Mum friendly laptop wanted

[Wilmslow]

My mother is after a laptop. She currently has a Toshiba one from work (she is a teacher) and retiring, so, handing it back in July.

She would prefer XP to Vista.

What is the current availability of laptops with XP? Are all now in Vista?

Need a laptop that is straightforward, don’t want ‘willy waving’ technology, but, a good, solid machine that will be relatively future proof.

Maybe a laptop with 4 gig of memory may make up for having Vista.

Bluetooth would be good.

I am happy with my Dell 620, as I am very happy with it. Before I suggest a maxed out memory version of this – any other laptops to consider? Was thinking about a large screen Sony, but, I don’t know much about the Sony range.

[bobsyouruncle]

I'd steer clear from Sony if I were you. Had a Vaio and although the screen was great the fan packed up pretty quick and seemed impossible to fix.

[Archangel]

I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad (used to be IBM) from Staples. Robust, reliable, built in wireless (no bluetooth though) with XP. Oh, and it was cheap.

HTH

(edit) sorry, they no longer seem to stock Thinkpads (/edit)

(edit2) sorry again, their laptops now appear to all come with Vista as well (/edit2)

So this post is completely useless to you then!

[Moscow Mule]

(edit2) sorry again, their laptops now appear to all come with Vista as well (/edit2)

So this post is completely useless to you then!

Try amazon if you fancy lenovo;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Think...8262624&sr=8-1

Does depend on how much you love your mum though...

[Sockpuppet]

http://scanned.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/10408.jpg

[Spacecadet]

I'm sure Dell are still supplying laptops with XP

[FarmerPalmer]

Lenovo running XP:

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:610|c:2739|m:1461| &Sort=1

I have an N200 - good piece of kit.

I also had a ThinkPad at my last 'permanent' job - which is why I bought Lenovo when I went freelance.

[MrRobin]

Dabs.com do plenty of laptops with XP on instead. Look out for the "Not ready for Vista?" 'features'.

You don't need 4gb for Vista anyway 2 is sufficient, but wouldn't go lower than that. Besides, unless you get the 64bit version of vista, it can only support 3gb RAM anyhow.

As for other features, it's always a tradeoff with laptops:

size & portability vs features & speed vs cost

[Ardesco]

I'm really liking the new HP tablets:

http://h41306.www4.hp.com/itemDetail...23&sku=KM125EA

May have to go for one when my current lappy gets too long in the tooth. Oh and nowt wrong with Vista, will do all she wants it to and it will look pretty as well. I'm sure the only reason she doesn't like it is because people constantly smack talk it when they haven't used it and really don't know what they are going on about.

[Platypus]

My mother is after a laptop. She currently has a Toshiba one from work (she is a teacher) and retiring, so, handing it back in July.

She would prefer XP to Vista.

What is the current availability of laptops with XP? Are all now in Vista?

Need a laptop that is straightforward, don’t want ‘willy waving’ technology, but, a good, solid machine that will be relatively future proof.

Maybe a laptop with 4 gig of memory may make up for having Vista.

Bluetooth would be good.

I am happy with my Dell 620, as I am very happy with it. Before I suggest a maxed out memory version of this – any other laptops to consider? Was thinking about a large screen Sony, but, I don’t know much about the Sony range.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140189

Not what you're looking for exactly, but this is a real bargain. I got one for my daughter who surfs, emails, watches DVDs and uses Word.

It's fast enough and good enough for that. Maybe Vista Home Basic isn't so memory hungry.