Recommendations Please

Hi all,
Anyone got any recommendations for a new laptop for a university student, Not too big physically, don't need a 17" screen or anything like that, it's going to be used for course work and the student dabbles with a digital camera also. OP to be Windows 7. We have £400 as a budget.
All suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

 

Welcome back. For my part I have always been partial to Toshiba. A little heavy on the installed software but that is easily rectified. I knocked around with my old one for over 4 years dragged it through airports and city streets in a wheeled business case and had no problems at all. When It was time for a new one I went straight for another Toshiba. As it stands the old one is still up and running although the hard drive is just beginning to feel a but iffy. But even there I may be wrong.

Obviously specs will vary from machine to machine and brand to brand but you will always find comparable machines.

 

I'd also look at Dell, never owned one or known anyone that does, Ironic as my wife's cousin works for them but they have a good support network and I can't say that I have ever struggled to find what I want to help anyone with a Dell problem

I'd stay away from Acer or Advent, as my friends and I have a little joke, mention computer, and problem in the same sentence and they with reply Acer or Advent. of course this could be because they are Cheap, and offer good value for a mass produced machine! but then that could be the cause of the problem

 

Advent yes don't touch them, but Acer - take a closer look. They are just as well made as any other high street PC. The only things I have seen go wrong are the hard drives, and some of the early Vista machines were shipped with stupidly low amounts of memory.

 

It all comes down to budget and choice some people hate Intel or AMD and Nvidia or ATI,
Have a look at Packard Bell too as I have NEVER had an issue with any of them, Advent stay well away from as the others have said.
for £400 you have a very big choice

 

Thanks for the valued replys gent's, I will let you know what the final buy is.
I will also probably start a new thread soon as I am researching at present to do a new build PC for my wife

 

That's great, If you want comments on a specific machine before you buy (mainly as to specs) please feel free to post. As you can see there are as many brand favorites as there are replies. I will leave you with this thought.

I worked for Dell in Ireland and probably built over a thousand expensive servers for them. Keep that in mind when you consider manufacturing quality. Say to your self that there are all these servers hanging around Europe, Africa and Asia and they were built by HIM!! As I said, I prefer Toshiba!

 

O.K. the deed has been done,
HP G61-410SA
Celeron T3100 (1.9Ghz)
15.6" Screen
320GB HDD
3mb DDR2
Windows7 home premium and MS office.

£400, a happy student