Buying a laptop from the high street

[TooNice]

I am helping a friend with a laptop purchase with a budget £400. Online, I have seen a couple of very decent deal (i3 with mid-range GFX card), but one of the requirement is that it *has* to be purchasable in-store. I am pretty underwhelmed by the options I've seen, it's like everything is at least £100 more expensive than online. But assuming that I have no other options, can anyone suggest a decent deal? So far, it seems that a modestly specified i3 is all I can expect at the very best. Thanks.

[pp05]

I agree.

i3 is the max you will get for that kind of money. Is this for personal or business? It might be worth looking at AMD systems if they plan on using it at a desk powered by mains.

[TooNice]

Personal. Dixons does some refurb laptops, but I am not sure how reliable they are. Personally, I would rather go Dell Outlet, but it's not an option.

[Betty_Swallocks]

If I'm buying for myself I'd generally buy online but for people with less experience buying from a local shop holds many advantages not least of which is the convenience if the thing goes wrong.

If you need to send something back to an online retailer there's all the hassle of obtaining an RMA, waiting in for a courier or packing it up and taking it to the post office, then waiting for days to find out if they've found the fault.

Buying from Currys or PC World all you do is go in and slap it down on the counter saying something like "Oi Abdul, this is buggered. Get it fixed." Then it's their problem and you have a real person to follow things up with not an anonymous email address.

Yes, you may pay a bit more for it but at the end of the day if I help a non pc experienced person buy something online I always end up as their first port of support call. If they've got it from a high street retailer I just tell them to take it back.