Any reccomendations for a new windows laptop

jongood

jongood

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This is a request for advice from the techies amongst you.

Im looking for recommendation for a new laptop.

Its for general browsing, emails, photo and music storage a bit of skype and the occasional dvd.

I would like good processor speed, reasonably portable, good battery life and to be able to use it for long periods offline and then not get hammered for data charges hence windows not google or apple.

I dont do gaming and dont need masses of storage, my current laptop has 900gb and Ive used about 30.

Budget is not the main factor but I tend to spend circa £300 use them until they get clogged up and change.

Thanks for any help

Jon

.
 
I have a mate who works as a repair technician in a PC Repair Shop. His advice based solely on the laptops they very seldom see breaking down and being returned for repair is Toshiba. As to exact model, thats up to you. Have a look at Broken Link Removed to get a good idea of price and spec. They are usually one of the cheaper web outlets.
 
Have a play in your local Currys PC World. I was having a quick look at the web site last night and it looked like they have a few that meet your spec.
 
What's up with the one you've got?
If it's just "clogged up" why don't you back up your data - you'd have to do that anyway - and do a factory restore to take it back to the day you got it? Just did this for nephew.
If required you may also be able to install additional memory that will usually make it run a bit faster.
For what you are using it for a 5 -7 year old machine would cope no problem.
If it's because Microsoft support has ceased for Windows XP install Linux Mint (free) instead and it can do everything you want.
Only 50% of the savings to me please!:xsmile:

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I have a Toshiba and Angela has an Acer, it had Windows 8 on it when bought and she along with everyone else hated it so last week we had mine cleaned up as it was full of garbage and running slowly and Angela's 8 wiped off and 7 put on. £90.00 for both.
 
Yes gellyneck and badknee ( is there a theme here?)

Good point. I tracked down the receipt and found out its only 2 years old, battery still holds up well its just really slow so new years resolution is to get it sorted out. It will also save me having to navigate through the latest set of "enhancements".
 
lenova
 
Laptop reliability ratings
Laptop brand Reliability rating Reliability score Customer score
Apple
4star.gif
83% 93%
Fujitsu-Siemens
4star.gif
80% 55%
Medion
3star.gif
71% 74%
Toshiba
3star.gif
70% 61%
Acer
2star.gif
68% 65%
Dell
2star.gif
67% 59%
Packard Bell
2star.gif
67% 54%
Asus
2star.gif
66% 61%
Samsung
2star.gif
66% 67%
Compaq
2star.gif
65% 56%
Lenovo
2star.gif
64% 66%
Sony
2star.gif
64% 59%
Hewlett-Packard (HP)
2star.gif
63% 57%
Advent
2star.gif
62% 38%​

Dunno if you can make head or tail of this, but its from the Which website:xThumb:
First % is Reliability, second % is customer score:xThumb:
​
 
Laptops: Best cheap laptops for under £500
  • We pick the five best cheap laptops
  • The best bargain Windows 8 laptops we've tested
  • Laptops with screen sizes from 11-inches to 15-inches
Technology has moved on so much that you really don't have to spend that much to get a laptop that will do everything you need at a great price. Here we round-up the best cheap laptops for under £500. These five cheap laptops will tackle most tasks with ease, and we've picked out a range of sizes so you can have an ultra-portable 11-inch laptop or a cheap 15-inch laptop for everyday use.

For more advice about what to look for in a budget computer read our guide to buying the best cheap laptop.

To see the products behind the scores in the table below, take a Which? trial for £1. If you're already member, go to the log-in page and unlock the table.

Best cheap laptops for under £500
Laptop Click for full review Performance Screen quality Sound quality Portability Score
Broken Link Removed Acer Aspire E1-572
star5.jpg
star4.jpg
star4.jpg
star3.jpg
76%
The E1-572 is a great value focused laptop and even though some compromises were made with the design of this laptop, we still think it's a worthy option. Perfect for everyday computing, and then some, it has enough processing power and storage space to satisfy users from all walks of life. However, the E1-572 is not a touchscreen laptop and if this feature is important to you, it's worth looking at another model.


Which again:xThumb:
 
Wildman said:
it is clearly marked as pre vat price with +VAT price underneath
Click to expand...
Still misleading though Roger.
Example 1 - Android Tablets from £39.95; page linked to lowest price £56.63 ex VAT.
Example 2 - HP Pavilion from £241.63 ex VAT; page linked to shows you have to buy at least 5 to get that price.
 
wizzer59 said:
Disappointed to see Asus so low, guess what I have:xlaugh:
Click to expand...
We used Acer for several years and found them pretty good (as you would expect of the company that built IBM Thinkpads).
More recently Asus and HP have been the best value machines on offer when we've been looking and we've found both brands to be fine.
 
GJH said:
Still misleading though Roger.
Example 1 - Android Tablets from £39.95; page linked to lowest price £56.63 ex VAT.
Example 2 - HP Pavilion from £241.63 ex VAT; page linked to shows you have to buy at least 5 to get that price.
Click to expand...
the phrase FROM is the clue to the fact that more is involved, not misleading to me at all. never mind they are still a lot cheaper than most highstreet stores and another place to look for bargains of all sorts.
 
Wildman said:
the phrase FROM is the clue to the fact that more is involved, not misleading to me at all. never mind they are still a lot cheaper than most highstreet stores and another place to look for bargains of all sorts.
Click to expand...
I used to use Morgans in the 1990s, used to be on the flyer list and went into the Manchester store several times when we were down visiting my parents. I'm pleased you are happy with them Roger but I always found the quality variable and, in my experience, it got worse over time.

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jonegood said:
This is a request for advice from the techies amongst you.

Im looking for recommendation for a new laptop.

Its for general browsing, emails, photo and music storage a bit of skype and the occasional dvd.

I would like good processor speed, reasonably portable, good battery life and to be able to use it for long periods offline and then not get hammered for data charges hence windows not google or apple.

I dont do gaming and dont need masses of storage, my current laptop has 900gb and Ive used about 30.

Budget is not the main factor but I tend to spend circa £300 use them until they get clogged up and change.

Thanks for any help

Jon

.
Click to expand...
really for what you describe a tablet would be best, if you need a lot of storage get one that has a card slot, more portable, better battery life, on or offline is the same which ever
 
jonegood said:
Yes gellyneck and badknee ( is there a theme here?)

Good point. I tracked down the receipt and found out its only 2 years old, battery still holds up well its just really slow so new years resolution is to get it sorted out. It will also save me having to navigate through the latest set of "enhancements".
Click to expand...

Yeh, older sibling!!!:xsmile:

If it's only two years old it's almost certain to have a Recovery Partition that you'll access this by pressing a specific key during boot process, something like F11, F12,.......
Once you press this it will open a menu asking if you want to recover \ restore the machine to factory default. It should give warning that the complete hard disc will be formatted and all data will erased so make sure you back-up all your data to an external hard disc or memory sticks.:xdoh:
Recovery process is generally very simple, just a sit back and watch \ wait on it happening once you've pressed yes go ahead with it.
Once it's done remember you'll need to reinstall all the software updates, etc you've done in the last two years.

One thing to watch is that most machines will come with a trial versions of anti-virus software, etc. You should uninstall these after recovery and load one of the free equivalents out there, eg Avast Free, ZoneAlarm Free, etc. That is, of course, unless you want to take out a subscription for the paid trials!

One thing you should do to preserve the battery longevity is to remove it when you're working of mains power supply as keeping it installed degrades the battery much quicker. It's not designed for continual trickle charging. Don't do this though during the recovery process in case you mains power trips.:xsurprised:

Hope this helps but give me a shout if you need further.

Cheers
 
mitzimad said:
really for what you describe a tablet would be best, if you need a lot of storage get one that has a card slot, more portable, better battery life, on or offline is the same which ever
Click to expand...

Ive looked at tablets, but I dont like the typing experience on them. I prefer a keyboard. I know there are 'convertibles?' out there but worry they would be too fragile.
 
Gellyneck said:
Yeh, older sibling!!!:xsmile:

back-up all your data to an external hard disc or memory sticks.:xdoh:
Recovery process is generally very simple, just a sit back and watch \ wait on it happening once you've pressed yes go ahead with it.
Once it's done remember you'll need to reinstall all the software updates, etc you've done in the last two years.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Sounds easy but will I lose windows?
It was bought from Currys with windows installed but Ive never had any discs for it.
 
Hi
Sorry for delay. The time of year!
A number of years back manufacturers used to supply CD \ DVD discs that had the original factory software on them. These were subsequently replaced by a hidden partition on the hard disc containing the software.
The action of pressing the recovery key on boot takes the machine to this hidden partition and on acceptance of the "Do you want to ......" question it formats the hard disc (hence the reason for backing up your data in advance) and reinstalls all the software from the recovery partition.
Things to check, if you want, are when powering up the laptop is there a message flashes up that says something like press ??? key to enter system recovery? You can check if there is a recovery partition in Windows 7 by -
  • left click Start Button
  • right click Computer
  • left click Manage
  • left click Disk Management (in left hand pane)
  • wait a few seconds and the centre pane will show the partitions on your hard disc
  • it should look something like (they may not be in this order)
    • System Reserved (not Recovery!) a few 100Mb's in size
    • System Recovery (or similar) and size depends on original software installed but a few Gb's
    • The main disc partition probably followed by C: and will be a few hundred Gb's
  • DON'T change anything in here as it could have a serious impact on the operation of the laptop!
  • To exit just left click on the red cross at top right.
If you've still got the original instruction manual provided it should have a page or two on how to recover to the factory default. If not, you may be able to download from Curry's website.

Again, hope it helps and let me know if you need further.

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Have you ever run a defrag programme or Crap Cleaner though it?? This can make quite a difference to performance. Probably best to do this first and then do a full factory reset (after backing up) as a last resort. No point in replacing a 2 year old laptop for the use you're making of it - I have a 3 year old HP laptop that I hammer every day and it still works great - I have had to reinstall Windows on it but that's only when an update has 'crapped' it out and it was easier to do than trying to 'find' the problem!

When I was at work I used to buy Toshiba machines for our staff but they weren't that reliable whereas HP has always been very, very good and long lasting. A former colleague is still using the HP laser printer she got in the 90s and it works better than the newer ones they've bought since!
 
Another thought - what machine have you currently got?
 
We bought 2 HP laptops in Sept. '09. Since that date they've been used every single day but 3. Usually for 8/9 hours per day. They finally packed up, within a fortnight of each other, in November '14. The two Toshiba 17" C700 we bought in Jan. '14 have now taken over fulltime. I hope they'll prove as reliable as the HPs.
In the late 90s I had a Toshiba which managed to fall of the top bunk of the truck, at 50mph., on the motorway (in its case). Ok, it was the mainly metal body but it carried on working for a couple of years and was then passed on to one of our sons. It finally died a couple of years ago..... :xThumb:
 
Just to update.. sorry for the delay and thanks to all for inputs.

My current laptop finally annoyed me enough to take it for repair - I was too busy (and scared) to tackle it myself.

I will let you know how successful it was when I get it back.

I'm typing this on wife's kindle fire - one finger, no double click to highlight, having to hover to insert hating ithow do you guys do it?
 
I don't know what operating system you are using at the moment, but don't let people put you off Windows 8.1.

8.1 is a huge improvement over 8.0, many people don't discriminate sufficiently between the two. I went straight from XP to 8.1 and found the changeover easy.

Cheers

David.

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