Got to buy a laptop for my wife. On a tight budget but tempted with a cheap Macbook. Been a Wintel user for the last 20 years and fancy a change but cost is a lot more and not sure what extra you get. She wants something a little less grey / black but I’ve not got a clue about what’s what in the laptop spec world.

It’ll be used for word processing, photos storage and Itunes. Plus surfing the net.

Help!!!

If you’re considering a Mac I don’t see how you’re on a “tight budget”. There are good reasons for buying Apple, initial purchase price isn’t one of them.

I am looking at ideally spending about £400 but could stretch to some of the lower priced Macbooks £800ish at a push.

you know about the apple refurb store?

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

depends what she needs it for but on a budget I’d stick with WIntel. There’s dozens of decent £400 laptops about these days (mostly comes down to whether you like the screen/keyboard of a particular model as the other hardware specs are usually very similar).

It’s amazing how the subject of whether to buy a Mac or a Windows Laptop has never come up on this forum before…

Rachel

Get you

Toshiba Satellite C855-10Z 15.6 inch Laptop – Silver (Intel Core i5-2450M 2.5/3.1GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium, USB 3.0)

£399

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007XERAJ0/

Thanks for the helpful responses.

Another question – So what’s the difference between an i3 and i5 chip?

There are some Sony computers at the bottom end of your range that come in some different colours if you want to avoid black/grey

There are some good deals from Currys/PCWorld returned refurbs on eBay.

Picked my dad up a lovely brand new Samsung there recently: 15.6″ screen, Pentium Dual Core P6200 (2.13GHz), 4GB memory, 500GB HD, DVD, Webcam, Windows 7 for £250.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130690521358

(Black and grey, well “silver”, but cheap!)

iPad?

Bushwacked – Member
Thanks for the helpful responses.

Another question – So what’s the difference between an i3 and i5 chip?
Its better cos its a bigger number init 😉

Also find out if anyoen in your family can get you educational discount – well worth it esp with 3 year warranty.

We have just ordered my wife (who is a designer) the new pro retina, can not wait to have a tinker with it!

Does depend on what she/you want to do with it. If it’s just browsing t’interwebs and watching videos then I’d say that a Macbook would be a waste of money and you’d be much better off with something cheaper.

Decided on a white one 🙂