Laptop £369

Flashheart · 20 Dec 2011 at 12:48

Hi guys, just about to bight the bullet on a laptop for my missus for christmas.

Only really wanted to spend £300, but am willing to stretch to £370 for a PACKARD BELL TK85-GO-045UK15.6" LAPTOP.

It has an i5 and decent screen. She liked playing sims etc. Question is, are there any better laptops for the money?

Scrutinize · 20 Dec 2011 at 12:56

Flashheart said:
Hi guys, just about to bight the bullet on a laptop for my missus for christmas.

Only really wanted to spend £300, but am willing to stretch to £370 for a PACKARD BELL TK85-GO-045UK15.6" LAPTOP.

It has an i5 and decent screen. She liked playing sims etc. Question is, are there any better laptops for the money?

My advice would be not to buy a Packard Bell.

Wait a few days, there are loads of stupidly priced laptops at £699 etc at the moment which will clearly be in a 50% off sale come boxing day.

A few weeks ago £300 would get you a decent branded (Toshiba/HP Business/ Lenovo) i3 laptop. These offers have dried up ready for the Boxing Day sales.

Flashheart · 20 Dec 2011 at 13:03

The boxing day sales are an excellent idea, but my christmas would be ruined if she didnt have this sitting under the tree on christmas eve

Any reason for not buying packard bell?
Curious about the i5 vs i3 now aswell. Are the integrated graphics the same?

Scrutinize · 20 Dec 2011 at 13:21

Flashheart said:
The boxing day sales are an excellent idea, but my christmas would be ruined if she didnt have this sitting under the tree on christmas eve

Any reason for not buying packard bell?
Curious about the i5 vs i3 now aswell. Are the integrated graphics the same?

The build quality on Packard Bell is dire end of.

MumboJumbo · 20 Dec 2011 at 15:22

I'd sooner shoot my self then ever buy a Packard Bell. I think that sums up alone why you shouldn't buy one. Unless you think I really don't value my life...

d_brennen · 20 Dec 2011 at 15:28

Broken dc jack and hinges are almost inevitable within the first year of ownership. If bought from "that place" you may have a fun time trying to get any support post purchase

Django x2 · 20 Dec 2011 at 15:33

Scrutinize said:
The build quality on Packard Bell is dire end of.

This, avoid. But, if its to sit at home on a desk and never move, it should be ok.

The quality is gash because they are owned by ACER afterall!!!

edscdk · 20 Dec 2011 at 15:35

you can get i3 laptops for £340ish if you look round the web...

edscdk · 20 Dec 2011 at 15:36

ooow thats an I5, bargin!

Scrutinize · 20 Dec 2011 at 16:35

Cheap :/: Good Reliability :/: Good Performance

Pick 2.

For example, you can pick up Toshiba Satellites (inc Pros) or Lenovos for the £300 mark (what I refer to as cheap) at the moment which ticks the first 2 boxes but they only come with 2gb mem, 250gb HD and a low end processor possibly Celeron or AMD equivalent (fusion E series). These will however survive more than being turned on and off every so often.

Or you can pick a Packard Bell which comes with an i5 and you should be under no illusion as to where the compromises may appear.

Occasionally you get to have all three, well sort of.

A few months ago you could get an HP Probook 13.3” with i3, dedicated graphics, 3gb mem and 250gb hard drive and 3 year warranty for £315 inc vat or the i5 HP Probook in 15” for £350 but these buck the trend and required the use of HP cashbacks and trade ins. For a very limited period you could get both cashbook and trade in on a certain Probook resulting in a final price of £150 for a £600 laptop as it was in a sale as well.

Django x2 · 20 Dec 2011 at 20:18

The tradeins required a registered vat business on completion, but the cashback was worth it