Best place to buy a laptop?

After a cheapish laptop. Nothing too high spec, just for assignment writing, editing the odd picture and internet browsing.

Any recommendations and places best to buy from?

Thanks.

Get a chromebook.

Dell – just buy a basic one with 3 year support

eBuyer have good prices and service, least they used to. Chromebook’s a good shout though.

Mrs binners was looking for the same, t’other week. I know sod all about PC’s being a confirmed Mac Snob.

I ordered her a Toshiba C50 from PC World with all the Fisher Price Microsoft software bundle, and about a million squilligigs of cloud storage. I’d been in and had a look, and got some advice off some spotty little Herbert, then he said ‘I’d go home and order it off our website, as its cheaper.

I think it was £250 for the lot. It arrived the next day. She’s happy. Can’t argue with that, really

Last one I bought from Staples was cheaper bundled with Office 365 than buying it without.

Thanks all. Looking at a Toshiba Chromebook2 … would it come with software included(eg.Office etc?)

I know nothing about all this computer thingies …

No, Chromebooks have no software. You use a web-based application through the browser, Google Docs is the obvious one, but Office 365 is an alternative, but costs. Presumably it’s more like the native Office packages on a PC, (never used it so not entirely sure).

Yep there’s no software for Chromebooks, it’s all apps run through the chrome browser. There’s a reasonable amount of decent apps available but you will need an internet connection.

If you want more than just some very basic features for your office apps then Chromebook isn’t really the way forwards. That said I do like mine.

There are a few cheap windows machines now to brought out to rival chromebooks. Seem to have all the features of a chromebook plus the benefits of windows (offline working and storage mainly). Around £200-£300 so a similar price, too. Can’t really see the point of a chromebook if you can get these.

I usually recommend saveonlaptops for online buying but for a basic machine like this staples/pc world/currys are pretty similar on price with quicker collection and easier returns. Still worth a look at saveonlaptops as they often have a few good deals going

There are a number of free office suites out there.

Libre, Open Office and Apache are some.

Similar to MS Office, they can open and edit Office files as well.

If you want save a bit of cash have a look at the sites selling refurbished laptops, I got a decent machine last year for about £200.

After buying a chromebook, I’d say get a laptop, trying to use documents and load images on a chromebook is a pain!

Get a laptop with some microsoft office package or use open office.

ITC Sales are good for Dell – they sell cancelled orders etc. Just bought two dell mice from there for about £6 each instead of the £20 on the dell store and have bought PCs before. Check the warranty terms though as they may be less generous than buying direct.

I use my chromebook all the time. I wish it had a bit more oomph (Exynos ARM processor I think it’s called) but since I log into Google I can use documents etc. wherever I browse which is useful.

I am looking for a new laptop though for astrophotography, most likely a core i5 jobby. The numbers of devices out there is pretty confusing.