The other half is fed up of my desktop (it died again and I’m in the process of recovering it) and has threatened to drop it in the bin and buy me a laptop. She’s pointed out some £400 17″ jobbie at PC world. So, to those in the know, is it a good deal? If not, where should I be looking? (I only do the basic, e-mail browse, word/excel type stuff on it. Maybe watch a DVD once in a while, nothing too demanding.

Also, with the state of the economy right now, are laptops expected to get cheaper or more expensive?

I bought a laptop recently for the same reason (desktop shite/dying). Have a look at http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk they seem to have better deals on there than PC World/Comet etc.

ebuyer.com

Does she really want/need a 17 inch laptop??? There just so big and heavy noramlly, that it puts me off using it as a laptop, and it becomes a desktop computer…

As for price of laptops, I dont think they’ll be much variation, occasionally you may get a good discounted one, but the price they come in at is gonna be much the same.

As for spec, for £400 I’d expect Intel core 2 duo process at around 2ghz, 2gb ram minimum, 120gb hardrive, and a ok screen. I suggest she has a look round comet/currys etc, and picks one that has a good quality feel to it and a nice screen! then go and have a look on the web and see what comes up.

I did more or less what tomzo suggests. Asked a few mates who knew what they were talking about, had a look online and wandered round a Comet/Currys etc. Actually ended up buying the model I wanted from Curry’s as surprisingly they did a better deal than online (ex display model but as new condition, battery had never been used or anything).

I went for a 17″ screen as it’s pretty much a replacement for my desktop and doesn’t need to be *that* portable.

I was in PC World today looking at £400 laptops. The Acer 17″ with 2Ghz processor, 4GB RAM and 160GB disk looks good value but doesn’t have a HDMI out so you can’t play Blu-Ray though your HD TV. The Compaq 15.4″ has roughly the same spec and price, and has HDMI out so that’s top of my list at the moment as the 17″ is a bit of a monster. Still looking around though.

Also check out this forum http://www.avforums.com/forums/laptops-mini-pcs/

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/985907

Lovely: light, fast, decent screen. 17″ laptops are still lap friendly – using one right now.

To honest, it’s to replace a desktop. We’ve no plans to keep moving it around. I think the idea is that it’s just easier to move from the dining table than a full desktop set-up.

Last time I bought a new computer, the smart thing was to insist you got the discs with it so when it went belly up you could start from scratch. Is that still the case?

a lot of laptops have the hard drive partitioned, with the O/S on one part and the recovery disk on the other part.

you can then get it re-install the O/S from that, should you ever need to.

Not convinced a 17″ laptop screen is necessary. The width of the 15.4″ one I’m sitting in front of right now (which is mostly used as a desktop replacement) is almost exactly the same as the 17″ flat panel on my desktop, and plenty big enough for normal non-demanding stuff.

Bought this from http://cdiscount.co.uk/ – whilst they don’t have this exact model on there any more (was a steal for a decent spec Sony at £340 after credit cashback), there are plenty of other good deals – and 15% credit cashback until Friday.

Can she wait for the triple core usb 3 laptops?

The stuff in PC world is overpriced over stock from last quarter that they can’t sell.

Unless you get a fantastic deal or can afford a new laptop in Jan I’d wait.

interesting, what’s this triple core stuff about? Will it be introduced on entry level stuff or will it take a while to trickle down?

This months PC Pro has a review of laptops, may be worth a read.

how about a dell? I’m on my second, sister and other half have one each, mate has several (laptops and desktops) – they’re very good, no complaints at all.