What laptop for around £400?

[SX Sam]

My Mum's Dell laptop has died a sad death after around 5 years, so I have told her I will buy her new one, being the loving son I am

She uses it mainly for web browsing, emailing and watching iPlayer.

The quicker the better would be good and something that is reliable.

Would appriciate some advice!

Was looking at this: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Packa...11/version.asp

And this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008EJGJK...SIN=B008EJGJKO

Cheers.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

I got a really nice Samsung with 8Gb of memory and a fast card for £480 from Currys about 3 months ago but they don't seem to do it any more.

[Cluck]

The Samsung is good spec for £400 and I'd buy it over a Crappard Hell laptop any day of the week .

I do wonder, though, whether your mum would be better off with a tablet? I mean, for just web/e-mail/web-video, a tablet should be more than capable and fast enough .

[SX Sam]

I think a tablet is out of the window, I did sugest one, but she isn't interested, stuck in her old ways!

I was waiting for your response Cluck, and if you say that is decent, I will get that!

Is there anything better for similar money? Wouldn't mind going £50 or so over budget?

[Chris B]

There is a decent Samsung laptop going for £375... Core i5, 640GB and 6GB RAM IIRC. Saw it on ebay but worth checking ebuyer, DABS etc to find the best deal.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

This is the closest I can find to the one I bought. The one I got was a really nice white and blue one though with 8Gb of RAM and an Intel i5 chip.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/samsun...56502-pdt.html

[SX Sam]

Ordered the Samsung from Amazon for her.

Will be perfect for her! She didn't want Windows 8, I let her have a play Windows 8 on a laptop I have and she hated it.

Is it worth binning the 500GB drive and putting an SSD in it for her?

[colinjy]

i think hp are still doing a deal on there 4530's for abut £375 with office 2010 think there doing a cash back as well up to £100 for laptop that up to 6 years old. but i think it has to still be working.

[Cluck]

i think hp are still doing a deal on there 4530's for abut £375 with office 2010 think there doing a cash back as well up to £100 for laptop that up to 6 years old. but i think it has to still be working.

I'm not saying it isn't available for that price but I'm highly sceptical. The 4530s was replaced by the 4540s at least 2 months ago and even then there have been no deals from any of my suppliers for the best part of 5 months, so trade prices have remained fairly static. My buying price, for example, on the 4540s from 1st-tier distributors is within a pound or two of the price you've quoted but excluding VAT. For someone to sell them at £375 inc. VAT they have either received the cashback funding directly from HP (as happened with ebuyer this time last year) or they're selling at a big loss (c. £40 a unit). Also, it will only be a trial version of Office included, nobody could afford to sell that laptop with Office included at that price .

SX Sam - a 128GB SSD drive will make a huge difference to performance .

[SX Sam]

Cheers, will stick an SSD in it for her!