help buying a laptop/notebook for 15yr old

S

suemoo1

Registered User
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Hi All,
Need some advise as regards buying a 15yr old a lap top or note book. which would be better? My daughter is in trans year and nearly all of their work has to be done on pc etc. doing ecdl etc as part of the course. she would need email, word, excel, powerpoint etc, uses her ipod also alot, msn and all the bits and bobs that teens do, it would also mean it would free up the home pc so any advise much appreciated.. things tight money wise but would like if possible to get one which would carry her into college so would rather invest a bit more now than pay later. and the grandparents may help as its going to be a christmas gift, We got our home pc about 4 years ago and its great, but looking at the dell website the lap tops seem very expensive so any help would be great. thanks again. susan
 
thanks hello, i will look at argos. i just really dont know what to be looking at really.. dell seem dear if you have to add on stuff.

just looked at argos would the 1gb be enough??
 
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i have just bought 2 Dell laptops for my daughters for Xmas (I know ! - early shopper) but Carphone Warehouse in the UK are selling Dell Inspiron Laptops 17 inch for £329 each reduced from £499. maybe you could get same deal in a branch in the NI if there is one ? delivered free too - fantastic looking laptops. 250 GB hardrive, 2 GB memory, bluetooth etc www.carphonewarehouse.com (look under laptops - price crash) and buy your case for it of ebay or some nice ones at Amazon.
 
I would recommend dell or samsung but if you want them to last don't go for HP me and my brother were given two HP laptops which required battery replacements after 6 months and they also started falling apart.
I have a mac now which has lasted 2 and a half years no problem far better than pc laptops and can have powerpoint, word, msn etc but they are more pricey. I haven't had a single problem with it and it has been dragged to college and back as well as to other countries.
 
thanks guys.. i'll be surfing all weekend looking these all up!!!..maybe i should buy one for myself also..
 
schmile said:
I would recommend dell or samsung but if you want them to last don't go for HP me and my brother were given two HP laptops which required battery replacements after 6 months and they also started falling apart.
Click to expand...

It's funny you should say that. Working in IT for over 10 years with different companies which give laptops for remote access, not one person I've met has anything good to say about Dell (Latitude) laptops. They are cheap and nasty (and these were the business-specific ones, which should be designed to take a fair bit of abuse through travelling etc.) and last approx 1.5 years.
IBM Thinkpad machines are the ones to go for IMO. Currently made by Lenovo.
I have had a HP/Compaq NC6400 for the past year and a half in my current job and apart from a re-image (not due to the Laptop itself, more the corporate image installed on it) it's been as reliable as I could hope for. Lovely and light and excellent at picking up and holding a wireless signal. Fingerprint reader for added security too.

Haven't a clue about Macs however, apart from the fact that I want one :)
 
One disadvantage of those machines listed above with 10" screen is there is no cd/DVD drive. That means it's a pain to install new software and you can't play a music cd or movie dvd on them. Maybe ok if you have another pc or laptop at home.

A relation bought a netbook recently without any research and wanted some software put on it - came to me with a disc and were scratching their head. I'll have to connect it to my home network, share a drive on my own laptop and install that way. Not ideal.
 
schmile said:
I would recommend dell or samsung but if you want them to last don't go for HP me and my brother were given two HP laptops which required battery replacements after 6 months and they also started falling apart.
I have a mac now which has lasted 2 and a half years no problem far better than pc laptops and can have powerpoint, word, msn etc but they are more pricey. I haven't had a single problem with it and it has been dragged to college and back as well as to other countries.
Click to expand...

What price range are we talking for the mac? thanks sue
 
Power City have a good offer on at the moment , but bought in PC world last for 15yr old .
Its a Compaq , which I would recommend along with HP , Toshiba , or Sony of course if you can afford .

It has an Athlon processor , and we were told by an IT guy , to avoid a Celeron processor .( which we did )
 
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