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back to article 'Free' laptops - a popular temptation

'Free' laptop deals are still popular with British consumers, despite heavy criticism and claims that new mobile broadband sales are slumping. ISP comparison site Broadband Genie says half of mobile broadband sales made through its site involve laptop offers, even though dongle-only and pay-as-you-go deals are significantly …

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  1. Tom 38

    Like mobile phone 'deals'

    Like mobile phone 'deals', these rely on a percentage of people unable to multiply £35 x 24 in their heads (or more accurately, (35 - 15) x 24 ).

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  2. jake Silver badge

    Or, in the vernacular ...

    If it sounds to good to be true it always is, innit.

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  3. David Gosnell

    Quids in

    My Acer Aspire One and Vodafone 3G stick have cost me a total of about £130 in their first year of ownership, and likely about a fiver a year subsequently based on current moderate usage...

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  4. Rob Beard
    FAIL

    Low spec

    I wouldn't be surprised of some of these machines are low spec junk too that can hardly run Windows. This was certainly the case with a friend who got a 'free' laptop on a £35 a month contract, single core Celeron 1.7GHz with 1GB Ram and VISTA!

    Ran like a dog!

    But hey, it was free and they wanted it there and then (I explained they could have saved a packet by saving some money up buying a decent machine and pre-pay dongle since they were not working at the time but nooo... they wanted it and they wanted it now!).

    Suffice to say, laptop is now not working properly and the contract is still being paid.

    Rob

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    1. gerryg
      Reply Icon

      Why not turn it into a working laptop?

      Given that it can't run Vista why not stick a linux distro on it? While I'm confident that KDE4 would be fine, surely even Xfce is better than the kit not working,

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        fluxbox

        is my window manager of choice for crap hardware.

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  5. Atonnis

    There's a simple rule nowadays....

    Free......isn't.

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