thinking of a laptop dont know anything about which one I will need.

[crabbymum]

Don't like going into the shop until I have a better idea of what I need, and can look online.

I bascially just use it for ebay, facebook, word, keeping photos etc etc, but my trusted old pc is slowly dying a death, always fancied the idea of a laptop I can use it in different rooms, dont hav an unlimited amount of money need a decent reliable bargain.

Can anyone help. recommend

Don't get a Packard Bell. I have one and have spent so much money buying new CPU, leads, etc for it its untrue. Battery doesn't work on it either. Only a couple of years old.

An IT friend told me the best brands were Sony, Dell and Toshiba.

thank for the advice skss

I'm also told Dell are good by IT folk.

I've got an HP Pavillion and it is great. I use it for similar purposes as you. I got it in Tesco Extra and am surgically attatched to it and it has yet to let me down. The spec is 250 memory and 2 wattsits of RAM and a dual core processor. I can also store movies etc on it which is rather handy.

(Can you tell I am not very tachnically minded? )

If you want a laptop to move around you will need to ensure it has a wireless card and you will also need a wireless router which would be permantly wired to a phone socket in one room.

Have you looked at netwooks. These are smaller laptops which are more portable. I bought one recently and love it. You would expect to pay about £200-300 for a good one but my dh got a reasonable one from sainsburys for £180 last week.

Only downside is the screens can be a bit small.

sorry i meant netbooks

thanks for all your suggestion, I had not even heard of netbook lol, but will look into it.

I hate Dell. |Had lots of probs BUT on the plus side their customer service is good and they have replaced without quibble. And you get a lot for your money.

Netbook lovely but no DVD drive (you can buy an external one for £30-40 on ebay). Also you prob want a Windows operating system?

Bear in mind that Microsoft Office costs extra (unless you already have a copy)

I'd have a browse on www.dell.com

Have a look at Tescos thats where we got ours from. It was excellent spec for the price. Was a year ago now so laptops has prob got a higher spec, but I went to the best I could afford eg 2GB Dual core processor but still quite cheap. Also think about what software you want and if going in store make sure they throw some freebies in!

We were in the same position recently. My old laptop had died and that taught me one thing, spend a little bit more and get something decent. You don't have to go for top of the range, but don't get the absolute cheapest, no-name laptop.

My old one was very cheap but absolute rubbish. The memory was tiny so that it kept crashing, it took almost an hour to start. Within a week of buying it one of the keys broke off.

Go for one with a decent sized memory.

Sometimes you will get a deal that you get the MS Office cheaper when you buy the laptop, most only have MS Word installed which is pretty useless.

We were advised to go for HP, Dell or Sony.

We went for the Sony Vaio, decent sized screen, good quality. I am very happy with it.

Getting on thread for when and if I get enough money to get one.

i've got a toshiba, bought for me by my father in law, who works in computers. it's three years old and still going strong (although the battery life has dwindled) they have this one on tescos website, does everything you need and has a built in web cam

Have a look on here for reviews of under £300 laptops, DP it techy and rates PC Pro. There are other reviews on there for other price brackets. I bought a best buy from there and am very happy with it (Dell XPS M1530 to be specific!)

i just bought a great acer one from an ebay shop for £180 (my friend bought the same one about 6 months ago from litttlewoods for £380)
im really chuffed with it,
it says its refurbished(shop/catalogue returns), but i got a 3 month warranty and its never been used,very chuffed here