Mobile Broadband - Which deal gives the best laptop?, and fuss-free data too. |
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 Aug 28 2008, 08:53
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#1
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 Addict  Group: MoDaCo Plus Posts: 997 Joined: 20th March 2004 From: Gloucestershire, UK Member No.: 37,012 Device(s): MDA Vario II  |
I'm toying with the idea of joining the revolution and getting a laptop. The steam-driven PC at home has almost had it and from what I can tell, today's lappys will do (almost) everything a new PC would do.
So, choices. I'm currently a T-Mobile customer but I'm out of contract waiting to see each operators deals on the HTC Touch Pro. There's 3's deals on the HP550 at £30/month over 24 months (£720) with 5Gb data (not sure what penalties there may be for straying over 'fair usage'). There's T-Mobile offering Acer TravelMate 5320, again £30/m over 24/12 (£720) with 3Gb data and no penalty for using more. The best 'existing customer' offer T can do is £5 off for the first 6 months making the total price £690 over 2 years. Orange's shop is offline for maintenance at the moment so I can't check their deals on laptops. So, it seems the data deals / pricing are comparable (not surprisingly). So which is the best laptop? Both the examples above have Vista Home Basic, 120Gb HDD, wifi, 15.4" WXGA screens, 1gig RAM. The T deal has DVD 'Super Multi' (whatever that is) which may well be the deal-clincher at the moment. Anyone have any insight into these deals? Paul -------------------- MDA Vario II, WM6, SanDisk 2Gb micro-SD, Motorola HS810 BT headset, and chuffed to little mint balls!!!
"What happens to a politician if you give him Viagra? He gets taller" - Jesse Duke, Hazzard County  |
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Aug 28 2008, 09:08
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#2
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 The Main Man  Group: Admin Team Posts: 21,240 Joined: 6th November 2002 From: Norwich, UK Member No.: 1 Device(s): HTC Touch HD |
Is there a reason you want to get a contract in this way rather than buying a laptop outright (<£300) and then getting a PAYG card?
P --------------------   |
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Aug 28 2008, 09:23
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#3
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Addict Group: MoDaCo Plus Posts: 997 Joined: 20th March 2004 From: Gloucestershire, UK Member No.: 37,012 Device(s): MDA Vario II |
Money is tight and credit is expensive right now. It seemed a viable option for me.
I am looking at other options along the way... -------------------- MDA Vario II, WM6, SanDisk 2Gb micro-SD, Motorola HS810 BT headset, and chuffed to little mint balls!!!
"What happens to a politician if you give him Viagra? He gets taller" - Jesse Duke, Hazzard County |
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Aug 28 2008, 09:32
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#4
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The Main Man Group: Admin Team Posts: 21,240 Joined: 6th November 2002 From: Norwich, UK Member No.: 1 Device(s): HTC Touch HD |
OK, fair enough!
How is coverage at home? Which networks give you HSDPA at home? The T-Mo deal seems pretty decent. The laptop spec isn't mind blowing but is more than adequate (it is the same spec as my missus' laptop, which is fine). Positives: - 6 cell battery on the laptop - Great T-Mo HSDPA coverage - Vista Premium (as opposed to the common basic) - Webcam - HOTSPOTS INCLUDED (great for Starbucks / airports!) - No over-use charges - A bunch of texts Negatives: - 1GB RAM is in 2x512MB form, increases cost to upgrade to 2GB slightly (altho it's dead cheap for RAM nowadays!) Cost as you as you say is £349.99 (laptop) + £14.99 (delivery) + £360 (contract) which totals £724.98, but if you go via Quidco, you should get £73 back on connection which brings the grand total down to £651.98. Not bad really... P -------------------- |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:00
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#5
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Addict Group: MoDaCo Plus Posts: 997 Joined: 20th March 2004 From: Gloucestershire, UK Member No.: 37,012 Device(s): MDA Vario II |
Is there a Modaco click-thru to Quidco so your family get to eat more bread?
-------------------- MDA Vario II, WM6, SanDisk 2Gb micro-SD, Motorola HS810 BT headset, and chuffed to little mint balls!!!
"What happens to a politician if you give him Viagra? He gets taller" - Jesse Duke, Hazzard County |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:10
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#6
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The Main Man Group: Admin Team Posts: 21,240 Joined: 6th November 2002 From: Norwich, UK Member No.: 1 Device(s): HTC Touch HD |
Hee hee, no...
P -------------------- |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:20
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#7
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Addict Group: MoDaCo Plus Posts: 997 Joined: 20th March 2004 From: Gloucestershire, UK Member No.: 37,012 Device(s): MDA Vario II |
Sorry, couldn't resist it
 I was reading some numpty groaning on about cookies & click-thru's the other day...HSDPA on T is running full-bore at home but I would no doubt connect at home using wifi anyway. I reckon that USB stick would snap off in the port after about 10 minnutes looking at how it pokes out the back of the lappy. Hmm, maybe I should edit the thread title to "Anyone know of 0% credit deals on a half decent laptop..."? 
-------------------- MDA Vario II, WM6, SanDisk 2Gb micro-SD, Motorola HS810 BT headset, and chuffed to little mint balls!!!
"What happens to a politician if you give him Viagra? He gets taller" - Jesse Duke, Hazzard County |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:28
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#8
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 Timelord Group: Posters Posts: 1,606 Joined: 6th September 2003 From: Gallifrey Member No.: 15,319 |
QUOTE(pd.ryder @ Aug 28 2008, 09:53)  There's 3's deals on the HP550 at £30/month over 24 months (£720) with 5Gb data (not sure what penalties there may be for straying over 'fair usage'). When I asked them about this they said they charge 10p/Mb out of bundle!!!! Seems a bit shan to me. Still, not sure you would get anywhere near 5Gb for general surfing, but guess it would easily be possible if you were using it as your main connection. |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:34
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#9
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The Main Man Group: Admin Team Posts: 21,240 Joined: 6th November 2002 From: Norwich, UK Member No.: 1 Device(s): HTC Touch HD |
Buy now pay summer '09 @ eBuyer:
http://www.ebuyer.com/special/1787 Bargainous laptop (same as my dad and missus have pretty much!): http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143364 P -------------------- |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:42
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#10
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 Enthusiast  Group: MoDaCo Ad Free Posts: 188 Joined: 26th December 2005 From: Oxfordshire Member No.: 164,451 Device(s): Vario III, Nokia 5300 |
knowing a computer administrator who deals with a huge number of computers in schools, I would personally reccomend the acer myself
both my current computers are acers (including my new laptop, see my sig, and two desktop machines bought last january). none of them have ever, ever, gone wrong, and i've never ever had any software problems either (except with programs i've installed, and when i screwed up the vista upgrade on my desktop) hp however have proven to not be so reliable. nigh-on all of the hp computers have had some sort of problem over time, and quite frequent problems include hard disk failures which require a new hard disk and re-installation of everying, although with one laptop a teacher had the motherboard just completely failed one day, and we ended up just binning the laptop (hp support were predictably not interested) personally, if you are taking up one of the free laptop deals, i'd say go with the acer if it makes no difference to you, especially considering you'll be in contract and want to keep it for at least 2 years if, however, you are thinking of buying a laptop outright, i'd personally reccomend either dabs.com or laptopsdirect.co.uk, and go for a lenovo or a fujitsu siemens (i like the value of the 3000 N200 Lenovo). You should be able to get a finance deal from somewhere, and these are the 2 makes that i've found provide the best value at the low end of the market combined with the best build quality and support (fujistu siemens even give you actual recovery disks!) This post has been edited by andrewkeith5: Aug 28 2008, 10:48 -------------------- Aston University 2008/9 - Marketing - WOO :D
HTC Kaiser (T-Mo MDA V3 branded) - TLR 6.1 ROM, 2GB MicroSD, iGo 8 on a 515MB MicroSD, T-Mobile FlexT 25 + Web 'n' Walk Standard Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue 6920G - Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2GHz, 3GB PC2-6400, 200GB HDD, ATi Radeon HD3650 512MB, Dolby Virtual Surround + True5.1 Output, Blu-Ray, HDMI, Fingerprint Recognition, Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, Office 2007 Pro Plus with Onenote 2007 I know what I'm doing, I'm just not doing it :) |
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Aug 28 2008, 10:44
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#11
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The Main Man Group: Admin Team Posts: 21,240 Joined: 6th November 2002 From: Norwich, UK Member No.: 1 Device(s): HTC Touch HD |
I've had a few acers, and although they haven't physically gone wrong, they always seem to show 'wear' quickly... on the contrary the HPs i've had have been both reliable and well built, heh!
P -------------------- |
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Aug 28 2008, 11:14
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#12
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 Come on you Horns!  Group: Moderator Team Posts: 475 Joined: 22nd May 2004 From: Wheathampstead Member No.: 44,098 Device(s): T-Mobile Compact IV |
Id go for an HP any day of the week.
And no its nothing to do with the fact that I am HP accredited and can make sure that the laptop is reliably repaired should it ever go wrong. (that is the repair is done by myself!!!) Over the years the three makes of Laptop I would recommend are HP, especially as they normally give 3 years warranty, or at least they did, Toshiba and IBM, now Lenovo. From experience, Dell are not bad either, especially the business/cheaper end of the market. There are new players on the market and like everything out there they take their time to become good, for want of a better way of putting it. I think the best way to gage a decent laptop is a) how decent the spec is for the money and  the warranty provided, should the worst happen. Its worth remembering the last point as its not like a pc where if the sound stops working, you just fit a new soundcard. If the sound stops working on a laptop (and its not software related) you either do without sound or else you (99 times out of 100 anyway) have to swap out the whole mainboard. Hope this helps. Cheers Phill -------------------- www.watfordfc.com
www.thehornets.net |
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Aug 28 2008, 11:35
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#13
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Addict Group: MoDaCo Plus Posts: 997 Joined: 20th March 2004 From: Gloucestershire, UK Member No.: 37,012 Device(s): MDA Vario II |
It's all helpful stuff guys. Any insight is very welcome.
-------------------- MDA Vario II, WM6, SanDisk 2Gb micro-SD, Motorola HS810 BT headset, and chuffed to little mint balls!!!
"What happens to a politician if you give him Viagra? He gets taller" - Jesse Duke, Hazzard County |
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Aug 28 2008, 11:41
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#14
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TOMnia ! Group: Posters Posts: 1,061 Joined: 26th November 2007 From: Right Here, Right Now! Member No.: 326,361 Device(s): Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia |
Personally I love Dell laptops, but have an IBM for work and its rock solid. I'm not a small chap by any means, and slipped on ice and landed on the IBM ... cracked the case but the laptop still works fine. Ive also had several Tosh laptops which have all been excellent too.
How about a broadband laptop where the broadband card is build in? -------------------- --
My Toys: Omnia: Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia - 8GB SD HC O-SeXy Advent 4211 - 2GB Ram - 250GB HDD - Running OSX Leopard like a dream! Doris She has bewbs! (Not her real name tho!) |
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