Hi,

 

Can anyone suggest a laptop for under £250 which I use VCDS with?

 

Needs to have good battery life and thats about it (apart from the basics like internet and solitaire/freecell for the mum)

 

Cheers
 

Tom

Does it have to be new? You could probably grab something off of GumTree or the likes to just use for that sort of thing...

 

Come to think of it I've probably got something lying around at home - are you going to the next hut meet Tom?

I use a netbook. Much more portable for this sort of thing.

Would a cheap windows tablet do the trick? Plenty of them around for under £50 from Ebay.

 

Might need a  -

 

Plenty to choose from;

 

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/windows-laptops/laptops/laptops/315_3226_30328_xx_ba00010671-bv00308565/1_20/price-asc/xx-criteria.html

 

Those Asus ones look good to me for £159.99. Or there's an Acer further down £189.99 with a 13" screen.

Some good bargains to be had now & again at svp.Co.uk. Also avforums can be good for a second hand bargain.

I use my old EEPC 901, as many diagnostic programs want Windows and wont work with Android.

 

They havent been sold new for a number of years, but replacement battery packs are still available, and with a new pack, they are good for about 8-10 hours of use; even my ancient one still manages 5-6 hours.

 

(8.1" screen, 1.6GHz cpu).

If just for VCDS you could likely find something on ebay for £50 to do the job. 

Aldi is doing a 11" Win10 notebook tomorrow for £150. 3yr warranty.

 

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thur-27-aug/product-detail/ps/p/medion-akoya-s2218-notebook-116/

 

http://aldi.medion.com/md99599/uk/?refPage=aldi

 

No rocket ship but should do everything you need and the warranty is handy.

 

No touch screen and only 32Gb drive but you'll get 10Gb free from MS Onedrive and it takes SD memory cards (the norm would be up to 128Gb)

That's pretty cool deal.

 

I'll stick with my old Packard Bell for now.  Battery life is still reasonable, and having just put a 2gig chip in it, it's going OK.  (still on windows 7 starter) 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-X205TA-11-6-Inch-Notebook-Black/dp/B00R6BRR2A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440637677&sr=8-1&keywords=netbook

 

If you miss the aldi deal then this is much of muchness as aspman's suggestion, although this is £9 more expensive. Same processor, amount of RAM, memory etc.

Does everyone use a second laptop for vcds? Is there a reason for it, other than portability and incase it gets knocked?

This would be my main computer :-)

 

Just wouldn't use it for much else apart from vcds and using the internet.

Does everyone use a second laptop for vcds? Is there a reason for it, other than portability and incase it gets knocked?

 

It's just a tool. laptop is small and portable so works better in a car, big screen big keyboard desktop work better for typing and gaming. And yeah because there is probably a decent chance it would get dropped or knocked over it makes sense not to use an expensive machine.

 

A WEE like GG suggested would probably have been ideal but with half decent cheap machines like the Aldi and Asus machines above they probably make a better choice.

Edited 27 August, 201510 yr by Aspman

It's just a tool. laptop is small and portable so works better in a car, big screen big keyboard desktop work better for typing and gaming. And yeah because there is probably a decent chance it would get dropped or knocked over it makes sense not to use an expensive machine.

A WEE like GG suggested would probably have been ideal but with half decent cheap machines like the Aldi and Asus machines above they probably make a better choice.

Yeah i know the difference between a desktop and a lap top mate (: . I meant like, if you were only doing your own car, maybe a few others and youve already got a decent expensive laptop, theres no reason why you wouldnt use that?

It is compatible with mac isnt it? (:

Sometimes it's a good idea to keep your work and home stuff separate.  i.e. if you'd be in deep doodoo if one got knicked. Or a lot of people just have some older kit lying around that might handle the VCDS but not a lot more.

 

For yourself if you don't have one already then it makes sense to pay a little more to get something that'll serve all your needs. but for the basics those £150 laptops would work fine.

Use what a few people use in the mechanic industry.
 

Panasonic Toughbook Cf Series with Windows XP - Don't need anything more than that and with it being XP everything is compatible!

 

Added Link:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wireless-Panasonic-Toughbook-Cf-19-Laptop-Windows-Xp-Pro-Fully-Rugged-Digitiser-/361348467342?hash=item54220c0a8e

As an example.

 

Edited 27 August, 201510 yr by DeanVRS20VT

Wouldn't that be fairly open to security vulnerabilities considering Microsoft dropped support for XP a while ago (unless you're only ever going to use it offline)? Also it seems like a fairly old OS to buy into at this stage.

Wouldn't that be fairly open to security vulnerabilities considering Microsoft dropped support for XP a while ago (unless you're only ever going to use it offline)? Also it seems like a fairly old OS to buy into at this stage.

And you'd probably have to beef up the springs on your car

I use a netbook. They are a little over £100 and you can keep it in a glove compartment

Wouldn't that be fairly open to security vulnerabilities considering Microsoft dropped support for XP a while ago (unless you're only ever going to use it offline)? Also it seems like a fairly old OS to buy into at this stage.

 

If it was used for VCDS only and never saw the internet it would be totally fine.

 

But as as a general purpose machine yeah it'd probably get nailed fairly quickly.

Wouldn't that be fairly open to security vulnerabilities considering Microsoft dropped support for XP a while ago (unless you're only ever going to use it offline)? Also it seems like a fairly old OS to buy into at this stage.

 

Do the POS registry hack and get free M$ security updates until 2020.

Use what a few people use in the mechanic industry.

Panasonic Toughbook Cf Series with Windows XP - Don't need anything more than that and with it being XP everything is compatible!

Added Link:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wireless-Panasonic-Toughbook-Cf-19-Laptop-Windows-Xp-Pro-Fully-Rugged-Digitiser-/361348467342?hash=item54220c0a8e

As an example.

British gas used to give those to the salesman.

Slow has heck, but did the job.

Great for basic jobs, very basic lol.

It's what vag dealers use as well . Also ambulance service.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk