Hi guys, my niece is getting a new laptop cuz her old one broke and with so many on offer at the moment I'm having a hard time suggesting one to her. Its for work (and invariably crap like MSN, Facebook etc) and really it just needs to be reliable, work smoothly and not be bundled with bucketloads of crap. Price between 500-800 unless you can think of something else? I thought about a mac for her, cuz i think she'd like it and it's pretty much problem free Any suggestions?
I think Vtech have some good colour notebooks which would save you lots of money and would probably be as useful as a mac
A joke just before i get verbally abused for it, HP do some very nice stylish laptops with good specs, such as blu-ray for that price range and decent intel processors, very good altec lansing speakers on them too. As she is a girl though i would recommend a dell as they do some very nice laptop cover designs that look really "pretty"
I wouldn't recommend a mac as they are way too overpriced for what you get. I would recommend something with a 15 inch screen+ that has a good keyboard and that is fairly light. You don't really need dedicated graphics so that will save a lot on the price. www.laptopsdirect.co.uk is a great website and has tonnes of laptops on there. I can't think of something immediately off the top of my head, but another great active forum site dedicated for laptops is www.notebookreview.com they will find you the ideal laptop for you
Has she had any experience with a mac? if she is new to them it may take quite some time for her to get used to it
MacBook is a good option to go, Refurbs are cheaper, and like new. OS X is really easy to get used to, and doesnt suffer any virus's etc, and of course the added cool factor she will have. And its not underpowered for what you get, as the OS uses a lot less resources.
Netbook or Dell laptop tbh. I'd be seriously annoyed if I paid £400-700 and got a 2nd hand, refurbed mac tbh. Dell studio 15's are on a good deal at the minute. Customisable colours, decent hardware. All that a GCSE student needs.
I would definatly go with a mac, simple to use, doesnt crash often at all, fast and reliable, and looks cool.
yeah mac is overpriced think too.. but girls like em- plus the cool factor.. I recently bought a acer one netbook with the 6 cell battery.. the main draw was it was pink- and my girlfriend loves pink.. also got a pink case.. it's pretty nice fits in her purse and if you know how to tweak it out- you'll have to make the text a little bigger (also use windows blinds here), not too much in way of software though- get a xp key was $360 shipped.. looks like the price has gone up quite a bit from last month (around april 10th) weird looks like the guy got busted doing the shady- it's under review.. anyways shipped out fine to me- he didn't other putting it in bubble wrap- was original box with another box around it.. a couple of ace venturas will do that http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOA150-1672-8-9-Inch-Netbook-Processor/dp/B001GENI4E/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Carrying-Aspire-Laugh-Wrist/dp/B001M1BAWS/ref=pd_sim_pc_3
Macs don't crash?? the imacs at uni can't handle two web pages at once and typing in facebook is slower than a typewriter, i can type my message and then wait two minutes for it to appear on screen
If she is prepared to pay the extra, go for a mac, if not try at www.zepto.com. there you get some nice design and get to modify your own labtop, no bundle crap unless you chose it. Just keep away from acer, their support is horrible by what I have experienced. (fx. they didn't have drivers for a labtop they had sold for well over half a year)
when i buy a laptop i buy one from this website has pretty much every new laptop you can think of http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/
I have been impressed with my limited contact with the Dell Studio and Vostro lines. The Vostros aren't the prettiest things around but I have landed on one jumping from a few rungs up on a ladder and it survived! I was very impressed.
How about a netbook for about £250, and spending the remainder on a half-decent desktop, along the lines of Maximum PC's $500 rig, but with a cheaper graphics card? I built a desktop just after Christmas, for my room at school, to host files and CS games, and do some video work (which is why it's a Q6600 and 4670 rather than an E8400 and 4850 or similar ). Q6600, GA-EP-45-DS3R, 4670. Made some extremely tactical buys (i.e. waited for special offers, skimped on the case and graphics card, etc.) but was able to put it together for about £400 in total. And, surprisingly, it plays Crysis pretty well on high. I used an old copy of XP lying around, but the RC of Win 7 could tide you along until the full version is released. 2 Weeks ago I bought an Eee 901, XP edition from Amazon (for £235 it was cheaper than the Linux edition). It is extremely handy, and the battery life on it is excellent, perfect for bringing to lessons. And GCSE Business Studies is much more interesting with the odd flash game, I can assure you ;-) But if a desktop is out of the question, then I'd still go for a small laptop, and Acer are generally good value. How about this one?
I've got a MacBook, lovely bit of kit but it was almost as expensive as my desktop! I strongly recommend them anyway because of one thing which no-one ever seems to consider; standardization. All the MacBooks Apple makes are standardized to a particular set of hardware, so every single thing your niece ever buys that's certified to work with Macs will work. I know it doesn't sound like much but for a student (which I am, although I took my last GCSE half a decade ago) to have something that just works first time is crucial. Plus because of rampant fanboyism Mac have an excellent unofficial support network as well as an official one. On the other hand, a Dell will do it considerably cheaper, though probably not for as long...
Which iMac are they? Even my iMac G3 with a 600Mhz PowerPC CPU can Easily Surf the web while playing music. Macs Do Just Work to be honest, its not a lie, and yes my PC cost a 3rd of my MacBook Pro, and is hugely more powerful, but the MacBook Pro was worth every penny.
They're white iMac G5s i think there's a good dozen in the computer room all hooked up to the uni server and most times i go in there one or more have fans whirring at full throttle and the screen of death asking you to restart them. They seriously can't handle facebook.
