Windows laptop for 15 year old daughter - recommendations please

[BjornMorg]

Hi there,

I need to get my daughter a new reliable laptop that runs MS Windows for homework, broswing, email, etc.

My family has had Dell and Acer laptops in the past.
The Dell is dead after about two years
The Acer's Battery has failed after two years.

Could I ask the panel; "what are your recommendations?"


P.S. I did search previous threads via Google i.e. "laptop recommendations" site:forums.contractoruk.com approach, but the results weren't too recent/totally relevant

[nomadd]

Hi there,

I need to get my daughter a new reliable laptop that runs MS Windows for homework, broswing, email, etc.

My family has had Dell and Acer laptops in the past.
The Dell is dead after about two years
The Acer's Battery has failed after two years.

Could I ask the panel; "what are your recommendations?"


P.S. I did search previous threads via Google i.e. "laptop recommendations" site:forums.contractoruk.com approach, but the results weren't too recent/totally relevant

Lenovo. Love mine. Six years in and still going strong.

Tip: buy second-hand and save a fortune. Laptops depreciate quicker than executive cars.

[Ticktock]

Lenovo. Love mine. Six years in and still going strong.

Tip: buy second-hand and save a fortune. Laptops depreciate quicker than executive cars.

Personally I hate Lenovos, although my experience is fairly limited to being forced to use their business units by clients. I don't like their looks, keyboard layouts, added software.
I've always been happy with my Dell laptops (Inspirons) - reasonable prices, good range of options, and haven't had them failing on me. I'm undecided on the added software (meant to scan for driver updates), and don't like the fact that I have to use ATI drivers issued by Dell, rather than direct from ATI (switchable graphics from CPU to discrete card), but I'm not sure if this is common to all brands.
I've had a cheap Acer - the keyboard started creaking fairly quickly (I'm a pretty heavy handed typer / basher).

[sasguru]

Personally I hate Lenovos, although my experience is fairly limited to being forced to use their business units by clients. I don't like their looks, keyboard layouts, added software.
I've always been happy with my Dell laptops (Inspirons) - reasonable prices, good range of options, and haven't had them failing on me. I'm undecided on the added software (meant to scan for driver updates), and don't like the fact that I have to use ATI drivers issued by Dell, rather than direct from ATI (switchable graphics from CPU to discrete card), but I'm not sure if this is common to all brands.
I've had a cheap Acer - the keyboard started creaking fairly quickly (I'm a pretty heavy handed typer / basher).

Depends on the Lenovo - I've had my X1 for 2 years and its bloody brilliant.
I bought it particularly because its keyboard is the best I could find on any laptop for everyday heavy duty use (also for its brilliant spec).
I've taken it abroad, dropped it a couple of times, had the sprog drop liquid on it - its as good as new.
It was £1.2 K new but you get what you pay for.

[DS23]

macbook. tough. cool and tough. daughter has had my company castoff for a few years and it takes everything she can throw at it. office for mac is perfectly ok for schoolwork. you can dual boot if you really want windows.

[The Spartan]

My nine year old has a Lenovo Thinkpad and she loves it, I use a HP DV6 and it's been fantastic I've had it for over 2 years and it still runs like a dream.

[Archangel]

I currently have 3 laptops on the go, all running a bit of software I use for my business, bought on price rather than spec.

1) a 6 year old Lenovo thinkpad running xp which has not been switched off for 5 years and is still going strong. It is always plugged in to the mains except overnight when it sleeps. The battery now only last about 30 mins.

2) a 4 year old hp running win7 as above, not switched off for 4 years, new battery put in last year, I bought the battery on ebay for £12 and have had no problems since

3) a 1 year old dell. Inspiron, bought as refurbished from argos outlet on ebay. It was brand new, but the box had been opened. A bargain. It is also running win7 and has been faultless for a year.

I'd buy a 15 inch widescreen of any branded laptop from argos on ebay again, and probably will when the Lenovo dies.

Forgot to add, the two win7 laptops have 4g of memory, the xp only has 512k. I would stick a load of memory in any laptop I buy, or buy one with plenty.

[TestMangler]

Damn, only opened this thread because I thought it was a swap proposal

[Spacecadet]

Mac Book Pro

Get one of those rubberised case things for it then it should keep its resale value if she needs to change it in a couple of years

You don't want the kids at school thinking her dads a permie!

[northernladuk]

Lenovo. Love mine. Six years in and still going strong.

Tip: buy second-hand and save a fortune. Laptops depreciate quicker than executive cars.

^^ This..

I presume she will be going to Uni so will need a new one for that anyway. Get one to last two years and save for a good one to send her to uni with IMO.