Laptop

[Ewan]

My Mum is looking to get a laptop, nothing special, just something she can use cause I hog the computer. She doesn't play games (except mahjong), it would mainly be used for surfing the internet, listening to music, viewing/keeping photos, doing family history stuff and watching DVDs/illegally downloaded TV shows.

We've had a look at the bank holiday offers on dell laptops, and a couple look like they might be a nice option.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs

This one is a nice and cheap one, seems to have everything my Mum will need, although is that screen any good? I'm not up to date on the current laptop screen technology, so don't know what's good these days.

Recently when I have been into a computer shop, I've noticed some laptops have these nice shiny screens (as opposed to the mat finish older screens have) which are brighter, clearer and have a wider viewing angle, if possioble I think it would be good for my Mum to have one with one of these screens. Any ideas what they're called? I think it may be "UltraSharp", can anyone confirm this?

That Dell one is on offer today, I'll let you know if we go for it.

Also check out http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs for the other laptops on today's offer.

Her budget is up to £800 at the very most.

Use www.xe.com for currency converting.

We also need to get a wireless router, any recommendations on a decent/cheap one?

[Ewan]

Looking at this on the Dell site, how does it seem.

Intel® Celeron® M 360(1.40GHz 1MB L2 cache 400MHz FSB)& up to 128MB shared graphics memory
512MB 400MHz DDR2 RAM (2x256)
40GB (5.400rpm) IDE Hard Drive
15.4" Wide Screen UltraSharpTM WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) LCD Panel
Intel® Media Accelerator 900 Graphics Up to 128MB shared system memory
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with Software
For Celeron M Processors - Intel® ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card


For £634

[Ewan]

I've found out that UltraSharp is the shiny type screen.

[geekbot]

IMHO

Apple iBooks are around that 800 price range. Easy to use, good music player, photo album. No worries about you supporting Windows Updates, cleaning viruses, firewalls, etc. Shares easily with Windows machines.
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore/

Dell seems to be the place to get decent & cheap these days.

Other considerations- if your mom is like mine, high res is a bad thing. She wants bigger fonts, bigger windows. Save money with lower res.

HD, you may want a bigger one- especially if she's watching video/has lots of pictures/music. My mom knows nothing about compression and bigger hard drives are cheap (to a point).

Wireless routers, even g routers are cheap. Check amazon or bargain sites like http://dealuniversity.com/. Setting up encryption will probably be a hassle no matter what, I don't know of any that "average computer users" aren't a little intimdated/mysified by. Eyes glaze over when you start with "point a web brower at <url with numbers>".

[Mulkero]

I'd like to own an Apple iBook too. They're neat.

[Ewan]

She got the inspiron 6000

[Rab]

She got the inspiron 6000

a review in a week or two would be nice

[IceStorm]

THIS IS UNRELATED
but i just got an Alienware.. and it kicks ass :wub:

[Dealt]

THIS IS UNRELATED
but i just got an Alienware.. and it kicks ass :wub:

why not just buy a good computer and burn the rest of your money?

[Krusnik]

Alienware has excellent gaming computers. I am considering buying one later on this year.

[Money]

build your own better, and cheaper

[iLDuce]

Didn't think pimps by blood were concerned with penny-pinching.