Tech Recommendations?

[davidgillon]

It's way past time I replaced my laptop (which is pushing 10yo and running XP) and my printer seems to have given up the ghost. Anyone got any (UK market) recommendations?

Laptop target spec: No more than £450, Windows, 1TB drive (I've been using a 750GB external drive, so I'm fairly confident 500GB isn't enough), 8GB RAM preferred, Touch-Screen heavily preferred for future-proofing (this is probably the difficult part of the spec, the number of touch-screens at this price-point seems to be going down, not up). Particularly looking for something with a good keyboard as it'll mostly be used for writing, not desperately fussed about processor power for same reason.

Printer target spec: No more than £50, wifi, ideally with reasonably priced ink! (I do so little printing I rarely seem to get decent use out of ink cartridges with the current Canon).

Comments

[cxcvi]

Inkjet printers are a bit of a trap. They're good if you're printing fairly frequently, but terrible if you go weeks or months without printing.

I don't know if a laser printer is a viable alternative at your budget, though...

[davidgillon]

I think I'd definitely need to increase the budget if I went laser, but I also (if rarely) do some occasional colour printing so a laser isn't ideal for that reason either.

[thamesynne]

Well, I just checked ebuyer, and they're doing a Brother colour laser with wifi for under £100 at the moment. (ed: it's on Amazon too, for £96.) Comes with 1000-page toners, but that's more than you'd think; I think I'm still on my first 1000-page toner with the mono laser I've had for a decade (so I feel a tad stupid for buying two extra 3000-sheet toners with it when I bought it)... and the thing about toner cartridges is that they never dry out. Unlike inkjets, which is why I've given up on the damn things on a permanent basis.

So I'd say it's worth doubling your printer budget and going colour laser. I'll be doing that myself the next time I buy a printer.

addendum: It looks as though the laptop spec you want can be satisfied for about £100-150 less than your budget (HP's shop is currently selling one for £350, for example). So you could take the rest and drop it on a colour laser, and still come in under-budget. :)

[davidgillon]

Good points. I hadn't actually looked at the HP website, just Dell (which had very little as far as I could see), and PC World, which had plenty at that price point, though the choice seemed to be 1Tb or Touch-screen, not both. Certainly looks like HP are potentially suitable. I've used HP desk-tops in the past, but not their laptops. ISTR PC World had a few HPs in, so I'll have a wander up on Monday and play with the keyboards to see if they suit.

The colour laser is an interesting option, particularly when you include ink/toner costs into the deal, I'll have to investigate more.

[thamesynne]

Happy hunting. ;)

[jesse_the_k]

I'm walking the same road re: replacing my gefunked color ink jet, because it's all a conspiracy to get me to buy more ink. And then I realized that I rarely print color. Maybe once/month. My local library offers color laser prints for $0.10/page. That's a bargain compared to damn ink cartridges at $30 or more. If I need it in a hurry I can email the files to a quick printer who can deliver the result to me or where it's needed.

[davidgillon]

Interesting thought, I actually can't think of the last time I printed colour, though it's not a capability I really want to be without.