What should I look for in a new laptop, please?

[SoftKittyWarmKitty]

I've got a pretty old laptop (over 6.5 years old) and it's been on its last legs for the last 12-18 months. It's excruciatingly slow and just lately it freezes a lot - for instance I'll click to open a new tab online and it takes ages and ages then I realise it's frozen, and the only way to get out of it is to hold down the power switch so it switches off. Then I have to power up and start again.

I think it's time to look for a new laptop. Thing is, I don't know what to look for - what memory size, what processor, best place to buy etc - so I'd love some advice on what I need. I tend to use it for browsing online, emails, storing photos, spreadsheets, word docs etc (do they come with Microsoft Office installed as standard these days?). Ideally I don't want to pay more than £400 but am open to suggestions, especially if it'll last as long as this one has! Oh, and I definitely want a laptop, not a mac. Thanks .

I'm in a similar situation. I'm watching to see when sales will start but it sounds like the minimum you need is:
Intel i3 core processor
6mb RAM
750mb memory
Try John Lewis - 2yr guarantee

I'm holding out for intel core i5, 8mb and 1 terabyte - there's a Lenovo meeting that spec at pcworld for 449 which is a bit beyond my budget.

In the meantime, go to Add/Remove programs in Control Panel and uninstall anything you don't use (that you installed). I did that recently including Rapport (bank security software ) and it made a difference. Also could replace sophisticated/hungry antivirus with free version of Avast!

When it comes to installing Microsoft Office, give OpenOffice a whirl first - it's free. Remember to save files as Word or Excel etc files though as .odt files don't open in Word.

Another one watching this thread, I don't really know what I'm looking for, but would like to be able to record streamed TV for later viewing on a tablet if thats possible?

FreelanceMama Thank you so much for that, it's given me a really useful starting point of what to look for. My current laptop is an Acer Aspire and it's been great, but I'm going to have a good look around then pray something decent is in the sales after Christmas.

6GB RAM is good, but 4GB should be sufficient.

I would suggest a 750GB hard disk is more than strictly necessary, 320GB would do for most people, but even the budget laptops seem to come with 500GB these days.

You should be able to find something for £350 or so. Good brands include Toshiba, HP and Lenovo.

Oops, yes I meant GB for the RAM! Yes, agree that 4GB is fine as is less hard disk memory, but if you're after a desktop replacement (i.e. a laptop that acts as a portable PC rather than a laptop you can carry around in your bag) and you think your kids might want to be using it too then the more RAM the better - what's interesting is that if you shop around some places will sell lower spec laptops for more than higher spec laptops in other places. I kept an eye on Comet but they didn't really have any great deals despite their discounts.

I have the Acer Aspire too. It's a good workhorse but in recent years the amount of memory taken up by programs and photos/videos has shot up so it's time for a new one.

Have you also considered getting an external hard drive? You can store your photos and videos, etc. on that and then worry less about the storage capacity of your laptop.

Which? has some good advice www.which.co.uk/technology/computing/guides/how-to-buy-the-best-laptop/

It really does depend how much you think you're going to want to store over the next 5 or 6 years, and what programs you might want to use e.g. photo editing software.

Also, an issue to consider is screen size - depending on how long you're planning to spend in front of the screen. I've got a tiddly netbook for travel, but need a good sized screen for work.

As an aside make sure you back up your photos !

Hard drives are not a safe way to store your photos (unless you have RAID).

The easiest way is to back them up automatically into the cloud eg Flickr / Picasa

Cloud backup may be easy, but not always. It's not necessarily entirely safe either.

My wife's photo collection is around 45GB and without a fibre connection, it would take a very long time to upload it and exceed my monthly bandwidth allowance several times over.

There are people who have lost all their photos because they stored everything on Megaupload's servers were seized by the authorities.

I have copies of everything on multiple hard disks at home and I have also bought a BD-R (Blu-Ray) writer to create off site backups.

I've got all my photos backed up onto an external HDD (I think that's what they're called - it links to your laptop via a USB port?) and I keep it in the car in case of house fire. I might invest in another one to keep at my parents' house.

Will keep an eye out for those brands.