Laptop questions

[Kimo]

Right I am planning on getting a laptop early in the New Year and just really want advice with regards to where to buy / warranty. I have searched back over the forums a bit and noted some of the advice already given and in particular was interested by Agent saying he found Pc-world to be the most competitive to buy from. I would tend to agree, and I am inclined to buy from there due to the better value for money than can be found with Dell, Evesham etc. The only question I have really is how reliable are laptops. Pc-world have the standard one year’s manufacturer warranty and I want to know if it's enough. I'm not paying out £300 for 3 years extended warranty because that's a complete rip-off when the laptop itself costs around £900. PC's are easy, if something goes wrong it's fairly easy with the knowledge to fix with laptops I'm sure it's not so easy. I like to think I have the knowledge to replace most parts of my pc should any of them fail, but with a laptop I wouldn't have a clue.

To sum up what I am asking is what experience have people had with laptops, what's their average life cycle and are parts easy to find and replace should anything go wrong outside of warranty.

Cheers guys

[da_ging]

dells have 3 year warranty (afaik) and are easy to get spares for

acer's also have 3 year warranty
[Edit] meant Asus, although that seems to only be 2yr now

a 3 year warranty is probably a good idea as if it does go wrong it will save a lot of hassle and money

[Kimo]

I was looking at Acer on Dabs earlier. Some models are shown as 2 years warranty and some as 1. Can't seem to find any as 3 although that could just be Dabs usual poor product descriptions, and a quick look through Acer's site didn't find much either. Dell do have 3 year warranty, but I have heard very mixed reviews about their laptops, especially ergonomics are support wise so I'm reluctant to go with them. Plus the fact that there is a lot more available elsewhere for less.

[nichomach]

Look, for value for money, and for a 3 year warranty, go to Dell, but don't use the main store, go to the Dell Outlet http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/de...=dfo&l=en&c=uk. This section features new machines built for customers who then, say, cancel the order, or where the spec was wrongly assembled for the customer. Look for the Latitude range, as these come with 3 year warranties anyway (plus if something does go wrong you're talking to corporate support who actually know stuff). The Inspiron range are good little machines but only have 1 year's warranty as standard. At the moment, they've got X300 ultralights starting at around £680 ex VAT. Ergonomically, nothing wrong with Dell machines - they're not the prettiest, but that's all.