Help a Luddite choose a new laptop

[Bratfink]

Hello

My old faithful laptop has died and I need a new one

I've not a clue where to begin, my last one fell off the back of a van was acquired for me by a friend so I?ve not had to look into 'features' since computers were as a big as a room

What I do:

Mostly internetting
Itunes
Lots of photos (but I have an external hard drive I put the bulk of my music and photos on)
that's it really, very few documents to store

Budget - pref less than £500 if that is reasonable, I have no idea

I really want a mac, but know I can?t afford one, or don?t know how to use one either come to that

Any suggestions?

Oh good. I'm about to buy one too so will watch with interest.

"since computers were as a big as a room"

the room was at least 60 feet square and there were a few dozen boxes making up the one (ICL 1904A) computer, when I started work in education.

Anywy back to your enquiry - here are three laptops from John Lewis which come with 2 year guarantee

£449 Samsung R540 Laptop, Pentium Dual Core, 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB with 15.6 Inch Display, Silver

£439 Packard Bell Easynote TK87-GN-040UK Laptop, Intel Core i3, 2.53GHz, 3GB RAM, 640GB with 15.6 Display

£329 Toshiba Satellite C660-1KT Laptop, Intel Celeron Dual, 2.1GHz, 3GB RAM, 320GB with 15.6 Inch Display

As you can see, all are 15.6" screens.

I did spot some 17" screen laptops on Ebuyer.com - around 480 quid - look for i3/i5 or Pentium CPU and 3 or 4 GB RAM for best value.

Thanks networkguy

I'll look at these

Just one more q. I could spend a couple of hundred more if it would make a significant difference. Is it worth it or are these ones good enough for light pootling like i do?

Is it worth it ...

I strongly doubt it, and quite frankly my eyes popped out while I was looking, at just how high the prices were. Admittedly they were in a clearance sale but in February 2010 I bought a couple of Compaq CQ61-112SA 15.6" 2GB RAM 160 GB HD, laptops at 247 pounds (100 pounds off) in Asda Living. Told my sister about them and she then rang around and found none within 50 miles of her, so I gave her mine (the other was to swap with someone for his old Dell + Flat Screen + some cash).

Her DH (managing director of an engineering firm, uses some specialist Engineering software and various business packages plus MS Office) has been using the Windows 7 laptop for the last year with no complaints.

direct.asda.com/Compaq-15.6in-250GB-Laptop/000503406,default,pd.html

Just found another 'reduced' Compaq (link above) for 277 pounds (100 off) and it may be worth a visit to Asda Living in your area in case they have some in the stock room that are reduced to clear... If I had had the spare cash I'd have bought a Lenovo (IBM) 4GB RAM laptop for 299 last autumn, but could not justify it as 'essential' at the time (have been given a couple of HP laptops anyway now, so even lower need for some brand new gadgets :) )

Acer 5742 at Currys £499 for i5/4MB, £429 for i3/3MB, even cheaper from acerdirect.co.uk but you don't get to take it back to the shop if it breaks.

Thanks for the advice Networkguy.

Don't know if the problem has been solved yet, but I've got an acer, as have two other members of my family, and we've all had serious problems with the battery. So much so that all 3 acer pcs will only work with the battery taken out... not much good if the AC connecter gets nudged when you're right in the middle of something.

My shopping list for a new laptop is for anythig BUT an acer.

Have seen other comments re Acer - hope you have better experience with a new laptop...

NetworkGuy are you there? I neeeeeed you!

I've finally narrowed my choice to two laptops and am about to hit 'buy' but can't decide between them. They're both Dell Inspirations, both 15.6" and both have 4GB of whatsit RAM.

Okay, here's the difference. One has 320GB and has an Intel Core processor. It's £358 direct from Dell.

The other has 500GB and has a AMD AthlonII processor. It's £399 from Tesco. £40 more, but I would get 800 Clubcard points.

Here's the catch - I've no idea whether it's better to have 500GB on a processor I've never heard of, or 320GB with an Intel whatsit.

Which would you go for? Please try hard not to say 'I wouldn't go for Dell' as it's taken me a long time to get to this point