Quick Budget Laptop Advice

[Mit321]

Need to order a budget (<£350) laptop for my mum as her current one is broken. Will be travelling back on Monday so need to put in the order ASAP so its there when I'm home to help her set it up.

Currently it seems like this is the one to go with:

http://www.ebuyer.com/395550-acer-as...FUfMtAodMRIALg

But on HUKD right now there is a special deal on this laptop:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_650_1274466.html

So £329 Acer Aspire E1 with 1 Year Warranty compared vs £250 (after cash-back) HP 650 with 1 year warranty (cheap £50 upgradeable warranty).

I'm thinking the Aspire E1 would be best choice, though is it worth £80 more?

Thanks

[Shamble]

Assuming she isn't running any intensive applications, the spec is not going to be the key issue since both will perform well for web, email, etc.

The Rescuecom reliability report would seem to indicate a HP laptop will be more reliable in the long term.

http://www.rescuecom.com/news-press-...port-2013.aspx

When family and friends purchase Acer machines they don't seem to live as long as their HP counterparts. I may stand corrected by other users, but hope this helps towards your decision.

[Mit321]

Wow thanks for the quick reply. Very informative but now leaving me with a bit of a dilemma. Maybe it would be better to go with the HP and get the £50 extended warranty and hope the £100 cashback comes through?

HP (slightly worse spec) 3 year warranty (£300) vs Acer (better spec but worse reliability) and 1 year warranty (£350). Swaying more towards the 650 now.

Any other comment from anyone?

[Shamble]

In your position, I would take the HP with the extended warranty. A cynical yet probably correct view of hardware manufacturers is that they build their machines to degrade so you consider purchasing a newer model. As an example, this theory seems to be especially true for Apple. If an iPhone looks knackered after a year, you are more likely to consider buying the latest model than if it still was in full working order.

Furthermore, considering the fact that laptops can be notoriously difficult to service and source parts for, I think that you would get your money's worth out of the 3 year warranty since it means if the machine failed past the manufacturer's "fail by" date, it would be repaired or replaced rather than having to invest in a new purchase.

[smargh]

HP currently has 12% cashback online via quidco. Apparently it expires "in a day", though.

Personally, I'd look at HP ProBooks on ebay, but only those ending with "b" ( == business) and which have mouse buttons separate from the trackpad. The one-peice trackpads really p*ss me off.

Or the EliteBook range.

[Flibb]

Also looking at cheapish laptops, have started a new thread.