WHAT LAPTOP

[johntywino]

Looking to buy a laptop for wifey up to £400.. She will only use it for looking in shops and buying things,MAYBE send the odd (?) e mail if I show her how, and that's about it....No films or music downloads or anything like that...Iv'e spent hours trying to study the things and still have no idea...I just want one with enough memory for the job BUT NOT TOO SLOW in doing it...Any reccomendations ? Thank you in advance, JOhnt

[karenmac60]

I just got this and it's excellent

http://direct.asda.co...17305,default,pd.html

[ChuckFickens]

any laptop currently available can do what you need!

[woofgang]

keep in mind that that is what she wants now, once she gets started the sky will be the limit!

[beso]

Anything will do what you want so it is often more important to consider things like mobility and time it will run without charging.

Consider if it has a HDMI port which would allow it to connect to any modern telvision. This is really good working from you lounge chair with a wireless keyboard and mouse (Even Bluetooth maybe?). (Excellent for browsing online dress shops.)

Avoid spending money on features you don't need. She won't need a PCM slot or an eSATA port.

Does it really need an optical disk drive? Programs can be loaded from installers on other computer on wireless networks that can read the disk. Or download the file on the internet.

Otherwise will she want the drive to watch movies? This will define the level of video grunt you need. And suggest the resolution you want on the screen. Especially, running the HDMI to a high resolution television is quite demanding.

It is amazing what you can get if you go for a high end machine that is no longer cutting edge and being cleared out at huge discounts that put them not much above the current medium range stuff.

I recently bought a lovely 13.3 inch ASUS with a magnesium alloy case. It weighs only 1.5 kg and runs for (claimed) 10 hours on the battery. Despite being tiny and light it feels solid, has a Core i5 processor, a 500 GB hard disk, a USB3 port, a high powered video processor and HDMI output.

Personally I believe that ASUS laptops are the most outstanding at the moment. They have a massive variety of configurations. Any of the Acer laptops I have seen have not impressed me.