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Cheap laptop recs

RickyC6

Infuriate the frog-men
Any of you fine folk needed to buy a laptop recently...? Under £300, Windows 10, 500GB HD, 4GB RAM minimum... Many options out there...thanks.
 
I would push the budget to a little over £300 and get a Core i3 processor, it is worth the extra. Otherwise, they will be pretty much the spec you are looking at, with a 15.6inch screen. Stick to most reasonably well-known brands: Dell, Toshiba, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo. Be wary of Acer, as the built-in mousepads can be sticky, and HP Pavilions tend to last about 18 months before the displays go.
 

one word of warning with an SSD based system - make sure you have a decent backup - as SSD don't last that long, and data can't be recovered from them when they do fail from what I recall...
 
Buy the best Lenovo you can afford, they have proven bomb proof for me. Or consider ASUS, I've brought a couple over the years and they have been faultless. Personally I'd avoid HP, every one belonging to me or my family has failed, including one two weeks ago where a faulty PSU made the USB ports become live at mains voltage giving my three year old nephew and my brother in law who was holding him a nasty jolt and destroying the laptop... I'll never go near one again.
 
Thanks all...and particularly Gareth for doiing my Pink Fish searching for me. The base Lenovos certainly look to be what i need (i need 2); will have a proper look now.
Robin thanks for PM - have just replied.
 
I would push the budget to a little over £300 and get a Core i3 processor, it is worth the extra. Otherwise, they will be pretty much the spec you are looking at, with a 15.6inch screen. Stick to most reasonably well-known brands: Dell, Toshiba, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo. Be wary of Acer, as the built-in mousepads can be sticky, and HP Pavilions tend to last about 18 months before the displays go.

You can get a refurb i5 T420 for around £150. It takes 5 mins to change the hard drive (5 screws) if you want SSD. Memory ditto simple to upgrade (one screw). The T420 is the sweetspot for Lenovos.

As for Acer we have a superb 13 incher i7 that makes our Macbook Air look so yesteryear. It boots from cold into Windows 8.1 in around 1 second!!! Nice touch screen as well unlike the Apple offering. Bit over the OPs budget though.

Look- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004WNAYS4/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

I'd still recommend staying with Win 7.

I've chucked out a lot of kit but still have 10 Lenovos.......

Cheers,

DV
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Agree with Lenovo - I've had maybe ten over the years and they've had hard lives but never miss d a beat. My last W520 was great and was easy to maintain and upgrade.

I'd check out eBay for refurbished, used or cheap new ones - I'm looking forward to getting my new T460 tomorrow.
 
Buy the best Lenovo you can afford, they have proven bomb proof for me. Or consider ASUS, I've brought a couple over the years and they have been faultless. Personally I'd avoid HP, every one belonging to me or my family has failed, including one two weeks ago where a faulty PSU made the USB ports become live at mains voltage giving my three year old nephew and my brother in law who was holding him a nasty jolt and destroying the laptop... I'll never go near one again.

Yep, I am not a fan of HP. The Pavilion range is built down to a price, and don't last. Certain models of business laptop you have to remove the entire bottom of the case to, upgrade the RAM (Fujitsus you unscrew a hatch, much quicker and easier)

My business is selling IT kit, every time a customer insist on a HP, my heart sinks. I just know within two years they will have a problem with it. Only other issue I have known is the Acer trackpad issue I mentioned above. All other brands are pretty reliable, Lenovo are very good.
 
Yep, I am not a fan of HP. The Pavilion range is built down to a price, and don't last. Certain models of business laptop you have to remove the entire bottom of the case to, upgrade the RAM (Fujitsus you unscrew a hatch, much quicker and easier)

My business is selling IT kit, every time a customer insist on a HP, my heart sinks. I just know within two years they will have a problem with it. Only other issue I have known is the Acer trackpad issue I mentioned above. All other brands are pretty reliable, Lenovo are very good.

HP bottom end is rubbish, but second hand refurbished Elite with new samsung ssd, windows 7 pro at £220 is spot on. I have had mine over a year no problems apart from new battery from Ebay at £15.
 
HP bottom end is rubbish, but second hand refurbished Elite with new samsung ssd, windows 7 pro at £220 is spot on. I have had mine over a year no problems apart from new battery from Ebay at £15.

Yes, bottom end/home units are rubbish, mid-range are ok-ish, up market business machines (over about £700 new) are much better. Most other brands are decent wherever in the the range you go though - I have never had a problem with Asus, Fujitsu or Lenovo, occasional minor niggle out of warranty with Toshiba, and frequent touchpad pad issues with Acer laptops (desktops are fine).
 
Yes, bottom end/home units are rubbish, mid-range are ok-ish, up market business machines (over about £700 new) are much better. Most other brands are decent wherever in the the range you go though - I have never had a problem with Asus, Fujitsu or Lenovo, occasional minor niggle out of warranty with Toshiba, and frequent touchpad pad issues with Acer laptops (desktops are fine).

yep, I have an elitebook folio 9470m and no issues in over 3 years of constant use... but after buying a cheap one, and the Lenovo G50 looks fine for me...
 
yep, I have an elitebook folio 9470m and no issues in over 3 years of constant use... but after buying a cheap one, and the Lenovo G50 looks fine for me...

As long as you aren't doing anything too heavy, the G50 is a decent machine. Believe it has just gone end of life, so deals are out there.
 
just surfing, bit of RAW image processing (canon's DPP), MS office etc... :)

Ahh, should be fine for that. My only other concern with bottom-end laptops is that upgrading RAM is a pain. Either they only have one slot, or getting to the memory slots is a nightmare because you have to take the whole thing apart. Even mid-range HPs are like this.

One thing I check these days when supplying is does it have a separate 'hatch' to access the RAM slots - Fujitsuusually do, Acer, Asus and Lenovo generally don't at the bottom end of the market.
 
Ahh, should be fine for that. My only other concern with bottom-end laptops is that upgrading RAM is a pain. Either they only have one slot, or getting to the memory slots is a nightmare because you have to take the whole thing apart. Even mid-range HPs are like this.

One thing I check these days when supplying is does it have a separate 'hatch' to access the RAM slots - Fujitsuusually do, Acer, Asus and Lenovo generally don't at the bottom end of the market.

yeah, I had a very quick look and on amazon you can get an 8gb version for over 100 quid more... this one looks decent too -
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5499317

haven't checked all the specs, but it looks to hit the spots for me... but will be looking in late jan anyway... :)
 


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