Laptop and Mobile broadband??

[Tommo21]

Okay troops a wee bit of help needed here. My computers done too many rounds and I’m thinking of a laptop. I don’t want one of these free with something deals, just a reasonable laptop for browsing, e-mail, photos and the like. Nothing fancy maybe around the £400 mark. I’m also thinking of Mobile broadband as I’m in a bad exchange area anyway so my landline broadband is slow anyway.

Anyone with mobile broadband, what provider are you with, any tips, any bloody good.

 

[brendy]

To be honest they are all a much of a muchness, its all down to who gives the best signal where you will be located, you can have the sim for the mobile BB either in a usb stick which you just plug in and install the software, or it will fit into a little sim slot under the laptop ususally in with the battery compartment. We have mostly used Vodafone and when its in range its grand.

 

[Adjani]

I have two Dell laptops, never had a problem with either, i would recommend em

 

[Ronnoc1980]

I have a Acer provided by work found it to be good on the battery front and wi-fi side of things so went and bought the Mrs the same one.Just one tip pay the extra dont go for vista basic's

 

[cm_qs]

I use Vodafone mobile broadband for work and it's (usually)great. Tends to lose the signal if you sit inside a metal box though which is a bit of a disadvantage if you work out of portacabins on building sites.

 

[Tommo21]

Good info guys, thanks. Anyone else?

 

[theeaglehunter]

I have 3 mobile broadband and it is excellent considering i live on the outskirts of a city. I have herd that it is less good in more rural areas which i could believe as my mobile sometimes suffers from the same thing. You say you don't want a free with something deals but it is well worth going into pc world and telling them you want to sign up for mobile broadband because you can then save around £100 on whatever laptop you want, when you sign up of course. It is probably worth thinking about what type of mobile broadband you want as well pay as you go or monthly payments. Good luck.

 

[USER1999]

We have a USB dongle for our holiday lap top. It is fine (probably on 3). If you are going to use it local to where you live (ie:at home), go for the one with the best coverage in your area, as the speed of download is very signal dependant.

Laptop wise we have a Sony Vaio, an Acer (8" screen note book - useful for holidays) and a Dell. Nothing wrong with any of these provided you run Windows XP not Vista.

 

[moamoamoamoa]

I'd recommend you look at the offers in Staples as they normally have good quality spec laptops for around the price you are looking to pay. If no good for you then I would say Dell or HP due to the build quality. We use Vodafone mobile broadband at work and they are lighting fast so would suggest you look at these. Remember that you're using the same network mobile telephones use so if you have a Vodafone mobile phone and the coverage is poor, then so will the mobile broadband.

 

[viscount17]

moamoamoamoa, can't resist this!

a moa was a very big bird.
following the logic of a lot of languages does moamoamoamoa mean flock of very big birds?

 

[TonyN]

I have a Tosibha satellite. For £400 quid you could pick one of these up with a 200gb hard drive 2 gb of ram and decent spec through out. Steer clear of Vista and dont be bought by all the new 'face recognition' and 'fingerprint scanners' bullfish. They are pointless.

Dont overlook refurbs too, mine is a refurb. I got it from the Toshiba outlet where I work 12 months ago. I payed £450 the next day I spotted the same laptop in comet for just under £800.

 

[moamoamoamoa]

moamoamoamoa, can't resist this!

a moa was a very big bird.
following the logic of a lot of languages does moamoamoamoa mean flock of very big birds?

Had to google it to see what a collective of moa's were called: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa

Interesting read!!!!!

It was the nameof a band that I was in from 2000-2003. We rocked haha.

 

[Tommo21]

Okay just to update you guys on my computer upgrade situation. I decided on a HP G7045 laptop with dual core thingymabobs, 160 Ryans hard drive, 2 Ryans of memory, and Vista premium. All in all it’s good so far.

Now the downside, mobile broadband is $hite....in my area anyway. Unless you are desperate don’t get it. I signed a 12 month contract and I took it back to PC world after 3 days. The signal varies and sometimes I was cut off once and at other times it was hard to connect. Good idea, but it’s got a long way to go in order to compete with home broadband. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t expecting miracles but it just wasn’t up to the job and the new hyperspeed laptop made the thing look worse.

 

[RGuk]

I took it back to PC world after 3 days. The signal varies and sometimes I was cut off once and at other times it was hard to connect. Good idea, but it’s got a long way to go in order to compete with home broadband. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t expecting miracles but it just wasn’t up to the job and the new hyperspeed laptop made the thing look worse.

Did you get out of the contract then?
Sorry to hear about this, thanks for bringing it up....I've been thinking about it, so your post is timely.

 

[Ken_A]

I bought a 3 mobile broad band as I am a part time student and thoought it would be handy to catch work up when travelling on the train etc. Unwrapped it plugged it in and no signal - signal went up and then totally dropped. No good - sticking with home BB - Pity as I was willing to get a few dongles.

Have to take it back but they will probably not give me my money back.

 

[viscount17]

if you're on T-mobile and haven't already, you will probably be getting called as they are pushing 'free' dongles - provided you sign up to a contract of course.
waste of time for me - haven't got a laptop.