Best laptop for me

[fabemmy]

Hi
I want some advice on the best laptop for me.

Im wanting to buy a new one soon and im on a budget of a max of £450 maybe up to £500 if its worth it.

The only features that I need are
Windows 7
Wi Fi Enable
CD-RW

Ive been told that the best brand is Dell and ive also been told to not buy certain brands.

Any ideas.

[hc4361]

It's all a matter of choice. I don't like Dell.
You don't need a top end laptop for your needs. This has everything you need for £350.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-7486.aspx

[VHG]

>Ive been told that the best brand is Dell

Dell are one of many good brands. Toshiba, Sony, HP, Fujitsu, Acer, Asus are all decent brands.

Almost all laptops will now be Windows 7 (apart from a few Vista one being sold off cheap). All laptops will be wi fi enabled. All laptops will have a CD writer and probably DVD writer.

Loads of laptop reviews here

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops

The latest issue of PC Pro (February 2010 believe it or not) reviews a load of Windows 7 laptoips.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/latest-issue

[Sputnik]

PART 2:-

Surface/Facia: When you lift the lid, a lot of laptops have shiny chrome/black surfaces/mousepads. You need to recognise these will be covered in fingerprints in no time and it will nag at you. Get one which has a matt surface around the mousepad area.

Lid Lock: Some laptops just rely on a sturdyish hinge keeping the lid closed when not in use. Not good. Always buy one which has a catch to lock the lid in place.

Weight/Profile: If you're going to be carrying it around a lot, the weight and slimness may be important to you.

Take a look at them in the flesh in stores such as PC World so you can assess the points I've made above. Most laptops in stores will have a company video playing or such, but just ask one of the assistants to unlock the keyboard and "have a play" - this will guide you far more than any magazine review.

Finally, make sure you take away a set of recovery discs for your laptop (or at least be assured you have the means to create your own).

[Sputnik]

PART 1:-

As VHG says, for your money, you will have a choice of any number of decent laptops. There will always be recommendations by individuals and from magazines for this make or that, but in all truth there's very little to choose between most of them in terms of performance. As long as you've got around a 3GHZ Processor, 2GB of RAM, min 160GB HDD and a CD/DVD Re-Writer this will be enough for most people. Assuming it's running Windows, Windows 7 is not necessarily a 'must-have'; indeed, you're more likely to see cheaper deails if they come with Vista/XP Home pre-loaded. Wireless capability comes mostly as standard, but double-check in case.

[Sputnik]

PART 1A:-

Where a lot of reviews/recommendations fall down is they often ignore the more 'minor' aspects which can be just as important:-

Screen Size: If you're going to play a lot of videos, get one with at least a 17" screen size.

Keyboard: Some well respected brands have real cheap look-and-feel keyboards. Get one with a keyboard that you like the feel of.

[narutoguy]

i'd get a dell inspiron cos u can get them with windows 7

[Sputnik]

I do apologise for the disjointed postings above. It took me ages to realise that my (complete) post was not getting accepted because (I assume) I had breached a limit in the number of characters allowed per reply. Obviously, please read in PART1> PART1A> PART2 order.

Anyone know what the maximum is, by the way?