Laptop Choice?

I have a Dell Chromebook - the 13inch version that is surplus to requirements. Anyone interested in buying it?

I'm finally starting to accept that my ancient as fuck, hand me down MacBook Pro needs replacing. I have no idea what to look for in a new laptop. It's main uses will be streaming, a bit of occasional Photoshop and maybe an odd game here and there. I'm guessing I don't need anything too powerful for that? I'd rather spend a bit extra for something that's going to last me a good few years than get something cheap as chips that'll need replacing immediately. What should I be looking at how much should I realistically expect to spend on something decent? More than happy to go secondhand/refurbed.

£500 will get you a 3rd gen X1 Carbon i7 from Tier On.
£40 gets you a 3 year warranty

Got an SSD in the ancient MacBook?
That could be an option if not

I'd probably be looking at something in the region of £500 to last for a good few years. Try and get an 8th generation or later processor, they're much faster (a new i5 is about double the speed of an old i7).

Dell outlet store often has some decent stuff (and if you look around additional discount codes are often available). This for instance https://dell.to/38epFgY

I don't believe so. One issue is that it's now so old that Apple have stopped releasing updates for it.

Weirdly enough, out of the blue my brother has offered me his old laptop this evening. Might as well give that a punt and see if I can avoid spending £500 or so!

Getting a replacement laptop battery appears to be a complete minefield!

Can anyone recommend somewhere I can purchase a genuine Toshiba battery for a Satellite z830?

I've already had one bad experience with battery empire's green cell battery. It worked fine for a while, but then laptop refused to turn on with it connected.

Best inexpensive laptop for home use watching videos, slight word processing, nothing special 13-in screen? Needs to be able to run Cisco.

Our 6-year-old MacBook air shit the bed, but we need nothing that fancy as a replacement.

Hullo, looking for a laptop for the wife, she's hoping to start a psychology masters in September and needs a new one. Needs to be inexpensive, reliable and decent enough for windows 10 MS office, netflix and browsing the interwebs but also not be a slow and frustrating to use after 3 months. Or is this a Lenovo Thinkpad job?

X220 I've had since 2011. Just put an SSD in it and more ram. Still my main machine to this day.
Spends a lot of time on Photoshop and Lightroom. I can have 10 tabs open and still churns on. Windows 10.

I've replaced RAM, screen bezel, power socket, speaker and multiple batteries. All for chump change.
I will not be getting rid of it anytime soon.

Good to know, can't be doing spending many pennies at the mo, do you have any recommendations fora reputable dealer in refurbed thinkpads?

Newandusedlaptops4u on eBay was one dealer who was recommended on here when I last asked; so far I'm happy with the X230 I bought (about £300 with an SSD, lots of RAM, and a 2-year warranty).

what @Thrustvector said. You sort of can't go wrong. They're built like tanks and are so cheap.

Tier One.

Thanks for all the recommendations guys will get to it!

Coming back to laptops. I have to get one now, my surface is shitting itself.

I was thinking xps 13 but I cant see the point in getting the 'new' one.

I want to be able to run davinci resolve to edit video, so was thinking 1tb with 16gb ram. I would like 4k but maybe dint need it.

Would the new inspiron be faster than the 'ild' xps. It's a bit of a mind field!

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptop-computers-for-businesses/xps-13/spd/xps-13-7390-laptop/bnx73906sb

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptop-computers-for-businesses/new-inspiron-15-7000/spd/inspiron-15-7501-laptop/bn50105

Thoughts?

That new inspiron looks like it would be a fair bit faster. Better processor and a graphics card.

It's not that surprising though as part of what you're paying for with the XPS is it being super-slim and compact. The inspiron is nice enough (I'm writing this on a 13" one) but not the same class. Generally the bigger you go the more powerful you get for similar money as they're not so hamstrung by cooling and power issues.

Thanks good help. I am not worried about aesthetics or slimnes really. So inspiron sounds better choice.

I've heard in some reviews that 4k on a small screen like that isn't worth it over 1080p or 1440p. I think it drains the battery faster than a 1080p version with the same spec otherwise.

Wondering if anyone has bought the new XPS 15 9500 or has one of the previous iterations ?

If so did you buy directly from Dell? Their 1.5 star average rating on Trust Pilot is making me think it could be a mistake- sale or no sale.

I've been eyeing up a new xps 15 for a while now too. The bad reviews are apparently due to quality control issues with the track pad being loose on some units. They say its fixed now but still reports of issues I think.

Also don't want to pull the trigger if they are going to put the much better 11th gen processors in it soon, like they did with the xps 13.

There is the trackpad issue, but it also seems like if any part of your order goes wrong or you need customer support after purchase you're in for a world of pain.

I'm guessing they will want to clear their stock that has 10th gen processors before dropping the 11th gen but it would be nice.

They have also put 11th gen in this Inspiron- https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/2-in-1-laptops/new-inspiron-15-7000-2-in-1/spd/inspiron-15-7506-2-in-1-laptop/cn75601 - if the performance is such a big step up then can this rival an xps 15 with 10th gen chip and separate gpu ?

Yeah I havent purchased direct but if its 1.5 stars it must be awful.

Unsure on how they would compare across chips - the 10th gen Intel chips were pretty bad reportedly so it has put me off dropping £1500+ for a laptop with a drawback like that.

Its a shame coz apart from that they seem almost perfect

I have purchased direct and can confirm extreme pain trying to deal with their CS. I ordered a laptop of the previous model on sale. It turned out they didn't have it in stock but neglected to actually tell me this - I don't think they even knew themselves. They did ship me the accessories I ordered at the same time, which weren't much use without the laptop. It dragged on for a couple of months with no clarity about what was going on, it was pretty ridiculous actually. In the end they offered me a decent discount on a new model and some accessories and I was happy enough with the outcome.