I need a new laptop for my daughter, any recommended?

[Raging Squirrel]

i got a Fujitsu Siemens from work for £57 and it's never missed a beat in the 3 years I was using it

 

[slowmotion]

The Samsung Series 3 NP300E5A has had pretty good reviews in Which?
15.6" screen
4G RAM
640G hard drive
decent processor
quite good battery life

 

[Manonabike]

I would personally avoid Dell - they have fallen apart on me and people I know. Me and my mate got identical (well, his had a webcam in it but that's by the by) and they fell apart at around the 12 month mark. They were identical laptops as well.

At the moment I use an Asus netbook - the only damage done to it has been done by me taking it apart (IT student, what do you expect? ). Decent enough, works and I do everything you want yours to do on it including Photoshop, web design, video editing, word processing, the lot.

I'd get her a 2nd hand one in decent nick. If you format it and re-install Windows on it it's as good as new anyway as long as it isn't visibly damaged. You'd get a lot more for your money as well.

Actually one could make a big mistake buying a laptop that doesn't look damaged. Laptos specially in the hands of students tend to suffer from clog fans and that couses overheating. The repair can be expensive. Another fault that cannot be seen by simply looking at a laptop is a nearly broken power connector.

 

[sabian92]

Actually one could make a big mistake buying a laptop that doesn't look damaged. Laptos specially in the hands of students tend to suffer from clog fans and that couses overheating. The repair can be expensive. Another fault that cannot be seen by simply looking at a laptop is a nearly broken power connector.

Well, it doesn't have to come from a student but the fan would clog up anyway regardless of who uses it.

 

[Milo]

For what you need I think 400 would be overkill my self. I have a 3 year old laptop that cost me about 280 new and it's fine for anything i need and manage with hdtv just fine. Btw I can recommend Acer.

 

[SportMonkey]

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-x...vdsm-15-6--w7hp-87R1.html?refs=54580000&src=3

That would do, £320 with the code ASUS20

 

[ian turner]

"Memory 4G (4096x1) + 2G On-board " . Is someone claiming 2gb of graphics ram as part of the main memory ?

 

[Manonabike]

Well, it doesn't have to come from a student but the fan would clog up anyway regardless of who uses it.

Agree but if you read my post properly you'll find I didn't say only students..... but "specially students" and I have good reasons to believe that is so

I visited my local John Lewis today and I saw a Toshiba and a Samsung that would fit the bill - there's also a comet place but I've never been happy with their customer service so I didn't look in.

I think I will try to get J L to do a price match rather than get the same laptop from Staples.

Thanks to the people that posted links, some are really interesting offers but my daughter is screaming that she needs the laptop today

Cheers.

 

[marinyork]

"Memory 4G (4096x1) + 2G On-board " . Is someone claiming 2gb of graphics ram as part of the main memory ?

Whether you are being sarcastic or not, the Integrated GMA HD is a very famous, well known and well written about. You can find extensive information about it on various extremely famous hardware sites.

It performs adequately well. For the purposes of the OP I would say it is fine. As always with the intels when they come out there is some doubts about how it will date, but hey.

 

[byegad]

Just bought myself a Samsung RV510, my Dell was on it's last legs after 5 or 6 years of hammer. A few weeks later my wife wanted to replace her Dell, 18 months younger than mine, but showing the same error massages as mine about imminent disc failure, mine eventually failed after 3 months of dire warnings! So She too has an RV510. We paid around £350 for each one from different suppliers.

Recommended.

 

[SportMonkey]

"Memory 4G (4096x1) + 2G On-board " . Is someone claiming 2gb of graphics ram as part of the main memory ?

Or the old famous Apple trick of soldering RAM to the motherboard.

 

[ian turner]

Whether you are being sarcastic or not, the Integrated GMA HD is a very famous, well known and well written about. You can find extensive information about it on various extremely famous hardware sites..

The description claims 6gb of ram then qualifies it. That laptop only has 4gb , they're playing games with the line that usually with a chipset that means less than 4gb due to using system memory but then with cards it doesn't

 

[Manonabike]

Oh well, I got John Lewis to price match staples and saved £100. Also, I get 2 years of warranty instead of just one.

Again, my thanks for all the good advise posted here.

 

[Scoosh]

Happy Daughter too, I trust ?

Result !

 

[Manonabike]

Indeed, I just came back from Southampton where I handed over the new toy after removing Mcafee and Microsoft Office 2010 and installing software she already had in her other machine.

A very happy daughter after all