Laptop specs

I'm looking to buy two new laptops with a budget of £700. Don't need anything mental, but want programs to open faster. I am running XP on my old desktop at the moment and it's like pulling teeth at times.

I have been told that processor speed is not desperately important in that respect and that Windows 7 will make a huge improvement. Is that true?

With that in mind, I have been perusing these.

Any recommendations/advice? The budget is pretty much fixed and these specs looked reasonable. The processor capability is the unknown quantity for me.

Thanks.

Looks ok but 1 thing to avoid. DON'T USE McAfee Security or Norton! Grrrr!!

Don't worry, I won't!

Remember Norton 360 (or some other such nonsense name) virtually taking over my old laptop. Completely bogged it down. I stick to MS Security Essentials now. Though somebody will probably tell me it's not good enough, it doesn't give me any aggro whatsoever and nobody from Beijing has put their Christmas shopping on my tab so far!

So you think the processor is reasonable? It's only for browsing/streaming and paperwork really, Word etc.

This has a 3 year warranty include from John Lewis for £499.

Good deal??

Sony Vaio EH3N1E/B Laptop, Intel Core i5, 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB, 15.6", Black

In reply to a post by Guest_Again:

Looks ok but 1 thing to avoid. DON'T USE McAfee Security or Norton! Grrrr!!

This is some of the best advice one could ever fit into one sentence.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

This has a 3 year warranty include from John Lewis for £499.

Good deal??

Sony Vaio EH3N1E/B Laptop, Intel Core i5, 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB, 15.6", Black

No. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-G570-15-6-inch-Laptop...

It looks like exactly the same casing etc. but the Sony is an i5 with a 3 year warranty?

Yeah, I think they all tend to be made by the same chinese factory. I guess the warranty accounts for most of the price difference. And you can pop down to JL and buy it now.

I wouldn't personally go for a Sony, I tend to stick to HP, Dell and Lenovo (was IBM). Although saying that, I've had a lot of Acers and currently have a Samsung N150 when travelling. I've never used a warranty myself.

This is typed on a HP though.

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelaptops/product.php...
At checkout enter MVC10 which brings the price down to £350
& also purchase via quidco cashback... http://www.quidco.com/hewlett-packard/?ac
That gets you a further £35 off each purchase

Cashback isn't paid for several months though. But the MVC10 code is instant.

2 year warranty, decent processor, good sound on the laptops, decent ram and memory..

I just bought one of these myself

I'm very happy with norton on my laptop. It definitely uses less of a footprint that mcafee, kaspersky and many others.

It installs in around 15 seconds. Doesn't seem to slow my laptop down. I really cannot moan

Some of the older versions were bad but the newer nortons are great.