Need a new laptop

[dreamworldfullofUNICORNS]

My laptop, an Emachine, bought off the shelf in Tesco when the old one died halfway through an importnant piece of coursework, is falling apart. It has had some heavy use, and it wasn't exactly an informed buying decision so im hardly surprised.

So, I'm looking for something new. I have been looking at this one Can anybody offer an opinion? I have Windows 7 and Office 2007 ready to install as bought 3 user versions for the PC. I don't want to jump in and buy a useless pile of electronics again, any advice appreciated!

Well, having done a 10 second trawl on Google, it would appear that this rather grand-sounding brand ("Hairdryer and Hart" in German - Hart as in deer) is eBuyer's re-branding of goods bought unlabelled from somewhere else.

Nothign wrong with that, of course, however I have read that eBuyer is not overly keen on accepting responsibility for these, should they go wrong, as they didn't manufacture them.

It's all hearsay, but you might want to think carefully before taking the plunge.

All that said, most, if not all 'manufacturers' of kit these days buy in most of their components and actually make very little of it themselves, so what you're really buying is their quality procedures (do they find the dodgy chip and remove it from their production line, or not?).

If you're looking for a straight recommendation, I would say to avoid this one and go for a known brand like Tosh or Sony, where you can rely (to some extent) on their name.

Also, currently having a bad time with three HP laptops, so I would avoid them as well

Anyway....my two penn'orth.

I went through a barrage of Laptops that always seemed to kak out at bad times. Then I bought my first Sony Vaio and have loved them ever since. I think that they are reliable, have good support, can take abuse, and are now reasonably priced. I also just bought an Apple Mac for travel. Which I am still finding my way around but loving in it's own way.

If you can run to 399, it may be worth checking the 4 laptops on the John Lewis website. I've not been a customer of JL but have seen mostly good comments and they give 2 years warranty on all 4 of these laptops.

I'd personally go for the Compaq - I have a 17" Compaq bought off the shelf in Asda Living reduced from 347 to 247 when they wanted to clear the shelves for a 400+ pound model.

Mine works very well, but has only 2 GB RAM and 160 GB drive, where the JL machines are 250 GB or 320 GB {the Compaq} and all are 15", and most have 3 GB of RAM.

While bruceb isn't keen on HP (and Compaq is owned by HP now) the one I'm least keen on is the Toshiba at JL, only because it has less RAM so may run a bit slower.

If 399 is beyond what you want to pay, then do say - I can quite understand your view as you have Windows 7 available to install

The difficulty I can see is that when Windows 7 had been launched, there was a tool to check a PC for it "being suitable" for upgrading to Win 7, whereas you need to know from just a laptop specification if it will cope with Windows 7.

Found out a friend has the laptop I was looking at, has windows 7 installed and it runs well. He seems really happy with it and seems to think it has a great spec for the money. So I bit the bullet and bought it. Hope I dont live to regret it!

Cheers for your help and recommendations! Looked at all of them and added a couple to my short list but ended up with the cheap one in the end. Hopefully I wont be back for you all to say 'I told you so' in a couple of months!

Nah - life's too short to be gloating (esp if something had gone wrong). Anyway, glad you made a decision and hope all goes well.

There have been comments around the web (I think on MoneySavingExpert.com among others) about the trade name Foehn + Hirsch - certainly it's thinly disguised (it used to have the Ebuyer company address), and still shows :

Name Servers: ns4.ebuyer.com ns5.ebuyer.com

It looks as if they used some local business just for a postal address that isn't local to their HQ (or any senior IT staff's home address). The info above is on public record, in case anyone is concerned!

I did know that the Foehn and Hirsch name was essentially EBuyers own brand... I guess I dont see 'own brand' as always being a bad thing!

Understood, but sometimes Ebuyer "Value" products are a bit too cheap - not suggesting this is the case for the laptop, but was looking at other items and Ebuyer sometimes cut corners. The F+H website "title" never previously mentioned laptops, so they've widened the range recently.

Looking at some TV on their site in last 6 months their 'technical spec' link led off to some other website (of theirs) and there were two manuals available for 'version A' and some other version, but the product page didn't specify and for all I knew it may have made a difference in which video cables I might need (one model had SCART, VGA and DVI inputs I think, the other didn't have VGA input from what I recall).

They have better clarity with stock bought in from other firms than what is brought in and put under their 'sister' brand names.

Bloody ebuyer cancelled my order anyway. (for no reason that I can see, something about my address....) So thinking on it for a while.

Odd. Maybe they use some delivery company which has put a block on certain postcodes.

I remember seeing a bit on TV that some areas have become known as hotspots for criminals using stolen cards and so on.

I hope that's not the case where you are, but it might happen anywhere (on the TV there were lots of flats, so higher numbers of dwellings per square mile than other forms of housing) and of course it's regular, honest, decent people who can be 'blighted' by such policies.

I suppose it might be like insurers having different risk levels on a postcode basis, and if a delivery company has had excessive claims in some area, they have the option to withdraw any service to/from that area (though it is still unfair on legit people wanting their service).

Really odd, we have had literaly dozens of deliveries from Ebuyer since christmas with no problems at all. Two new desktops, various hardware and software, 5 LCD TV's, all ordered on seperate occasions and with no trouble. Will ring them up if I do decide to re-order. We live in a pub in a hamlet, so only 4 properties with this postcode and hardly high risk

OK - OK - I take it all back !

Cannot be for the reason I had suggested - clearly a "switched on" family and I'd have thought due for a Christmas card from Ebuyer even if your spending spree calms down over the next 6 months!

Do please follow up with what they say - and hope you didn't take offence at previous suggestion - it was just a teeeeeeeny possibility...

Incidentally, am envious - not about the pub - but the kit you've bought so far

No offence taken!