Laptop for student <500

christo82

Looking for a laptop for less than €500 hopefully. I'm a student so I need something good quality(ie large RAM, large hard drive etc). Can anyone recommend any good deals on at the moment?

Thanks

johndaman66

I too am in the market for a laptop at the moment Christo82 and have a budget similar to yours. I have priced them in a number of stores and as far as I can see Currys offer the best value for money. In particular I am looking at an Acer they are selling (not sure of model). Main specs are as follows: -

Dual core processor
3GB Ram
250GB hard-drive
Screen size 15.6"

The stand alone price is 429 euro. It doesn't have a webcam which wouldn't bother me the slightest but maximum battery life is up to 2.5 hours which is not fantastic. All the same it seems to be the best spec/ price trade off I've seen so far. If you push up to the 500 euro mark no doubt you will get a better machine again but I would recommend Currys as generally having the best vaule across their range. Other stores I've tried so far are Soundstore, PC World, Harvey Norman (outrageously expensive), Carphone Warehouse and Argos. Have to check one more small indepedent retailer today but think I'll be going with Currys. I know Powercity are pretty good too or at least used to be so they may be worth a go for you but I am miles away from the nearest Powercity, being in Limerick myself.

punkindrublic

How is customer service in currys? I need a new laptop and refuse to get another dell and can't quite afford an apple notebook so I'm thinking of getting one in currys but should something happen to it will they be helpful or just try and get as much money from me as they can to fix something basic coughdellcough

christo82

Thanks for your help. I'll have a look in Currys when I can

johndaman66

punkindrublic wrote: »

How is customer service in currys? I need a new laptop and refuse to get another dell and can't quite afford an apple notebook so I'm thinking of getting one in currys but should something happen to it will they be helpful or just try and get as much money from me as they can to fix something basic coughdellcough

I won't mislead you and say they are good, bad or indifferent punkindrublic as I cant say I know. I do know from reading another thread that PC World are not noted as fantastic on this front and many agreed that Argos were surprisignly good generally but cant comment on the rest of the bunch I mention. Perhaps somebody else out there may be better equipped to answer your question hopefully.

eusap

A good tip for buying laptops is go to places like PC world. currys, harvey norman write down the model you want and then go online and search. You wont find the same model as they buy in bulk but for example you will find a toshiba L450-17x in pcworld and will find a L450-17l with the same spec online, not sure of the exact part number these are from my head