Mine is on the way out and just wondering if anyone can recommend any?

I'm after a built in Web cam and my top end budget is £700, do any come with Word and Excel [need this for work] as standard?

Finally i hear people can extract passwords and other sensitive information to defraud you when laptops are thrown away, how do i clear said information especially as i do most of my banking and shopping online?

PS, not interested in Apple products

Cheers in advance HY

Are you after any specific type of hard drive? And what size RAM and Hard drive do you want?

I'm not too techi so basically the best i can get for 700 notes with a web cam and excel already installed.

You can choose practically anything for that and it sounds like you don't want to do anything more strenuous than business like work, so anything under £700 would be fine; in fact if that's all you want you don't really need to spend that much.

You won't find many laptops with Office (Excel and Word on) as standard though, not the full versions anyway, most do have the starter versions (which have ads on!). I do know you get OEM versions of office if you were to buy a Dell it's about £100 extra (last I looked) and their laptops are a little pricier (and not the greatest quality but certainly not the worst!) but you can easily get one that would be good for you from them with Office for less than £700.

Does it HAVE to be Microsoft excel? Many different softwares out and about as good.
Open Office?

Nothing wrong with Open Office and it's free.

Yes i use excel at work, what i don't finish at work i email to my laptop and finish at home.

You could still do that with Open Office it's capable of reading Office formats, however some formatting (in Word) can go awry sometimes if you do.

I have in the past emailed what i thought was fairly basic stuff to find it's not compatible with my laptop and mean't staying in work longer to finish stuff off, which i hate, especially as sometimes i want to beat rush hour traffic which in London is a massive pain in the backside and can add an extra 45 mins on a journey.

Probably worth spending the extra in that case.

If you know a student in any way you can get it cheap from software4students most of the time (£50ish as opposed to £180ish).

Your best bet is Dell outlet, they have some great spec laptops for a lot less than they cost new. Most are customer returns that in most cases are still brand new, its where a customer has had a change of mind or Dell have sent them the wrong spec and they have been returned etc. Its just by law you can't then sell them as brand new once they have been opened and returned. outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/Inve ... l=en&s=dfh

Your best bet is Dell outlet, they have some great spec laptops for a lot less than they cost new. Most are customer returns that in most cases are still brand new, its where a customer has had a change of mind or Dell have sent them the wrong spec and they have been returned etc. Its just by law you can't then sell them as brand new once they have been opened and returned. outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/Inve ... l=en&s=dfh

Ive sworn by HP laptops for years (currently using a g61) they are bullet proof and wont let you down

Stay clear of dell, most of the ones my mates got at uni broke withing the first 6 months. try and go for a samsung or an hp. Not sure what model etc, because i use a mac, and you don't want one of those.

Sony is the most reliable from my experience (work for a computer repairs company) HP have a high percentage of new models that fail almost immediately.

Basis for this is their attitude;
Sony go through rigorous testing before releasing any products hence the higher than average price tag but extremely reliable products and quality business reputation.
HP will fire out the blocks making the new technology available first but barely do any testing, so can offer their products slightly cheaper than other manufacturers. So we find that the customers are actually the testers of the products!

Obviously your laptop will be in warranty anyway so it's not much to worry about bar a minor inconvenience - After a few years there's not too much difference between the two in reliability, Sony again just edges it.

My personal experience - Steer clear of Packard Bell, blummin' useless!

My advice would be not to spend £700. I use mine for work, Excel and word mainly. Paid £300 from argos for a low spec Hitachi. Bit slow (but quicker than the network at school), but does the job. I'm not gaming on it, so why do I need shed loads of RAM or a top graphics card? Save yourself a couple of hundred and use the cash to come to a few extra home games next season. I managed to get office 2010 pro for free!