[Wiki Guide] Laptop Buying Advice

I'm trying to sign up for the free W7 upgrade but when I put in my laptop service tag thing it says it's not eligible, even though it is. hmm.

Pretty good guide! Glad you added Apple products at least =). Maybe post some links to reviews for some of the popular laptops? I find www.trustreviews.com a good site for laptop reviews.

Use the Chat service on their site, and speak to one of the customer reps.



Thanks! Yeah good idea. I presume you mean http://www.trustedreviews.com/ ?

Use the Chat service on their site, and speak to one of the customer reps.



Thanks! Yeah good idea. I presume you mean http://www.trustedreviews.com/ ?

Hi guys,

I posted a while ago for advice in case my laptop was beyond repair, and it ahs come back today on it's deathbed so some final assistance would be much appreciated.

I am stuck between the HP550 that Mike has posted before, and this Lenovo N500 which according to Dabs.com is the most popular model after I have gone through my options and requirements.

Both are spot on the £400 but I can go a bit higher than this if the spec is worth it.

Any suggestions on the above or other options I may have overlooked?

Cheers,
Tom

What about vaio laptops?

Another bump.

hi im buying a laptop for university tomorrow, not got a clue where to start though am lookin at a 300-550 price range. i want good battery life (6 hours or more), windows vista, a fast processor and a 15 inch screen or less. does anyone have any recommendations for a reliable laptop because ive been lookin on the internet for hours and im completely lost?!

also was wondering about the cheapest way of getting microsoft office? can students get it for free?

sorry if this is posted in the wrong place..

6hrs or more?! MacBook comes to mind but that more than £150 over budget. Anything else I suggest will be over budget because you want some epic battery life.

Dell Studio 15 + 9 cell battery. £~600 - 6 cell can last max 4hrs just browsing the net and MSN.

And for Office: http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_Standard_2007-details.aspx

haha sorry, 6 hours was kind of a randomly chosen number. how about if i want 2-3 hours of battery life as well as my other specifications? i guess im looking for something medium sized or on the small side that isnt too heavy as i will have to be carrying it around.

the microsoft office you recommended looks way cheaper than anything ive been looking at, thanks for your help i will be + repping!

question, mikey.

you mentiond a 9 cell battery, is that an optin with a dell when speccing, or can you buy aftermarket and add.

hi, ive been computer shopping today and my favorite two notebooks are the Acer Aspire TImeline 4810T and the Acer Extensa 4230. these are both 14 inch notebooks, though i havent actually seen the Extensa except in pictures because the smaller version wasn't in stock. the dell studio 15 wasnt actually in any of the shops that i went in, but the inspiron was there, and i thought it was too large and heavy and a bit tacky.

does anyone have any thoughts on these two notebooks, or can recommend which to choose?

i would be going for the cheaper versions (about £550) and am worried about only having a processing speed of 1.23 Ghz on the Acer Aspire and 1.66 Ghz on the Acer Extensa. im not a gamer and only use the internet, windows media, word, powerpoint, hotmail, facebook and msn. could anyone tell me how slow this processor would be and whether you think it would be a problem? for instance if i was running 3 or 4 programs?

thankyou