Which bargainous laptop should I buy?

[minko]

I have a iMac for work but want to buy a laptop for me and the kids to use to surf the net, play games etc. I want one with a biggish screen but don't want to spend a fortune (£400 max) as it's not really to work on.

Any ideas? I've never had a laptop before so don't know where to start.

Thanks in advance.

There are Windows 7 laptops in the sub-400 price region. I was lucky to get a 17" Compaq for 250 quid in February and have seen nothing comparable in terms of low cost and large screen.

I'd suggest checking JohnLewis.com and dabs.com (dabs is owned by BT) and perhaps try Google Shopping.

Hopefully you can specify screen size (15" 17") and fix the upper limit on cost. I assume you would consider Windows for this usage?

As well as Google Shopping www.google.co.uk/prdhp?hl=en&tab=wf&output=nojs
you could look on Amazon and Ebay (specify 'new' and 'UK seller') so you can see other options.

There are also some dedicated laptop-only stores online, names should appear using Google but may be worth checking Yahoo! search too, and look for 'cheap laptops' or 'cheap Windows 7 laptops' perhaps.

You might find one of the lowest end Dell laptops (15") available - I think it's the Inspiron range. Try www.dell.co.uk/tv

I check that page every week or two, just to keep track of what's on offer (as they never seem to stop). Admittedly some offers are just free memory upgrades or larger hard drives, and (fortunately) delivery costs are not always 50 quid on top of the price (sometimes that's thrown in free).

It makes me wonder how much profit some of the stuff is making for them, and given they must ship container after container full of kit from Eire to UK, why they feel they can charge 50 quid for a tower PC when the cost per unit is perhaps a fiver for the Irish Channel and then another possibly under a tenner for City-Link-type delivery once discounts for large scale of business is taken into account.

www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/laptops_great_deals/fs.aspx?refid=laptops_great_deals&s=dhs&cs= ukdhs1

I'd go for the Inspiron 15 costing 369 inc VAT + delivery (320 GB hard drive, 3 GB of RAM, and dual core processor) over the 339 pound unit (250 GB, 2 GB RAM) - though the lower cost one should still be quite capable of handling many types of use at home.

The Compaq I bought was reduced from 347 to 247 and has 2 GB of RAM. I have been 'pushing' it a bit with a dozen Firefox windows plus iPlayer and a few other applications running at once. Unfortunately I mentioned it to my sister the day after I got mine and they were out of stock everywhere within 50 miles of her, and she needs a new PC more than me, so I offered it to her as a gift and am just waiting for her to visit to hand it over...

Have not seen another 17" laptop at a similar price and just keep looking... [sob]

Sorry about that link being unusable - try this one: link which should take you to the correct page.

Scroll down a bit and the second laptop column headed LOWER PRICE is the one I was looking at.

I am fancying the Dell Inspiron ones I think. My sister has one, she bought a reconditioned one from a website. Not sure how secure that is...

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I will try and pursue a good deal now.

As an aside, I've just seen some Google Android netbooks (7" and 8" screens) on the US Ebay site at prices ranging from US$ 110 to US$ 170

($110 was inc delivery but add $20 for 3-5 DHL instead of 10+ days)

0ne listing was for an "aPad" ("EKEN M003 MID" might be enough to find this one) at $140 + $30 deivery (less 1c for each price!) and offering a protective leather case at $12.99 when bought with the aPad.

Device has USB, Wi-Fi, support for up to 32 GB SD card, and internal storage of 2 GB (though 1 GB is taken up with Google's OS. Included are various apps for e-mail, browsing, Google Maps, Calendar, etc.

Also handles MP3 audio, video: MP4, AVI, Flash, 3GP (used on some mobile phones), WMA etc. Plus an office package to handle Word/Excel/Powerpoint, also support for PDF, MSN, Skype, and Windows Media.

Screen is 8? 16:9 wide-screen 800X480 high-brightness TFT LCD which supports switching from portrait to landscape.

At about 100 pounds, I'm sorely tempted. For a family, it is almost down to a price affordable for each child (OK, depends on circumstances, but lower cost than most laptops and certainly more affordable than iPad).

Oh, almost forgot, eBook reader is included. Not sure how interesting that is for people, nor whether there would be any restrictions on formats supported, but Google would have a vested interest to make it handle as many options as possible (as they have been pushing "open source" and "open access").

EKEN M003 MID - found on Ebay UK at 108 to 125 pounds. Most from China, some from HK, one supplier from Singapore.