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Author: Subject: Laptop type and source?
nick205

posted on 20/12/16 at 09:05 AM Reply With Quote
Laptop type and source?

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






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Ugg10

posted on 20/12/16 at 09:40 AM Reply With Quote
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/





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nick205

posted on 20/12/16 at 10:17 AM Reply With Quote
^^^ 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]






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Charlie_Zetec

posted on 20/12/16 at 12:40 PM Reply With Quote
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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David Jenkins

posted on 20/12/16 at 01:51 PM Reply With Quote
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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nick205

posted on 20/12/16 at 02:43 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
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



I have looked before at other options aside from Office. I suspect our desire for Office comes from both having work laptops with it on and having it somewhat ingrained in our working lives. I certainly wouldn't rule out other options just approaching this thinking Office may be a simple all-round option for us.






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nick205

posted on 20/12/16 at 02:48 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
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.



The current Toshiba we've got is not the fastest laptop, but it's been reliable amongst a family of 5.

Workwise we both have HP laptops. SWMBO seems happy with hers and mines is good apart from continual bloody fan noise (tried cleaning it to no avail). My work one gets lugged to/from work has been dropped and run with and without an external keyboard, mouse and screen. Both work ones and the current Toshiba home one have CD drives - none of which have been used in years. I'd happily do without a CD drive TBH - save the space.






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geoff shep

posted on 20/12/16 at 03:31 PM Reply With Quote
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.
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Slimy38

posted on 20/12/16 at 04:19 PM Reply With Quote
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).

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kevstar81

posted on 20/12/16 at 05:04 PM Reply With Quote
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.

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ste

posted on 20/12/16 at 11:34 PM Reply With Quote
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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britishtrident

posted on 21/12/16 at 12:27 AM Reply With Quote
Chrome books are much better than Windows but no MS Office you are stuck with cloud based google apps.





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― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]

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ste

posted on 21/12/16 at 05:51 AM Reply With Quote
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.

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nick205

posted on 21/12/16 at 09:28 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
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.



Good suggestion - must admit I'd not looked at Chromebooks!

I've use Chrome as my default web browser for some time so will take a look.






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mcerd1

posted on 21/12/16 at 10:34 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by kevstar81
Asus laptop every day


+1

but as with all brands you get what you pay for - the really cheap ones (~£300) are just bog standard cheap laptops, but the mid and higher end ASUS ones can be really nice





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nick205

posted on 23/12/16 at 09:25 AM Reply With Quote
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?






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rusty nuts

posted on 23/12/16 at 09:31 AM Reply With Quote
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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nick205

posted on 23/12/16 at 10:19 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
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?



Useful to know!

Off to finish Xmas shopping this afternoon so will pop in and have a look.


BBC news link here for anyone interested...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38013806

[Edited on 23/12/16 by nick205]






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gingerprince

posted on 23/12/16 at 12:17 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
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


Just be aware if you have spreadsheets with Macro's in. LibreOffice etc use their own macro language, and will not run macros that are written in VBA.

If you're just doing documents and spreadsheets etc they're great, and "feel" like MS Office so not hard to work around, but as soon as you start to automate stuff it all goes to pot.

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britishtrident

posted on 23/12/16 at 12:37 PM Reply With Quote
Have they got Silverlight or a compatable equivalent for the Chrome system yet.?





[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]

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gremlin1234

posted on 28/12/16 at 07:20 PM Reply With Quote
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!)

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