speckytecky Posted September 13, 2013 Posted September 13, 2013 My wife's aged Packard Bll laptop has given up the ghost and she now wants to get something to replace it that's suitable for her needs. Ideally, she wants a handheld with a keyboard and something that's friendly for anyone computer phobic. Low budget! Uses: e-mail, web surfing, probably accessing Sky Drive to take advantage of free Office Programmes as she runs a ballroom dance business and does a bit of Admin for a rowing club. Recommendations would be welcome.
elsiegee40 Posted September 13, 2013 Posted September 13, 2013 I was directed to the Dell Outlet by the guys on here. I don't know if they have anything suitable.
jmak Posted September 13, 2013 Posted September 13, 2013 They've still got some good offers. They have two sites; one for business and the other for consumers. At the minute they've got a Vostro i3 system for £350 inc VAT. Not the cheapest laptop on the market, but not much else at that price comes with a 3 year on site next day warranty!
thesk8rjesus Posted September 13, 2013 Posted September 13, 2013 (edited) What about a chrome book? As most of the things you have said can be web based it should be perfect and at a low price. Edited September 13, 2013 by thesk8rjesus 1
ICTDirect_Dave Posted November 1, 2013 Posted November 1, 2013 Got some lovely refurb i5 laptops. Dell & Lenovo, 12 Months RTB. Drop me a Pm
NotSoFast Posted November 1, 2013 Posted November 1, 2013 +1 for a chromebook. Got my wife one at the weekend (HP11) and we both love it. Instant on and battery's still at 50%. Perfect for web stuff and in her case, accessing the terminal sever at her school.
witch Posted November 1, 2013 Posted November 1, 2013 +1 for @ICTDirect_Dave 's lovely i5 Lenovos. Small, fast and solid -cheap too!! 1
speckytecky Posted November 1, 2013 Author Posted November 1, 2013 Nope, wouldn't have a Lenovo as a gift. Thought I was buying smart for the school when we switched from Fujitsu to Lenovo but after a few bad experiences with them I'm delighted to be back to Fujitsu again now. +1 for @ICTDirect_Dave 's lovely i5 Lenovos. Small, fast and solid -cheap too!!
witch Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 Nope, wouldn't have a Lenovo as a gift. Thought I was buying smart for the school when we switched from Fujitsu to Lenovo but after a few bad experiences with them I'm delighted to be back to Fujitsu again now. That's interesting - you must have been very unlucky. I have been buying them for ages now and never had a problem. My home laptop is one as well. I always had a problem with Fujitsu being flimsy but since they got rid of Siemens they are much better and I have started buying them for one school (who want new)
speckytecky Posted November 2, 2013 Author Posted November 2, 2013 Thanks @witch Two things I don't like about Lenovos - preloaded with masses of bloat ware including and especially their own 'tools' plus American Megatrends MB. I see the latest Fujitsus have them now though as well. Had a few MB problems - perhaps just bad luck. Also warranty support seem to be 'uncooperative' unless their installed OS and tools are on board when giving assistance. Also had an IBM / Lenovo engineer replacing a MB tell me that updates should be carried out using their built in updates tool. On the other hand all the time I have been using Fujitsus never even had to call support once - yet! Plus they are remarkably great value in my opinion.
mac_shinobi Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 (edited) @VeryPC - they do great laptops / computers etc @VeryPC_Colin_M HP maybe ? Edited November 2, 2013 by mac_shinobi
speckytecky Posted November 2, 2013 Author Posted November 2, 2013 Not greatly impressed with HP either! Anyhow, at the moment she has upgraded (if you can call a Blackberry an upgrade) her phone and hops onto our trusty old Dell tower running Win 7 whenever she wants to do anything a bit more serious than the Mobil can handle.
witch Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 Ah -when I buy from ICT-Direct, they put a new OS on so it comes without all the Lenovo carp. Never had to ring Lenovo support - any little niggly problems, Dave has handled for me, little sweetie-pie that he is 1
Devontechie Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 Not greatly impressed with HP either! Anyhow, at the moment she has upgraded (if you can call a Blackberry an upgrade) her phone and hops onto our trusty old Dell tower running Win 7 whenever she wants to do anything a bit more serious than the Mobil can handle. Ive been impressed with some of the Dell PCs lately. HP PCs are good as well (apart from all the crap they come pre-installed with!) Dell don't seem to have much crap pre-installed whoch is good. 1
Dos_Box Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 What is wrong with Lenovos!? They are excellent machines (in general) and so well made that when the time of man on this planet is over and the cockroaches take over they will be blogging on Lenovos! I have to be honest here, we at EduGeek have one of the ICT Direct Lenovo T410 i5's that we have brought as our presenters laptop for conferences and other events and it is very, very well specced and performs great, especially for the price. The Dell Outlet is, unfortunately, a bit bare atm. This is I suspect, down to the fact that they have just flushed the system of their old 3rd gen core processors and have only just launched 4th gen ones and none have been returned yet. 1
mac_shinobi Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 Ah -when I buy from ICT-Direct, they put a new OS on so it comes without all the Lenovo carp. Never had to ring Lenovo support - any little niggly problems, Dave has handled for me, little sweetie-pie that he is Only Lenovo utility that I think is good is the system update ( or system updater as I call it ) which will scan your system as is and find any latest updates for drivers, software, BIOS Updates etc ( and you tick or check the relevant ones that you want to install ThinkVantage System Update 95% of the machines we have where I work are Lenovos ranging from out of warranty T400's to T410's, T420's, T430's and some work station laptops ie W510 and W530's. We did and still have some desktops dotted about which range from M57, M58, M71 and M72's I do miss the warranty's that came with Dell as far as the turn around being faster and the diagnostics seemed to be a lot better, the diagnostic disc that comes with the Lenovos just checks the RAM and Hard drives and thats it so far, not as thorough as the Dell Diagnostics which could test the cpu and a lot of other things. Also the Dell's seemed to be built better with less screws and metal brackets etc and if you could repair one model in a range then the other ones from what I have found seemed to be similar ( maybe just me on this point ). In comparison trying to take apart a T400 , T410 , T420, T430 are different in a number of ways and where screws are, and other things. I am starting to get used to things to do / check / not trying to force things to come apart etc so I suppose repairing Lenovo laptops and Dell laptops ( D620, D630 and E6400 ) vs the Lenovos has taught me quite a lot 1
CyberNerd Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 (edited) I rarely need to take apart a lenovo because ours have been so reliable or have an onsite warranty. But when they are out of warranty they are the easiest to repair because lenovo publish full maintenance manuals. Most vendors don't come close on the amount of detail that lenovo publish. I'd be quite happy to pay a bit more for lenovos for the reasons above (not to mention the all in one system updater) but we usually get them at a really good price. If you buy enough of them they will build them in china to your own spec. Edited November 2, 2013 by CyberNerd 1
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