Notebook advice

I want to buy a cheap laptop for office use, by cheap I mean less than £500 inc VAT. Only requirement is that it have built-in WLAN, but I'd rather it look reasonably professional as well (have seen some monstrosities in this price bracket).

So I guess I'm looking for recommends on manufacturers and chassis; i.e. is it better to have a 14.1" WXGA screen or 15.4"...both around the same price and both are 1280x800 but the 14.1" notebook is physically smaller and more portable (I'll be moving it everyday and not plugging it into a monitor).

What's a respectable laptop at this price then?

the dell inspiron 1300s are a popular budget choice. I think that the notebook is the same size regardless of size of the screen, there is just more plastic around the 14". as to what size you want you could go into PCWorld or somewhere like that and see what you think the screens look like on the different sized notebook. I personally would not like 1200x800 on 15.4": I am using 1400x900 [or something like that] on a 14" screen but I like high pixel densities, it is up to your preference what you want I would advise going to a shop and seeing what you like.

Cripes! I just specced an Inspiron to be comparable to this Acer Aspire:

http://www.savastore.com/products/co...1C8BEAAC2A4BEA

...and it's something like +£220 for 1 gig of RAM, about £700 all in.

I've seen that Aspire in the flesh, someone at work has one and it seems like a front runner ATM. I'm pretty sure the ones with 14.4" screen are physically smaller too (they weigh ~20% less) but I am still undecided what to go for. What sort of notebook has a 1400*900 14" screen? Must be way out of my budget cos 1280*800 is the only resolution I have seen on offer (would have preffered a higher resolution). Oh well think I'll go window shop at PC World :mrgreen:

the 1440*900 is a dell config option that I have seen only on buisiness laptops, dell latitudes, tink pad zseries and the like. Acers can be very cheap and I have a mate who likes his although build isnt that great, as you would expect from a budget laptop, and they have a poor reputation for customer service.

When looking for a laptop I found this site helpfull: http://www.notebookreview.com/

I ended up getting a refurbed dell for £715 that specced up on dells website would have been over £900. I looks unused and is fine. I got it from europc.co.uk the delivery was propt [22 hours from ordering to delivery] look at their dell refurb stock, you could probably get a d520 inside your budget although I haven't looked.

There is also a dell outlet ebay shop that sells cosmeticallaly damed machines at very low prices [as auction typically 50% of the new price] although it depends on them having what you want.

morgancomputers sell refurb toshibas although toshiba have a bad reputation for reliablility on their cheaper machines.

I hope something in that mas of text is of help.