You can never have too many computers and you certainly can’t have too many laptops, well that is what I say… others my disagree. But one thing is clear laptops are rather handy. So if you are thinking about getting a laptop for yourself or giving one as present here is a look at the best laptops for the least amount of money. Don’t expect to find any record breaking machines here, but for every day usage (a bit of surfing, social networking, music, video and the odd game) you can find some great ideas here.
LAPTOPS UNDER £299
1. ELONEX PY7100XP1 ELONEX LNX-CEWS71 WEB SURFER
How does £195.99 sound for a budget price? That is how much it will cost you to pick up an ELONEX PY7100XP1 ELONEX LNX-CEWS71 WEB SURFER. Not a pretty name I know, but this 7″ Widescreen laptop is probably worth every penny. It has a 1.2Ghz processor, 1GB of memory and 30GB hard drive. Not a world record breaker but perfect for casual use. What is more is that this price includes a pre-installed copy of Windows XP.
Best Price: Amazon.co.uk – £195.99
2. Hercules eCAFE EC-900-H60G/S Ultra Mobile PC
The real budget price point for laptops is £299 (the Elonex above is really an exception) and the first of these £299 laptops is the Hercules eCAFE EC-900-H60G/S Ultra Mobile PC with Microsoft Windows XP.
This Intel ATOM powered machine runs at 1.6 GHz and comes with 1GB of memory. It has a LED-backlit 8.9″ (1024×600) screen and a 60GB hard drive. Connectivity wise it has Ethernet 10/100, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 3 USB ports, a multi-format card reader (SD, SDHC, MMC) and a 1.3 megapixel integrated webcam with integrated microphone.
Best Price: Amazon.co.uk – £299.99
3. Amilo Li3710 15.6 inch notebook
If you prefer well known brands that you can’t go too far wrong with this next £299 laptop from Fujitsu. The Amilo Li3710 15.6 inch notebook comes with 2.2GHz processor, 2Gb of memory, a 160Gb hard drive, DVD±RW Ethernet, WiFi and impressively Windows 7 Home Premium.
At the time of writing Amazon didn’t have any in stock, which isn’t surprising, but if you order it now they will e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as they have more information and they won’t charge your account until they ship the it.
Best Price: Amazon.co.uk – £299
REFURBISHED LAPTOPS
£299 is also a good price point for refurbished laptops and if you want budget prices but better performance then getting a refurbished laptop can be a real bargain. These machines come with a 12 month manufactures warranty and PC World has two such models.
4. COMPAQ CQ60311/300
The first is the COMPAQ CQ60311/300 which has a 15.6 inch screen, a 2.1GHZ AMD processor, 2 GB Memory and a 250 GB Hard Drive. The downside is that it comes with Windows Vista Home Basic but with 2GB of memory that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Other features include a DVD RW drive, Wi-Fi and a built-in web cam.
Best Price: PC World – £299.99
5. Advent Roma Refurbished
The next refurbished machine from PC World is the Advent Roma Refurbished laptop which also sells for £299. The Roma has a 15.6″ Widescreen display, a 2.2 Ghz processor, a 250GB Hard drive, HDMI connectivity and an integrated webcam. This laptop is slightly better than the refurbished Compaq above for two reasons: 1) It comes with 3GB of memory, which is should be sufficient for a few years to come and so offer a level of future proofing. 2) It comes with Windows Vista Home Premium and until January 31st 2010 you can get the free upgrade to Window 7.
Best Price: PC World – 299.99
LAPTOPS UNDER £340
6. Zoostorm T1600 Laptop
For just £329 Amazon is offering the the Zoostorm T1600 Laptop which is a 15.4″ laptop with a dual core processor. It also has 1GB of ram and a 160GB harddrive. The only downside is that it comes with Vista Basic (which honestly will be a pain with just 1GB of memory) . The machine will run Windows 7 but you will have to pay for the upgrade.
Best Price: Amazon.co.uk – £329.99
7. Compaq Presario CQ61-312SA Notebook
For £339.99 HP have an excellent offering in the Compaq Presario CQ61-312SA Notebook this 15.6-inch screen laptop come with Windows 7 Home Premium, 1 2GHz AMD processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD and up to 6 hours battery life.
This little powerhouse also has a Lightscribe DVD writer (LightScribe lets you create disc labels direct from your PC, just flip the disc, burn and label). Plus it comes with a 5-in-1 card reader, Ethernet, Wifi and the graphics will even handle moderate 3D games as it used the NVIDIA GeForce 8200M plus it supports HDMI.
Best Price: Amazon.co.uk – £339.99
LAPTOPS UNDER £400
The last 3 laptops are all under £400, well £1 under… but these machines are offer more performance and storage than the other models listed so far but battery performance is lower.
8. Advent Roma 3000 Laptop
First is the Advent Roma 3000 Laptop, this good all-round laptop has a dual core processor running at 2.1Ghz, a 500GB Hard drive and an impressive 4GB of memory. Coupled with Window 7, HDMI connectivity, web cam and Wi-Fi this is perfect for portable multimedia entertainment! However beware all these extra performance takes energy and the battery life is limited to just 2 hours.
Best Price: PC World – £399.99
9. Packard Bell TJ61-RB-030
Next up from PC World is the Packard Bell TJ61-RB-030 15.6″ Widescreen laptop. Again this is a dual core machine (this time using an AMD processor) running at 2.1Ghz. It also has an impressive 4GB of memory and 250GB of hard disk space. Along with Windows 7 Home Premium it also has a webcam, HDMI connectivity and a Multi-gesture touchpad. The batter life is better than the Advent Roma 3000 with up to 3.5 hours of usage before you need to find a wall socket.
This Packard Bell is also ideal for enjoying HD video thanks to the excellent onboard ATI Mobility Radeonâ„¢ HD3200 graphics chip, which can easily output HD content and play the odd 3D game too.
Best Price: PC World – £399.00
Compaq Presario CQ61-320SA Laptop
Our last budget laptop is the Compaq Presario CQ61-320SA. This stylish machine offers power and performance. Powered by the AMD Athlonâ„¢ II Dual-Core M300, it is pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium. It has a sizeable 250GB hard drive and 3GB of memory.
It has a BrightView 15.6″ widescreen display and a built-in DVD Rewriter. The onboard NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G graphics chip is ideal for outputting HD content using the integrated HDMI connector.
But like the Advent Roma 3000 Laptop beware that the battery life is limited to just 2 hours.
Best Price: PC World – £399.99