Any laptop recommendations/advice?

[Ben]

Looking to buy a laptop in the next couple of days. Looking to spend around £300, and I've been looking at the Toshiba satellite range, not sure why but they just caught my eye.

I want it for internet surfing, downloading and storing music, and using Microsoft word, so I won't be asking a huge amount from it.

I'm struggling to decide how much ram, hard drive and which processor to get. This Toshiba range on eBay seem to be between 270 and 400, varying from 4gb ram to 8gb etc.

I'd obviously rather pay less, but don't want to be kicking myself in a years time when I want more ram for example.

Any advice on this? And also any laptop recommendations?

Cheers

[Niall]

Personally i like the Toshiba laptops. My old one was very well built. Seeing as your going to be looking at windows 8, id go for 4gb minimum of ram. Maybe look at second hand? Seeing as windows 8 hasnt been out for long, you might find that people are selling their quite new machines in favour of new ones.

[Ruan]

I PERSONALLY wouldn't touch Toshiba with a barge pole these days...

Lenovo are about the only brand that seems to be any good, along with HP Business line Laptops... HPs Home end stuff is very poor...

Samsung aren't TOO bad, but around the £300 mark, they aren't going to be own design Samsungs, they'll be rebranded stock designs...

Are you looking at brand new?

If I were to go tomorrow and buy a laptop for £300 I'd head straight to ebay and get an IBM T61 - they're the LAST of the PROPERLY built laptops IMO, that or a top spec HP Business Line - Like an NC6400 or a 6910P - even the early ProBook 6930Ps aren't bad, they aren't posing laptops, they look industrial, but they will last you a lifetime... I've currently got an NC6400 with 4GB Ram, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo and it does everything I need it to and more... It's probably worth about £150-200, but I'd take it every day over a brand new poorly built Chinese Sweatshop Toshiba/Medion/Acer...

That's my personal opinion on the matter.

[sweeney1987]

i got one of the hps they have in pcworld for xmas, think theyre £350 now.
Does everything i want, has 6gb ram, 1tb hard drive, amd processor is 1.35 ghz but its more tan enough for my needs which is office, internet and the odd film

[Jonny81191]

I got a Lenovo G570, it's awesome for what i use it for (same as the OP really)

Also runs windows 7, which IMO is better than 8.

[Fooby]

What Ruan said.

And also Jonny windows 7 > 8 all day

[Eeyore]

Windows 8 is awful imo. I just cant see the need for the change in user interface. Its aimed completely at the touch screen market!

[Ruan]

Yep ^^

Win 7 is perfect for everything I want it to do... I've never thought that I need a different OS, I'd like it to do things differently, but it's incredibly stable when running...

Compared to what Windows used to be like a few years back, it's a trillion times better...

[sweeney1987]

have to agree with windows 8 being crap compare to 7, its annoying not having usual menus, i find myself going back to desktop whole time and using shortcuts from there.
overly complicated system

[Fooby]

the funny thing is, windows 7 is able to do touchscreen just fine...

But yeah, its like everything with microsoft good then bad:

Windows 98 SE (good)
Windows 2000 (great)
Windows ME (worst operating system ever)
Windows XP (good)
Windows Vista (horrific, but better than ME)
Windows 7 (Good)
Windows 8 (not bad, but 7 is still better)

at least as its going forward the worst os's are not as bad.

[td_dan]

Completly agree with ruan the T61 is so hardwarin mine gets an absolute batterin when I go to customers houses or workin on cars it jus gets thrown in the car and iv never had any problems, also the dell d630s are pretty good aswell, very lightweight

Wouldn't touch HP/Compaq, acer as they are built so shit and that's about 90percent of my work, shoukd be greatful they keep me in a job lol

[kernow_joe]

I PERSONALLY wouldn't touch Toshiba with a barge pole these days...

Lenovo are about the only brand that seems to be any good, along with HP Business line Laptops... HPs Home end stuff is very poor...

Samsung aren't TOO bad, but around the £300 mark, they aren't going to be own design Samsungs, they'll be rebranded stock designs...

Are you looking at brand new?

If I were to go tomorrow and buy a laptop for £300 I'd head straight to ebay and get an IBM T61 - they're the LAST of the PROPERLY built laptops IMO, that or a top spec HP Business Line - Like an NC6400 or a 6910P - even the early ProBook 6930Ps aren't bad, they aren't posing laptops, they look industrial, but they will last you a lifetime... I've currently got an NC6400 with 4GB Ram, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo and it does everything I need it to and more... It's probably worth about £150-200, but I'd take it every day over a brand new poorly built Chinese Sweatshop Toshiba/Medion/Acer...

That's my personal opinion on the matter.

this^
which is why in my house hold there are a few x61 and t61 laptops, awesome machines.

the funny thing is, windows 7 is able to do touchscreen just fine...

But yeah, its like everything with microsoft good then bad:

Windows 98 SE (good)
Windows 2000 (great)
Windows ME (worst operating system ever)
Windows XP (good)
Windows Vista (horrific, but better than ME)
Windows 7 (Good)
Windows 8 (not bad, but 7 is still better)

at least as its going forward the worst os's are not as bad.

I think you mean 'its like everything with microsoft just plain bad:'

[Fooby]

I do.

Because;

Linux > DOS > Windows

[r3k1355]

My friend brought over his Lenovo laptop the other day with Win 8.

God what an infuriating operating system.

[Ruan]

Gash innit!

[Tom]

Might get flamed but, Alienware are sexy laptops!

[Ben]

Thanks for the replies. I've had a look at all suggested laptops. They are mostly in my price range and they do have a good spec, slightly unsure whether I'd get on with having a square screen though, sounds silly but it would be like going back in time!
And I've heard mixed reviews about windows 8, but after reading all your replies I think ill try and stick with 7.

[DanWY]

Windows 8 is horrible! I used it the other day and wanted to kill the computer.

I agree with the IBM's I had a T31 back in the day and that was amazing. I have used others and would say stay away from cheap makes like Acer etc.

[Ruan]

Not all of them are "square" screens, they're mostly all 16:10 rather than 16:9 which is much better for actual web browsing, they're not the usual 4:3 "square" screens...

As said, T61p or a 6910P - they're both 16:10 screens so not totally widescreen, but not the usual 4:3...

[Ben]

Actually I suppose I wouldn't mind the 'squarish' screen as I do use a few at work like that.

Is it just those particular Lenovo's you'd recommend, or are they a good brand in general?

Found this T61 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-LENOVO-T61...460b32bc87 which seems pretty good.

Wouldn't mind a slightly larger screen though, so I found this one - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-G580-15...3a7ce0056d . This however doesn't have quite such a good processor, am I right in saying that anything under 2.0 GHz is pretty low nowadays?

[sweeney1987]

wouldnt bother with a celeron processor tbh
try laptops-direct, usually have bargains/refurbs gonig cheap

[Ruan]

Don't worry about screen size toooo much, the fact it's MUCH higher resolution than anything you'll pick up new... You can fit more on the screen, even though it's an inch smaller...

Mines a 14.1", but 1440x900 and I've never thought "Man I wish this screen was bigger"... Only "Man I wish this 17" screen had a better resolution"..

Catch my drift?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-Lenovo-T61...1c2ee4a6e1

Perfect IMHO - you could change the hard drive for a bigger one if you wanted for sub £300 - and it's a MUCH better laptop than that G580...

[kernow_joe]

hell they're amazing price! BUY IT ......... then wipe it

---

I do.

Because;

Linux > DOS > Windows

lets be honest its not a hard level to beat now is it

[Ben]

Don't worry about screen size toooo much, the fact it's MUCH higher resolution than anything you'll pick up new... You can fit more on the screen, even though it's an inch smaller...

Mines a 14.1", but 1440x900 and I've never thought "Man I wish this screen was bigger"... Only "Man I wish this 17" screen had a better resolution"..

Catch my drift?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-Lenovo-T61...1c2ee4a6e1

Perfect IMHO - you could change the hard drive for a bigger one if you wanted for sub £300 - and it's a MUCH better laptop than that G580...

Oki doke, think I'll get one of them then, and there would be no need to upgrade the hard drive because the T61 I linked in my last post had a 320GB, and it was the same price and exactly the same spec, so I don't know why they are trying to sell the 160GB for the same price :/

[Ruan]

Lolz, what a fail...

Hadn't noticed that, perfect yeah...

[Ben]

Ordered it, so hopefully I'll have it early next week Cheers for all replies

[Tom]

Just to bump an old thread, need a new laptop, on a budget of sub 200quid to be honest. Those IBM's still a good shout? Or the old HP ones?

[Ruan]

They're pretty much still all I'd go for these days...

My old NC6400 is STILL going now... I've got a new work laptop, but that thing is still going.

IBMs will always be a good shout IMHO...

[r3k1355]

There's not alot in it anymore, at a given price point they're all using similar chips and chipsets - so set your budget and buy the fastest thing you can.

A hard drive upgrade to SSD is always a good idea as well, makes a world of difference.

[Dum-Dum]

Also runs windows 7, which IMO is better than 8.

And also Jonny windows 7 > 8 all day

Both of the above. Windows 8 is stupid mainly because its nothing like what you want from windows, it just makes no sense. Get windows 7 as its top.


Other than that I dont know much about lap tops