What should I look for in a budget laptop?

[Black Sheep]

Having never bought a computer in my life, other than my macs I have been charged with the task of acquiring a laptop for my father in law but I don't know what a decent specification ought to be.

Budget is £300 absolute maximum
Needs to be able to run Skype, word processing, internet, father in law quite enjoys playing evony online and it ought to have wireless etc
Needs to be a known brand as sooner or later it's going to be taken with them when they move to mallorca so might be wanting to get a power supply that doesn't require an adaptor.

something that does the job but won't go out of date quickly.

so, suggestions of specification would be appreciated, I can then hunt through deals online knowing what spec I'm after.

 

[killiekosmos]

Any laptop should be able to give you WP and internet. If you dont like MS Works then download OpenOffice for free. Most come with wireless built in but if not just buy wireless USB stick. Skype should be OK on anything but you'll need a microphone and speakers (and web-cam?). You'll not get state-of-art machine for £300 but will get by. Tesco has a Toshiba at £299 right now.

For power supply just get a replacement power lead with a European plug on it, it's a standard socket in power supply.

You should be looking at 1Gb of memory, 200Gb hard disk (but both of these can be upgraded) Windows 7, DVD writer, wireless. You may have to settle for Intel Celeron od AMD Athlon processor but if it's just surfing and typing it does not matter.

See options here http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Search/Computers/Laptops/

 

[Proto]

Sorry to hijack this thread but eldest daughter wants a laptop and has asked me to help.

Just moved (temporarily) into nursing home accommodation in central London (she's a physio at UCH). Room is cramped, no room for a desktop or tv, so she wants a 'do it all' laptop. Portability is not a major issue, but she says she wants a 15.6" machine, other than that, open to persuasion.

Browsing ebuyer.com, I've found this. Seems to tick all the right boxes decentish CPU, RAM, etc, but also has dedicated graphics. Webcam a nice bonus.

I know little about such things, even less about ACER. Any reason why I shouldn't buy it? Thanks

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/201213

 

[Downward]

I have got my last 2 from here
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/refurbished-laptops/315_3227_30329_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html

Add in a 5% off code from Vouchers.co.uk and your sorted

Picked up an Acer 5532 3gb Ram TK42 1.6ghz Processor 15.6"HD Screen HD3200 Graphics for £285 ish.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I currently have a very nice little Acer and am very happy with it. I'd say Acer as a brand are fine, but as all brands sometimes the particular model could be awful. I've seen a really bad review of one of the baby Dells - Dell are normally good, but this one just didn't work.

That looks like a decent spec laptop, although I'm not sure about tha 3d thing....

There's a review here:
http://www.pcpro.co....pire-5738dzg-3d
and another here (although note this might not be the exact same model as the last letters are missing)
http://www.reghardware.com/2009/12/08/review_laptop_acer_aspire_5738dzg_3d_notebook/

(sorry don't have time to read it just now)

Just one thing: seems like it's about a year old. In the computer timescale that might mean it's a bit out of date although to me the specs look good, but you might want to investigate what that processor is a bit further.