I want to get my 13 year old a laptop but no idea where to start. Can any of you guys recommend a decent one. Budget is £300. Will be used for word, excel and Internet. He has a game console so not too fussed about suitability for gaming.

If they don’t have to be Microsoft programmes then I would recommend a Chromebook, a £200 one will be much faster than a £300 laptop and you still have all the Google programmes that make word, excel etc compatible files.

Will be used for word, excel and Internet.

Make sure it’s easy to wipe clean!

A Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook would be a good option for a teenager.

Chromebook for a teenager – his mates will point and laugh!

Only sensible old farts use Chromebooks. 😀

Get him something made by Hewlett Packard – we’ve got 4 in the family and they’ve all been faultless. For £300 you may even be able to get something with 8GB of RAM at this time of year if you hold your nerve.

Edit – just found this…
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15-ba083sa-15-6-laptop-silver-10151866-pdt.html

My advice would be try and find room in the budget for accidental damage cover

We went with HP

*stealth add* Got a quite well specced Toshiba getting in the way. About 20h use, 8Gb ram etc – £175 to your door if you’re interested. Email in profile 🙂