Purchasing a new laptop? : Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:30 pm  

Looking at buying a new laptop, and was seriously tempted at getting a MacBook Air. But for almost a thousand pound that's the stumbling point for me as I only use my current laptop for internet browsing. Yes I know a lot of people will comment as say MacBooks aren't that good anyways, but I do like my Apple products.
Now I don't know a lot about the specs of laptops and what is best as I'll only use it for browsing. Is more RAM better or do I need memory? What are the better models I should be looking at and what other specs etc do I need to consider?

My current laptop what I've had for a few years and has served me well is a Packard Bell EasyNote 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, AMD Athlon.

Looking at spending I'd say £300.

Any help appreciated.

[TimperleySaint]

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:50 am  

Is a (decent screen size) tablet not a better option then, if just using it for internet browsing and using the apps an iPad would be able to offer?

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Fri Sep 12, 2014 9:28 am  

Mike Oxlong wrote:

Is a (decent screen size) tablet not a better option then, if just using it for internet browsing and using the apps an iPad would be able to offer?

Good point and I've already got an Ipad Mini. I just like to have a laptop also as I use the iPad when travelling etc.
I had a look last night on PC world and a Asus x200MA notebook. Only an 11 inch screen and only 2GB of memory. But should do me fine I hope?

[TimperleySaint]

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Fri Sep 12, 2014 10:55 am  

I have a laptop, and other than browsing the internet and playing Football Manager, I don't use it for anything else really - so looking at switching to a decent tablet when funds allow, maybe an iPad or a Surface.

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:16 am  

Mike Oxlong wrote:

Surface.

Be wary, a heck of a lot of apps/software won't run on the Surface, I bought one, can't use Citrix on it, Sky Go doesn't run on it, took it back and, fortunately, got a full refund.

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:44 am  

If the main usage is 'Browsing' and you have ready access to t'interwb, then Chromebook is an option. You'll get change from £200 as well if you shop well

I use mine nearly all the time at home now. It's the future!!

...and I think my Samsung Chromebook is also lighter than Macbook Air !!

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:05 pm  

I'm looking to purchase the Asus Transformer Book T100. A cross between a tablet and laptop. Like the above, I would use it generally to browse the internet and use it as an entertainment tool rather than work. But it does come with Windows 8.1 and MS Office pre-installed and currently goes for less than £300. To me it seems too good to be true, and the reviews tend to averge out at 4/5.

I'm looking to purchase the Asus Transformer Book T100. A cross between a tablet and laptop. Like the above, I would use it generally to browse the internet and use it as an entertainment tool rather than work. But it does come with Windows 8.1 and MS Office pre-installed and currently goes for less than £300. To me it seems too good to be true, and the reviews tend to averge out at 4/5.

Re: Purchasing a new laptop? : Sat Dec 06, 2014 7:41 pm  

We bought a 14" HP Stream last week at £229 after a long hard think about why we needed it which involved me looking at my XP machine and working out which of the desktop icons I had clicked in the last six months and whether or not I actually need a hard drive at all, conclusion was that I only use the web site design software on it and when I realised that my web site hosts offered a "cloud" design package then that was the mind made up.

The Stream is used by the wife every day for banking and online shopping and general browsing, she (being an impatient woman) wants "instant on" and hates the length of time the old XP machine takes to boot up, for media playing we have an external drive that we can use anyway and I have no intention of throwing the XP away yet.

So for the money its a perfect solution, a stripped down laptop designed to do exactly what we want to use it for and nothing more.

Ask yourself some serious questions first though because there is no means of upgrading it.