I was not really that bothered about performance as it will just be for web, DVD and radio but can anybody recommend one that will last, is well built and cheap.

dell?

you won't get a well made laptop for sub £400

i bought one from PC world (an acer i think) and i got it home, pressed one key on the keyboard, put it back in the box and took it back.

they asked me why i just said 'it's crap', the keyboard bent under the pressure from one finger. I travel a lot so after looking at several other cheap laptops I just stumped up another £400 and bought a proper one.

there is no way any of the cheaper laptops would have lasted more than few months out on the road with me, IMHO they are designed purely for home use

My son pulled the keys off my dell :). I think he could probably destroy anything though.

Have a look at Lenovo, used to be IBM, they are OK build wise:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pricelow&cat=10&q=lenovo&limit=10&page=1

my £299 + post Dell is now 18mths old and still going strong…. Gets beaten up on travels with me work wise. Kids abuse it playing on the net and the SO watches mexican soap operas on it through the wireless web. Has a DVD player/writer and the 15" screen is big enough for redtube (not me a friend) 😉

yep my dell (£400 ish) is well built and feels good under finger. miles better to use than some of the others i looked at.

my acer is ace. And robust.

Ditto mrmichaelwright.

Sadly in the world of PC laptops, it's hard to get well made ones. Cos specs sell, not quality. The commodity nature of computing kit really bugs me (as someone that uses it all day everyday). I want good quality stuff, it matters more than the specs.

At £400 don't bother about it lasting, just buy another when it's knackered. If you must, then look at dell business models.

My work laptop is a Lenovo.

Build quality is pretty good with a nice solid feel to the keyboard.

Fairly slow but that's probably because of all the 'standard' software my employer loads on it.

Both my lads have Acers,without any problems & both have been dropped more than once(the laptops not them).Tbh if the keyboard stands up to the eldest one's abuse it will survive pretty much anything,he is the most
hamfisted bleeder,must get it off his mom's side…..

Dell

GEDA – Member

My son pulled the keys off my dell :). I think he could probably destroy anything though.

Err -the keys will come off any laptop. They're just a press fit

With laptops I always say get one with a good warranty.
Aldi have (or did last week) a decent spec laptop 3yr warranty (only return to base tho) £399.

I'd avoid both Asus and PC World own brand machines.

My EEE PC screen gave up the ghost just after the warranty ran out and my eMachines (or whatever it was) laptop went through 3 hard disks in 4 years before the motherboard packed in.

We got a Sony Vaio for £50 from my wife's work (old exec's machine) and it's ace…

you won't get a well made laptop for sub £400

I don't think that's true. The Medion ones from Aldi are £399, good spec, reliable and well made. I know a couple of people who have them and are more than happy.

My Dell Inspiron is a few years old now, travelled all over France in the back of the car and used in a tent to watch DVD's. It's been dropped a couple of times, and had stuff spilt on it, and spends most of the time sitting on the lounge carpet, and it's absolutely fine – that was £500.

I travel a lot so after looking at several other cheap laptops I just stumped up another £400 and bought a proper one.

You don't need to spend anywhere near £800 imo.

fair enough, i work with maybe 100 people who do the same job as me, all over the world.

Not one of them has had anything but bad experience of cheap laptops.

The thing about Vaio, I had one it was a low/mid range model. It was well made, but was not that fast and to be honest with Vaio You do pay a premium for having a VAIO sign on it. Good thing about Sony laptop is that they hold value really well. Battery is good and my lasted 3 hours on the battery. I had a Samsung R60+ before and Samsung quality is top notch, no faults over almost two years I had it, but again You pay a bit more for the brand over Acer, emachine, Packard Bell.

Worth checking is the Currys refurbished laptops on their website, ebuyers ex display/open boxes laptops and also PC World is doing refurbished laptops but they offer same ones as Currys.

If You're looking at entertainment laptops that it's worth considering a bigger screen. 15.6-17", some 15.6 ones come with a full numerical keyboard (comes handy for excel etc). I managed to get the 5% xmas discount Currys was doing and now own a HP Pavilon DV6 series laptop. Cost £333 (£350 before the discount), 250gb, Athlon 64 X2, Radeon HD4530, 3gb ram, card reader and even a remote. It's fast enough to play games, never had Office working so quick and it is really well made and best of all it's pretty quiet. If You can still find them than they are worth a try. Not too portable and weight a bit more than 3kg, but if You don't need a portable laptop than it's a very good desktop replacement.

My mate just recently got one of those Acer Timeline laptops, very nice keyboard, looks posh and being slimmer and lighter than normal laptops still has all the functionality plus lasts up to 6hrs on the battery (about 4h if You use it ;-)), but newer Celeron duo core isn't the fastest and sometimes can be a bit slow.

Loads of choice and consider trying the refurbished way, my laptop did not have a scratch on it, looked brand new. Might be worth waiting after christmas for better deals especially if You check the refurbished ones. £400 is a decent budget to get a quick laptop that will be a nice desktop replacement, but still £400 would get You a quicker PC with a big nice 19-20" screen.

get a mac book! oh no hang on you said LESS than £400…

get a mac book! oh no hang on you said LESS than £400…

Bugger off. This is a PC conversation. 😆

I have just ordered a Dell Inspiron 17 inch jobbie with Bloatware 7 for £399. It seems pretty well specced. I have never had a Dell before and am only replacing by ancient Acer Travelmate 290 cos it is struggling to run the software I want to use on it. The new machine will probably not leave the house.

I'd have got a Macbook but they were a trifle outside my budget on this occasion, and I don't like the white plastic so it would have had to be a MacBook Pro and then I'd have started to get silly about the spec and before you know it I'd have sold the house to pay for it.

As kinda mentioned above, paying a lot more typically gets features, not more ruggedness. Unless it was *really* cheap it's one of the few things I'd think about getting an extended warranty for – but from the manufacturer, not (normally)the retailer – a lot of manufacturers do relatively cheap warranty extensions (tho' that seems to be where Dell claw back some money IMO). John Lewis cover their stuff with a 2 year warranty (as do Asus with some of their gear, I think) and can be competitive with on-line pricing BUT taking some Acers as an example, if you want to take their 2yr warranty out to three years it costs more than taking out the Acer 2 yr warranty extension on top of the basic 1 yr IYSWIM

On refurbished gear I'd check the warranty period quite carefully (Dell's 1 yr) and whether it can be extended – the company I works for is owned by Creative and the warranty on Creative refurbs is normally only 90 days. (Tho' I'd be interested to see that tested…)

MrMW – what do you n yer colleagues swear by ? (rather than at..)

Vaio, Tosh and the mid range Dell business machines

and macs, the bastards

tbh, most laptops up to about £600 seem to use the same chassis and just the complicated electrickery bits inside change

a good screen is important to me so i favour Vaio (love the xblack screens but then i'm normally working in a darkened environment where reflections don't matter)

IBM business machines used to be made of some kind of magic alloy that was denser than the heart of a sun but the new lenovos seem a bit mroe flimsy

Laptops do get mauled doing my job, chucked in trucks, squashed in luggage holders, dragged around cities and hotels, rested on top of sound/lighting desks, dropped, picked up by the screen, used as drinks holders, used with filthy hands etc so as i said, i'm sure the cheaper laptops are fine for normal use but i wouldn't consider them to be 'well made' as the OP asked.

Currently use a vaio, a bottom of the middle range kinda one so it's build quality is great (although not as good as they used to be)

Next one will be a £1200 ish Vaio as i'm a tart and want a full HD screen, although of course i secretly want a mac book pro 🙄

Ta – based on repair/reliability figures I've been looking as Asus and Tosh. – Acer seem to be at the better end too (but in quizzing them on some bios issues the only way to resolve the question is to *phone* the US – some much for the UK/US email support 😮 – and it wasn't *that* hard a question…)

My son saved up for ages and eventually got himself a MacBook Pro and if money were no option that is what I would buy. If they did them for £400 I'd buy shed loads of them! Seriously though, there is no comparison between the MBP and the normal run of the mill laptop but they cost about 3 x as much so I 'd expect something special for that kind of money.