what laptop under £400

splcrazy

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Hi, im sure all of you are sick of hearing these questions but here i go.
I am after buying my girlfriend a laptop for christmas. I am after spending no more than £350, preferably around £250-300. I want an average size screen, 15.6" ish.
Screen resolution i dont really mind.
Matt or glossy finish i have no preferance.
It will be used mostly to browse the net, but also needs to have word and excel, and occassionally play some basic games.
It will only be used at home so battery life isnt that important.
HDMI output would be nice for easy connectivity to the tv.
I dont have any preferred brand and would probably prefer a refurb to get slightly better vfm.

Any help would be really appreciated, thanks
 
forgot to say itd also be good if it looked flashy, she has an obsession with pink and purple lol
 
have you looked at the dell outlet site?
some nice (sounding) ones on there and items change all the time
 
ill take a look. Thing is i stil dont really understand specs and i dont know what im looking for
 
well it it was me, id be looking for intel i3 or i5 second generation, 7200 rpm hard drive or ssd would be better (usually these are 5400 rpm which makes seek times slower etc etc), 4+GB ram and windows 7 64 bit
gb network and usb3 would be a major bonus but price could limit these, im not into blueray or laptop gaming so no need for separate gfx card although if it had one it'd be better but i think gaming on laptops is crap (just my opinion) so thats why i say 4gb+ of ram and onboard gfx will use some of this
also with dell outlet, the prices first shown dont include vat but still plenty under your price bracket
 
ive had a look on there, went through the reviews and they seem to be mostly negative. still very unsure on what to get
 
i know of some folks on another site that have bought them and they were all impressed
i guess it could be pot luck but there are v cheap and maybe a reason, idk as ive not bought one yet
 
Hi sorry to hijack (please delete this post if you must, I won't mind)

but I am wondering how good a deal this is for £450? (I got it for £450 but its actually about £610)
Everything looks fine to me apart from the integrated graphics.

This is just going to be a household computer used for schoolwork, office work, youtube, music, movies, etc. No hardcore intensive editing, etc.

I'd really appreciate any help as I really don't know whether it is worth it. Looking around, it seems to be a pretty decent price.

This laptop has i5-2410m processor, 6gb RAM, 640GB HDD, and intel HD 3000 graphics (integrated).

I'd really appreciate advise.
 
similar Spec to my laptop..should be fine for the uses stated above, mine also came with 6gb ram which I upped to 8gb, I'm sure that 4gb+2gb dosen't give you dual channel on the ram where as 4gb+4gb does which does make it feel quick, thpough it could be a placebo effect,anyway fo the £22-ish price tag (crucial) it's something for you to consider.

Curly
 
similar Spec to my laptop..should be fine for the uses stated above, mine also came with 6gb ram which I upped to 8gb, I'm sure that 4gb+2gb dosen't give you dual channel on the ram where as 4gb+4gb does which does make it feel quick, thpough it could be a placebo effect,anyway fo the £22-ish price tag (crucial) it's something for you to consider.

Curly

thanks for replying, appreciate it a lot man!

It is this laptop

Think I got it for a good price?

I think 6GB should be sufficient, but if it is only £22 to upgrade, I may consider it. Though does it not affect the warrantry?
 
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thanks for replying, appreciate it a lot man!

It is this laptop

Not 100% sure here but I think maybe changing the ram will not void warrenty, it shows you how in the manual, maybe someopne who knows for sure can comment.

Think I got it for a good price?

I think 6GB should be sufficient, but if it is only £22 to upgrade, I may consider it. Though does it not affect the warrantry?
Looks a good price to me..a lot better than the £600+ quoted on Amazon, I got this one from PC World, figured my Samsung NC-10 was/is and still works well so went for another Samsung, though I don't think the build is as good as the NC-10 was/is

SAMSUNG Series 3 NP300E5A-A03DX 15.6" Laptop - Silver at cheap prices | PC World

anyway no need to worry..just enjoy it... the gfx are more than capable, download a couple of 64k intro/demos from scene.org then sit back and enjoy :)

Curly
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
Looks a good price to me..a lot better than the £600+ quoted on Amazon, I got this one from PC World, figured my Samsung NC-10 was/is and still works well so went for another Samsung, though I don't think the build is as good as the NC-10 was/is

SAMSUNG Series 3 NP300E5A-A03DX 15.6" Laptop - Silver at cheap prices | PC World

anyway no need to worry..just enjoy it... the gfx are more than capable, download a couple of 64k intro/demos from scene.org then sit back and enjoy :)

Curly

thanks curly! Your fantastic.

Looking forward to receiving the laptop, it should be of good build quality hopefully. And it seems to have some cool HDD dislodging tech which prevents HDD damage if it is dropped or suddenly moved. :)

I take your word that the graphics are more than capable for movies, youtube, MS office! :smashin:

I would pay extra for build quality, especially since the laptop in our house will be moved about a lot. I have found acer build quality to be pretty poor and very cheap and plasticcy. Never used a samsung so dnt know much about them
 
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still having no luck. What specific models from dell would you recommend? there are quite a few different models of the 15 and 15r and its doing my head in a little bit if im honest lol
 

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