Laptop & Mobile Internet

[Allen]

So, have a family member who wants a new laptop along with mobile internet access. Budget of around £7-800 which is probably more than enough. Needs it for general PC/internet/email/Office usage, no gaming/editing.

So the first thing I did, thinking I know enough about hardware to be able to spec a good quality laptop, was to look into mobile broadband and that is mainly where my question comes in. What service is reliable?

The stuff they quote is easy to interpret, price, download speeds, usage allowance etc... but what they can't put into figures is reliability. Having never user one of these dongles, and hearing bad stories about them working in IT, what is your take on them, and who of the usual suspects are probably the best? Speed is not an issue (although the faster the better for easy surfing) and allowance will only need to be about 3-5GB per month I would've thought.

Also, what are your takes on contracted mobile internet with free laptops? Most of them seem reasonable, but are they worth it?

TIA!

[Allen]

Am thinking O2 for the dongle as they have a pay as you go one where you pay £2 for a days access up to 200MB, which unless their watching videos on Youtube should be plenty. That way there's no £15 a month if they don't use it a lot.

Also, for a laptop, I was thinking of the Acer Aspire 5741, decent name brand, nice spec for basic usage at a reasonable price.

Anyone got any comments about these?