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10 best affordable Windows 8 laptops
Best budget laptops
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The first wave of Windows 8 laptops consisted mostly of expensive Ultrabooks and tablets, but most manufacturers have now added Windows 8 to their less expensive models too. Here’s our guide to the best Windows 8 laptops costing less than £600.00.
We round up some of the best bargains for a Windows 8 upgrade.
39Comments
04/12/2012 20:45
Anything over £250 for a laptop is throwing your money down the grid
My daughter bought a top of the range sony vaio with all the bells and whistles from curries pc world and they have had it in to repair the same fault 5 times And refused to exchange it when she took it in the first time (as is her statutory right) It will be the small claims court this time if they do not sort it
be warned paying big money for a laptop does not ensure quality or value for money
03/12/2012 20:10
15/12/2012 09:08
19/12/2012 09:07
I bought a HP Pavilion G6, as featured in the list, although mine is 6GB with an AMD processor. It was only £350 from PC World and I'm really happy with it, much better than the Toshiba Satellite I had been using before which was windows 7, less than a year old and also 6GB. I would never buy Toshiba again, there is a keyboard fault that has been a long running issue that they seem incapable of dealing with. It is impossible to speed type on a Toshiba laptop, and has been for a couple of years by all accounts. I thought it was my typing at fault until I googled the issue.
I do a lot of graphics work and the HP copes well with it, I'm not sure about the user interface of Windows 8, it seems a bit to much geared to touch screen devices for my liking, and why have they done away with the start menu? Grrrrrrr. I downloaded a fix from Shell to get that back though, so all is well.
I do a lot of graphics work and the HP copes well with it, I'm not sure about the user interface of Windows 8, it seems a bit to much geared to touch screen devices for my liking, and why have they done away with the start menu? Grrrrrrr. I downloaded a fix from Shell to get that back though, so all is well.
26/12/2012 18:50
16/12/2012 18:36
25/01/2013 18:21
27/12/2012 23:34
@bobby j
Glad you got a good one but it is not a nasty sony viao and at £1400 you have got a computer that is about the speck of a £600 laptop today so you have lost £200 a year on it not bad in computer terms i guess but if you sold it you would only raise £400 for it so a loss of £1000 in four years but as you say you have had your use out of it (my daughter has not used hers much and that is the point I am making)
I have a used E-SYSTEMS SORRENTO 1 for a couple of years now it has had only one problem which is an intermittent screen flicker
I have used my laptop in all kinds of places and transported it in the back box of a motorcycle it cost me £175 and it does everything my daughters sony viao can do but at about one third the cost and not as much repair time
I would not buy from curries pc world as the last time the tech guys had my daughters sony viao computer they scratched it they have just fitted a new hard drive which sounds like a sack of spanners
my daughter looks after her computer and cleans it regularly she will not eat or drink near it and she puts it away in a hard case with jell bags to keep it moisture free but it is the most problematic computer i have heard of to date
29/12/2012 21:54
25/12/2012 23:44
smiggy21, I paid 1,420 quid for my Acer home theatre 16" laptop 4 years ago .Haven't had a problem with it and its travelled the world with me, been in planes, helicopters, ships and in SUV's on some of the worst roads in Africa. So I don't agree with your sentiments and its specification is nearly as high as the latest laptops around.
24/12/2012 16:51
25/12/2012 17:41
I Bought (form sony uk ) a Sony E Series i5 with NVIDIA Card very smart looking machine and GREAT keyboard layout ( spaced out keys for man fingers ! ), fine for a few weeks then . . . . . . . . . at least 20+ Blue screens and Windows constantly failing at random.
Shame but I wont be buying another , will try and get FULL REFUND
Shame but I wont be buying another , will try and get FULL REFUND
21/12/2012 13:01
Windows 8 would be better if the User could choose the User Interface:
"Desktop" as Default UI for Desktops & Laptops
and then run Apps in the same way as Programs run.
"ModernUI" as Default for Pads and Phones
and then run Programs in the same way as Apps run.
The hardware is exciting, but the retail versions of Windows 8 are disappointing. Changing between the two user interfaces is cutting corners and a big annoyance.
14/04/2013 09:03
02/05/2013 16:57
14/04/2013 11:13
I bought a Samsung series 3 laptop in November 2012 --In for repair to Samsung service centre
3 times from February 20 March 28 2013---first time they "repaired" hard drive after repair but had corrupt and missing files --2nd time they replaced memory--still had same problems--3rd time they found "no fault" yet 3 days after I had missing files/corrupt files--- the more I used it the worse it became--tried to get a replacement from Littlewoods and Samsung BUT DID NOT
Bottom line--WILL NOT BUY ANY PRODUCT FROM LITTLEWOODS OR SAMSUNG EVER AGAIN
14/04/2013 17:41
The last thing I want on my laptop is windows 8, I hate the metro system... its crap. Windows 7 is far better. I bought a laptop at xmas time. The first thing I did was remove windows 8 and install windows 7. Windows 8 is okay for tablets, on a PC I want a start menu and a desktop as my main area of work, not as an app I have to open. Hopefully the next gen of windows will leave metro out of it. Otherwise may consider linux.
14/04/2013 12:11
I prefer the 'laptop' to 'tablets' and currently use a vaio, have used it for over two years without any issues, around £500 buys me a 'laptop' with enough memory and 'grunt' to get me through my daily tasks. My choice is influenced mainly with the build quality and keyboard, some keyboards in my opinion just aren't up to touch typing , my laptop covers me while I'm on the move and screen quality across the board with laptops is pretty reasonable 'bearable', I always use headphones so sound from the built in speakers isn't a factor either. SONY build quality does it for me, I am surprised to see them being 'criticized' among the 'comments' here for being 'unreliable', I have heard many 'horror' stories about every 'laptop manufacturer' so tend to research lots before I part with my cash, at the end of the day these things are mass produced and its only reasonable to assume that sometimes things go wrong. If what you have bought works for you...'well done', if it doesn't....then, start praying, for a decent customer service experience.
14/04/2013 18:25
14/04/2013 15:25
I said, before Win8 came out, I wouldnt touch it with a barge pole. (I think I said I'd give it a wider berth than my wife and I gave Vista).
If I had to buy a new computer I would DEMAND Win7
Touch is alright for casual use but for serious work, it isnt positive enough.
The number of times I've cursed an Android pad because my fingers are man sized
Microsoft were warned during beta that this was a mistake did they listen??
Did they hell as like.
See the mega thread below
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/155290-windows-8-deeper-impressions/
If I had to buy a new computer I would DEMAND Win7
Touch is alright for casual use but for serious work, it isnt positive enough.
The number of times I've cursed an Android pad because my fingers are man sized
Microsoft were warned during beta that this was a mistake did they listen??
Did they hell as like.
See the mega thread below
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/155290-windows-8-deeper-impressions/
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