Laptop for 11-year old

[pauld]

A friend of ours is looking to get her 11-year old lad a laptop, mainly wants it for internet and homework but would also like to be able to play some games (no I don't know which ones and I suspect nor do they). They've asked me for a recommendation "because you're in computers" but tbh I haven't kept up with consumer hardware of late and don't want to recommend them a duff 'un. I know there's a lot of cheapo rubbish out there, equally don't want to say they must spend 400 quid on the latest 8-core monster when it's going to be well OTT.

The one vague thought I had was to whether PC World are better on price these days (on the grounds if anything goes wrong, it's always easier to have a shop to go and stand in and make a fuss until they fix it) but then they seem to be all Windows 8 laptops and tbh Windows 8 looks like another ME/Vista-style disaster that will disappear up it's own fundament fairly shortly.

So oh wise TEF-ers any recommendations for:
a) a half-decent but not top of the range laptop that will "do" for an 11 year old for a couple of years?
b) Probably around 2-300 quid
c) somewhere decent to buy it from where they won't get the run-around if there's problems (don't mind online so long as their customer service is half-decent)
d) am I just being daft on the Windows 8 thing?

Cheers, paul(4)d

[4D]

4D ^tm

Edit. You've saved me a job there Paul, I need the same info for a ten year old for Christmas.

[Peter Venkman]

PC World are ok but still overpriced compared to online stores such as scan/aria/dabs/ebuyer.

Windows 8 is dog shit and I personally would avoid it if possible but thats just me.

Finding a brand new laptop with Windows 7 is actually quite difficult that said.

Get a laptop with at least a 14.1 screen for clarity, get at least 4gb ram and minimum 320gb hard drive, get at worst a 2ghz processor of either AMD or Intel as a preference I would suggest an i3 2330M processor as they are about the best value/performance out there.

You are unlikely to find too many Windows 7 laptops though so you will need to search well, but your budget should achieve what you need.

[DMR]

Surely anything that will allow Youtube, Facebook and pornongraphy to work will suffice for an 11yo i.e. any laptop ever built.

[pauld]

Surely anything that will allow Youtube, Facebook and pornongraphy to work will suffice for an 11yo i.e. any laptop ever built.

Yeah, it's the "ooh and maybe some games" and not being completely useless in a couple of years bit that stretches it out a little - kids change a lot between 11 and 13, as will what you can/want to do with a laptop in a couple of years. Don't want to recommend them something that's going to look like a steam-powered crock in  a year's time

[Peter Venkman]

Yeah, it's the "ooh and maybe some games" and not being completely useless in a couple of years bit that stretches it out a little - kids change a lot between 11 and 13, as will what you can/want to do with a laptop in a couple of years. Don't want to recommend them something that's going to look like a steam-powered crock in  a year's time

Exactly the reasons that I gave out the minimum spec requirements as asked for rather than suggesting a crappy netbook.

[Honkytonk]

Probably the important consideration for 'ooh and some games' is a stand-alone graphics chip - onboard, built in stuff probably won't cut it. Quick search on ebuyer brings up this for the right price point- processor is a tad slow mind. http://www.ebuyer.com/503662-hp-655-laptop-c5c56ea-abu

If you go over the budget by £40 then this is pretty much all he'll ever need. It's better than what I'm using atm, that's for sure! I've heard some iffy things about Samsung's build quality/lifespan when used regularly though. http://www.ebuyer.com/409379-samsung-355v5c-laptop-np355v5c-a06uk

I have no idea about ebuyer's customer service- I've bought stuff from there in the past, but have never had a problem with it, so never had to contact customer service! Gives you a starting point though.

You could always buy with no OS and install Linux (you say you're 'in computers', but don't know how adept you are, so apologies if I've patronised you- linux is a piece of piss to install if you're half good with computers.). Shipping without OS normally saves you about £100 off the price of the laptop.

[Peter Venkman]

I have put about £30k through Ebuyer in the last 3 or 4 years and their customer service is pretty good TBF, much better than PC World by a country mile.

[pauld]

Exactly the reasons that I gave out the minimum spec requirements as asked for rather than suggesting a crappy netbook.

yeah cheers PV that was really helpful. From an initial poke about, just as you said, it's the Windows 7 bit that's proving problematic. I can get all the Win8 devices I can eat in that price range - Win7 is proving rather more elusive. I'll keep digging!

[pauld]

You could always buy with no OS and install Linux (you say you're 'in computers', but don't know how adept you are, so apologies if I've patronised you- linux is a piece of piss to install if you're half good with computers.). Shipping without OS normally saves you about £100 off the price of the laptop.

Sage advice except it's not me being adept that counts - it's the family friends who've asked us, unless I want to not only install it but provide support everafter for everything that goes wrong with it. Which I don't - I want to be able to point them at the support folks for whoever they bought off!

[Honkytonk]

Sage advice except it's not me being adept that counts - it's the family friends who've asked us, unless I want to not only install it but provide support everafter for everything that goes wrong with it. Which I don't - I want to be able to point them at the support folks for whoever they bought off!

Understandable. Win8 is going to be the biscuit it seems. I can't comment on it as I'm still luvin' lyf on XP.

[Peter Venkman]

Sage advice except it's not me being adept that counts - it's the family friends who've asked us, unless I want to not only install it but provide support everafter for everything that goes wrong with it. Which I don't - I want to be able to point them at the support folks for whoever they bought off!

I understand exactly where you are coming from with that! pass that hot potato just in case there is a problem in the future, I know that well.

[Peter Venkman]

I have installed Windows 8 on 3 PC's and every one has returned to me inside of a week and asked for Windows 7 to be installed instead.

Windows 7 on the other hand is vastly better than XP or Vista in every possible way.

[pauld]

How viable/expensive would it be to pick up a copy of Windows 7 and install that on a laptop bought with Windows 8? Are Windows 8 laptops cheaper because the requirements are lower (i.e. might not run Win 7) or just because they're the current mass market laptops?

[Peter Venkman]

As your last statement says it is what "consumers want" so anything that can run Windows 8 will be fine on Windows 7, they even use pretty much 100% exactly the same drivers as well (albeit labelled up as Windows most laptop suppliers will provide support for Windows 7 on their webite via download.