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Luke Xmas Present; Laptop ?

Brian M

Well-known member
Hi
After much thought I have arrived at a Laptop for Luke( just 13) for Xmas and I thought I would Poll other members opinions on different manufacturers regarding reliability and customer service and who members think are the best and the worst .I use a Dell XPS laptop which Ive had no problem with and its 3 yrs old and have just ordered an Acer G71c which i should get in 10 days and Lukes main comp is a whacking big custom made desktop with dual graphic cards in sli mode and twin hard drives in 0 array plus all the other essentials for an expensive bespoke gaming computer .As at the present time he uses his computer for homework but as he also uses it when allowed for gaming but I often have to do a wipe and a clean install of Windows, and as hes already got every gadget I can think of ( I know Karlin is a technophobe so she may think of something ) I thought if I get him a laptop he can use it just for school work ,so budget wise somewhere around £4-500 .So peoples comments pls on their own computers reliability and just as important customer service response of their makes would be welcome.

Tks
Brian(y)

Ps Is it this Sudays Daily Telegraph our wonder woman Margaret is starring in ,and is it the same edition here as in North of the border if not I will buy two and send one up by same day courier.:)
 
I have a Dell Optiplex which I use for business as well as gaming etc. It's a real workhorse and I have never had any problems with it. Before I got the Optiplex, I had a dimension and it too was a great computer. I've no experience of laptops but I have heard from a few people that they don't have as long a life as desktops.
As for aftersales service; I have always found Dell extremely helpful.
I caused a few problems to my own system and a Dell engineer phoned me and talked me through a clean install. I will definitely purchase my next puter from them :)

I have no ties to Dell - I'm just a very happy customer.
 
I also have a dell and find it great. I've never had any trouble with it. I bought a dell for OH last xmas and when it arrived the week before xmas the display was broken. I phoned them and a dell engineer came down to our house the next day and fixed it. I was very impressed by how quickly it was dealt with. (y)

Ps - I also have no ties with Dell.
 
We both have Apple MacBook Pro laptops and love them! My mom has the Apple iBook (I think) and she really likes it. I don't think you can get viruses with Macs...what a nice gift for Luke, lucky kid!
 
I have a Dell laptop that I use for work, and we have iBooks and MacBooks at home. Almost all of us who travel at work use Dells because they just seem to hold up. Me, I prefer my Mac, but my Dell is just fine for work.
 
Brian,
My son has a Applemac, hubby has an IBM Lenova and I use a Dell, never had any probs with any of them. My son uses his Applemac 24/7 he lives and breathes with it and uses it for college every day, he gets his moneys worth out of it.

My Dell seems to be very robust....it had a mug of tea over the keyboard the other evening :( ....it spent the day upside down (thanks Claire for the tips!) and has bounced back just fine :) don't think I would try that again though LOL.

Alison.
 
Luke is lucky having a laptop for christmas:). I don't own one myself, I use my daughters Toshiba Equium when she is either out or at work :eek:. It's been very reliable (touch wood). My youngest daughter as a Acer Aspire and that is slower then the Toshiba.

I so want my own laptop for christmas.:cry*ing:
 
Ive got no advice for you on lap tops but l just wanted to say Luke's going to be made up when he opens it on christmas day, what a great prezzie (y)
 
Brian

I bought a laptop last year (Packard Bell EasyNote) from www.europc.co.uk. They actually sell refurbished computers and laptops but don't let this put you off. Most of what they sell are machines that have been bought in the likes of PC World, Currys and Dell but have been returned when the customer decided it was not what they wanted. As these cannot be resold as brand new by the shops, they sell them on to the likes of Europc.

When I got my laptop, it was sold as refurbished but was in fact brand new - it still had all the protective plastic strips etc on. It was also a good spec at a fraction of the cost as it would have been if I went to PC World. My mum has since bought a laptop from them (Dell) and is very happy with hers.

It's well worth a look, even if it is just to compare prices.

I don't really have any recommendations as what to buy, I just thought I would recommend the site to you.

Happy laptop hunting :)
 
Hi Brian - as I've been working for Hewlett Packard for the last 8 years I can and should only recommend HP as the one to go for :D

Happy shopping....

P.S I cant believe we are discussing Christmas already and we haven't even reached Halloween yet!! :eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
For that budget, and for a second (non-gaming) machine, I'd recommend the Asus Eee PC 1000H. It's small and light - 1.45kg - but sturdy. Not bad specs either - 1GB ram, 80 GB HDD, Atom processor, wifi and bluetooth, up to seven hours of battery life, but note there is no optical drive. Retro games - anything pre 2004 or so - should play on it reasonably well.

It comes with XP but you can put Linux on it. I know several distros including Ubuntu have been customised to work with the Eee's hardware. There's also a flourishing forum for help and support too. Highly recommended. Since getting this I've hardly touched my large and powerful VAIO!
 
For that budget, and for a second (non-gaming) machine, I'd recommend the Asus Eee PC 1000H. It's small and light - 1.45kg - but sturdy. Not bad specs either - 1GB ram, 80 GB HDD, Atom processor, wifi and bluetooth, up to seven hours of battery life, but note there is no optical drive. Retro games - anything pre 2004 or so - should play on it reasonably well.

It comes with XP but you can put Linux on it. I know several distros including Ubuntu have been customised to work with the Eee's hardware. There's also a flourishing forum for help and support too. Highly recommended. Since getting this I've hardly touched my large and powerful VAIO!


We currently are running Ubuntu on our desktop but Have an older IBM think pad (this was bought right before Lenovo took over the think series.) My hubby is an IT guy and says that acer is decent computer for the reasonable price.
 
Hi

After some thought I knew I would probably buy a Dell ,so I looked at two options ,the first a Dell refurbished from their outlet store and the second from Europc (a Dell again ) who I knew about but thanks to Rosiesmum for jogging my memory .The decider between both which I don't understand is that from Dell direct they only offer a one year RTB warranty while Europc offer 3 year next day on site warranty ,this don't make sense .So after looking at availability from both Euro with their better warranty came up with

XPS M1530 Notebook
Intel Core Duo T540 ,2GB Ram, 250 GB Sata H/D ,DVDRW and very important 256 MB Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT.

It was 50% over budget but so are most things ,ordered it Mon at 4.00 PM and it arrived Tues at 2.30 PM.

Its stashed in a bedroom till I check it over on Sat then its wrapped up and put away .Dawn said that Luke asked the other night that as I am getting a new Laptop (due next week) he wondered if he could have my old one so I hope he will be happy with this one ,I opened the box last night and its brand new so its not refurbished in any way must have been a cancelled order or similar . (y)
 
We currently are running Ubuntu on our desktop but Have an older IBM think pad (this was bought right before Lenovo took over the think series.) My hubby is an IT guy and says that acer is decent computer for the reasonable price.

Some Acers can be, but I personally would never buy one. Certainly I wouldn't touch their netbook - heard of too many horror stories. Thinkpads are super as long as you can live with the nipple, but their newer models all have a touchpad as well so it doesn't matter.
 
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