Laptop Choice?

Posted on
Page
of 38
  • Ok thanks. Will probably mostly be for Skype and telly and stuff so may still consider it but will bear that in mind.

  • Looking for a £600ish Windows 10 laptop for my partner - priority being reasonably light/not too bulky and capable of me using for occasional basic video editing. Anyone have any good suggestions, bargains, etc?

  • I ordered one form the Dell outlet store as suggested further up in the thread. Windows 10 and high spec (at least the headline numbers) for around your budget. Scratch and dent version, which arrived with very minor scratches to the bottom. If you buy for the first time you can email them for a 10% discount code but they also seem to have codes displayed on the website on a regular basis.

  • Yes, I'd been looking at stuff on there based on the links further up. I'm just a bit lost with what's actually good/fast with laptops... The choice is a bit overwhelming.

  • i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD minimum at that price point. This is a decent deal: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-14-ce0501sa-14-intel-core-i5-laptop-256-gb-ssd-silver-10184651-pdt.html

    HP hardware is decent for the most part. Much of a muchness at £600. Will probably be plastic. No exotic materials here. Make sure you don’t buy a spinning hard drive. I went back to a spinning hard drive at work after 7 years on SSDs (not out of choice!) and it is bloody miserable.

  • For that price I'd be looking at 8GB of memory, 1920x1080 screen, min 256GB SSD/PCI drive and hopefully the 8th (ix-8xxx) generation processor, probably an i5.

    (Ha, looks like I should have been quicker there but at least we agree).

  • Thanks, yes - have two 500gb SSDs in my desktop PC and they make a huge difference. I worry that 256gb is a little on the lowside - though that's more for me occasionally using it where I'd be working off an external drive. For what my partner needs it'd probably be fine.
    I'm a bit lost with laptops really - with a desktop one I'd just put in a bigger SSD, but I presume that invalidates warranties, etc.
    I'm totally out of touch with processors these days, so good to know that i5 is worth looking for.

  • does anyone have a recommended supplier of laptop batteries?

    I bought one recently and it lasted for 45 minutes from fully charged to hibernating. rubbish!

  • Look like decent specs but you probably need to decide how light/bulky you want? It's generally a trade-off between light and powerful for the price.

  • warranties

    Probably but it also depends on how you get to the parts as to whether they'll know.

    On both my ancient Samsung and my other half's moderately old Acer you could access and replace both SSD and RAM without anyone knowing.

    For all your data 256GB is a bit small. But as an eg since moving the bulk of my media files to xHDDs and backups to the cloud I'm using <50GB of a 120SSD (although bare in mind the OS is much less than windows). I debated getting a bigger SSD, but I didn't think it was worth spending >£25 on such an old laptop.

    You can also use a 128GB memory card or almost flush USB memory stick - neither are expensive and give plenty of extra room if you wanted a dedicated media drive.

  • She wants light (is to replace a macbook), I want powerful (fantasies of some of my video editing work becoming portable)...
    This isn't an ideal combination is it?

    I notice it's in stock in Brixton Currys, so we could fairly easily go and look at it while also enjoying some of the world's most hopeless customer service.

  • Depends how much data you have. I store most of my stuff in the proverbial cloud nowadays so have very little on my actual laptop.

  • Mate, if it's her laptop focus on her needs not yours.

    Not sure how cheap you can find them, or how they stack up, but the Dell XPS 13 is a nice looking portable Windows alternative to Apple.

  • Well the deal was that I'll put money in, in return for being able to use it for work when we're away from home.... But she gets to set it up how she wants + I'm not allowed to put any stickers on it...
    We've been together long enough that we can probably make this arrangement work with only minimal arguing.
    To be honest I'm also quite keen on it being fairly slim/light, so sure we can find some sort of compromise. Will have a look at those Dells now.

    @JB I intermittently have huge amounts of data to deal with, but depends what I'm editing. Being realistic though, I'm not going to be attempting to edit anything major on it. But the ability to put 100gb or so on it now and then probably makes a 500gb drive essential. I've got a fast external drive though so suspect I'd just use that.

  • I've managed to break the screen on my crappy tablet so I'm looking for a replacement.

    Main criteria is 10", HD screen, slot for micro-sd, some form of video output (either HDMI, USB-C with video output, etc), non-proprietary charger (so USB-C or micro USB most likely) and lightweight.

    Budget about £400 max but preferably far cheaper (the Chuwi was about £100).

    Mainly to be used for a bit of web browsing and lots of video watching (Plex, iplayer,etc).

    Can be Android or Windows but would prefer Windows.

    Any suggestions? The Surface Go is looking like it ticks all the boxes but it's a bit expensive.

  • Mrs EB wants a Chromebook for work stuff. Looking at this Acer https://uk-store.acer.com/acer-chromebook-14-cb3-431

    Does the hive mind have any better recommendations for similar price? Cheers

  • My parents asked me for a laptop suggestion for around 700€ and I have no idea since I've been out of the spec game since I switched to a MacBook. They want it for Excel/PowerPoint and streaming mostly.
    Is the ThinkPad E series a good option? I believe any laptop in that price range should be sufficient specwise but a good display, keyboard and battery are important to me personally.

  • I have setup a few e580 and e590 laptops for clients. not something that I would buy for myself, but solid and relatively quick. the case shows greasy fingerprints very easily though. I think your parents would get on with it. it's more of a parent PC than a rad laptop

  • Would you know of any rad laptops to recommend?
    There is a Medion laptop at Aldi on sale right now which seems to be specced really well for its price but I'm afraid that things like hinge, trackpad or display are shit.
    i7-8565U
    15.6" IPS 1080p
    1TB SSD
    16GB RAM

  • Not really, I deal with business laptops mainly.

    I have a Toshiba Protégé which is alright.

    Would steer clear of Acer, never come across Medion in the wild.

    Dell XPS could fit the bill

  • XPS seems a bit out of range. But thanks, I'll look into it!

  • Sorry for jumping in here. First time on this thread. My daughters laptop just died as I was walking home from the pub! Desperate phone call with tears was not the nicest to hear.
    She is 13 and needs it for school - Word mainly I think. I had a look at Which and they recommend really expensive laptops which I don’t think she needs. I recently posted on the Apple thread about this and Apple are you expensive at this point and for her usage.
    Could anyone recommend a laptop which would work and not break the bank please.
    It’s a shitstorm here just now as she has lost her homework.

  • There's a whole range of options out there so it's useful to narrow it down a bit.

    Budget is obviously the main thing, how much do you want to spend, new or second hand?

    The size/weight, will she be carrying it around all day or is that not too important? Will it get bashed around or will it mainly be sat on a desk? Will it be used standalone or mainly with a keyboard and monitor?

    How important is battery life?

    Is it Word or is it just some form of word processor (e.g. would google docs be OK)? Is it used for anything else, gaming, programming, etc

  • Quick answers. Budget at a push £500 but £350 is more realistic. Shouldn’t be moved about too much. Word is a must as far as I can see. Battery life is not important. Will be used with its screen. Sound is not that important.
    Thanks for responding so quickly.
    And new would be preferable.

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Laptop Choice?

Posted by Avatar for Elvis @Elvis

Actions