Anyone know best spec laptop/notebook for £500-£600 and which dealer?

Question

lightweight for mobility

Answer 1

Dell are good for laptops, but beware the price they offer on their website - chance are you'll pay significantly more than that once you get all your software and the upgrades you'll need.
For a higher quality machine, built better and stronger, you might want to look at a Toshiba. There are some good models, but they'll cost all of that £600.
The only ones I'd avoid are Acer, and Dell's Inspiron. If you must have a Dell, take a Latitude.

Answer 2

Well 500 to 600 UK pounds converts to approximately 1000 to 1200 U.S. dollars.

You can get a pretty good laptop for that money.

We have 7 Dell's in the family and have had no problem with any of them. Personally, I don't think the Sony's, Toshiba's, etc. are worth all the money they ask for them. You pay a lot of money just for their logo on the PC. So here's what I'd recommend.

Take a look at the Dell XPS series and see if you want to "spring the money" for one of them. I have one and it's a really good computer.

If not, take a look at the Dell, Inspiron series and look at the "build it" option that each one has. Here are the spec's that I'd recommend that you go for.

15.4 inch monitor MINIMUM - 17 inch if you have the money.

2.1GHz Intel core2duo or equivalent AMD processor minimum

2 GB RAM Minimum

160 GB Hard Drive or better

Video with 256 MB RAM if possible.

Built in Wi-Fi

CD/DVD +/- burner or dual layer if possible.

Windows XP if possible - Vista is not necessarily ready for "prime time" yet (in my opinion) but a SP1 is coming shortly. Get online with a "sales rep" and see if they can accommodate you on this. It's not an option in the online order system for private sales.

Multifaceted memory card reader

Audio built in - Sound Blaster or equivalent

Opt out of all the "trial ware" they install if you can. Most IT professionals now term trial ware "crap ware" because it slows down and kinda messes up your PC. I had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall the OS because of all that was on my hard drive. It was giving me lots of problems.

Be firm with a sales rep and see if you can work a discount/deal and see how you do.

That's what I'd look for in a laptop.

Hope this helps. Have fun shopping!!! Good luck.

Answer 3

Yes i agree dell do have bad techincal support however if you get a secondhand dell d410/420 you will be more than pleased. I brought it of ebay cost over £100 new so prices should in in your range now, they are very very good small light and plenty of battery life. However if you are not to kneen on dell acer are very good, check out ebuyer.co.uk, around your price range you get a very good:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126336
The other option would be to look on ebay and try and find a used vaio, they are super to. However the new acers are very nice, core 2 duo aswell as 2gb ram so fast enough for the most of us. Email me if you need more help.

Answer 4

I would go with hp, dell is by far the worst, they have the worst tech support that you will ever come accross.

http://welcome.hp.com/country/uk/en/welcome.html

Answer 5

i pefer dell.