Looking to buy a laptop/tablet

[Dan!]

I mostly want it because the shared family laptop is usually being used by my sister to play Sims, and it's slow as hell.

I just want something I can use for an hour or so each night to browse forums/eBay, edit/sort and upload photos (will have to get some decent editting software) and occasionally search Google for the latest celebrity nip slips etc. It won't be used for work or writing docs, PowerPoint or anything like that.

I was hoping to spend around £200, happy to buy second hand.

So what's good to go for or look out for? And would anybody recommend using a tablet for photo editting? I'm thinking it will be pretty poo without the use of a mouse...

I'm now going into the city so I'll make sure I go round a few pc shops and try to learn something.

Thanks.

[cpikey316_]

My old man bought a blackberry playbook for £120 from argos last weekend. They are sold out now though, I was quite impressed by it.

They are reasonably cheap online still.

[Midnightclub]

Nexus 7 mate, probably the best bang for buck tablet available on the market at the moment, shining reviews too.. completely customisable should you want to

[londondan86]

Ive got the sony tablet s which is great, would hapily recommend it but not sure about photo editing as ive never tried.

[Ben]

Knowones mentioned a good old laptop yet! I know nothing about them but I do think that if your using it at home and not carrying it everywhere you might as well have a bigger screen and real buttons?

[Dan!]

Was only tempted by a tablet because they seem very cheap for what you get, but obviously no mouse would probably make editting awkward. I could make do with a touchscreen keyboard though, I won't be doing a lot of typing. I'll make sure I check out any suggestions when I go out....

[tsotd]

tesco has some netbooks from £200 up, mite be worth a look

i got my current laptop 3 years ago for £250 from morrisons, its still going strong....well apart from the battery now only lasting afew hours now.

i use it for general everyday stuff, and loads of music editing for my radio show.

spec (i havent upgraded anything) -

[Check30]

Currys are doing the blackberry tablet for £129 64 gig i think.
Or just get ipad bit more expensive but worth it.
You can get wirless keyboards and stuff for the ipad aswell.

[Dan!]

After looking at some tablets in pc world earlier I don't think they will really cut the mustard with my requirements, they're nice buy they all just feel like big phones, what with apps and touchscreen and no usb ports etc etc. The real eye catcher of the afternoon was the Google chromebooks, one is made by acer and Samsung do a couple aswel. I'd be looking at more like £250-300 but they SEEM really good, does anybody have any first hand experience with them? I'll have a look for some online reviews in a little while. Thanks.

[Toms306]

Don't have experience of them exactly, but having borrowed two Acer laptops (admitedly lower budget ones), one of them currently on a non return basis for mapping and stuff, I really wasn't impressed with Acer at all. Maybe their top end stuff is better but I've never had experience of those so cant say. If it was me, I'd go for a Samsung personally.

[Niall]

Agreed with tom for once. Acer build quality is shocking. You pay slightly more for samsung but at least their stuff is built well

[cpikey316_]

Currys are doing the blackberry tablet for £129 64 gig i think.
Or just get ipad bit more expensive but worth it.
You can get wirless keyboards and stuff for the ipad aswell.

It was currys not argos! Wondered why I couldnt find any!

[Midnightclub]

NEW Acer build quality will be very good, they've just changed their product line up so packard bell will now be the 'low end' machines and the Acer units the 'high end' market

[Dan!]

Any thoughts on the chromebooks Danny? Acer/Samsung aside, just what they are like in general?

[Midnightclub]

I'd say they're very basic for the price but the chromium o/s is still in development so it'll only get better, afaik they've also added offline support for google docs etc.. but if you'll want to do photo editing then a proper laptop would be better over a chromebook IMO

[Ben]

For between 250 and 300 what about something like this -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-Satell...416ae8aae7

One of the first ones I came accross on ebay and looks pretty good to me..

[Niall]

Speaking from experience, you need to get a proper computer.
I got rid of my laptop last year for a ipad just for ease as all i ever did was surf the net and maybe look through the odd photo. Massive regret. you dont realise how much you miss having the full functionality of a computer till its gone.

What ben has linked to looks good. Will be slow but if your not loading it up with all sorts of crap, should be ok. Alternatively you could bin windows, load it up with linux and should be loads faster

[declantg]

Sorry to hijack this thread but nial how do you find your iPad? I think I'm going to buy one come payday but wanna hear a proper review :L

[Ben]

What would you be looking for to know a computer would be fast, its the Ghz figure isn't it? But what kind of number?

[Niall]

Sorry to hijack this thread but nial how do you find your iPad? I think I'm going to buy one come payday but wanna hear a proper review :L

Really really good. Ive used a few tablets and this is the best for web browsing and youve also got the biggest library of apps for other things.
Also really good for media but bear in mind a 16gb with 3g is 500 quid so if you want it for media, might want a NAS

(awaits 4way saying 'oooh my phones the best in the world for anything computing related....buy that!!!!')

[declantg]

NAS? Cheers for the honest review, Think I'm gonna treat myself

[Niall]

What would you be looking for to know a computer would be fast, its the Ghz figure isn't it? But what kind of number?

TBH im not the best person to ask for that as i havent owned a windows computer in years.
I do know that a intel celeron will probably be good for web browsing and maybe a bit of typing. Any more and it will start to struggle. I also know windows 7, like any windows is very power hungry out of the box so would be looking for something at least 2.5ghz dual core

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NAS? Cheers for the honest review, Think I'm gonna treat myself

Network accessed storage (think thats what it stands for. sure someone will confirm)
its basically a external harddrive you can plug into your router so is accessible over your network