Yes, it's another 'what laptop should I buy' thread.

[chaosisawayoflife]

Sorry, I know these come up regularly, but I'm feeling a bit out of my depth so wondered if anyone has a few minutes to have a look for me?
I'm looking at argos, as they seem to have a wide selection, I have some vouchers, and there is one in town.
So, my requirements are fairly basic but I'd like the best laptop for my money.
It will be used for internet, some word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint etc, photo storage and editing, video skyping and maybe some low level gaming.

Dd will probably start using it more over the next few years so something reasonably future proof would be good.
Budget up to £350.
Looking at their options, which one would you go for?
Thanks in advance.

Are you looking to buy in a hurry? I don't mean in the next hour but I'm assuming you're using Argos because it means you can get the laptop sooner than if you ordered it for delivery through Amazon or PC World or whatever? (Ah have just noticed you have vouchers as well).

I just did a comparison of 4 laptops Argos have on at 349.99 and they are all showing as out of stock in my local stores - you can order them in, but in that amount of time you might as well use an online service.

Most of what you want you could do with a tablet, barring the photo storage (which would be better done online anyway, i.e. Dropbox or whatever). Had you considered/ruled out a tablet? How sophisticated would your word processing/spreadsheet/presentation requirements be? Google Drive is excellent for basic-medium stuff.

Sorry, would never consider a tablet compared with a reasonable (15"+) screen on a laptop, if using any major application (such as from Microsoft, or the free alternatives, such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice) because toolbars are far easier to use, I feel sure, with a mouse and proper keyboard.

Yes, I'm not keen on the idea of a tablet. Dh and I both have smart phones, but would want keyboard and mouse for computer use. I am wondering about a netbook though. Are they any good for our needs? Can you put Ms office on one? I'd forgotten about the need to buy that separately and am wondering if we could get a decent netbook and office within our budget?

Netbooks are deader than corduroy apparently - it must be true cos I read it in the Guardian. This could make the existing ones relatively bargainacious for their remaining lifespan!

Netbooks are probably not worth it these days. The Intel Atom processor they use is slow and would probably frustrate you. They are certainly not future proof either. I'd spend the full whack on as decent a laptop as you can and use one of the free Office alternatives.

Also, don't know what you or your DH do for a living but lots of companies offer MS Office schemes where you can get the latest version for about £10. So worth checking if you work in an office, etc.