Laptop for father

The_B_Man

I'm buying a laptop for my father for his birthday/retirement.

Would it be possible to get a 3rd gen i5 for around the €400 mark?

He'll need Microsoft Office on it, and little else.
It would be great if it was lightweight as well.

I don't think a 1080p screen would be best, coz he wears glasses so probably 720p would be grand. Maybe around the 15" mark.

Do the bricks and mortar shops generally offer good deals, or is online the way to go?

Thanks.

Torqay

The_B_Man wrote: »

Would it be possible to get a 3rd gen i5 for around the €400 mark? He'll need Microsoft Office on it, and little else.
It would be great if it was lightweight as well. I don't think a 1080p screen would be best, coz he wears glasses so probably 720p would be grand. Maybe around the 15" mark.

This planet that you're from, how far from the sun we talking?

The_B_Man wrote: »

Do the bricks and mortar shops generally offer good deals?

NO!

The_B_Man wrote: »

is online the way to go?

Yes.

Online, you may find a Core i5 laptop for around 450 yoyos but no full HD display and certainly no MS Office (except the usual 30 days trial version).

The_B_Man

Torqay wrote: »

Online, you may find a Core i5 laptop for around 450 yoyos but no full HD display and certainly no MS Office (except the usual 30 days trial version).

Well full HD isn't a problem. 1366x768 would be ideal.
I think the CPU is the most important part, hence why I asked about the i5. I can get him more ram and an ssd later if need be.

TheDriver

get openoffice unless he is a heavy office user, will alow you to open and create .doc files for free.

Torqay

Acer with a Core i5 3210m, €422 at LD

heroics

Laptopsdirect have a few between 400-500 here

BobCobb

If you go to the UK site of LD you can get £15 off if you spend £1 and sign up to Which mag for a month.
Delivery costs are the same from both ie and uk sites anyway, so it basically knocks off the delivery charge.

The_B_Man

Thanks guys.

I had a look around laptopsdirect there.

I think this one looks decent:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Fujitsu_AH532_Windows_8_Laptop_in_Black_VFYAH532M35A2GB/version.asp


Good battery, Not too heavy, USB3. Any downsides?


Cheers

For Forks Sake

The_B_Man wrote: »

Thanks guys.



Good battery, Not too heavy, USB3. Any downsides?


Cheers

Those Fujitsus are really chunky, the chassis looks like a Dell from 5 years ago.

The_B_Man

Well the specs there say its 2.4kg. the other ones were 2.5kg. Not much difference but still not heavier.

Ideally I'd like something as postable as an ultrabook for him, but he has fat fingers so it might be out of the question!! lol

Torqay

The_B_Man wrote: »

Ideally I'd like something as postable as an ultrabook for him, but he has fat fingers so it might be out of the question!! lol

You were talking about a upgrading with a solid state disk and 8 GB RAM, which will set you back another 150 yoyos. Have a look at PC Specialist, order a laptop configured to your likings and if you already have an operating system, you can save €100.

For example, the Genesis IV with a Core i5, 8 GB RAM and a 120 GB SSD costs £490/€568 (incl. delivery, sans OS). For 49 quid you'll get a full HD display. Comes with a chiclet style keyboard and separate numpad.

The_B_Man

ye thats true. The laptop I'm on at the moment I bought from PCS. The only problem there is that it took ages to get delivered, and I'm hoping to get the laptop next week.


I've narrowed it down to 2 laptops:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Fujitsu_AH532_Windows_8_Laptop_in_Black_VFYAH532M35A2GB/version.asp
and
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/HP_Pavilion_g6-2279sa_Core_i5_Windows_8_Laptop_in_Blue__C6G57EA/version.asp

The Fujitsu is getting good reviews, except the screen is a bit iffy apparently. So I'm thinking of just going for the HP, coz I had a HP before this one that lasted me years!

Any thoughts before I pull the trigger?

Torqay

Why would you pay 107 euro more for the HP (which is priced in Sterling) if you changing the RAM and HDD anyway?

And then there is the issue of overheating with many HP notebooks... personally, I wouldn't touch them with a 12 ft barge pole.

The_B_Man

Oops, didnt notice the currency.
I'll get the Fujitsu anyway.

Cheers for the help lads.

Torqay

If you're looking for a reasonably priced SSD, there is a 120 GB Kingston SSD for €95 @ Komplett (just fitted one into an Acer, good value), for 20 yoyos more you'll get the HyperX.