New Laptop advice needed

[Joe_SP]

Hi all

My father in law is after a new laptop, he needs a reliable and solid laptop for word processing and internet use so it does not need to be high spec. It must be reliable and dependable and preferably available with a docking station.

Can anyone recommend a good brand, he currently has a 7 year old thinkpad and is happy with it but wants to upgrade as the battery has died.

Cheers

Joe

 

[Howard]

If he's happy with it , why not just get a new battery , lots on Ebay .

Gotta be cheaper than a new lappy.

 

[Joe_SP]

Good idea, but he wants to replace it before anything else dies on it...

 

[Howard]

Dell stuff is usually well priced , some of the big supermarkets are doing good deals on basic lappys at the moment as well ...

I don't know much about it , but if he only uses it for basic surfing and word processing , and doesn't want to send a rocket to pluto it should be fine .

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-9312.aspx

 

[stevesey]

This looks a good deal

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 1.50Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache
Screen: 15.4" Widescreen CrystalBrite Display
Hard Drive : 80GB Hard Drive
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Optical Drive: DVD-RW Super Multi Dual Layer
Graphics Controller: Intel X3100 GMA (GM965)
Wireless LAN: 802.11a/b/g
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

£299

 

[gina2201]

You can get lots of good deals on laptops these days, a friend from work got a Dell with extras chucked in, special colour etc etc just from bargaining over the phone for £315?

 

[robert.saunders]

Hot UK Deals like this Dell Vostro:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/240365/dell-vostro-1510-notebook-1-8ghz-c2/

Plenty on that site to review

 

[WLeg]

Keep an eye on the Dell Ebay store...

 

[Shude]

Compared to a thinkpad a lot of supermarket laptops are going to feel like cheap junk. There's something industrial about those thinkpads

 

[grober]

if you go for Dell don't be tempted by the ultra slim models that contain the new " feed in" type dvd drives rather than the slightly bigger "drawer type" heard of some problems with the feed in type.

 

[robert.saunders]

if you go for Dell don't be tempted by the ultra slim models that contain the new " feed in" type dvd drives rather than the slightly bigger "drawer type" heard of some problems with the feed in type.

Didn't know that; thanks

 

[gaz_l]

Compared to a thinkpad a lot of supermarket laptops are going to feel like cheap junk. There's something industrial about those thinkpads

I've got an R40e, it's donkeys years old now but it still does the job - and I'm sure I could drive the car over it without ill effects..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[oorjim2]

I can recommend Dell this is my second one. The first one had for 5 years no problems and this one is the Dell 1525 I paid £600 for it with a few upgrades. So far this has been problems free.

Jim.

 

[Joe_SP]

Thanks all for the advice, you are right about the thinkpad it's very solid compared to my current Dell.

Does anyone have any thoughts on HP Laptops?

 

[gina2201]

I have had a HP laptop for a few months now and it has stood up to two cups of tea, never hinted at going wrong, works brilliantly for internet use as that's what I use mine primarily for. Some word processing but not an awful lot. Best of all, it was FREE! With a mobile phone contract

 

[Viking2]

Dell Inspiron are quite solid. Had to reinstall one for someone, after a bad trojan attack due to lack of Internet security. It had a ghost image built in and was easy to restore to its factory settings. Handy if anything goes wrong, as long as all files are backed up to something else.

 

[whizzkid11]

Thanks all for the advice, you are right about the thinkpad it's very solid compared to my current Dell.

Does anyone have any thoughts on HP Laptops?

The business/enterprise machines are very robust and built to last. The home user ones are obviously budget driven, and although do fair well, they may not go for more than 3-4yrs... by then they will be out of date anyway.

It also depends on how it is used as well.

There are several forums members who use HP laptops, and I am sure they will chime in at some stage.

Depends on yor budget, but personal I am and have been a HP user for the past 8 years - and as mentioned before have not had any issues.

I have had rebuild a couple of freinds DELL PCs (not laptops) and they have had some serious issues - enough to ask me to rebuild from scratch with my own image.

One of them lost crucial customer data and actually paid over £2k to recover it from the striped system disk, as thats how DELL get their performance... and one if the two disks went caput!

 

[IanA2]

I like HP. Got me a HDX9450ea (aka The Dragon) a couple of months ago. Superb but not cheap machine.

 

[Dryce]

Dell Inspiron are quite solid. Had to reinstall one for someone, after a bad trojan attack due to lack of Internet security. It had a ghost image built in and was easy to restore to its factory settings. Handy if anything goes wrong, as long as all files are backed up to something else.

The IBM 'blue button' has been around for years and an excellent solution to this (and for wiping a machine at the start/end of a project).

I personally don't really like Dell laptops compared with others. However I authorised some Dell M1330s earlier in the year for some users as an experiment. I think the case metal work could be finished better and the speakers are the worst I've encountered on any modern laptop and the keyboard is not to my taste. But what do I know? The users like them - a lot.

 

[Sp!ke]

We've got HP, Dell and Lenovo laptops in deployment.

HP are noticeably cheaper made than the others, Dell comes second and Lenovo at the top for build quality.

Moving onto support though, Lenovo are right at the bottom of the pile by a long way to the point where it really doesnt matter how good the hardware is, I just cant live with the shocking aftercare.

Given the choice, I'd stick with Dell units if nothing els but for the global next day onsite support which is second to none.