New reasonably priced laptop...

Esmereldina

Hi dudes,

Apologies in advance for the extreme generality of this post...
My laptop was stolen a few weeks ago and I need to buy a new one... I use it mainly for college stuff; word processing, and internet so it wouldn't necessarily need to be a very fancy one. It would need to have wireless capability but I think most laptops would have that anyway? A DVD player would also be nice.
Regarding mobility, I need to travel for research quite a bit and the laptop would be coming with me too, so it would need to work in mainland Europe (US not so important). I don't think that would be too much of an issue though as the last one worked fine with a standard adapter.
I also don't have a whole lot of money to spend on as I hadn't really planned on having to buy a new laptop right now:(
So I was wondering if people had any suggestions for a reasonably priced (but not too cheap as it will still need to last a few years) laptop. I was thinking about 800 to 1000 euro. I'm not very techologically minded at all so I've no idea which models would be better for the price I'd be paying and all that...

The last one I had was a Dell Inspiron. It wasn't exactly top of the range but it worked fine and I never had any problems with it. I'd kinda like to try out something a bit different now though.

I'd also like a silver one as the last one I had was black...
And I am aware that the last specification is quite superficial and girly
of me

Any suggestions of makes/models or where to look in general would be appreciated!

Soundman

Something like this perhaps? The outside of it is silver anyway even if it is black when you open it.

LENOVO 3000 N100

Black Swan

See Toshiba Direct link.

Esmereldina

Thanks for the tips Blue Lagoon and Soundman, those ones do look nice and are (kinda!) silver... Any ideas on where to buy in Dublin? I can't get to PC world very easily and I get the impression that a lot of the smaller shops in town might just sell more expensive models and so I wouldn't get the best value for money?

I'm actually thinking that I may end up going with Dell again as they seem to offer a much better range of cheaper laptops compared to a lot of the other makes, and as far as I can see they would fulfill all my criteria. I've always heard that Dell laptops are fairly sturdy and reliable if a little boring... ie the safe option for people who aren't really into fancy computers. Would this be a fair assessment do people think or is there some other reason why the Dells seem so much cheaper? I hope you don't mind my further exploiting the tecchie knowledge of this forum...

Black Swan

Esmereldina wrote:

Would this be a fair assessment do people think or is there some other reason why the Dells seem so much cheaper? I hope you don't mind my further exploiting the tecchie knowledge of this forum...

I wouldn't touch a Dell with a barge pole. They used to be clunky but reliable. Now they are just clunky. Dell was a good equity to own once, but I sold mine cause they were having recent hardware problems.

Tom Dunne

Esmereldina wrote:

I'm actually thinking that I may end up going with Dell again as they seem to offer a much better range of cheaper laptops compared to a lot of the other makes, and as far as I can see they would fulfill all my criteria. I've always heard that Dell laptops are fairly sturdy and reliable if a little boring... ie the safe option for people who aren't really into fancy computers. Would this be a fair assessment do people think or is there some other reason why the Dells seem so much cheaper? I hope you don't mind my further exploiting the tecchie knowledge of this forum...

I have recommended/ordered around 5-6 Dell laptops for friends/family over the past couple of years and not one of them have ever given any trouble.

All of these have been low-end, general use laptops.

So based on that alone, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Dell.

You can of course, be unlucky. I bought myself a HP Pavillion laptop and it gave me a lot of trouble, whereas others would swear by HP.

Esmereldina

Hmmmm... well two conflicting opinions there! I suppose people have different experiences and luck probably comes into it too. My Dell always worked for me until it went and got itself stolen :rolleyes:
I think I'll do a bit more research before buying anything yet. Thanks for all the advice though!

Obelisk29

If you've bought a Dell before and were happy with it, then get a Dell again.

I have two here beside me - both about 10 months old.

One has never given me the slightest problem - even worked when my son spilt his coco pops over it - and the other BSODs every second time I turn it on. I had to have the hard drive replaced after 3 weeks but it's been pretty OK since then. If I could bother ringing India I could probably sort it out.

I've had about 10 Dells over the years and this is the only one thats ever given me a problem.

You'd get a nice Inspiron 1501 well within your budget - make sure that you get the 9-cell battery if you're going to be travelling with it.

And if you go for the warranty make sure you get Next Business Day (it's international) rather than at At Home (which isn't) - they're the same price.

O29