Laptop for my lad: Advice wanted.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Trippy
  • Start date Start date
Trippy said:
I'm buying Euan a laptop at the weekend and I really dont know much about them.
He uses it for all the normal stuff kids do, MSN, Bebo, homework, Internet itunes.
Popped into PC World and they have just reduced this to £349.
Any good ?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...m=null&tm=null&sku=208738&category_oid=-34074
Click to expand...

Sorry your use of the words PC & Woe prevent me from giving any form of meaningful advice here :(

OK that's the opinion on them posted - so what is it that particularly draws you to that specific model :nenau
 
Go on force yourself, this was posted anticipating a reply from your good self.

What else is there at this kind of money that I should be looking at?
 
Maybe...

I know that doesn't help much, but here goes:

Spec looks decent - pretty good processor, memory etc. Shouldn't be a problem there and a good price for that level of kit.

BUT - a couple of things to consider. Firstly is warranty - laptops are MUCH less reliable than desktops - inherently, and because they get abused. So think about what will happen on day 366 when it goes 'phut'. Get a decent 3-year warranty.

Secondly, check out the model support like BIOS and driver updates, etc. Advent is NOT well known and seems to be mostly a PC World own-brand.

Lastly, laptops are all about the screen and the keyboard. Try typing a document on a couple of different models and see which one you like best.

Good luck!
 
Trippy said:
Go on force yourself, this was posted anticipating a reply from your good self.

What else is there at this kind of money that I should be looking at?
Click to expand...

So is money the only consideration? Have you a budget? What are your (or rather Euan's and your) requirements for a laptop? Without expressing and understanding that its pig in a poke stuff. My nephew is a few years older than Euan and all I 'see' him do on his is play games and it was a piss poor choice of spec for that purpose.
 
Right well he needs a laptop that can move between here and his mums.
He uses it for itunes, Bebo, internet, Youtube, MSN, basic word stuff for homework and I guess photos in time. Doesn't play games on it other than the little ones that they all do on the net, not PS2 type games. Needs to be wireless and thats about it.
Budget is £350 max.
 
Trippy - £350 is plenty to buy a decent one.

I would go John Lewis and see what they have on offer. You can often get last months model at knock down prices but more importantly, their warranty and the aftercare is second to none.
 
cookie said:
give him your old one and buy yourself a nice macbook :thumb
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That did cross my mind but the story is ...

He is changing secondry school on monday and is very happy about it but didn't want to go untill after the planned school trip to France in a few weeks, however the schools say that this must happen monday and that means he misses out. He was a bit upset last night so I told him that the trip money that is being refunded was as far as I'm concerned spent so we should go into town and get the laptop he's been wanting for about a year.
 
DavidHale said:
A question that I'll be looking at the answer to as well. Is this part of your "free" advice, or do you need to invoice us for it Andy? ;)
Click to expand...

He'll pay the same rates you did for your advice David, d'ya think he'll manage :P I do hope you didn't see yourself in some of what I said on SOAA's thread :augie

Anything that involves the playing of games or media work (video etc.) really needs a proper graphics card rather than an on-board shared resource system.

Vista needs at least 2GB RAM

Hard drives will soon fill up if he finds the peer-to-peer file sharing but don't overlook keeping a lot of that shite on an external drive and keep the price of the laptop down.

Battery life on cheaper laptops tend to be an issue (as does weight) you need more cells for decent battery use and more cells can mean more weight.

They are all wirless ready these days and built-in webcams are increasingly popular.

Avoid Vista Basic and it would be even better if you could avoid Vista altogether but that is unrealistic these days.

You won't get one tomorrow and it blows your budget but I'd be looking at one of these myself.
 
Trippy I bought my daughters Advent laptops about 18months ago, and as has been stated Advent is PCWorlds/Dixons/Currys 'own brand' to date they have both been bomb proof, decent spec for a reasonable price IMO. As for reliability I have found them to be better than my desktop, so much so I flogged it and now use which ever of the girl's laptops is free to use:thumb2
 
I am co-ordinator of ICT and Business/Law at a secondary school and more and more students are using laptops rather than pcs. They also are using laptops to communicate and socalise rather than creating work. Having said that we hope students will do 'extra' work of course at GCSE and A levels for their coursework and we give students choices to do these lunchtimes and after school or at home. Sometimes we insist it is done in school rather than home. More schools are no using educational software called Moodle where students can access work at home (poor things), send messages etc. So on one hand we are told to make sure students are not disadvantaged by having work set to do at home and the next we are encouraged to prepare access for students to assignments etc from the home...

Going off track...

I have bought laptops from PCWorld many times - their own brand Advent is ok and quite cheap. Some models better than others. Sometimes their audio output is terrible. The 'in' brand name now for schools is the Dell laptops and they're quite a good deal as long as you do not buy their extra packages which adds to costs. Other schools are investing in the smaller umpc or small laptops such as the Asus eepc but to be honest they're way too small for more than an hour use.

Software... We always find students get new laptops with Microsoft Works or the newer software installed which conflicts with school's so that is another issue. If students know how to save as older versions it's not a problem. A usb memory stick is invaluable I find. Vista of course has the hardware issues which could be an additional cost.

If you do go to PCWorld try negotiating with them for a discount by saying you're interested in extrended warranty.... they get commission. You can get a free laptop bag usually and free dvds etc - then you have a right to cancel the warranty within so many days. Long term warranty is a waste of money based on the depreciation of these nowadays.

Please check online before you go to the shop. They do much better deals online and you can reserve to pick up instore.

MSN. bebo etc is all Internet based so obviously a good integral wifi important (you have wireless router)

Does he want to watch movies or play games - games could influence price enormously and really laptops are not meant for that in my opinion. Movies - again soundcard - onboard or additional graphics card. Test audio etc.. take a dvd in and ask to check playback. Most are now DVD-R but check in case not as students tend to save work also on cds and dvds - especially music. How many usb drives? Size of hard disk - you can buy cheap external drives now so maybe not that much of an issue nowadays.

Basically try to get low spec / cheap laptop for now as he's going to want / need another in 2-4 years max.

Also more and more coursework being eliminated now from GCSEs (2009) and A levels (next year) in many subjects.
 
issy said:
take a dvd in and ask to check playback
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i think it's worth pointing out that neither XP or Vista comes with the requisite codecs to play commercial dvds as standard.

easily remedied, but don't kick off in the shop when it won't play movies :D



macs will pass this test ;)
 
cookie said:
i think it's worth pointing out that neither XP or Vista comes with the requisite codecs to play commercial dvds as standard.

easily remedied, but don't kick off in the shop when it won't play movies :D



macs will pass this test ;)
Click to expand...

good point - the spotty teenageworker usually says yes it will play dvds but that's not the same as saying it has the software to do so. Other software kids usually need / use / like are:

antivirus - usually only a trial - do not buy one as there are really good free ones about!
spyware - ditto above
Microsoft Office - cheap and legal versions available for students / education - no problem at all using Openoffice - free downloadable integrated software.
dvd player / audio etc - eg powerdvd or winplayer etc but remember many many good and free versions of these sort of features available on www.downloads.com eg VLC media player
Kids usually love webcams and they can be quite cheap or expensive.. usually a fad the kids get fed up with after a month or so.
and one very useful 'cleaner' when laptop gets slow is CCleaner - much better than disk defrag.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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