Laptop advice needed please

Neil_Sedaka

A friend of mine wants to buy a laptop for general student stuff and asked for my advice on what to buy. I'm asking for your advice cos frankly I wouldn't know one end of a laptop from the other.

I know a little about desktops, so I asked her did she need wireless, bluetooth, a dvd writer etc. but received a blank stare for me troubles, so I guess she doesn't need anything too fancy, though I think she will need a dvd / cd-rw drive at least and being a student price is a major issue.

I'm looking at this maybe?

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_5160?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

What do yiz think?

sceptre

That one looks fine, my brother bought that very model lately and he hasn't phoned and complained.

On the other hand, that one weighs 3.77 kilos (I did warn him), which is rather heavy if she'll be carrying it as people tend to do with laptops. Where the person will be carrying it more than a few feet, I tend to advise something lighter, even if that means a lower speed machine.

How about one of these then? Price range is about the same and it's a full kilo and a half lighter.

I've just picked another Dell out of convenience, others may poke around for other manufacturers. The above machine I've linked to is the one I actually advised by younger bruvva to buy but he reckoned extra speed would make a significant difference to his life. For what I suspect your friend will be using the machine for, the extra speed wouldn't make any difference at all. I reckon your friend could do with the lighter machine, assuming she's not buying a laptop merely because it's sexier than a desktop (in other words, if she'll be carrying it, lighter is better, if she won't be carrying it she doesn't need a laptop in the first place).

Oh, worth keeping in mind that if your friend is getting a Dell, the double memory for free deal appears to be running out in a few days (and the online configurator will automatically upgrade the warranty to three years from one and increase the price accordingly so she might want to change that back to a year by clicking the relevant radio button in the spec list before ordering).

Neil_Sedaka

Cheers sceptre, thanks for that.

savemejebus

I'd agree with what sceptre said but maybe it would be an idea to go for something with a smaller screen to keep the weight down, personally i prefer laptops with 12" screens, they seem more robust to me (comparing my old 12 with my current 15).

What about an ibook? most girls i know drool over them (good few fellas too), they're small, light and tough.