Free Laptops for AOL Subscribers through Carphone Warehouse

By Bruce Stevens Technology Editor Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Interested in the AOL free laptop offer? You can sign up on the AOL site...

Is the Carphone Warehouse / AOL Free Laptop offer any good? The AOL free laptop specs The free Carphone Warehouse / AOL laptop specs are: HP Compaq 6720 Notebook Vista Home Basic 1GB Memory (learn how to upgrade this here) Intel Celeron processor DVD Writer Wireless card Media Card Our verdict on the Carphone Warehouse / AOL free laptop specs: “The AOL free laptop is not the most powerful HP Compaq Notebook around, and you will find that Windows Vista runs rather slowly on just 1GB of memory. However, this is still a very good setup. We would however recommend upgrading the machine when you sign up, or at least buying some more RAM for it. You can read more about how to upgrade the AOL laptop memory here.” - Bruce Stevens, ChooseISP's Technology Editor Things to keep in mind If you are thinking of taking the Carphone Warehouse / AOL free laptop, keep this in mind: You will be committed to a 24 month AOL contract To get the £19.99 per month package, you'll have to be in an AOL broadband area and you must take AOL's PAYG homephone talk package AOL PAYG call prices are slightly cheaper than BT, but subscription-based override services such as 18185.com will not work. Non subscription-based override providers such as Telediscount will work however. Credit checks are performed before you will be accepted Existing AOL customers, as well as TalkTalk customers are not eligible There is a £14.99 delivery charge for the laptop Interested in the Carphone Warehouse / AOL free laptop (or AOL free PS3) offer? You can sign up on the AOL site...

STOP PRESS! Carphone Warehouse / AOL is now also giving away free PlayStation 3's (PS3) as an alternative to the free laptop.

STOP PRESS! Read our update on the Carphone Warehouse / AOL free laptop offer. Updated December 2007.

FORGET a free modem, subscribers to AOL’s Broadband Wireless Plus packages are being given a free laptop in conjunction with Carphone Warehouse.

AOL, whose Broadband Wireless Plus package starts at £19.99 per month, is giving away a free HP Compaq 6720 Notebook to all new subscribers who sign up for the 24 month broadband service.

According to the suppliers Dell, the free laptop is worth around £450.

The offer is being run in conjunction with Carphone Warehouse, who own AOL, and users are expected to sign up to one of AOL’s home phone packages too. While this is not compulsory, the monthly price of the package increases to £29.99 for those who take the broadband package on its own.

No catches

Bruce Stevens, Technology editor at broadband comparison site ChooseISP.co.uk said: "We've had a good look at this package and we’re thrilled to see that it’s the real deal. AOL really are giving away a free laptop along with a very good broadband package from a well-respected and highly reliable provider."

"There are no 'catches' so to speak, but you do have to commit to AOL for 24 months and if you want the £19.99 per month package, you’ll need to sign up to AOL’s PAYG Talk package too."

The compulsory AOL Talk package is proving to be the biggest stalling block for most potential customers as many will be using subscription-based telephone override services such as 18185.com. These services do not work on AOL lines.

However, non-subscription based override services (where you manually dial an 08 number to get cheaper calls) such as Telediscount will work.

The laptop being given away by AOL is a HP Compaq 6720s Notebook which comes with 1GB of memory, a DVD drive, wireless card, media card and Windows Vista Home operating system.

Options to upgrade

Subscribers can upgrade the free laptop by adding a bigger hard drive for £49.99 or a faster processor for £149.99.

This is not the first time a free laptop has been given away to lure customers to sign up for a broadband deal. Broadband provider Orange did the same thing in the summer, but users had to sign up for the package in a PC World store.

"The Carphone Warehouse / AOL offer is the first time we've seen a free laptop being given away for online signups," said Mr Stevens.

Sign up for the AOL Free Laptop offer here

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