Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 I'm toying with the idea of joining the revolution and getting a laptop. The steam-driven PC at home has almost had it and from what I can tell, today's lappys will do (almost) everything a new PC would do. So, choices. I'm currently a T-Mobile customer but I'm out of contract waiting to see each operators deals on the HTC Touch Pro. There's 3's deals on the HP550 at £30/month over 24 months (£720) with 5Gb data (not sure what penalties there may be for straying over 'fair usage'). There's T-Mobile offering Acer TravelMate 5320, again £30/m over 24/12 (£720) with 3Gb data and no penalty for using more. The best 'existing customer' offer T can do is £5 off for the first 6 months making the total price £690 over 2 years. Orange's shop is offline for maintenance at the moment so I can't check their deals on laptops. So, it seems the data deals / pricing are comparable (not surprisingly). So which is the best laptop? Both the examples above have Vista Home Basic, 120Gb HDD, wifi, 15.4" WXGA screens, 1gig RAM. The T deal has DVD 'Super Multi' (whatever that is) which may well be the deal-clincher at the moment. Anyone have any insight into these deals? Paul
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Is there a reason you want to get a contract in this way rather than buying a laptop outright ( P
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Money is tight and credit is expensive right now. It seemed a viable option for me. I am looking at other options along the way...
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 OK, fair enough! How is coverage at home? Which networks give you HSDPA at home? The T-Mo deal seems pretty decent. The laptop spec isn't mind blowing but is more than adequate (it is the same spec as my missus' laptop, which is fine). Positives: - 6 cell battery on the laptop - Great T-Mo HSDPA coverage - Vista Premium (as opposed to the common basic) - Webcam - HOTSPOTS INCLUDED (great for Starbucks / airports!) - No over-use charges - A bunch of texts Negatives: - 1GB RAM is in 2x512MB form, increases cost to upgrade to 2GB slightly (altho it's dead cheap for RAM nowadays!) Cost as you as you say is £349.99 (laptop) + £14.99 (delivery) + £360 (contract) which totals £724.98, but if you go via Quidco, you should get £73 back on connection which brings the grand total down to £651.98. Not bad really... P
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Is there a Modaco click-thru to Quidco so your family get to eat more bread? :D
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Sorry, couldn't resist it :D I was reading some numpty groaning on about cookies & click-thru's the other day... HSDPA on T is running full-bore at home but I would no doubt connect at home using wifi anyway. I reckon that USB stick would snap off in the port after about 10 minnutes looking at how it pokes out the back of the lappy. Hmm, maybe I should edit the thread title to "Anyone know of 0% credit deals on a half decent laptop..."? :D
Guest Dr Who Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 There's 3's deals on the HP550 at £30/month over 24 months (£720) with 5Gb data (not sure what penalties there may be for straying over 'fair usage'). When I asked them about this they said they charge 10p/Mb out of bundle!!!! Seems a bit shan to me. Still, not sure you would get anywhere near 5Gb for general surfing, but guess it would easily be possible if you were using it as your main connection.
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Buy now pay summer '09 @ eBuyer: http://www.ebuyer.com/special/1787 Bargainous laptop (same as my dad and missus have pretty much!): http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143364 P
Guest andrewkeith5 Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 (edited) knowing a computer administrator who deals with a huge number of computers in schools, I would personally reccomend the acer myself both my current computers are acers (including my new laptop, see my sig, and two desktop machines bought last january). none of them have ever, ever, gone wrong, and i've never ever had any software problems either (except with programs i've installed, and when i screwed up the vista upgrade on my desktop) hp however have proven to not be so reliable. nigh-on all of the hp computers have had some sort of problem over time, and quite frequent problems include hard disk failures which require a new hard disk and re-installation of everying, although with one laptop a teacher had the motherboard just completely failed one day, and we ended up just binning the laptop (hp support were predictably not interested) personally, if you are taking up one of the free laptop deals, i'd say go with the acer if it makes no difference to you, especially considering you'll be in contract and want to keep it for at least 2 years if, however, you are thinking of buying a laptop outright, i'd personally reccomend either dabs.com or laptopsdirect.co.uk, and go for a lenovo or a fujitsu siemens (i like the value of the 3000 N200 Lenovo). You should be able to get a finance deal from somewhere, and these are the 2 makes that i've found provide the best value at the low end of the market combined with the best build quality and support (fujistu siemens even give you actual recovery disks!) Edited August 28, 2008 by andrewkeith5
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 I've had a few acers, and although they haven't physically gone wrong, they always seem to show 'wear' quickly... on the contrary the HPs i've had have been both reliable and well built, heh! P
Guest deadphill Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Id go for an HP any day of the week. And no its nothing to do with the fact that I am HP accredited and can make sure that the laptop is reliably repaired should it ever go wrong. (that is the repair is done by myself!!!) Over the years the three makes of Laptop I would recommend are HP, especially as they normally give 3 years warranty, or at least they did, Toshiba and IBM, now Lenovo. From experience, Dell are not bad either, especially the business/cheaper end of the market. There are new players on the market and like everything out there they take their time to become good, for want of a better way of putting it. I think the best way to gage a decent laptop is a) how decent the spec is for the money and :D the warranty provided, should the worst happen. Its worth remembering the last point as its not like a pc where if the sound stops working, you just fit a new soundcard. If the sound stops working on a laptop (and its not software related) you either do without sound or else you (99 times out of 100 anyway) have to swap out the whole mainboard. Hope this helps. Cheers Phill
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 It's all helpful stuff guys. Any insight is very welcome. :D
Guest WearTheFoxHat Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 Personally I love Dell laptops, but have an IBM for work and its rock solid. I'm not a small chap by any means, and slipped on ice and landed on the IBM ... cracked the case but the laptop still works fine. Ive also had several Tosh laptops which have all been excellent too. How about a broadband laptop where the broadband card is build in?
Guest andrewkeith5 Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 How about a broadband laptop where the broadband card is build in? most likely because they cost a fortune :D
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 most likely because they cost a fortune :D Ahhh, there's always a catch!! :D
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 The eBuyer buy now pay in 9 months time seems the best bet... you can pick your hardware then based on your monthly saving-up budget! P
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 This looks interesting, Vodafone Mobile Broadband deals from PC World [aff]... We like Dual Core 3GB RAM beasts, but the Advent free with a 20 quid a month contract is interesting too! :D P
Guest andrewkeith5 Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 yeah the pc world deals are interesting because they just knock off about 200 quid from the price of any laptop in the store...its certainly a better iidea than the "here. its this laptop or nothing" that others offer
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 I think I'll pop into PC World on the way home tonight... :D
Guest andrewkeith5 Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 (edited) lol just something to note though is that i noticed on the website that in at least 3's case, the more expensive tariffs might get you more off the price of the laptop, but don't actually give you anythin more in the tariff, which ends up in a rather rubbish deal really however, if you can, try to stretch to the £35 a month 18 month 3 tariff, as although it'll cost you 90 quid more over the course of the contract for the same 3GB a month, you'll get another 150 quid off the laptop, which will mean you're £60 better off by the time the contract finishes that to me seems like the best deal (and i think is pretty similar to the ones you mentioned in your first post). just make sure you choose a laptop that costs at least the amount of money you're gonna get taken off, otherwise it starts benefitting them more than you ah, and as usual make sure you pick a decent laptop and don't let the salesman force you into buying what he wants you too (and i would reccomend going away and thinking about anything you're about to put 18 months of your money into, inlcuding reading reviews, before shaking hands) :D Edited August 28, 2008 by andrewkeith5
Guest pd.ryder Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 ah, and as usual make sure you pick a decent laptop and don't let the salesman force you into buying what he wants you too (and i would reccomend going away and thinking about anything you're about to put 18 months of your money into, inlcuding reading reviews, before shaking hands) :D I couldn't agree more :D I tend to check things out for quite sometime before parting with my hard-earned!! :angry:
Guest WearTheFoxHat Posted August 28, 2008 Report Posted August 28, 2008 most likely because they cost a fortune :D http://www.euro.dell.com/content/topics/to...&cs=ukdhst1 Dell do a few laptops where the broadband card is built in ... however they are partnered with Vodafone ... but Im sure you could stick in a three or t-mo sim too.
Guest andrewkeith5 Posted August 29, 2008 Report Posted August 29, 2008 http://www.euro.dell.com/content/topics/to...&cs=ukdhst1 Dell do a few laptops where the broadband card is built in ... however they are partnered with Vodafone ... but Im sure you could stick in a three or t-mo sim too. from that page it looks like they want you to sign up to a contract at time of purcahse, which completely eradicates any use of other networks unless you're very good at manipulating the 14-day rule (which would nigh-on be over by the time dell actually deliver)
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