Lenovo S10e for less than €290, delivered

 

Cute. Small. Nicely built.

No, not Olga Kurylenko.

Blurb:

"Lenovo designed the IdeaPad S10e netbook as an introductory mobile PC for students in grades K-12 and as a secondary device for those in higher education. Ideal devices for connecting to the Internet for online research, students can use the netbook for sharing ideas and for conversation through email, social networking and other applications. Additionally, the Lenovo netbook provides basic functionality for word processing and light multimedia capabilities. A built-in webcam on the 10.1 inch display makes creating and sharing video messaging simple. And for a faster PC experience, the Quick Start feature allows students to quickly check email, browse the Internet, conduct video conferencing, view photos or listen to music without having to fully boot the operating system."

Facts:

• It's small
• It has a Splashtop style quick boot system
• It has a 1024 x 576 screen which is good for widescreen SD and little else
• It is very well made compared to other netbooks little notebooks
  
• It is €275.27 inc vat and €12.66 in shipping to the ROI at dabs.ie
  

Komplett Weekly Offers 15/09/2008

Where have I been? Deutschland! The Germans say hi, by the way. Oh, and you you know those mini satellite boxes that come in the aldi/lidl travel kits here? They cost about €30-€40 in Saturn (a retail chain like dixons or currys). My brain nearly imploded. Anyway, on to the Komplett!

Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

€ 51.00

-7%

My €0.02
Did I mention that I'm sick of the sight of 500GB drives? Yes, I think I did. Cheaper than dabs but with postage blah blah blah NEXT!

Western Digital My Book2 HomeEdition 1TB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 148.00

-12%

My €0.02
Huzzah! Now take out the unnecessary Firewire and make it cheaper.

PowerColor Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2,PCI-Express 2.0, SCS (HeatSink), DVI-I

€ 30.00

My €0.02
Thirty bucks, eh? Why can't they do this one in AGP?

Acer One A110 Aw Atom N270 1.6GHz 8.9"512MB 8GB NAND HDD Wifi Linux Blue

€ 289.00

-10%

My €0.02
Walk into any PC World and pick this up for €269.

Tchuss!

Komplett Weekly Offers 01/09/2008

Monday morning again, eh? Let's do this.

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray Player

€ 244.00

-9%

My €0.02
Personally, I would avoid Blu-Ray players. Pixmania do this one for €209 if you are keen.

Western Digital My Book StudioEdition 500GB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 112.00

-14%

My €0.02
500GB... YAWN!

Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO M9400 14.1" T7300 2.0Hz 2048MB 120GB Vista Bus

€ 759.00

-5%

My €0.02
I couldn't find this exact model. But a lower spec'ed model was selling for ~€900 on elara.

Samsung 32" LCD-TV LE32A552 --Full HD--

€ 757.00
-0%

My €0.02
Err, dunno. Seems to be popular in Belgium. Some nice features I guess but really quite expensive for a 32" TV.

Acer Aspire One A150L, £234.99 ex shipping

The blurb:

• The Acer ASPIRE One Experience
• Linpus™ Linux® Lite operating system
• Intuitive and specifically optimized software interface
• Intel Atom processor, specially designed for low-cost UMPC's
• Built-in WiFi connection and 120GB HDD

The lowdown:

• Processor: Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz Processor (533 MHz FSB, 512 KB L2 cache)
• Memory: 1GB
• HD Capacity: 120GB
• Display: 8.9" WSVGA (1024 x 600)
• Graphics Card: Integrated
• Operating System: Linpus Linux Lite
• Optical Drive: None
• Networking: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• External display (VGA) port
• Headphone/speaker/line-out jack
• Microphone-in jack
• Ethernet (RJ-45) port
• DC-in jack for AC adapter

Only an 8.9" screen vs the Wind/Advents 10" but it looks great, has a comparable spec and is much cheaper.
Play do it for £249.99 including shipping but of course they won't ship electronics to Ireland.
Shipping works out at... not sure. Waiting for a response from the sales team.

Supermarket Wars: Return of the Penny

Things have been hotting up in the world of soulless, corner-shop crushing, profit-chasing and unfortunately necessary supermarkets. Tesco have announced their intentions to help beat back the recession by offering low-quality crap for less money than usual. Not too impressed with that. However, if any of you use clubcards there is a promotion giving 25% back in points on PCs, laptops, TVs, games consoles and electrical equipment this weekend. I don't believe in the loyalty card system myself so, as usual, use your own judgment. I assume Tesco are fine for returns.

M&S Dine for Two for €12.50 is back. It's cheap and very tasty.

Dunnes were selling the old Xbox 360 Pro (without HDMI) for €180 last week. Sorry, I was on holidays.

I couldn't help but smile at Lidl Treats. I'm a big fan of some of their stuff so it's nice to find an author who does good research as well as spinning a good yarn. Prices are in Euro too, unlike the now defunct the joy of lidl. Worth checking out.

Komplett Weekly Offers 14/07/2008

I'm back! See, I haven't vanished off the face of the earth

It's Monday, show me what you've got Mr. Komplett!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 Black, 8.1MP18x opt.zoom

€ 275.00

-14%

My €0.02
Nice camera, reasonable price. You can find it for slightly cheaper elsewhere but not by enough to warrent the extra effort in my opinion. There is also a silver version which is almost €70 more expensive for some reason.

Sony Bravia 40" LCD-TV KDL-40D3500--Full HD, DVB-T, DVB-C--

€ 957.00

-5%

My €0.02
Not a bad price but I suspect the shipping might be almost €200! Strange one actually... DVB-C is the digital cable standard. Does this show the digital channels if you have chorus/ntl/upc?

ASUS EEE 7" WVGA White CM353 900MHz 4GB512MB Webcam Linux Incl. Carry bag

€ 299.00

-14%

My €0.02
Really trying to move the Eee's, Mr Komplett? It's a shame that Dabs sell many colours for less than €262.

Seagate Maxtor OneTouch 4 500GB USB

€ 79.00
-9%

My €0.02
You can get a 1TB drive for €120 these days. Twice the storage for 1.5 times the price.

Nice camera, sort out the Eee pricing and no more 500GB drives please, unless they are under €60!

Reusing old SATA drives

So I was thinking about yesterdays media case and how you can upgrade the internal drive with a larger model. I was wondering what you do with the old hard drive when you upgrade when it occurred to me that I saw a very cool solution about a year ago. Working out at about €50 shipped, the Geekstuff4U HDD Stage Rack allows you to turn your old bare drives into high speed removable media.


As a bonus, it has a slot for 2.5" notebook drives too. Great for all you PS3 owners out there!

[Special Offer] Acer laptop €399, Cork

If you're currently residing in the peoples republic, a little birdie tells me that Flor Griffin are doing a limited time deal on Acer laptops. They do good special offers from time to time, so why not have a look if you are currently in the market for a new one. For reference, Acers normally start at these prices. If you're getting a non-celeron model, it's likely a good deal.

And if anyone happens to pick one up, write a comment and let us know how you got on!

Buying a new PC

As I can somehow deduce, you occasionally use a computer. This means you are part of a greater cycle of updates, obsolescence and sometimes just plain old vanity. But do you know how to select the most appropriate source of your next purchase? Well, let's take a look at the options.

The High Street

Be it Tesco or PC World, you will pay well over the odds here. Sometimes you may see what appears to be a good deal (an iQon PC for example) but you can be sure it is either substandard equipment or old stock. The exception is a sale, but even these are highly variable. Avoid like the plague.

Dell

Ah, good old Dell. You can't open a sunday paper without having at least five brochures fall on your lap. The only thing worth buying from Dell is their budget offering. Anything else will be marked up at least twice as much as you would pay for the equivalent elsewhere. €400 laptop? €300 desktop with Monitor? €20 printer? OK. Anything else? No way.

eTailers

Assuming you want something other than a basic PC, you should look to the online shops such as komplett or dabs. They sell pre-made desktop PCs with better quality parts than Dell for a reasonable cost. Customisation options are also better. They sell big brand and more obscure laptops. Want that new ultra-thin postcard-size netbook? You'll find it here.

eBay

Getting a deal on eBay is a skill in itself. Recognising a good seller, minimising risk, understanding shipping rates are all skills the crafty buyer needs to acquire before venturing onto what could be described as the worlds biggest car boot sale. Sellers can sell directly or you can try and grab a bargain through an auction.

DIY

If you are confident, you can try a mixture of the above. A monitor from Dell, some components from ebay, a case from a dabs... its more an option for the hobbyist but by far the cheapest option for the best equipment.