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Cheap laptop recommendation

neilmack

neilmack

pfm Member
I'd appreciate some help finding a replacement laptop. What's the best bang for buck in a conventional laptop at the budget (£300-£350) end of the market? Does need a hard drive (at least 500GB) and prefer minimum 4GB RAM. No need for touch screen, detachable screen etc. Windows rather than Chromebook.

I'm reluctant to spend more, because I never seem to get more than three years out of a device, and I'm not a power user.

Any thoughts on brands, models or retailers?

Thanks.
 
I'd recommend a refurbished business class Lenovo (or -maybe a Dell) from a reliable source(some people have used newandusedlaptops4u on a well known auction site with good success. I have done some business with http://www.scctrade.co.uk which was also fine although their prices have gone up since then and they don't include the power bricks, which add to the listed price).

For less than half of your budget you could get a Lenovo T410 or X201 (or Dell E6220), and have some money left to buy a 500GB SSD drive (In the case of the T410, you could buy a tray for a second drive and get a conventional HD to add storage capacity). These machines come typically with 4GB of memory and Windows 7 Pro (which can be upgraded to Win 10 for free)

They will have an early generation i5 processor (typically), which is more than enough, and adding an SSD will make them very responsive. They are well built, mechanically strong, and spare parts / expansions (additional batteries, memory, docking station, etc.) are easy to find and fairly cheap.
 
I did pretty much what Eiffel suggests for my daughter. Bought a Win 7 Lenovo G50-30 and upgraded to 8Gb ram and a 256Mb SSD. Works very nicely and is pretty fast now and all in was about £330 I think.
 
I would buy something like this http://www.thelaptopcentre.co.uk/re...-ram-250gb-hdd-windows-7-pro-dvdrw-wi-fi.html

You can have it with a 240GB SSD for an extra £75 and then buy an ultrabay for £13 like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AQOI7GE/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21 where you can stuff a bigger SATA disk. You may already have a suitable spare in your old machine or a new 500GB is only around £30. I make that £360 in total.

FYI I currently have a 7 year old T.60 next to my 17" Dell running Win 7. Its been through the wars with my youngest taking it to school etc then my wife had it. I put an SSD into it and it flies OK you won't run the latest games but for all usual stuff such as email, web browsing, photos, vids etc works a charm. I have 10 Thinkpads all still working going back to around 2000.......

Built like a tank and can be serviced with little more than a screwdriver. Service manuals available on the web for free.

Cheers,

DV
 
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I have a Lenovo x220 which I bought following the useful recommendation on here. It's a core i7 with 8GB RAM, IPS panel and a Samsung 120GB EVO SSD. Marvellous machine, but it took me a bit of trial and error to get there.

Ebay can be a bit hit and miss. I would NOT recommend the ebay seller `3000rpm'. The first x220, bought from there, was really tatty, the original Lenovo keyboard had been replaced with a tacky and cheap looking chinese replica. The return process was painful.

The second x220, the one I have now, was purchased from a serious ebay seller in Germany. If interested I can go and look for the ebay username.
 
Asus ASUS X555LA-XX290H, Core i3 processor, 15.6 inch screen, 4Gb RAM, 500GB Hard disk, £350 delivered.

PM me for more information
 
As a Thinkpad user of 15 years, I would advise steering clear of Lenovo. The Thinkpads used to be superb, bullet-proof machines, but they ain't what they used to be. My past couple (top of the range developer spec machines) have been utter garbage.
 
I was in currys the other day, they had an asus machine in there for £280 with a all the specs you list... And some. I brought an asus machine four years ago and it's still in excellent condition and working perfectly.

Lenovo are another good shout, never had issues with a Lenovo. Every HP/compaq that. Or my family has owned has failed beyond repair within three years so I wouldn't recommend them.
 
Thanks guys.
I'm studying a refurb T410/420 against a new Asus i3 on special offer at the moment. The speed available from solid state drive looks rather tempting, but, surprisingly, at least according to CPUBOSS, older i5 processors are scarcely faster than more recent i3 chips. Now is never the time to buy technology!
 
neilmack, if you compare the spec sheet, I suspect Thinkpads such as the T4xx or X2xx may not look that much different from an Asus or other consumer grade machines.

Things like build quality (metal hinges, etc.), ease of upgrade/repair, keyboard feel, ease of replacing batteries (and spare battery availability), and better components (e.g. Intel network interface cards rather than Realtek ones) are worth considering
 
We have 3 thinkpad T4x in the house. Two were bought second hand very cheap. One shipped with a spinning disc which I replaced with a SSD. All work faultlessly and are silent.
 
I'm writing this on the Touchpad T410 that arrived yesterday. It's a refurb. example with a new 240GB SSD running Windows 7. First impressions are very positive - excellent keyboard, crisp display, and really very quick. And it's beautifully quiet - the user experience has the serenity of the iPad, without the endless foibles. And all for £224!

Thanks guys.
 
Specs:
AMD A10-7300 Quad-Core 1.9 GHz Processor
8 GB DDR3 RAM
1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen
Windows 8.1, 5-hour battery life
Check detailes
 
This laptop is quite different from the used X or T series Lenovos mentioned above, which were high end professional workhorses, designed for demanding buyers.

The Z50 seems to be more of a run-of-the mill entry level / consumer grade laptop (poor glossy screen, so-so keyboard and build). It's new, relatively cheap, but won't last as long as the X/T series and will be more difficult to upgrade/repair (no interchangeable batteries, etc.).

To me the Z50 doesn't represent great value (even if performance is decent for the price).
 
when i wanted a new laptop, and did not know which one to get, when seeing students in the pub ask them which one they used after a weekend grilling them as they do hammer them, spill beer on them, drop them , use them heavily, most of them liked an ACER ,,job done ,,and great value for money , had mine for three years now, great machine never looked back,
 
I'm a big fan of Thinkpad's too. I'm writing this on a pristine T61 which I picked up dirt cheap on eBay. I also have a T410 and X300. All run W10 just fine and I have fed them SSDs and more RAM to keep them happy.

However if you are after new, I have just finished setting up a Thinkpad E550 for a friend. I have to say I was very impressed with the build quality, keyboard and speed, even though it is a lowly i3. Specs are i3, 4GB, 500GB (spinner), W7 Pro and 15" screen.

A bit more than you were planning to spend at £380 from these people, but if I was buying new personally, then it's a range of Thinkpads that I would think about.
 
For cheap laptops I like the secondhand Lenovo line. Cheap, fast enough, and not too difficult to repair with easy to find parts and DIY videos. After replacing a HDD in a MBP I said never again to Apple's anti-consumer repair crusade and dick you with a dongle dalliance.

I'm on my 2nd T430 running Linux after the first one developed a video issue and I bought another for parts. First one was $175 USD and the parts unit was half that. The video issue turned out to be a loose LED connector and I later bought a high res screen cheap for the parts unit and wound up with two of them for less than $300. Both are i5 (4 virtual cores) with 8/500.
 
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