£200 to spend on a laptop/netbook

[Scotmitchy]

What would you buy?

i want it to be portable, but with a proper qwerty keyboard.

I want as much power and memory as possible, but it doesn't need to do lots.

I want to surf the net mainly, plus emails.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Basil.B]

Get a Mac.

 

[brockers]

My experience is that they're all pretty much of a muchness at any price point.

Pin pictures of similarly priced computers to dartboard. Pick up dart. Throw dart at dartboard. Buy laptop hit by dart.

Much like buying a bike if you ask me !

 

[Salad Dodger]

I am using my Samsung NC10 netbook to write this. Small, light and with decent battery life. My daughter the tecchie says that the innards are a bit low powered but it surfs and writes Word documents and such like. All that an old duffer like me needs it to do.

If you go looking for a netbook, take a look at the screen. Some have a glossy surface which reflects light from the room and renders the screen hard to see. The Samsung has a matte finish to the screen which copes well with indoor reflections.

Seems the internet price is a whisker over £200: They seem to be maybe £215 or so. I would certainly buy another one if (heaven forbid) anything were to happen to this one.

Just my personal opinion.....

 

[Arch]

I'm writing this on a nice little Samsung N150, which I found on Amazon for just over £200. I use it almost entirely for surfing. The keyboard is fine for me, but I do have small fingers.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

My experience is that they're all pretty much of a muchness at any price point.

Pin pictures of similarly priced computers to dartboard. Pick up dart. Throw dart at dartboard. Buy laptop hit by dart.

Much like buying a bike if you ask me !

Throw a dart into someone at PC World and ask what they would reccomend... then buy it way cheaper somewhere online.

 

[vernon]

Get a Mac.

With a £200 budget?

 

[Manonabike]

I am using my Samsung NC10 netbook to write this. Small, light and with decent battery life. My daughter the tecchie says that the innards are a bit low powered but it surfs and writes Word documents and such like. All that an old duffer like me needs it to do.

If you go looking for a netbook, take a look at the screen. Some have a glossy surface which reflects light from the room and renders the screen hard to see. The Samsung has a matte finish to the screen which copes well with indoor reflections.

Seems the internet price is a whisker over £200: They seem to be maybe £215 or so. I would certainly buy another one if (heaven forbid) anything were to happen to this one.

Just my personal opinion.....

The NC10 is a fine netbook but it does have a manufacturing fault. It's known as the screen of death, white screen, etc. the problem is a flickering screen. Samsung can repair them (faulty cable) - If you could get the fault fixed before the warranty runs out I would definitely get one.

I bought an NC10 and after a week or so the flickering screen appeared - I was offered a replacement but not a fix. I opted for the NC10 Plus (faster processor, bigger hard drive, windows 7 starter, longer battery life) But Win7 starter is such a cut down version that is pretty useless. Win 7 makes it slower that the older NC10 running win xp. The NC10 Plus is just a N150 with a new label. I think if I could get a fixed NC10 then I would definitely prefer it to the NC10 Plus. The finishing on the NC10 is by far better than the NC10 Plus.

My wife has an Acer netbook - newish type but I don't like it.

 

[Scotmitchy]

thanks guys, surfing and comparing as we speak ...

 

[Scotmitchy]

Thanks for the advice guys, I have ordered an Acer 255, having balanced the reviews and the budget.



Mitchy

 

[Manonabike]

Thanks for the advice guys, I have ordered an Acer 255, having balanced the reviews and the budget.



Mitchy

what advice? You went for something that nobody here advised you to buy

 

[Scotmitchy]

LOL but people did advise that a netbook size was useable and that they surfed cycle chat from it, thus proving it was not an entirely mad choice

But mainly, my mammy brought me up to be polite, so I was saying thank you while I updated

 

[wheres_my_beard]

£200 isn't a huge budget, but for surfing and browsing that Acer may be bang on. The processor is dual core (1.5 Ghz) and the RAM (only 1GB) is DDR3 which are all capable of the tasks you need them for, although running Win7 itself maybe a little slow. The standard HDD isn't awe inspiring but if its not going to be used for heavy documents, or files, it should be more that adequate.

Reviews I have quickly read seem to suggest it is "mediocre" - but then the kit they normally review for hardcore users cost many times your budget.

If there is an option to bump up the RAM to 2GB before you buy it or if the case allows an upgrade later, I would look into it if I were you. RAM is cheaper to buy yourself later and takes seconds to install.

 

[Scotmitchy]

Thanks where's my beard, I will look into that.

 

[Manonabike]

LOL but people did advise that a netbook size was useable and that they surfed cycle chat from it, thus proving it was not an entirely mad choice

But mainly, my mammy brought me up to be polite, so I was saying thank you while I updated

No problem.

Not all Acer 255 are dual core BTW but there is definitely an option to upgrade the memory to 2GB - under £30 for sure. The alternative is to install Ubuntu (desktop version) I did that and the little machine became alive - you save the cash and at the same time you make the netbook faster and better all round.

As I said before I have one netbook myself and my wife has one too..... both purchased within the last 6 months and we love them - they are so portable, ideal to take to garden when you want to kill some time surfing the net


My wife has the Acer 255 and I personally don't like it now but I did like it at the beginning, so much that inspired me to go and get a netbook myself

Good luck