Any one got advice on buying laptops?

[Mr Pharm S]

I need a laptop. Anyone got any pointers on where to buy one from? Any good models out there that you could share?

Cheers

[johnep]

My neighbour has a dell working well that is 12 years old. Me I would love a titanium bodied sony vao.
johnep

[Sir_Dispensalot]

depends on what you want to do with your laptop. If you want to be a gamer with it then expect to pay £1500 or more of a decent system. If it's just for surfing the web, checking email etc then go for a little netbook for around £200. If it's office-type stuff then there's the entry level ones around the £350 mark which will do a good job. Bear in mind that you don't always get what you pay for - many big brand ones come off the same production lines cheaper ones are on. It's important to find a model you like and then check the reviews of it on the net.

[Mr Pharm S]

It going to rplace my 10 year old desktop. General home use, internet, emails, occasional word processing and storing music and photos. Wont be using it for gaming or watching dvds.

Any brands to avoid? Ive been told to avoid packard bell.

What about where to buy? Any online retailers you trust? Again been told to avoid pc world and currys.

Cheers for you help

[Defblade]

In the immortal words of Ernest Hemmingway "buy a lot of RAM."*

Seriously, get as much as you can in there as it's a swine to upgrade laptop memory.

ebuyer and scan are usually good to buy from; we have 2 HP laptops in the family that their users are very happy with.






*3 Dead Trolls in a Baggie

[Mr Pharm S]

Alright Defblade, did you buy them from ebuyer? Can you trust them?

Also not many come installed with anti viral software. Whats the advice on that? Do you still have to buy antivirus soft ware these days or can you download them and are they good?

[johnep]

AVG is standard, free off internet.
johnep

[pharmer7]

Look out for the new iPad which is coming out soon, technically this is a tablet computer, but it is very small and compact. Otherwise, I would recommend any HP or Sony laptop, as long as it has a decent RAM. AVG is free, but for a quality system that also includes programs for internet security, anti-spam, anti-hacker,etc,etc then I would probably recommend Kaspersky.

[mrmeds]

Look out for the new iPad which is coming out soon, technically this is a tablet computer, but it is very small and compact. Otherwise, I would recommend any HP or Sony laptop, as long as it has a decent RAM. AVG is free, but for a quality system that also includes programs for internet security, anti-spam, anti-hacker,etc,etc then I would probably recommend Kaspersky.

dosn't the -pad need toi be synced with another compuer ?

[Defblade]

Alright Defblade, did you buy them from ebuyer? Can you trust them?

Also not many come installed with anti viral software. Whats the advice on that? Do you still have to buy antivirus soft ware these days or can you download them and are they good?

Yes, from ebuyer, bought loads of stuff over the years and no problems (except one that the courier lost, but that wasn't their fault) - same with Scan.

See other replies for AV - all good advice. IIRC, the laptops came with trial versions of Norton I ditched asap.