Notebook Recommendation

[Premgenius]

My nephew is to be visited by Santa this year and a notebook is the gift he is hoping for and I've been given the task to find him one:

1. ?300-?450 budget

2. Main usage internet, music and office applications

I've looked at Dell, Acer, Toshiba and Packard Bell, was thinking of a Intel Dual-Core CPU with minimum 2GB RAM. Please recommend a good notebook model.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I have a Dell Mini 10V and love it - but am looking at moving to one of these:

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/news/15806...e-latitude.html

Stick 2gig of ram in it, Windows 7, it will be amazing. Same spec as my 10v (but with touchscreen and rubberised outer), which on 1gb already flies!

[HyBry]

Does he intend to do any gaming other than flash games?

I would like to suggest ASUS. I am using ASUS now myself and like the quality of the machine.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169123/show_product_overview#

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_K50IN-...32C/version.asp

if you need something more powerful for gaming, I would suggest looking into Dell Studio 1555 from dell outlet.

you can get it with ATI HD 4570+C2D+4GB ram for about ?420(it is certified refurbished though)

[philcruicks]

If he is just wanting internet, music and office applications, I'd recommend a netbook rather than a notebook, much better battery life and still pretty speedy, I'd recommend the Samsung N510

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_N51...2UK/version.asp

Its got the newer Atom processor the 1.66GHz and the nVidia Ion graphics, another nice feature is an HDMI port and VGA, so if there's any spare money you could get a external display if he wants to watch movies on something bigger. (although it already has a bigger screen than a lot of netbooks at 11.6 inches).

I've got 1 of these and its fantastic, 7h battery with WiFi on and screen on a middle brightness, up to 9h if you turn WiFI off and screen on low. can happily play movies and BBC iPlayer.

of cause no CD drive being a netbook, but u can always get an external drive or share the cd drive of another pc in your house for installing things like office, (though you can i believe download a version from the Microsoft site as they have realized people with netbooks have no cd drives.

With any of these you'd need a RAM upgrade to 2GB to get full potential out of it.

If you want a 15" laptop then I'd say a dell inspiron, (the studios are a bit overpriced compared to the inspirons (though the 1 HyBry suggested was probably cheaper due to being refurbished).

[HyBry]

If you want a 15" laptop then I'd say a dell inspiron, (the studios are a bit overpriced compared to the inspirons (though the 1 HyBry suggested was probably cheaper due to being refurbished).

That is not entirely true. Yes, they have cheaper (worse) models, but they are not cheaper when compared to same. First featured Dual Core Inspiron is at ?429 which is the same as very basic Studio and has the same specs.

But I agree on netbooks and battery life (unless the it is gonna stay on desk all the time in which case it is irelevant). Having used a 9" EeePC one briefly I would say 11 or 12" is the min I would ever go for though.