What should I expect to pay for a new laptop?

look forward to the advice,this laptop is on its way out so my plan for today is to list all the bills,passwords etc that I use on it so I can make a seamless move to a new one when I finally decide which one ..not Apple for me either This is a sony Vaio which has lasted remarkably well but not made anymore otherwise I'd buy the same again .

decide what you want it to do for you first of all, how fast do you want it to go? how much storage? ie are you going to be storing photos etc on it? portability? are you likely to be taking it on holidays? what is your budget? I must admit I've always purchased my pc's/laptop/ tablets from either Argos or PC world and had no problems what so ever. Have a look at their websites and see what takes your fancy

I use my iPad for everything and can carry it around wherever I want It cost me £319 new and yes I had to save up but worth its weight in gold I very very rarely use my laptop any more

My son and my OH have both got mid range (£400) Lenovo laptops, both fine for everyday use and watching tv etc.
I have a Sony Vaio too which has been good, but as paddyann said they are no longer made. I go to PC World to look at them, never bought mine from there though - they always try to add extras you don't need. My OH bought his from there and the stuff the chap was trying to get him to have, and they said it would need to be loaded up by them for a small charge of £35! What twaddle, and I told him that lol. Think he thought here's two oldies, can dupe them. When we said we would go elsewhere if that was the case he suddenly "found one already done so we could have that and no charge". They will also try to sell an expensive office programme, there are plenty of free ones.
My son bought his from John Lewis, good price and three years warranty at the time.
I have an iPad as well but as it's smaller I find it a pain to have to hold it and to type on, laptop much easier to work round. I wouldn't bother getting another one.

I have been saving for a couple years ready for replacement and have decided I will probably get a Mac next time. Expensive but worth it from reviews.

I have used an Acer laptop for 10yrs now and its still in good working order the only thing which made me buy the Samsung that I amusing now was the weight of it if I needed to take it with me anywhere,
I would never paymore than £350 and would expect it to be loaded with my information for that price.JLewis are very good and prices are excellent.

I use my iPad and phone for everything rarely use my laptop anymore.

this slim line HP was on offer at Currys in Jan £180, not loads of storage memory etc but great for surfing the net. Good luck

Hmm. Thanks folks. I'm glad I asked 😉
I think I'll probably go with his cheaper recommendation and I promise not to blame any of you if it's rubbish.

I recently bought a lenovo from Amazon 15.6" Laptop AMD 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Windows 10.
It's great and can't see any reason to pay more.

If you have a good internet connection, you could consider a Chromebook. No updates or virus protection needed and documents stored in Google's cloud, although I think you may have to pay for storage after 2 years, though not really expensive. I've included a link about Chromebooks, although the devices in the article are priced in dollars, you can easily see that the sterling equivalent for basic models is pretty cheap.
www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebook-buying-advice
Personally I believe, especially with computers, you get what you pay for. Work out what you want to use it for first, then find a computer that will do it. I would try and find a retailer who has someone sensible to advise you (good luck with that one).

My laptop is an Acer from Argos i think it was £299, and is fine for what i need it for,i dont download music etc, i could but dont bother. but i can get BBCI player etc, and watch films , plus my banking and ebay, in fact all i need,

You can add extra storage with an sd card if needed NOT as I mistakenly said once, an STD card

I have a Lenovo notebook....a small light laptop that does all I need. It cost £120 a couple of years ago.
A good compromise between a big laptop and a tablet.
I don't think you need to spend a lot unless you are a gamer or business user as the technology goes out of date quickly and you'll need a new one before long.

I have a Lenovo desktop PC, an Acer laptop and a Lynx 10" tablet for taking away, the grandkids have Acer laptops - can't fault any of them, all bought online from either Argos or PC world, they were all on offer. Just don't be bullied into paying for 'addons' or setting up

The one thing I would say is NEVER buy a Lenovo laptop.
I bought mine 5 years ago cost around £400 with 1 TB of storage.
I had problems in the first year with the webcam, it had to be returned to Germany and it came back with applications installed on it which weren't there when I returned it.
Had to return it twice more to Germany in the last three years because of various things going wrong.
It's out of warranty now and as gone wrong three times in the last year, had it repaired by a local man. This last month went ago could not sign in blank screen but this time son repaired it.
It's been a complete nightmare.
Avoid like the plague

Thankyou for all the advice and suggestions which I have taken on board. I have struggled with my wee one for years with plug- in WiFi when its connections failed but mainly just being so slow and taking an hour to start up.

I've ordered a midrange HP notebook with enough power for my needs. The local IT man will sync it all for me, I hope, and I'll be a computer user again. Hooray. I'll report back when it's working.

Interesting to see the comments about Sony Vaios, I had one it was the best I ever had, sad they are no longer making them. I have a Lenovo at the moment, probably cost about £350 vastly inferior to the Sony, in fact it's playing up at the moment, so would really like something better.

I'm planning to replace this ancient Toshiba within the next six months, and update to Windows 10, so I've read all the above with great interest. There's so much to choose from it's hard to decide.

Hi! Today you can find a lot of laptops for under $400. And really good ones too. For example, here are a whole bunch of them: www.kyleshardware.com/best-laptops-under-600/
I have the Acer Aspire 1 that I a very happy with. And I got it for $250 on Amazon.
Good luck!
Cathy

I got a Lenovo laptop and touch wood it's been all right. I paid around £400 at a local shop, they set it up and transferred the stuff from the old one onto it as that's beyond me. Whenever I've a problem I take it in and they help me out - service with a smile. They're never ever made me feel foolish about not knowing something even though I often think that I should wear a dunce's cap regarding technology.