[3GScottishUser]

Visited my local Tesco Extra today and they had a good range of laptops available with an entry level Gateway at £299. Ideal for youngsters with Vista Home Basic. 14.1" TFT Screen, DVD Rewriter, 60GB HDD and 512MB of DDR and Wireless.

The star value was a Fujitsu-Siemens laptop with Vista Home Premium (Includes Media Centre), 15.4 Widescreen TFT, 120GB HDD, 1GB DDR, DVD Rewriter and wireless for..... £349!!

The cost of home computing keeps on falling!!

One can inagine lots of folks will be adding one othe above to their trolly... Clubcard Points too :)

[miffed]

Interestingly enough , I bought this one yesterday for my stepdaughter -- OK so its a refurb , but at £299 I thought it was a bargain !

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/886075

[Ben]

Mmmmm, bargain basement laptops :D I'm not a technology snob, only I am, and argh!

Still, anything that helps get computers into peoples homes, better still laptops for their ease of portability, has to be a good thing.

[miffed]

LOL :D

Here is a good lesson to cure your snobbery Ben , Go out and buy a decent laptop for an imaginary stepdaughter - then , two weeks later , imagine she has stood on it at broken it - Then , take note that the sony Walkman Phone you bought her a few months ago is wrecked , as is the ipod Nano , as is the LCD tv you bought her a little over a year ago
Then listen to her whine that she needs a computer for her college work - followed by the immortal words "Can I just use your laptop ? " :eek::eek::eek:

Your Options
1) Take no action , (bye bye iMac / Macbook ! )
2) Buy her a decent laptop & see if it lasts more than a week
3) Buy her the cheapest laptop you can lay your hands on !

I am sure this scenario would cure your snobbery :D

Seriously though , I remember a couple of years back (about 2004 ? )everyone was jumping up in amazement that Toshiba were selling the UK's first sub £600 notebook - whereas now that sum will buy you a pretty good machine !
Even with Desktops , my first encouter into computers (at least this time around ) was around 2002 - and the general rule of thumb was "Spend a grand" - to get something reasonably decent
Good that things are getting cheaper IMO , as brushed on in my example , Schools are starting to insist that kids do their homework etc on computers - and the sad fact is , not everyone can afford to put up £500+ on something like this , so everyone is a winner ! the "snobs" can now get much more for their money , and the poor can at least get on the ladder

In fact , this is something I have felt for a while - if they can produce a reasonably specced lappy for £300 - then surely they could knock up a LOW specced Desktop for the groundbreaking price of A £99 PC !! can you imagine how many people that would attract that otherwise wouldn't have bothered ? -
Surely they must be able to do it ? Doesn't have to be a performer by any means - simply something that works & runs XP for very little money - I reckon theyd sell like hotcakes

[Hands0n]

Heh :) I'm getting into some of Miffed's territory myself with my younger daughter (17) who is ramping up for college/university after she finishes with school (she was in 6th form last school year). Similarly she is not particularly good at looking after her technology - although nowhere near as bad as Miffed's little darlin :p

This kid has a new SE W880i - a lovely handset - on 18 month contract which started around 4 months back. Already the screen has some light scratches and the front case has a dent in it. My N95 obtained at the same time is mint condition! But she has a tendencey to mash up her handsets within the contract - and so I keep a couple of those LG Uxxxx (unlocked from 3) handsets as a fall-back which she hates.

Her care of her desktop computer is much better, I've not had a single issue with it - a 2nd hand IBM base bought from Bigpockets.co.uk for under £100. That is coupled with a very old NEC 15" TFT and a tatty old Dell keyboard and an obscure brand of mouse. She's had it for over 3 years and it functions fine for her use (some school and an awful lot of MSN betwixt her mates).

Amazingly, her iPod Nano is in fine, if not pristine, condition. I'm impressed.

But now I'm getting the same old "I'll need a laptop for college/university" and I'm in two minds between one of these Tesco cheapies or get her a nice MacBook. We've discussed and she'd love the latter - but can she convince me she'll look after it well enough? The SE 880i handset is a poor indicator.

Kids! Ben you don't know the half of it mate :) There are times I wished that I was not so attuned to technology - it almost makes me weep to recall how her SE W900i ended up just before it got stolen!

[Ben]

Oh shurrup and get her the Macbook, tight fisted meanie! :D

*BrB, just gunna grab a £299 laptop for my family!*

;)

[Hands0n]

I'll probably do just that :) I can't face having to cross half the country twice each quarter to perform the normal routine rebuild of Windows XP/Vista.

[miffed]

I'll keep you informed on my £299 purchase - I am not sure whether to remove Vista and put XP on it though , my experience of Vista at 1GB of Ram was not very has not been pleasant , it seems to "get by" on 2GB
However , when I installed it on the iMac (at 512mb ram at he time )
it automatcally wouldn't run the Aero stuff , which was a blessing in disguise , because it appeared to run BETTER at 512MB with no aero rubbish than it does at 2GB with it - Not that I really tested it , I am strictly going by the activity of the fans TBH
So not sure , Vista or XP - I think I'll start of with XP and see how she gets on , if she complains I'll turn the Aero stuff off - if she still complains , then I'll chuck XP on it :)

[miffed]

Well , at risk of sounding like Craig David

Got my laptop Monday
Wouldn't boot up & noticed a dead pixel Tuesday
So took it back for a refund Wednesday ,
Bought a Tesco laptop (the £349 one) Thursday
I chilled on friday

Not sure I'll be bothering with PC World refurbs in the future :mad:

The Tesco one is pretty good though ! (gateway , not Fujitsu siemans though) - lovely screen - I am quite impressed so far

[Hands0n]

Not sure I'll be bothering with PC World refurbs in the future :mad:

Good man. Consider yourself all learned up now :)


PC World, pfffffft !

[miffed]

Was just in PC World Canterbury , they are offering a (New) Packard bell (Dual Core , 512mb , 80gb ,Vista premium) laptop for

...... £264.99 !!

Almost picked one - then thought better of it as I don't really need it

But surely -for kids or light office work - this is truly a bargain !

[Hands0n]

I'm not so sure mate - to use Vista (I'm assuming Home Basic) the £264.99 laptop is going to need at least a 512MB upgrade to 1GB for around £20 - and a better upgrade would be a 1GB addition (total 1.5GB) for around £30 from Crucial.

I've seen Vista Home Basic running like a right old dog on a 1GB laptop - Vista seems to chew up almost 700MB of RAM just for itself! Never mind what M$ says on the tin.

[miffed]

Oh , it goes without saying.... I'd have pulled Vista off and put XP on it

....Or looked on crucial's site for a quick Ram upgrade

...Probably the former

[solo12002]

" Vista" I have to say i agree its over rated. To many probles with drivers for a start and have you seen the amount of patches issued to date its OTT