Advice on buying new laptop for my Dad please

justagirl

My Dad wants to buy a new laptop - I haven't bought one in
nearly four years so i'm out of touch....:(

He basically wants it for email/internet/skype. He wants it wireless (so he can print to wireless printer) .. he wants to have an inbuilt webcam (does this hike the price up a bit?) ... he also wants to use it as a dvd player on flights.... he doesn't want something slow....

I think he'd want to stick to XP so he doesn't have to get used to a new system like Vista..

And the price ... well, as low as it can be!! ... Thank you so much in advance for your advices....:)

as an aside - would it be cheaper to buy it up the north ?...

thenightrider

the built in web cam will up the prise and limit you and im not sure if new laptops come with xp anymore think they are all vista best place is to buy on line stay away from the likes of pc world dixsons etc

Sean Quagmire

In Curry’s/pc world (same company) you can get a laptop with webcam and a decent size hard drive (80 gb) for 549 – (Toshiba)
I wouldn’t worry about vista. All laptops that are for sale have vista on it – it’s the standard. There is a setting on the laptop that can switch the view/display to XP – problem solved!

All laptops have a wireless network in them that will pick up your printer signals and broadband box - so thats sorted!
I bought one the other day and its great.

justagirl

thenightrider wrote: »

the built in web cam will up the prise and limit you and im not sure if new laptops come with xp anymore think they are all vista best place is to buy on line stay away from the likes of pc world dixsons etc

txs for your advice... just wondered why you say to stay away from pc world/dixons ?... do they overcharge ? less spec?... or is their afterservice not good? txs.

justagirl

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

In Curry’s/pc world (same company) you can get a laptop with webcam and a decent size hard drive (80 gb) for 549 – (Toshiba)
I wouldn’t worry about vista. All laptops that are for sale have vista on it – it’s the standard. There is a setting on the laptop that can switch the view/display to XP – problem solved!

All laptops have a wireless network in them that will pick up your printer signals and broadband box - so thats sorted!
I bought one the other day and its great.

txs for that... my dad actually now has a toshiba (not wireless) and he's had endless trouble with it!!! He must have got it about 4 years ago - would it be because of its age (or just a dud one) that he had all the trouble... reason why I ask is that my friend and my sister got same one (was on special offer) and they had the same problems... - what model is the one you bought? Be good to get a model someone else thinks is a good buy...

Also, txs for advise on switching setting to display to XP - i didn't know it was that simple!! ... Does Vista not use a heck of a lot of memory to work?.. Thanks:)

Sean Quagmire

My brother has had the same model I bought for about a year and he has had no problems, either have I.
Its hard to tell how reliable one laptop will be because they all can vary. But I would recommend it. The model I got was an ‘Equim’ or something like that…

As for buying online and not in pc world – I don’t agree with that. All laptops are made in the same factory respectively regardless of who sells them.

If the laptop has vista on it but the display is changed to XP it will still have all the performance and gadgets of the vista – Just XP display so the memory used is not gone to waste..

justagirl

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

My brother has had the same model I bought for about a year and he has had no problems, either have I.
Its hard to tell how reliable one laptop will be because they all can vary. But I would recommend it. The model I got was an ‘Equim’ or something like that…

As for buying online and not in pc world – I don’t agree with that. All laptops are made in the same factory respectively regardless of who sells them.

If the laptop has vista on it but the display is changed to XP it will still have all the performance and gadgets of the vista – Just XP display so the memory used is not gone to waste..

Thanks Sean Quagmire.... what you said about buying online -v- via shop made complete sense.... I'll have a good look round for him ....

Maybe my dad will like the look of the vista so i'm probably complicating things !!! Thanks again, very much appreciated.:)