Help - I need a new mini laptop

[LizziePizzie]

What are the best buys? I want a computer rather than a tablet (I like proper keypads). Mac Air is my dream but don't have the budget.

Any advice?

Ta...

What's your budget and what do you want to use it for?

about £300 I think, and emails, internet and photos

Well with a £300 budget your best bet is to go for a refurbished one. Plenty of reputable companies like PCWorld/Currys flog off stuff on eBay and offer a 6 month warranty on their kit.

I'd suggest something like this:

HP G6-1209SA

It's a lot of laptop for the money albeit a little over your budget if you include P&P. £311

Another good one is this: HP dv6-3182 but it does blow your budget a bit more.

Both are more than enough for what you want as long as you can compromise on the warranty. To be fair usually a laptop will die quickly or after a couple of years. In my experience they tend not to die within the first year if they last more than a month.

I wouldn't call a 15.6" screen a "mini laptop".

FWIW I bought a s/h Samsung 10.1" netbook (Win XP) for 95 quid.

Anyway, there are a number of similar/better spec netbooks on Ebay right now.

When I selected 2GB RAM, UK, Buy It Now, there were a dozen, and the lowest 10 ranged from 80 to 250 pounds (some new / returned by customers unused at 240 or best offer). You may find new from Comet, etc at similar prices.

One big factor in your decision will be whether or not you want an optical drive (CD/DVD) - many netbooks don't have them.

I'm a fan of 13" laptops - I used to have a Toshiba 13", which I passed to DS when I got my 13" MacBook, and which is still going strong. It is big enough to have a decent sized keyboard and screen , but small and light enough to sit on the sofa comfortably with.

I asume that most mini laptops have USB ports so i can plug an external DVD/CD in if I want.

I did want something mini.

Thanks for the links, I can't access them now as I am at work but will check them out later...

Yes, from perhaps 20 to 50 quid, depending on how slim and how much searching online you do.

May be worth searching HotUKdeals.com for a bargain or just to read diiscussions as you may find certain models recommended/ gave problems.

Try www.comet.co.uk/c/Laptops/Netbooks/1959 for netbooks

Lots of choices for external DVD/CD units on Amazon from LG and LiteOn

Or should i bite the bullet and go all Appley?

If you've got money to burn then go Apple.

I have a chromebook - means all computing in the cloud but that works fine for me! The Samsung one has a good full size keyboard, a really bright screen, 8-9 hours battery life and is light and portable (solid state drive).

It works by being online all the time - including using 3G - but a lot of apps work offline too (music, notepad programs, mindmapping, diaries and to do lists).

It also starts up in about 8 seconds from complete shutdown and cost about £220 second-hand (about £300 new). Needs no anti-virus or any little programs to get running..

It is described by www.which.co.uk as 'zippy', 'looks more expensive than it is'.

I bought it because it was the smallest and cheapest computer with a keyboard that was better to use than most laptops. I may buy the Acer Razorbook (or whatever) when I can raise a spare £1000 .. but I am really sold on the Chromebook, its surprisingly good!

I am in town tomorrow afternoon so I want to have made a decision then.

Another question - depending on what I get, ipad or something else, where should I buy? In store or online?

Interesting comments re the Chromebook - I know it's bound to be different from Android, but I found a few little niggles with Android in 6 months of usage (one of which I can now overcome, I think). Price s/h seems OK, too, seeing as this would be a very new (!) s/h laptop, though recently I've bought 2 laptops and a couple of SFF machines and none has been over 150 on Ebay.

On the Apple front, I doubt you'll find much with a 300 pound budget, but as fph says, only go that route if you've money to burn... I don't think it's value for money if buying new, though something refurbished (if it had a much bigger discount) may well seem like it is vfm :)

I do have the budget for it - in all my research I thought another £100 gets me a lot more for my ££.

The other thing I have started thinking about is the 5 hour flight I have on Monday and the toddler apps for my nearly 2 DD...

Then Ipad 2 or 3?

How far from "town" are you and would it be easy to physically return yourself?

John Lewis does longer warranty than some, and with mail order you've a cooling off period, too, but lots depends on your circumstances - if you would generally be available at home to accept delivery, and you can often get it free, then why bother with the chance of loss or damage if you have bought it in town with some large (?) journey to get it home...

(Sorry, as an ex-Brightonian then for me, "in town" means London, but you might have a 5 minute walk to centre of your town, IYSWIM !!)

Oh gosh, longer than quick-trip flight, and a really young DD... outside my expertise re Apps, sorry... start a thread in _chat today to see what people use/recommend as there may be many more SAHMs looking in there!

[ No disrespect to SAHMs - in fact I hope to put some work their way - but geeky_stuff is a bit niche as you need ideas today/ by 10:00 tomorrow :) ]

I am a 20 walk from my city (more like town) centre with an apple store and John Lewis. There are larger PC World tye places in an industrial unit on the outskirts of town that is a drive to, but wieirdly town is easier to get to.

I work 3 days and home for 2, but always out, so ordering online is usualy problmatic as I am never in to collect it and they can't deliver to my work (I work in a hospital with 7000 staff and they won't accept personal deliveries, and no one internally can find my office, let alone a delivery driver!)

I did post about apps for my blackberry and got no response, just gazillion of apps for the ipad/ipod/iphone! I have always been a PC blackberry user, but feeling drawn into the dark side of apple! :)

I bought an IPad 2 last week from pc world for £330 and then I bought this from eBay so it is very much like a mini laptop. I love it.