Advice on buying new laptop

Shurwhynot

Hi

I'm just looking to buy a new laptop - would be willing to spend €500 max. Can anyone tell me where would be the best place to get one, or where has good deals at the minute ie Currys, PC World etc?

I'll be looking to install some work related software on it so it would probably need a decent amount of memory.

Tech Guy Sligo

Hi OP,
I would always recommend lenovo.

laptopsdirect have two I would recommend in your price point.

422euros or 478euros the second one is Core 2 Duo which I think would give more performance.

laptopsdirect have a bad reputation on boards because once you have a problem they tell you to deal with the manufacturer. In this case if you have problems lenovo is a good company to deal with.

D

Shurwhynot

Tech Guy Sligo wrote: »

Hi OP,
I would always recommend lenovo.

laptopsdirect have two I would recommend in your price point.

422euros or 478euros the second one is Core 2 Duo which I think would give more performance.

laptopsdirect have a bad reputation on boards because once you have a problem they tell you to deal with the manufacturer. In this case if you have problems lenovo is a good company to deal with.

D

To be honest i'd rather buy one from a shop rather than over the net, so any other recommendations??

luckylucky

Op I know you said you aren't interested in buying on the net but for others who are considering I spotted that Amazon has got these cheaper (at least the spec seems the same to me) than laptopsdirect http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-IdeaPad-netbook-1-66GHz-Premium/dp/tech-data/B0030SXVEG/ref=de_a_smtd and also are delivering free. I'm considering going for it myself.

Currys PC World: Declan

Shurwhynot wrote: »

To be honest i'd rather buy one from a shop rather than over the net, so any other recommendations??

If you give us a week or so I'll be able to make a PC World recommendation that I hope would please any online or offline buyer. The proof's in the pudding but I think it's a cracking deal. Can you wait a wee while ?

martinAD71

I have to say I have had many laptops over the years and the only one now that I buy are Toshiba’s. I find them great laptops and give the least amount of problems.

Do shop around for a laptop as prices vary widely plus make sure they will supply you with after sales support a lot of shops will just don’t want to know once they have your money


Martin

Shurwhynot

Currys: Declan wrote: »

If you give us a week or so I'll be able to make a PC World recommendation that I hope would please any online or offline buyer. The proof's in the pudding but I think it's a cracking deal. Can you wait a wee while ?

Yeah no worries. Will be looking to purchase in the next week or two though

KangoSkank

Any idea's when the pc world offer will be available. I urgently need to buy a new laptop but I could wait a day or two if the price was right. Even an indication of specs and price would be great

Capt'n Midnight

martinAD71 wrote: »

I have to say I have had many laptops over the years and the only one now that I buy are Toshiba’s

if getting a toshiba don't forget www.bms.ie

check with your IT people as to what they would recommend ,
for example I hate Sony's and would have as little to do with one as possible, ask me for support on something I'm more familiar with and it less hassle for me so I can do a better job

also check with them on the specs and licensing of the work related software , just because they have a license doesn't automatically allow a second copy to be installed on a home machine

also if it's work related , should the company not be contributing ?

copper04

Also interested in this cracking deal suggested by Currys-Declan.
We are waiting for all to be revealed. !!!!!

norbert64

copper04 wrote: »

Also interested in this cracking deal suggested by Currys-Declan.
We are waiting for all to be revealed. !!!!!

+1

Must be a top secret deal, the papers have had very little these days

Currys PC World: Declan

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-5736-07706772-pdt.html

Terrified now that I've over-hyped this.... Sorry for the delay in posting, I was away all last week and have just been reminded on our forum.

Priced at € 479. We sold a lot at the weekend and have enough stock left for a week or so

rebeve

Currys: Declan wrote: »

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-5736-07706772-pdt.html

Terrified now that I've over-hyped this.... Sorry for the delay in posting, I was away all last week and have just been reminded on our forum.

Priced at € 479. We sold a lot at the weekend and have enough stock left for a week or so

Poor enough ,not worth the wait.

norbert64

haha, get your scorecards out folks.
It's judging time.

Stky10

Currys: Declan wrote: »

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-5736-07706772-pdt.html

Terrified now that I've over-hyped this.... Sorry for the delay in posting, I was away all last week and have just been reminded on our forum.

Priced at € 479. We sold a lot at the weekend and have enough stock left for a week or so

Are you going to have any good offers on i5 or i7 laptops before xmas?

Currys PC World: Declan

Can you give me a little more detail on your spec requirements ? I'll see what we have

Stky10

Currys: Declan wrote: »

Can you give me a little more detail on your spec requirements ? I'll see what we have

Maybe I should create a new thread for this... mods let me know if so..

I probably have odd requirements compared to most people. All I care about is processing power, I don't care about graphics card etc. So I'm looking for at least an i5, but preferably an i7 processor, RAM I don't really care about as long as I can upgrade it myself afterwards to at least 6Gb or preferably 8Gb. Hard disk not too bothered about either. And in an ideal world there would be no windows installed on it as it will just be wiped, but I'm guessing thats not at all likely.

waterboy15

+1 looking for an i5 myself max €800, hoping for 15" with full hd screen and min 4 gig ram, feel free to move this modders.

Degsy123

Hi,

You could try laptopsdirect.ie, they have good deals. I would certainly advise against a Dell. Build quality has gone downhill a lot in recent times. It's a pity because they were good laptops

Kev_ps3

Degsy123 wrote: »

Hi,

You could try laptopsdirect.ie, they have good deals. I would certainly advise against a Dell. Build quality has gone downhill a lot in recent times. It's a pity because they were good laptops

I was thinking about getting the new XPS 15 from Dell soon, your saying to avoid? I heard nothing but good reviews of it online

Capt'n Midnight

Degsy123 wrote: »

Hi,

You could try laptopsdirect.ie, they have good deals. I would certainly advise against a Dell. Build quality has gone downhill a lot in recent times. It's a pity because they were good laptops

Do you mean all Dell laptops or a particular range plex / inspiron / vostro ?

Do you mean in an overall hard to define way like IBM --> Lenovo
or do you mean specific things like higher failure rates / worse ergonomics ?

just curious because they used to be a nice cheap n' cheerful choice for low level laptops

dazzday

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Do you mean all Dell laptops or a particular range plex / inspiron / vostro ?

Do you mean in an overall hard to define way like IBM --> Lenovo
or do you mean specific things like higher failure rates / worse ergonomics ?

just curious because they used to be a nice cheap n' cheerful choice for low level laptops

Few things really.

• Ever since they moved CS to India it has been diabolical.

• Build quality of the Inspiron range is very poor and specs-to-price ratio is becoming worse and worse.

• New XPS range, although well specced, is becoming more and more an Inspiron clone. Disappointing really as the XPS range has always had a tradition of being unique,innovative,top-specced machines...the XPS M1530 was arguably one of the best Dells ever built and id say 99% of former XPS owners would rather a re-release of this model with updated specs.

• It now seems acer,asus,sony and HP are the innovative market leaders with Dell following the pack only after their initial success ... sure HDMI only came standard on the Inspiron R range this year!

I could go on and on! Its a shame really as 5years ago they really did offer reliable, good specced machines at affordable prices. But until they pick up their game, I for one advise avoiding outside of the Alienware range.

breadbin

if only i could afford an alienware:(

i am lookin at a laptop for a friend at the moment and i searched high and low for something and pointed her towards an acer. couldn't find anything on the dell site that came close for the same price

saying that i bought a dell laptop a couple of years ago and its going grand, only had to replace the hard disk and keyboard and battery:) but got them cheap off ebay:) i'm happy with it

Degsy123

I was always a fan of Dell laptops and have one myself that is still working after 4 years but 3 of my friends bought dell in the last 12 months and 2 have been sent back with hard disk and other failures. Not sure are they using cheap components but quality has plummeted

waterboy15

Kev_ps3 wrote: »

I was thinking about getting the new XPS 15 from Dell soon, your saying to avoid? I heard nothing but good reviews of it online

Also looks nearly like an inspiron at this stage where has all the xps/studio style gone ?

thegen

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this?

I am looking to get my 10yr old a notebook/laptop for Christmas. Something as cheap as possible. It is really only for web browsing. I did pick up a 10" notebook for 249.00 last year in PC World. Is there any cheaper out there?

TheGEN

Shurwhynot

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Lenovo_B550_Windows_7_Laptop_M41E9UK/version.asp

Can anyone tell me if this is a good laptop??