£500, 13-15" Laptop for word/net/music/hefty PDFs

[SidewinderINC]

Right, my brother is after a new laptop as his old one is pretty damn old!

He won't be doing any intense image processing on it at all, or games.
It'll just be used for his PhD stuff and listening to music.

He says he has a budget of around £500 and he wants a good size screen for viewing PDF's easily as he gets tired eyes using small screens, which puts netbooks out :(

I don't really know laptops, as I'd just buy another mac if it was me :p


Can anyone help me out?

Cheers.

[LeperousDust]

Go grab a dell with whatever he wants, can't beat them on price/performance/service really, can get the most amazing warranty as well if need be sorted for the next 4 years.

If he wants screen space stay away from 13" they don't get any bigger than 1280 x 800. The 15" you can get in just about any res within reason really...