Which of These Two Laptop Should I Buy?

Suffolkwheels
Suffolkwheels Posts: 167
edited April 2011 in The bottom bracket
Hi all

Any techys out there?

I'm looking to spend no more than £450 on a laptop. I need:

4GB RAM
HDMI output
15" screen
Dual core processor

Other than that, I aint too fussed. I've whittled it down to two choices and would appreciate your thoughts:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.210-9309.aspx (I have £44 in clubcard vouchers to use up!)

http://www.johnlewis.com/231155386/Product.aspx (free 2 year warranty sounds good)

Cheers all!
Giant Rapid 3

Comments

  • BarryBonds
    BarryBonds Posts: 344
    both are ok, ive always been very happy with the dells and the ones of similar spec that i bought the kids have survived some serious abuse.

    Dell is on discount too, its like buying last years bike. A bargain.

    Ive also bought from tescodirect and the Ebay tesco outlet and both were positive experiences.

    John Lewis is of course excellent too.

    get the dell youll have £94 to spend on other stuff then
  • amun1000
    amun1000 Posts: 242
    Stick with Dell - always seen problems with PB. Chassis are less robust and generally not well matched components
    When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
  • MattC59
    MattC59 Posts: 5,408
    I've had a series of Dells (through work) and I've had nothing but trouble from them, which considering that we're their largest customer globally, isn't a good sign !! My current Dell won't talk to my wireless broadband when it's in the docking station. No one is able to tell me why or fix it.

    My Mrs also has a Dell and has had loads of problems with it.

    That said, if you're after a bargain, pick up the phone to Dell and ask what's on their NQN (Not Quite New) list. They don't advertise this, but it's a list of pcs (both laptop and desktop) which have been used for training. They're taken out of stock, used for training, then they go back into production and through QA, but can't be sold as new. You can get fantastic deals here.
    Science adjusts it’s beliefs based on what’s observed.
    Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved
  • thecrofter
    thecrofter Posts: 734
    Dell were great up until about four years ago, now they are no better than anything else. I have two or three left at work, the one I use would not connect wirelessly so I had to replace the wi-fi card now the lan sockets buggered and so the list goes on, I know what I'm doing so I find ways round these things, but for most folk these would be major irritations.

    Have a look at these from ebuyer.com

    quickfind code 254095

    or

    quickfind 258876
    You've no won the Big Cup since 1902!
  • mask of sanity
    mask of sanity Posts: 610
    +1 to ebuyer.

    Buy the non-branded ones they sell as they have the same quality hardware, you're just not paying for the name. I bought one more than a year ago and it still runs great. Set me back about £350 I think. A year previously a bought a Siemens for nearer £700 and it caused nothing but problems.
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    You should be able to get a much better laptop for your money, I bought an Acer laptop last Christmas for 420 quid which had 320gb hdd, 4gb ram, 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, ATi graphics (much better than crappy intel) and a 17.6" screen.

    Those ebuyer none branded laptops look ugly and fragile.
  • mask of sanity
    mask of sanity Posts: 610
    freehub wrote:
    Those ebuyer none branded laptops look ugly and fragile.
    Function over style any day!
  • MattC59
    MattC59 Posts: 5,408
    freehub wrote:
    Those ebuyer none branded laptops look ugly and fragile.
    Have I missed something here Will ? Both the ebuyer laptops are branded Toshiba.

    I had a Toshiba Satellite Pro a few years ago and it was a brilliant laptop. No probs with it at all........... unfortunately, we then changed to Dell :roll:
    Science adjusts it’s beliefs based on what’s observed.
    Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved
  • on the road
    on the road Posts: 5,631
    I would avoid, Dell, I know a few people who've had a lot of trouble with them.
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    MattC59 wrote:
    freehub wrote:
    Those ebuyer none branded laptops look ugly and fragile.
    Have I missed something here Will ? Both the ebuyer laptops are branded Toshiba.

    I had a Toshiba Satellite Pro a few years ago and it was a brilliant laptop. No probs with it at all........... unfortunately, we then changed to Dell :roll:

    Well looking at the pictures on ebuyer it looks like flimsy crap. Maybe they are good I've not seen one in person so I can't really comment.

    I have an Acer laptop, I remember people saying about how Acer apparently has crap build quality and they could not have being more wrong.
  • on the road
    on the road Posts: 5,631
    I've had my Acer laptop a few years now and not had any problems, I know quite a few people who Also have Acer laptops and not have any problems.
  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    trouble with dells is they tend only to sell dell parts for them. very fiddly they are. but if you don't mind the extra cost for spares etc then they are as good as each other. But on balance i'd say the PB.
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
    momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    I've bought 50 or so Dell laptops over the last 10 years for the school. Of those we've had a couple had to go back for stuff under warranty, only one that pegged out irreparably within what you might call a disappointing lifespan (less than 3 years), and a handful that have had HDDs, displays, keyboards etc. replaced, usuallly due to the abuse they get from the kids here. The only things that seem to go at an annoying rate are the power cables.
    Contrary to the above, I've found the above spares easy to find (ebay usually), quite cheap, and simple to fit.

    So I'm pretty happy to recommend Dell.

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