-370m, 3GB ram, 320GB hard drive, Win7 £399 @ Dell

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Inspiron N5010 (UK6, FCG71) - i3-370M (2.4GHz, 3M)
N11N5051
Inspiron N5010 BTS Order - UK
15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED
Documentation Inspiron N5010
3072MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x1024 + 1x2048]
320GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Inspiron N5010 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
65W AC Adaptor
Primary 6-cell 48 WHr Lithium Ion battery
1 Meter Power Cord
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD
Dell Wireless 1501 Mini Card (802.11g/n)
Internal Keyboard
1.3 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Intel® CoreTM i3-370M Processor (3M Cache, 2.4 GHz)
Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)


http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstor ... b6a069a909

also 5% cashback through quidco too.

thel33ter

The Acer has more ram and a better processor than the Samsung.

Slamdunkin

I take it you are refuring to the sammy and not the DELL just posted

thel33ter

Slamdunkin wrote:

I take it you are refuring to the sammy and not the DELL just posted

Fixed. The Acer is pretty much the same as the Dell, but has a card reader as far as I can tell.

micksjoiner

this is great you all know so much
going to use laptop for surfing net do a bit with photos ,would be great to watch iplayer on big tv ,download music and movies, thats about it,
but would like to be a bit future ready

thel33ter

So far Acer is winning, and it has an HDMI output so you can use your TV as a monitor.

micksjoiner

yeah had old pc at back of plasma but packed in ,so thought id get laptop
had been looking at this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003 ... d_i=468294
but only because it had high rating in what laptop mag

Slamdunkin

The DELL also has HDMI and VGA outputs

thel33ter

Very similar laptop, they can't decide what processor it has though. One bit says an AMD Athlon, and another say AMD Turion :?

The i3 processor in the Acer 5742 gets a higher benchmark than either of those two, but it does have a dedictated graphics card, which the Acer 5742 doesn't have.

My laptop has a similar set-up to the 5742, but with a lower spec proccessor, and I can games from around 2005 running smoothly.

micksjoiner

think ill go down to comet and have a look at http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-LE ... =tsid:8361 and also the http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ukdeals-21
any more advice will be more than welcomed

micksjoiner

think ill go down to comet and have a look at http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-LE ... =tsid:8361 and also the http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ukdeals-21
any more advice will be more than welcomed

projectsome

If you haven't already done so, try and find the same laptop but with linux, a good £100 cheaper then just install windows on it (if you still have the cd and/or key...)

bobpzero

meh

thel33ter

Why not buy any specific make, most laptops including HP and Apple are made either by Foxconn or Quanta Computers.

I had an Acer for around 5 years of heavy usage, it had no fan for 4 of those years either. Then the motherboard died :roll: