Laptop Recommendations

[squidgster]

Am buying a laptop that will mainly be used for Word Processing, the Internet and normal everyday programs (not gaming etc). There are so many options, I don't know what to get. Am looking to spend up to about �500, but if it doesn't come with Microsoft Office installed, will need to purchase that seperately.

Is there any advice at all anyone out there can give me in regards to either good/bad makes, the RAM, hard drive size etc that would be suitable for what I need it for, or even specific ones that seem a good deal?

Any help much appreciated!
Thank you.

[Ethel]

Yyou don't need Microsoft Office - there are several free office applications that are compatible with Office, the best (in my view) is OpenOffice and can be downloaded once you have bought your laptop.

Think about the way you will use the laptop - will you be carrying it around a lot? If so, you don't want one with a 19" screen that weighs a lot as well as being bulky.

Is this a second computer? Do you have a desktop where you intend storing all your documents, photos, music and film? Or do you need a huge hard disk to store everything?

Do you need a good battery life or will you be mainly plugged in?

You need a laptop with 2gb RAM, a big a hard drive as you can find.

All the rest is personal choice really.

[eah]

Just bought an advent 9115 from PC world for �350.Am very pleased with it.......

[vehelpfulguy]

The good makes are the usual suspects: Toshiba, Sony, Acer, Dell, HP, Compaq, Lenovo (IBM).

Avoid cheap "no name" clones from places like PC World and Currys. Name likes Advent, Packard Bell, E systems come to mind.

As Ethel says, you can get a prefectly good Word Processing package for free (or very little) so dont need to pay out for Microsoft Office (which is way too expensive AND over complex for most home users)

If you insist on Microsoft Office then get the Home and Student edition which comes with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote and can be installed (legally) on 3 PCs.

You can get it for less than �100, see here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Office-2007- Student-Licence/dp/B000HCZ8EO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1? ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1199902714&sr=8-1

[vehelpfulguy]

Oh, and dont get one with Vista Home Basic on it.

Go for Vista Home Premium, it has more "goodies" for the home user.

[adamhornsby]

You dont need a lot of memory or large hard drive for the applications you'll be using it for, thats necessary of you have lots of high end software, picture/movie and music editing.
I have a Compaq Presario C300 and it seems fine.
Under �500 as well

[squidgster]

Very helpful advice - thanks all of you very much!

[fo3nix]

Try as hard as you can to get XP on it.

Ethel's right with the OpenOffice suggestion. I'd disagree with her saying you need 2GB... 1GB will easily suffice.

Hard drive -- the more the merrier! Above 80GB ideally, as much as you can find.

This looks good to me:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132277

(Lenovo is a good brand.)

[fo3nix]

(That particular laptop also seems to have a webcam built-in according to the reviewers; handy if you want to use Skype to talk to people for free if they're far away.)

[squidgster]

Thanks fo3nix - very helpful also. That one looks good. Will keep looking and keep it in mind.