Asus Laptop €300 - Power City

tritium

Akrasia wrote: »

it ticks the boxes. Most other laptops at this price range will have a worse processor and less ram
4 gb ram is enough to run most windows applications well.

If you are buying an entry level laptop you need to accept the limitations (games won't run)

You're better off accepting this than spending 4 or 500 quid on a slightly better processor with the hope that it might be able to just about play some games, and getting disappointed all the time.
for a laptop to play games, you're looking at spending more than 3 times the price of this model. (and even still, you'll be turning settings to medium or low, and you'll be really struggling with any games that will be released next year or the year after

^^^^^
What Akrasia said. OK spec and OK price if the laptop isn't needed to do any heavy lifting. If you want something reasonably priced to play the latest games you're better of getting a desktop tbh ( or save a few quid more by getting one specced by the folks in the PC building forum and build yourself)

Capt'n Midnight

two years ago the €299 laptop was this
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056346255

They were old stock, manufacture date was 2010

3GB RAM
320GB HDD
P6100 CPU in a PGA988 socket
DVD drive but no USB3

The question is, if you replaced the P6100 with an i3 how would that three year old laptop compare with this one ?

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/94/Intel_Core_i3_Mobile_i3-380M_%28PGA988%29_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_Mobile_P6100.html

Capt'n Midnight

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

two years ago the €299 laptop was this
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056346255

They were old stock, manufacture date was 2010

3GB RAM
320GB HDD
P6100 CPU in a PGA988 socket
DVD drive but no USB3

The question is, if you replaced the P6100 with an i3 how would that three year old laptop compare with this one ?

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/94/Intel_Core_i3_Mobile_i3-380M_%28PGA988%29_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_Mobile_P6100.html

the old one would also have been 3 inches thick, weight 3kg and have a crap screen and a battery life of 2hrs! So a lot of other differences....

Capt'n Midnight

glasso wrote: »

the old one would also have been 3 inches thick, weight 3kg and have a crap screen and a battery life of 2hrs! So a lot of other differences....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/eMachines-Pentium-Processor-Windows-Premium/dp/tech-data/B004H1T66M

2.4kg, and you can always remove the DVD drive
1.36 inches thick. (W) 37.3cm x (D) 24.6cm x (H) 2.7cm
Battery Life:3.5 - but that was back in 2010
Unit Dimensions (mm):381 (W) x 253 (D) x 25/34.7 (H) mm (14.96 x 9.9 x 0.98/1.36 inches)
Glossy screen too.

vs.

38.0 x 25.3 x 2.65 ~3.23 cm (WxDxH).
Weight. 2.07 kg (with 6 cell battery).
4.5hr battery life.


IMHO the Asus is about the going rate for value laptops theses days. But it's not much of an upgrade from the €299 laptop Tesco were selling back in 2011.

It's a lot nicer looking machine than the old one and better laid out. The minimum price for laptops is always going to to ~300 as the manufacturers and microsoft have to make some money. (excepting netbooks but even they are 250 or so). margins are very slim at the 300 euro price range.

unkel

glasso wrote: »

It's a lot nicer looking machine than the old one and better laid out. The minimum price for laptops is always going to to ~300 as the manufacturers and microsoft have to make some money.

The last time I was in Tesco they were selling basic laptops (with DVD drive) for €269

unkel

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

IMHO the Asus is about the going rate for value laptops theses days.

Pretty much. For comparison the most basic Dell laptop is €329, including VAT and shipping. This has the latest 4th gen Celeron (unlike the Asus which is last years stock), 4GB, 64 bit W8 and does have a DVD drive

Linky

johnny-grunge

unkel wrote: »

Pretty much. For comparison the most basic Dell laptop is €329, including VAT and shipping. This has the latest 4th gen Celeron (unlike the Asus which is last years stock), 4GB, 64 bit W8 and does have a DVD drive

Linky

The Asus has a 48mWh battery vs the Dells 40mWh one. And a better older processor.

Dell also have the annoying issue of restricting which aftermarket batteries you can use to the ones they sell.

Capt'n Midnight

johnny-grunge wrote: »

The Asus has a 48mWh battery vs the Dells 40mWh one. And a better older processor.

Dell also have the annoying issue of restricting which aftermarket batteries you can use to the ones they sell.

The point is that the dell is not on special offer.

Given that people are moving from laptops to tablet and the recent enough launch of windows 8, I'd have expected better laptop bargains these days.

For €324.99 you can buy a similar model with a DVD drive.
http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5088962/Trail/searchtext%3ELAPTOP.htm

There's no shortage of entry level €300-€350 laptops to choose from these days. Just make sure you aren't getting an older low spec one.

RobbingBandit

I bought a Packard Bell EasyNote TE with 6gb ram and 500gb HDD in Tesco instead, it cost €350. Sh1t graphics card (AMD Radeon HD 6310) but I just need it for college rather than games, good luck to all still on the hunt for one of these.

toby2111

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

There's no shortage of entry level €300-€350 laptops to choose from these days. Just make sure you aren't getting an older low spec one.

Thats about my budget so what would be your personal recommendation for a decent laptop at that price,with decent spec.

beauf

A lot of these cheaper laptops have poor screens and keyboards. Or they they have a poor spec. Hard to get a good compromise.

Mad Benny

beauf wrote: »

You can make w8 like w7. Install classic shell or start8 etc.

The issue you might have heard is the UEFI bios on new machines. Which make it tricker to install a new OS. It has a feature called Secure Boot, which locks the bootloader to a version of the OS. Its tricker to turn this off and clean the bootloader. Which then lets you install a new bootloader and OS. Most people will not be able to do this. Locking the machine to the OS it came with.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/381565/uefi-bios-explained/3
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/what-microsoft-s-secure-boot-means-for-the-future-of-linux-1160157

I can't believe they have done that. I would have thought that it is illegal.