Page 1 of Considering buying a laptop - Advice required

Have`nt the space in the house for a PC so considering laptop

The main use will be for broadband & downloading photo images from by digital camera

Have a budget of around £500 not much I know considering some of the prices I have seen so far

Where is the best place to buy one (not too sure of Comet,Currys etc) and what features should I be looking for

Any help much appreciated

Acers are generally held in high esteem & found at quite reasonable prices at Staples.

About £399 up depending if you want a DVD writer or not.



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

Thanks

I have been considering Acers

I went into local Staples store yesterday only to find out they has sold out of the £399 :/

I tempted by this model

http://www.mangolaptops.com/product_info.php/cPath/112_117/products_id/2107

Just wonder should I buy of the internet without trying the laptop in person

Hi, I would try & avoid any PC with a Celeron processor if I were you.
Acers are OK - also Dell, HP, & Toshiba are recommended. If looking for a budget laptop I would keep an eye on ALDI & LIDL Stores, since they both regularly have laptops on special offer.

Sorry to keep rambling on but..

Are Packard Bell any good?

Have spotted this one

http://www.living-business.com/product.asp?IntProdID=39

and this one

http://www.living-business.com/product.asp?IntProdID=37

Which is the better chip the Pentium or the Centrino

Oop`s ignore my e-mail they only sell to trade :(

Tescos are doing two Acer ones at the moment too, one a Celeron 1.5ghz for about £480, and a higher specced one I can`t remember the details of for around £700. The cheaper one should be ok for the sort of thing you want it for. I`d normally stay away from a Celeron too, but it`s a cheapish laptop for general use at that price.

For a low end laptop there isn`t really much choice in terms of processors. There is only the Celeron M and Sempron Mobile dominating the market with one or two lesser know processors from the likes of VIA. The Celeron M is a very good mobile processor so can the people who advised against it please explain why it is to be avoided? The Celeron M has twice the L2 cache of its counterpart and is faster. It also uses less power making it the processor of choice for the budget user (21 W as opposed to 25W for the Sempron). One thing that is in favour of the Sempron is the price but that is hardly a reason to avoid the Celeron.

Other things to look out for in a laptop is battery life - some laptops are supplied with 9 cell batteries which can last as much as 4 hours. The screen is important too and usual checks should be made for smoothness in colour transitions and gray scale. Many laptops also come with poor speakers (the Acers spring to mind, although they are generally pretty decent in other departments). Also test the keyboard as some tend to flex when typed on. The pointer is another important consideration as you will be using it a lot so comfort and accuracy should come high up in the list of features.

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd August 2005, 01:03