£300 laptop for Niece

Iamnobody

Any ideas?

I'm a bit out the loop tbh with a lot of technology.

She's 10 so will be used for school work and the like.

I'm thinking spec should be i5, 4gb?

Thanks in advance.

Iamnobody

A quick Google offers this:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-g50-70-15-6-laptop-red-10030396-pdt.html#cat-0

i3 but should be more than adequate.

mike_l

If someone tries to sell you a HP, slap them hard, very very hard.

mudslide73

Dell Outlet Store - stock changes hourly so keep an eye on it for the best bargains.

EricTheWeary

Have you looked at chromebooks? My son used one for college, isn't necessarily the best for some things but for actually doing school/ college work they should cover most things and they are light and small and cheap.
Suprised she has not got a tablet, they are very common in primary schools now - although not really the best thing for typing on.

Axe_meister

Try I'd possible to go with 8GB Ram. I'm finding modern OS's are much quicker even if you are not using more than 4GB, as they cache a lot more stuff up front. An upgrade transformed my sons laptop.

Iamnobody

Cheers fellas she has a tablet but needs a computer ideally.

robinbowes

I just went through the "laptop for my kids" thing this Christmas - three of 'em.

After much deliberation, I decided that it was worth spending a bit more and decided on s/h mid-2012 13" MacBook Pros. These are i5 processors and I upgraded RAM to 8GB (if not 8GB already), replaced the HDDs with Samsung 840 EVO 256GB SSDs, and did a fresh install of Yosemite.

I figure these will perform better and last much longer than any plasticky £300-Windows laptop.

R.

darcym

buy the HP Steam 11 - under £200 and perfect for a "first laptop"

Iamnobody

Funnily enough @darcym my niece emailed a link to the Stream 14 today and asked if it was ok.

But I checked with her Mum and they want a DVD player built in so its looking like a full spec laptop rather than a stream or chrome book as @erictheweary suggested.

Re the apple suggestion @robinbowes - I think they use windows computers at school so she's looking for the same format.

darcym

you can buy a DVD drive for £!2 external USB - you'll find this makes it much lighter and more usable than carrying around a component built into the laptop that you will only use once a blue moon, certainly worth a second look at devices without dvd drives.

ToneControl

I bought this for £320 from Currys last month
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/asus-x555la-15-6-laptop-grey-10030381-pdt.html

works very well, and I assume it will be £320 again in a few weeks after Christmas money has been spent