Which Laptop

[St. Bernard]

Hi All

Looking for some advice,

I am looking to buy a laptop. Don't need it for anything in particular just day to day browsing, word, excel etc.

I have about €400 to spend.


My questions are,

1. What make to buy?
2. Where to buy?


Cheers
SB

 

[Jazz01]

Hi,

To be honest, there is a huge range out there, so your main limiting factor is the price... In my opinion, there isn't a huge difference in the laptops at that price & for what you want to use for... others may differ there... re where to buy... best bet would be an electrical store, for one like this - anything goes wrong, you have somewhere to walk into & talk to... Currys/PC World / Harvey Norman / Sound Store etc etc would have "offers" on them at the moment, but also keep an eye out for the retail shops - tesco / Aldi / Lidl - might get one on offer there...

Recent laptops will have have enough processing power, memory, disk space for what you will be using it for. The only thing to take note of is the "MS Office" (Word, Excel etc) are not standard on all laptops... you might get something similar but with less functionality.

Screen size (15" plus) & battery life (6 hours +) should be the main things you look for assuming that it's just for general use & not gaming / editing videos or photos (that often).

A search through AAM through up loads, so a couple below on that subject...
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=162647&highlight=laptop

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=151507&highlight=laptop

 

[onq]

Personally I like to have a good mooch around in PC World - huge variety on sale, sales staff will answer questions - consider future proofing it with a 64-bit operating system.

The highest spec will be for gaming, a much lower spec will do for basic stuff, but even browsing uses a lot of memory these days because of the amount of Flash-powered advertisements etc.

So first define your needs and then see what's available. Some of the phone stores are offering laptops/notebooks/pads now I seem to recall.

Think about insurance and backup if things go wrong and you aren't able to sort it out.

 

[ClubMan]

because of the amount of Flash-powered advertisements etc.

One reason I use stuff like (Firefox) add-ons such as Adblock Plus, FlashBlock etc. so I can control what content I see.

I've bought laptops/netbooks from www.laptopsdirect.ie for several family members and was happy with what they had on offer, their prices (especially for returned/refurbished units) and service. I've seen others complain about their dealings with them but I had no problems.

 

[St. Bernard]

Thanks all. Really like the Acer Aspire One 753.

4 GB Ram
500 GB Drive
Interl 1.2 GHZ
HDMI
Webcam
Windows 7

etc etc,

€399 in Beyond 2000.

 

[bluemac]

Make sure it has a CD drive most dotn come with them any more and they come in useful still

The Apple mac book air has come down in price and is a great top end piece of kit. and you dont need virus software with a mac so saves a bit there

 

[onq]

One thing you should beware of is buying a laptop or PC with NO Graphics card (as opposed to integrated Graphics).
Some online games require a card to run and if the programmes don't "sense" a card they won't run.

I know one family who bought a new PC and tried to run "minecraft" on it only to find this out.
The card does put up the price, but its usually a lot less than a PS3

 

[nai]

. and you dont need virus software with a mac so saves a bit there

Whoa there! This statement is untrue.

There is a much lower likelihood of needing av on a mac but there are viruses developed specifically aimed at mac users.

 

[Jim2007]

Make sure it has a CD drive most dotn come with them any more and they come in useful still

The Apple mac book air has come down in price and is a great top end piece of kit. and you dont need virus software with a mac so saves a bit there

Well I would not go as far as saying that there are no Mac viruses, but there are so few that it is probably OK to run without a virus checker - I do.

As a new Mac Air Book user I can certainly endorse your recommendation. In one way or another, I've spent over 20 years working the design or development of Windows software, so for me the switch was a big thing. I never thought I'd say this but I'll never buy a PC again! For me the main things are:

• Fewer updates - there is none of this constant updates and reboots needed
• Booting up and closing down takes seconds, not minutes
• Easy to install/uninstall software: basically most apps are just copied into the applications folder and deleted when you don't want them any more
• Easy to set up restricted accounts for kids - unlike windows the system is locked down by default, so all you have to do is decide what is allowed.
• The App Store: Applications bought from the store may not work as exepcted, but at least they install and uninstall as expected.
• Cheap software: IWorks is much cheaper than MS Office and it can read and write Office files
• Simplicity: over all it is much easer to work with and manage than a Windows machine
• Time Machine: I find this to be a great backup solution (I have a Time Capsule attached to my LAN)

The day job still requires Windows, so I run multiple copies of Windows on the Mac! I use Parallels on the Air Book and there in, I have copies of Win 7 32 & 64, as well as a Win 8 preview.

For me though the best feature is the ICloud! I spend about two or three hours a day on trains and during that time I use an IPad2 for technical reading, updating notes, re-working presentations and so on. The fact that this is automatically being synced to my desktop makes things so simple. If I record someone's details on the IPad during the day and want to contact them in the evening, it is all there on the Air Book, just as I recorded during the day.

Anyways, my vote is for an Air Book, even if it means that you need to put off the decision for a while until more cash is available.

 

[zealot]

The apple product mentioned may be excellent but it is no where near the price range specified by the OP.
Its currently around €979?

There are a bunch of laptops available in the range the OP has mentioned from all the major manufacturers. Online options include dabs.ie and laptopsdirect as mentioned. I've had good and bad experiences with both. Really wish ebuyer start shipping to Ireland again
Dell also have a decent 15" laptop at €379.

I'm not sure if you already have office but if not then you would need to look at shelling out around €80 for the home and student edition from Microsoft but there are much cheaper alternative office packages out there which may be an option for you. OpenOffice for example is opensource: free to download, use, and distribute.

There are also free anti-virus products out there but you may want to get a paid for application as they tend to be a little stronger in terms of features and virus protection.

 

[michaelm]

1. What make to buy?
2. Where to buy?

Any laptop you buy will likely meet your basic requirements. has an i3 processor for under €400. Microsoft Security Essentials is good free antivirus software and Libra Office is a solid free MS Office alternative.