Spec me a <£350 laptop

[Admiral Huddy]

I would like a semi decent laptop for web browsing and office tasks. I would also like to install W7 too so OS isn't paramount.

I missed a decent Dell deal the other day; T4200, 3Gb, 160GB HD, 15.6 WXGA for 349.

However, I found this in Tesco:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-3481.aspx

I can get 10% off this so make this quite a cheap option albeit the spec are less.

Is this a decent deal or could I get better.

[Davey_Pitch]

I'd completely recommend Acer for laptops, I've had mine for about 2 years now and it's been rock solid despite the fact it gets really heavy usage each day as I take it to work with me (I'm posting from it now). Can't recommend them enough :)

[Admiral Huddy]

What about that processor Davey? Will the T3400 be ok?

[Davey_Pitch]

If you're just doing basic web browsing and office work then it will be more than adequate. The 3GB ram will make sure everything runs nice and smoothly as well. I've got a T5500 (which is 1.66Ghz) and only 2GB ram and on Vista Ultimate it's lovely and smooth for browsing and office applications :)

[Admiral Huddy]

Cool - think I might go for that £314 :)

[Davey_Pitch]

Don't forget to use Quidco on it for an extra 3% cashback :)

[divine]

Check out Dell's small business store, specifically the Vostro range, they're usually very hard to beat for the money. If you can find a better spec elsewhere then it's almost certainly a very good deal.

[Aboobie]

I too like acer laptops but be aware the battery will be completely dead in a year or so. It's happened to this one, my last one and my mother-in-laws. It's probably quite common but still a little annoying when I haven't realised my daughter's pulled the power cable out as it really doesn't give me much warning before dying.

[Davey_Pitch]

My laptop's battery is still going strong after 2 years, gives about 90 minutes before dying, which considering the laptop is a powerful one is good enough for me :)

[Mark]

As I've said before, and I'll say again - don't leave the battery in the laptop if you don't need to. It kills them. I have five-year-old laptop batteries still working by following this rule (admittedly they only last about 1/3rd as long as they used to).

[Wossi]

I've had my Acer laptop for a few years now and it's still going strong, hell I spilt a cup of coke on it the other day and it still works.

[SidewinderINC]

As I've said before, and I'll say again - don't leave the battery in the laptop if you don't need to. It kills them. I have five-year-old laptop batteries still working by following this rule (admittedly they only last about 1/3rd as long as they used to).

All good and well until something knocks the plug, it comes out and you lose everything that you were working on.

Fantastic.

[Admiral Huddy]

Ok I bought the Acer in the end from Tecso's haha plus I got 10% off .. Nice laptop to be honest and my bargain of the year me thinks :)

I've loaded W7 but only 32bit version. The 64 bit just wouldn't go past the decompression stage of the install.. Weird.. Couldn't be arsed to instigate this..

#strokes lappy#

[LeperousDust]

I keep seeing battery talk all the time and repeat myself over and over again, but now days i just link to this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_ion#Guidelines_for_prolonging_Li-ion_battery_life)

In short, used or not they all die, so you might as well get your use out of them whilst they're new. To prolong them try and keep them as cool as possible, ie don't use your hot laptop on the bed and smoother the battery. If you really totally insist on not using them for some reason best way to store them is at about half charge and in the fridge. But they are essentially a consumable item and you might as well get your use out of them and if you really need them again in 2/3 years buy a cheap Chinese knock off as they're all pretty much the same things using the same technology.