Evening techy people!

I've been tasked with finding a replacement laptop for a family member... Mmm, I like spending other peoples money...

I just thought I'd ask for a bit of advise if possible:

The original was a 4 yr old HP zd8000 that has bit the dust after being dropped. The insurance is paying out in vouchers to be used at PC World or a related store.

I'm looking for something with a good quality 17" widescreen for watching DVD's. Unless someone can dimiss my concerns I'd prefer to avoid Dell and Acer. I'm not convinced if its worth spending exactly £699 or whether they'd be able to get something on offer, for less, but then make the difference up in additional items - I'm not sure if thats allowed.

Any information appreciated.

Thanks, Luke.

Unless they are intense gamers you dont need to spend anywhere near £700 for a laptop, if all they want is to watch DVD's and browse the internet. Could get one to match their needs for £400 easily. What are your concerns about Dell and ACER, im sure they are completely unfounded and based on rumour. I build my own desktops, but for laptops i buy Dell, they can be bought incredibly cheaply brand new, they are good spec and i have had no major problems. The one problem i did have was when a DVD drive started getting quite noisy, one call to the customer services line and they sent me a new DVD drive which arrived the next day. Great customer service and i doubt you'd need to use it anyway. My Dells have been brilliant, and ACER are equally good, my mum is on her 2nd, and bearing in mind for yourself that ACER's crystalbrite screens are terrific for the money. So dont let the sales people woo you, you categorically do not need to spend all that money, you would be wasting it.

The vouchers you get will most likely be standard DSG group gift vouchers. As snowrock has said, you dont need to spend £700 on a laptop to play just DVD's as spending that will be overkill. PCWorld have a decent Acer for less than £400 that will do the job just fine.

Ignore the sales oik who will try their utmost to sell you an extended warranty which costs as much as a laptop.

PCWorld have a decent Acer for less than £400 that will do the job just fine.

If it's the acer my neighbour picked up in there for about £379 iirc it's a decent laptop ....Dual core and 3 gb mem. At that price it's steal :thumbup:

Im remember when i used to work at Comet, people would come in looking for a computer so their daughter could browse the internet and do the odd word document, they would either convince themselves or be convinced that they needed the most all singing all dancing PC possible. It used to kill me, probably why i was a terrible salesman lol

I agree about ignoring the extended warranty etc, the salesman will try his upmost to give you it due to his extra commission. But if you have half decent contents insurance that will provide greater cover anyway.

Also if buying from PC World etc be aware of their online-collect in store deals, could save a little there. Also PC World have a new price match policy which is far more comprehensive, i believe mannyo linked to it in another thread. So if you decide which one you want, have a look on a few other websites and you may well save a few pennies that way too.

Have a look here

View our range of Value Laptops, Gaming Laptops and Cheap Laptops @ Novatech

I think the OP is tied into pcworld, or DSG group due to being DSG vouchers.

Morning!

Thanks for the replies so far.

I've had a Dell at work that overheated and I did some reading round and discovered that it was allegdly fairly common. Granted this was about 2 yrs ago and things may have improved or it was limited to a certain product line.

We have an Acer at home and it messed up and Acer refused to play ball even though it was only out of warranty by a few days. Ok, a warranty needs a cut off date but I though it was a bit tight. Apart from that I thought it was a bit rubbish that it broke in the first place! On the plus side that was a £400 quid laptop with a nice screen... only 14.1" though.

I wasn't sure if we'd be forced to spend the whole amount on one laptop you see, otherwise I'd recommend spending less. We won't get change from the vouchers so getting a printer or some other equipment would be handy.

Mind you the original HP was expensive! I guess my real question should be if you had to spend the full amount, what would you get?

I think the OP is tied into pcworld, or DSG group due to being DSG vouchers.

Yeah, thats what I expect...

I think the OP is tied into pcworld, or DSG group due to being DSG vouchers.

I know, what i meant is with the new price promise he could find a laptop they stock cheaper elsewhere and save some money.

If you have to spend all the vouchers get a £400 laptop and get a nice 26" HD tv with the £300 left, or surround sound or something as such.

Or spend them on a good laptop and an additional screen

dual view

This one seems nice

and one of these

I want the LG2252TQ but its way cheaper at Dabs than PCW

It depends if you have to spend it all on one item or can split it.

Theres a Sony one for exactly 699

but there is a Toshiba for 649 and a Blu-Ray Acer and a HP for 600

But the OP said all they use it for is watching DVD's so dual screens will be useless, i use more than one monitor, but i cant imagine a casual user doing so. And whats the point wasting the money on specification that will be unused?

But the OP said all they use it for is watching DVD's so dual screens will be useless...

To be slightly pedantic thats not exactly what I said... ...but I agree that dual screening isn't needed.

We've been to Currys and they weren't very helpful. PC World said they can split the vouchers over a laptop and something else. So we've set a budget now of about £500 and a 15.4" screen is ok. PC World also said they would price match which is a bonus!

A HP Pavillion DV6920ea for £550 caught their eye with 3Gb of RAM, 250Gb HD and Blu-ray too. They've just bought a 40" tv too so the HDMI is useful to hook up the laptop for filmage.

Avoid the Acer.

Sorry, but we won't use them at work because of massive unreliability. After a stand up row with a member of staff who argued it was cheaper than our preferred HP option (£300 vs £340), they insisted the Acer was bought.

One week later, they're crawling back - it won't even power on. Two weeks we've been argueing with the supplier.........no joy. I pity the home user that has to go through Acer's warranty department independently.

Does it have to be 17"? Downgrade your viewing size, more options available.

I use an Acer an its proved ok so far

Maybe your colleague bought a Friday afternoon model?