Advice on buying a laptop

[angel21]

What do I look for when buying a laptop to make sure I get a good one?

I want something thats fast and that I can play cd roms. I don't know what size memory I need.

[VHG]

a) Good brand (Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, HP etc)

b) Decide if you want say a 15" screen if you are going to carry it round a lot, or 17" screen if it will be in one place all the time.

c) Good battery life if you are going to be on the road a lot.

d) For Vista get 2Gb of memory.

e) Try to go for Vista Home Premium over Vista Home Basic.

There are other things, but I think they are the main things.

[angel21]

Thanks VHG

[DaisyMae]

There were some very attractive deals in PC World recently, I bought a top of the range HP for less than �500 just after Christmas. Definitely worth a look. But don't get sucked into their free laptop deal, you have to sign up for something that ends up costing more than the laptop anyway.

[trish432]

The Toshiba �309.97 on this site, seems a good deal

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/toshiba_laptop/ cat.asp

[trish432]

Meant to add, if necessary you can easily add more ram quite cheaply. My daughter only has 1gb running vista home premium, and it`s running very well.

[Lukourgos]

I recommend you to have a look at the November 2008 issue of Which Computing Magazine. It compares 12 laptops having tested them for all key aspects such as comfort, how well the keyboard performs and the quality of the screen. For each one they give the dimensions, weight ,screen size,processor, memory, hard drive, webcam, battery life ease of use, versatillity etc. It also gives marks for each one.
You may be able to see a copy at your local library.

[markh1972]

look at the processor number the higher it is the better ive got a toshiba and the processer starts with a number 6

[angel21]

Ok so went over budget and spent �640 with vista home premium, 4gb ram,and microsoft office suite but its pink and looks good

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/pro ductdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1525?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l =en&s=dhs

3rd one along out of the Dell Inspiron 1525's