Search for a laptop, your help is requested

Kev M

Kev M

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Afternoon all. I'm after a laptop. Budget is about £450. I've found some good deals online which the big4 highstreet electronics shops don't really get anywhere near.The biggest problem I'm having is finding a decent online retailer. As soon as I think I've found the right deal I google for a shop review and read nothing but complaints in the most part. Even Dell, who I was recommended seem to have as poor a level of customer service as anybody else. So has anyone got a good deal they can point me in the direction of?

Cheers all
Kev
 
your biggest problem with your price range will be the memory of the laptop, especially if you are using it for editing your photos, ie photoshop....
I have got a new laptop but it did cost a lot of money :eek:
 
If you want cheap then try Dabs.com , Dell, PC World.

However what you will have to pay will be decided by what you want to do with it, if your going to use this for Photoshop then your going to need more RAM and possibly a larger hardisk than an entry level laptop.

However if you are just after a laptop for running office, checking email, then these issues will be less relevant.
 
It may sound silly but you might be wise to check your local LIDL and ALDO. They occasionally do quite good laptops, very reasonably specced and low priced too.
 
I just got a refurbished Packard Bell 3.2Ghz with 1gb of Ram, DVD burner, 80GB hard drive for £550 off ebay, very good spec and turned up mint. Seller was HAMTT, he has some more on there, watch out though because you have to add the vat to the price.
 
forgot to say, he has slightly lower spec ones which will fit your budget.
 
dell are doing the inspirion 1300 (N08137A) for £448 at the moment, that has 1gig of memory plus 80 gig hard drive plus 8xdvd+- rewriter i reckon thats a great spec for the price, there also doing a lower spec inspirion 1300 for £399, the inspirion got a good write up(silver award)in the what laptop magazine, theres also a lenovo 3000 c100 which also got a good write up(gold award) in the same magazine issue 87 august 2006.

PS.. only 2 days left on the dell offers though.
 
I got the dell 1300 - came with 256mb of RAM for £349 (I was an hour late in getting it for £288 inc VAT and shipping). Ordered an extra stick of memory from crucial and its up to 512MB, its fine for photoshopping on the move, was using it in the caravan last week. Has a 40GB hard disk in there for that price too, I think it works just fine :). No good for gaming obviously, unless you're talking older games that don't require 3D acceleration - didn't have any problems playing Monkey Island 2 or Day of the Tentacle last week :E

Dell are fantastic - until you get to aftersales support which is based in India - I had a problem where the online system wouldn't let me select a recovery disc and within an hour of getting it I purposefully broke the recovery partition, emailed them and within a week had it sorted and the cds in my hand, was a bit of a struggle though - much easier to email them initially and then they will phone you to confirm things, bloody terrible accents and English.

"Hello, my name is Dave, how can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm sure it is Dave........."

Really bugs me that, its interesting how lots of UK companies are moving call centres back to the UK and using that as a selling point now.
 
Thanks all, it's mostly for college work nothing too strenuous and maybe the odd bit of photoshop if I'm not at home and in a rush. Half the problem is how much choice there is. I've been looking at the Dell 1300's but apart from the bad customer service things I've heard you only get a 90 day warranty for the price you see in the papers, it's an extra £50 to urgrade it to a year.

I'd looked at shop acer too, their prices are very good, but, they're part of a company called CET ltd and they get very bad reviews.

Back to the drawing board.
 
Sorted. Got a £500 laptop from dixons for £455 by stumbling across an online discount code for £20 and 5% cash back on my egg card. Result.
 
30 days?

I'm sure that unless it's second hand, or faulty stock, which is sold as seen, then you still have your statutory rights ;)
 
When you go to the dell site and select a laptop it says prices from such and such. Then when you press the customise and buy button it takes you to the next screen and the price jump up by nearly £50. To get the price down to what it was you have to select a lesser warranty, like 90 days worth of warranty. Bizarre isn't it. Never mind, the choice is made now and I'm happy with it.
 
You could have bought a MacBook with HE discount!
Basic MacBook = £750
HE Discount brings it to £650
£100 iPod voucher (buy and sell iPod)
So a MacBook for under £600 ;)
 
The warrenty is still 1 year, just 90 days rtb, after 90 days and upto a year you pay for postage etc..
 
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