Compare laptops under £500 this Christmas
This Christmas PC Site brings you a review of the ten best laptops, netbooks and tablets for under £500. You’ll find full reviews and spec tables for each product simply by clicking on the name so read on to compare the hottest laptops for under £500 this Christmas.
One of the most popular laptops on the market this Christmas is the very cool looking E Series. Multimedia functionality rules with a really useful WEB button that lets you launch the Internet straight away without having to boot up Windows; this cuts down the amount of time it takes to get online by minutes.
The Inspiron 15 is another wildly popular general purpose laptop and it’s easy to see why. This is a 15 inch machine at a bargain starting price with great multimedia features and a good range of ports. Above all we like the sound on this laptop – with nice bassy tones it’s perfect for bedrooms and halls of residences everywhere.
3. Dell Streak – £25 per month
Tablets have been the big news in computing this year and those of you looking for one that’s portable and affordable will love the Dell Streak. As a device for on-the-go communication that won’t cost the earth you’ll be hard pushed to do better.
A real winner from Samsung – this 15 inch laptop comes with in a nice brushed aluminium casing with silver screen bevel and a red and black lid that gives it a very smart and attractive look. The multimedia features are great – you can watch good quality 1008p HD video and it even has an HDMI connector for hooking up to an HD TV.
5. ASUS Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection – £330
Ok so this 10 inch netbook is not the best performing Asus Eee PC netbook on the market but you just have to love the sheer glamour of a shocking pink netbook designed by one the UK’s leading fashion designers. It looks like a purse and feels like a purse, but open it up and you’ll find all the great features that have gone towards making the Eee PC one the most popular netbooks in the world.
6. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge AMD processor – £465.52
Billed as a business laptop this Lenovo ThinkPad Edge is a very high performance machine that’ll give you the more bang for your buck than any other laptop on this list. Updated with the latest AMD Phenom II processors, the X3 Triple-Core P820, makes the Edge a fast and powerful machine and can handle running demanding software like Adobe CS5.
The HP ProBook 4525s is a very light, well designed and stylish laptop with a decent anti-glare screen that is comfortable for extended use both indoors and outdoors. The hardware components are very good by all standards and you even get a choice of two hilariously named colours: Caviar or Bordeaux, sir?
8. Sony VAIO M Series – £329.97
Small sleek and classy this is the netbook most people would like to find under their tree this Christmas; it just oozes Sony sophistication. Being a netbook you only get a 10 inch screen and the engine isn’t powerful enough for serious computing, but this is a fantastic little machine for those of you looking for something fashionable to help you work on the go.
Dell is better known for its consumer friendly Inspiron and Studio ranges but this Vostro is a really classy ultra-thin laptop with lovely keyboard action and a gorgeous brushed, smudge resistant aluminium chassis. It’s a lot smarter than your average laptop, being designed primarily for business users rather than regular consumers, but it’s a great choice for those of you looking for something a bit more grown up.
This year was the year of the iPad but it ends with the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy and boy what a serious alternative it is. It is small and light, feels the perfect size in your hand and has a thoroughly gorgeous screen – always a Samsung strong point. It beats the iPad thanks to its two cameras, video conferencing capabilities, fully integrated social media hub and the fact that you can buy one for under £500. We predict that these will be flying off the shelves this Christmas.
Written by John Hillman
John Hillman is the editor of PC Site and a writer/journalist who spends his days researching and writing about new technology, cybercrime and social media.
Fri, Nov 5, 2010