Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

That's what I also want. My old HP lap top was mainly a 'back up' in case of trouble with the PC but I've given up looking now as I don't think I'll find anything.

We've updated the PC ('cos it had a 'lock up' problem which no IT service company anywhere seemed able to sort grrrr)

So just hoping the news PC keeps going, it does everything we want it to do.

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

That model may be cheap but it has poor reviews on Amazon and Which gave it a very poor test score of 52%:

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/lapt...ok-x555/review

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

Annie, you sound like me! I get in a right tiz about technology!

I ended up with another Dell inspriron (15, 5000 series) because I loved my old one. Family bought it for me so I don't know how much it was. It's not very heavy.

It doesn't matter what you buy these days, they're never as good as the one before.
Any decent programmes, it seems, to have to be bought separately and Windows 10 is soooo annoying!

I end up firing up my old one sometimes just to write a letter! (if the Sellotape holding it together stays on long enough!)

Why they keep "improving" things and making them worse is beyond me!

I find Dell easier to understand than most, but, that's just because I'm used to it.

I hope you find one to suit you.

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

TessA it sounds like we have been going through the same trauma! I have electronic insulation tape holding one corner of the laptop together

It certainly beats me why they are making things so complicated. Appears much development is geared to the lucrative games market with some machines costing a fortune. It's all about $$$

I do hope you get on well with the Dell. I found this Asus on the site that Swim posted earlier. It seems to have similar spec to the one I have albeit a little smaller plus it has good reviews :

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/-x50...4t/version.asp

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

It does not have an SD card reader which means you will either have to carry around a USB to SD card reader device or the camera USB cable every where you go with the camera and the laptop.

Just how important is it for the laptop to have an SD card reader inbuilt into it?

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

Hi Dodge the SD card slot isn't important to me. I prefer cables and old fashioned file storage to bluetooth and cloud. I just want something that will boot up fast and work well with the net.

The pain in the neck is having to reinstall things like my scanner software and move MS office etc. I already had a major headache last time moving my itunes library although I must admit I hardly use the ipod now. Also reassigning my firewall/antivirus subscription.

The great thing when I got my phone was the built in app that moves everything from one handset to another with one click (both handsets were the same manufacturer). I guess if you use cloud then that works for your documents on a laptop. But you still have to reinstall programmes etc.

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

Oh yes definitely a laptop Tregonsee. I do have a computer desk and big screen but that's just for working from home. It's all set up for a laptop. I had to source a special adapter to convert the old fashioned scart lead into a HDMI cable.

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

Everything comes down to what you want the laptop for.

If you need a reliable hard working business like work horse of a machine then IBM Lenovo's and related machines are the way to go.

I've had lots of ASUS netbooks and love the brand. Would have no qualms about buying an ASUS laptop.

I've bought plenty of machines from laptopsdirect as has been posted already. Always my first port of call.

When you come to finally order a machine I recommend you also buy a 2nd power supply and a spare battery from the outset. They become harder to get later on in terms of real manufacture parts. You'll be able to get copies but they are never as good as originals.

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

That's a good tip about the battery Realist. Although these days increasing numbers of machines have integrated batteries that cannot be removed. You can't always tell until you buy it. In terms of external source of power do you mean a mobile charging unit?

Re: What the heck is a chromebook and how do you buy a laptop these days???!

If you research the laptop model you plan to buy then you can find out if replacement batteries are available. Don't by any device, computer or otherwise where you can't change the battery. Batteries always fail.

By power supply I mean the cable and transformer unit that come with the computer to charge it. They always fail eventually too.

Another thing to think about is a proper full version of Windows. This is important.

Most laptops come with an OED version of Windows pre-installed. There is a major problem with these.
OED versions of Windows are pre-installed and tied to the MAC Address (unique serial number) of the motherboard.

This means the version of Windows DOES NOT work with any other PC or laptop. Why would that matter?

Because one day the laptop will fail. Eitehr the motherboard will pack in or the keyboard or the screen etc. At that point you will go and get a replacement machine as you are now.

But what happens to all the data on your hard disk?

Wouldn't it be fab if you could just unplug the hard disk from the old machine and plug it into the new machine and switch it on and hey presto, you didn't need to do anything more?

You can't do that with an OED version of Windows. It won't recognise the new MAC Address/serial number of the replacement machine. If you have a full version of Windows then you CAN do this and re-register your version of Windows with the new laptop.

Of course if you go for a brand new laptop then chances are there may be some hardware problems when trying to use your old version of Windows with its older drivers. But if you were able to buy a 2nd hand identical laptop for a bargain price then switching hard disks would be all you needed to do.

All this said you will find that most laptop suppliers will only want to sell you the OED version of Windows. You may have to insist on a full version with the CDs etc (prob don't even have CD's anymore)