Laptop recommendations

[Alan]

I put this in 'Time Out', as it isn't really business.

My (grown up) daughter's laptop got damaged (DC socket caved in & cracked case due to being dropped) and the repair quote indicates it is time to buy another (and maybe sell the broken one on ebay for spares).

Its spec of her current broken one is

• Processor: AMD Processor V120
• RAM: 2GB
• Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
• Screen Size: 15.6"

Its use is light (internet browsing / facebook /email) except occasional use of photoshop / indesign.

Now as she is strapped for cash, we are looking for a recommendation on a budget laptop. Frankly if she had the cash she'd probably go for a MacBook Air, but she doesn't, so really looking for a recommendation at the low low end.

Your thoughts much appreciated.
Here are a few I have found

• HP 255 Laptop (AMD E2-2000 Dual Core 1.75GHz)
• Asus X55A Laptop (Intel Celeron B830 1.8GHz)
• Asus X102BA Touch Laptop (AMD A4-1200 1GHz)
• Asus X502CA Laptop (lowest price i3 I could find - Intel Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz)
• Toshiba Satellite Pro L830-172 Laptop (Intel Core i3-2375M 1.5GHz)

My personal experience with laptops is that every one in my family has been poor, except for my Wife's MacBook air.

• Dell XPS (two) motherboard failures within 2 years.
• Toshiba Satellite - over heating.
• Compag CG (now HP) multiple failure in and out of warranty.
• Levano - failure in warranty

So (base on the fact we haven't had one) am tempted to try the Asus X502CA.

Any thoughts?

 

[paul4uk]

Hey there Alan,

Personally I would recommend getting an Asus or Acer laptop. I've always had strong reliance in these two makes and have never been let down unlike other brands I've previously owned.

For the light use you mentioned a Asus zenbook, ultrabook would suffice. There are variations in HDD and memory - check some out on ebay, here's one. I would probably go for the i3's - Which is what I'm currently using and find its more than enough to handle the programs mentioned above.

I hope this helps!

 

[asonda]

Having previously been an I.T Supplier, I would second Acer if you wan't something that is cheap and will last an appropriate amount of time.

A lot of laptops, especially any with nVidia chipsets when they moved from Lead to Lead Free soldering, the chips would basically unsolder themselves due to them getting really dry, I had countless HPs, Dells, Asus at that time. This was a couple of years ago now.

Have a look through here:

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Laptops/Acer?sort=price+ascending&page=1

Couple around the £399 mark that would be perfectly suitable.

 

Being brutally honest, you are looking right at the bottom of the budget scale there, so they tend to all be 'similar' in quality, etc.

I'd avoid the Celeron CPU options, try for as good an i3 as you can get, and check models against each other to ensure you get as much RAM as possible.

Toshiba are pretty decent, as are Lenovo (good luck getting a budget Lenovo these days though), Acer and Asus are also ok.....again, since you're at the low end of the scale, I'd focus more on CPU and RAM if I were you.

 

[Alan]

Thanks for all your help.

I have plumped for an the Asus X550CA with and i3 & 4gb of ram at £320. The good thing is most of the reviews I could find was faulting the asethetics of the case design, which in a budget machine I rather have the reason it is cheap is it is ugly rather than it doesn't work well.

Its always difficult when 'budget shopping' as the Acer i3 with 8 gb is only £80 more ... then you look and see that an i5 is only £80 more .. and then you can start to get slimmer / lighter machines just another £80 ... and eventually you are not buying a budget tool any more

 

Its always difficult when 'budget shopping' as the Acer i3 with 8 gb is only £80 more ... then you look and see that an i5 is only £80 more .. and then you can start to get slimmer / lighter machines just another £80 ... and eventually you are not buying a budget tool any more

Same with cars that 15k model can end up twice the price if you want all the bells and whistles.

Still drives the same though.

 

[puffCutie]

I used both lenovo and HP as of the moment, it's good. I guess it's more on preference though.

 

[stsoftltd]

I had Dell Inspiron ... used it for about 5 years. Now I have HP. Both are fine but if you want something cheap you better get Acer

 

[tony84]

Ive had Asus and Acer laptops - both were ok for the money but not great.

My last laptop was Compaq and my new one is HP (both the same company, part of the reason i went with HP was so i had a spare charger). They have been fine.

One thing i would say is my laptop is 2.3ghz and i paid an extra £10 to have it upgraded to 4gb and speed wise its fine. I do a little bit of grphic editing but i use paint shop pro 7 (which is about 10 years old), there are times if i have that, outlook, my mortgage software open - it can take a few seconds to have a think about things.

It cost me about £330 and that was in Jan off memory.

If your daughter is using a more modern graphics editing software then i think 1-1.5ghz processors are not going to be ideal.
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ - i found them to be quite well priced.

 

[mit74]

Thanks for all your help.

I have plumped for an the Asus X550CA with and i3 & 4gb of ram at £320. The good thing is most of the reviews I could find was faulting the asethetics of the case design, which in a budget machine I rather have the reason it is cheap is it is ugly rather than it doesn't work well.

Its always difficult when 'budget shopping' as the Acer i3 with 8 gb is only £80 more ... then you look and see that an i5 is only £80 more .. and then you can start to get slimmer / lighter machines just another £80 ... and eventually you are not buying a budget tool any more

good choice. always go for an i3/i5 or amd equivalent. The cheaper processors are useless. I ordered this laptop for a customer a few weeks ago and it's a good laptop for the price although the mouse pad is useless so recommend a usb mouse.