Morning all,

We need a new laptop at home. Tasks will be web browsing, kids homework etc. Budget is £500 tops and an online purchase is deemed acceptable. Microsoft Office would be nice, but not essential - I'm aware some now opt for "cloud" based software and again I don't rule this out, but am cost concious.

So can anyone recommend a particular make/model of laptop and where to buy from?

(Happy to wait until January when prices may be better)

Thanks,
Nick

I've bought a couple of laptops and a desktop form the Dell Outlet store with no problems, stock is variable so you need to look regularly and check the spec and don't forget to add vat. Typically you save about 25-30% on the retail price and they come with a 1yr dell warranty.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/(S(pr0hy15yglvwzzovi5g2n4ua))/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandid=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

This looks like a reasonable deal as an example fro £366 - http://outlet.euro.dell.com/(S(pr0hy15yglvwzzovi5g2n4ua))/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&key=a1ObhLc4J JERlYkZJkuQ5oYyqx87MX%2fx&puid=e440fac

This one is just over budget but is more portable (13", I5 processor and 256Gb SSD drive, and a really good full HD IPS screen - http://outlet.euro.dell.com/(S(pr0hy15yglvwzzovi5g2n4ua))/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&key=a1ObhLc4J JHvGuf31fgQbgt%2f3sHx93JfyIo52WIHRD8%3d&puid=4639b1db

IIRC Office is now a subscription model (Office 365), you can always use Libra Office which is free and has pretty much the same functionality and can read/write Microsoft files (Used to be Open Office iirc).

https://www.libreoffice.org/

^^^ Thanks I will take a look.

Office 365 is something under consideration where I work along with cloud storage and backup.


ETA...To complete that statement, I work in Basingstoke and the limiting factor (believe it or not) is the poor/slow internet connection speeds available. As it stands they're deemed too slow for the volume of data we work with. We could choose to pay (a lot) for a higher speed connection, but we currently have our own servers which work fine.

[Edited on 20/12/16 by nick205]

As above,I've had Dell laptop for coming up to 5 years now, and it's been pretty fault free; core I5 processor, plenty of RAM, decent size HDD. Gets used predominantly for work, but as a personal machine as well. So good all-round.

Had a Toshiba previously, and would avoid like the plague. Lenovo make some smart machines, but mostly work-focused in my experience. The Mrs. has an personal HP and seems happy with it, but prefers her Dell work unit.

With re. to MS Office, you can still buy the "old style" version that you install on a machine, and not the cloud "365" version - that I believe requires a monthly/annual subscription. But expect to pay about £100 for a legit copy in the shops.

Or, if you want legal free software, download and install LibreOffice - a fully-functional package that can do 99.9% of Office functionality, including the reading of DOC and DOCX files.

LibreOffice home page

quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
Or, if you want legal free software, download and install LibreOffice - a fully-functional package that can do 99.9% of Office functionality, including the reading of DOC and DOCX files.

LibreOffice home page

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quote:

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Originally posted by Charlie_Zetec
As above,I've had Dell laptop for coming up to 5 years now, and it's been pretty fault free; core I5 processor, plenty of RAM, decent size HDD. Gets used predominantly for work, but as a personal machine as well. So good all-round.

Had a Toshiba previously, and would avoid like the plague. Lenovo make some smart machines, but mostly work-focused in my experience. The Mrs. has an personal HP and seems happy with it, but prefers her Dell work unit.

With re. to MS Office, you can still buy the "old style" version that you install on a machine, and not the cloud "365" version - that I believe requires a monthly/annual subscription. But expect to pay about £100 for a legit copy in the shops.

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Office 365 isn't necessarily cloud-based. I pay an annual subscription of £79.99 which gives us Office on 5 computers (mac or PC) and up to 5 tablets. So we have the latest versions on our laptops, 2 stalls on an iMac (one mac and one windows version) and one on daughter's laptop. Also have it on both iPhones and iPads. We store almost everything on our devices in the conventional way, although the tablets versions default to cloud storage.

My old Toshiba was the least reliable of all laptops, it finally died when the power socket set on fire (and I'm not talking figuratively!).

I have a Samsung now which is a bit 'meh', it does the job but it doesn't appear particularly solid or reassuring. My work laptop was a Lenovo Thinkpad, as is my wife's, and they are bulletproof. Mind you, the IBM Thinkpads before them were also very reliable.

However, there is no denying that the Samsung laptop looks nicer than the Thinkpads. We're talking sculpted stone vs house brick. If you want a pretty laptop there's no point even considering a Thinkpad!

There used to be a place in Scotland that sold used ex-company Thinkpads, unfortunately they don't exist anymore.

On the subject of Office, I still work with Office 2013 that I got cheap at a computer fair. I've never had any issues opening any documents, and I still get security updates (for what they're worth).

Asus laptop every day. Or msi but they are silly money lol.
If you look up box in Minworth, they do some good deals. I always buy from this company.

Get a chromebook.

I hate having to use my laptop when I have the chromebook as well. Boots up almost instantly, no stupid updates all the time. And no risk of viruses.

I can do everything a laptop can do bar run .exe applications.

all with 9 hours plus battery life.

I would seriously recommend you look at one before looking at a laptop.

Chrome books are much better than Windows but no MS Office you are stuck with cloud based google apps.

I use google's own version of Office, which is free, can be used offline and is fully compatible with ms office.

I have also tried the cloud-based version of office, which is acceptable, but not as good as google office suite.

quote:

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Originally posted by ste
Get a chromebook.

I hate having to use my laptop when I have the chromebook as well. Boots up almost instantly, no stupid updates all the time. And no risk of viruses.

I can do everything a laptop can do bar run .exe applications.

all with 9 hours plus battery life.

I would seriously recommend you look at one before looking at a laptop.

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quote:

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Originally posted by kevstar81
Asus laptop every day

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Looked a little at Chromebooks last night.

I realised pretty fast there are a number of makes/models.

As before can anyone recommend a particular make and model?

Can't help with laptop types etc but I was told yesterday the Staples have been brought out and are selling all laptops etc at up to 50%off now. Could save you a few pennies?

quote:

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Originally posted by rusty nuts
Can't help with laptop types etc but I was told yesterday the Staples have been brought out and are selling all laptops etc at up to 50%off now. Could save you a few pennies?

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quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
Or, if you want legal free software, download and install LibreOffice - a fully-functional package that can do 99.9% of Office functionality, including the reading of DOC and DOCX files.

LibreOffice home page

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Have they got Silverlight or a compatable equivalent for the Chrome system yet.?

if I were buying a laptop this week I would seriously consider
http://www.ebuyer.com/760637-hp-250-g5-i5-laptop-x0q78es-x0q78es-abu

HP i5, 256GBssd at £350.
and for office, you can use word and several other online apps, just by having an ms/hotmail/outlook account/ ie(just an email address from them!)