Which laptop for £400?

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2006
Posts
11,477
Location
Derbyshire
A friend wants a new laptop. She says £400 but I have said £500 gives much more option.

Would like it to be:
Windows 7
Decent cpu - Probably i3 (no crappy celeron or old core 2 duo)
Minimum 3gb of ram
LED Screen (can it be done for this price?)

There are so many laptops out there! I would spend days looking myself but the purchase isn't going to be my own. Thanks :).
 
should have posted in the laptop section, will get more response there i think :)

will have a browse in a few mins, just sorting out my desk :D
 
For me the only manufacturer I will buy a laptop from now is either Asus for Windows machines or Apple. Asus have been flawless for me in every laptop I've had from them. I've had Dell's, Toshiba's and Sony's that have all been awful. And was why I went with Asus. So far, no problems with them and I recommend them to family and friends. And I've yet to have anyone come back and hit me for recommending one :P I sold my last Asus machine to my brother. Which has been carted around Australia in a back pack for the past year and is still working.
 
^Have you met the Asus rma process yet?

What will your friend be using the laptop for? My girlfriend is thrilled with a 2ghz c2d and 2gb of ram, and doesn't understand why I want a faster computer than that. I mention this as it's probably possible to get a c2d system for a fraction of the price of an i3 one at the moment, and I think the only measurable difference when using office and firefox would be battery life.
 
JonJ678 said:
^Have you met the Asus rma process yet?

What will your friend be using the laptop for? My girlfriend is thrilled with a 2ghz c2d and 2gb of ram, and doesn't understand why I want a faster computer than that. I mention this as it's probably possible to get a c2d system for a fraction of the price of an i3 one at the moment, and I think the only measurable difference when using office and firefox would be battery life.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about my suggestion it's an msi.
 
I've always used Acer laptops and find them great value.

I currenetly have the 5920g, which i bought for £480 about 2 years ago, you could probably get one cheaper now. (there are probably better models now too)
Intel core 2 duo 2ghz
250gb hdd
hd3470 with 256mb ded vram
Bluray drive
4gb ram
windows 7.

it was a bargain for £480 and i can even play most games on it with decent settings, i don't know what use you want it for though
but acer in general, i would recommend, i've had good experience with their cs too.:)


edit- ok, just seen no core 2 duo.:)
 
Last edited:
mglover070588 said:
It is just for general internet, films, word processing, music. Nothing fancy!
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is at least in i3 really needed then?

my core 2 duo does everything i need it to.

i hook it up to my hdtv so that i can have a bluray running whilst also browsing on the laptops screen.

You will get a good quality laptop for your needs for £400, it's just when gaming comes in to the equation that prices start shooting up.
 
Could look into CULV laptops as they tend to be pretty good for what is need, interwebz and word processing, but maybe restrictive on films? im not sure.

The Acer Travelmate 8371, less than £400 i think, will have the perfect specs for what you need, there is a big thread in the laptops section about it, take a browse and look at the reviews.
 
If gaming isn't involved then I would look at the core 2 duo range by Dell. However I've just spent some time looking through their website, and it doesn't look like now is a good time to buy. C2D laptops are still expensive, and few i3 ones are out (from Dell anyway).

However, Lenovo are offering a 15" thinkpad edge, i3-380M / 2gb ram for £490 which looks good if the 720p resolution isn't a deal breaker. There seems to be a large number of cheaper models available at present with 15.4" HD screens which is somewhat misleading.
 
If you're willing to go AMD and compromise slightly on the CPU I'd highly recommend the following for £400:


HP Pavilion dv6-3111sa - Red
Processor AMD Athlon II Dual-Core Processor P340
- 2.2 GHz
- 3.6 GT/s HT
- 1 MB L2 Cache
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM - 3GB (1 x 1024 MB + 1 x 2048 MB)
- DDR3
Graphics card ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 Graphics
- 512 MB DDR3 dedicated memory
- 1661 MB total shared graphics memory
Screen type LCD Widescreen
Screen resolution - WXGA
- 1366 x 768
Screen size 15.6"
Screen features - High Definition
- LED HP BrightView display
Hard drive 500GB SATA hard drive 7200rpm
Optical disk drive SATA optical drive: LightScribe SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Memory card reader 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader
USB Yes, 4 x USB 2.0 ports (4th shared with eSATA port)
FireWire No
Modem/Ethernet Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes
Video interface 1 x VGA
1 x HDMI
Audio interface 1 x stereo headphone out
1 x microphone in
TV output HDMI
Extension card slot No
Sound Altec Lansing speakers - Dolby Advanced Audio
Webcam Yes
Battery - 6-cell Lithium-ion battery

The speakers are better than the usual basics, the build quality is superb, screen is good, not great - my only gripe is that the edges of the base are slightly sloped, which makes plugging in USB devices more of a hassle.

I picked it up in store for for £372 (just had to agree to cover which can be cancelled after the first month, bringing it to £380).
 
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