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Laptop for £500?

foxwelljsly

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
My 2011 i7 MacBook Pro is starting to creak a bit and will need replacing soon. I'm happy to go windows this time round.

What's the best deal out there on a W10 laptop for £500? Happy to look at recon models.

Will be used for A/V streaming, transcoding audio files, music library management, occasional blast on steam and I may need it to spin up a plex server from time to time - all things my Macbook used to be able to accomplish with ease.

I like Lenovos, but am happy to consider other brands - I'm sure they all come out the same Foxconn factory anyway.

cheers
 
Probably not what you want to hear but I’d rather use even a ten year old MacBook Pro than anything Windows.

So if it were me I’d spend the £500 on the best used MacBook Pro I could get. IMO it’ll be way better than anything Windows you’d get for £500.
 
As above. I looked at second hand /refurbished Macs for my parents at around that price range and was surprised about how much it would get you.
 
Put 'tier1online' into Google, they do refurbed Lenovo & Macs, less than £500.just bought my son one for uni.
 
First off what is wrong with the Mac? It may be fixable. However I guess you are stuck at High Sierra. The 2012 models will run Catalina.

You should be able to get a nice T series Lenovo for that price or less. Something with a recent i7 quad core CPU with 16GB RAM and an SSD+HD and also a fast GPU.

These machines are easy to upgrade disk and RAM and just need a screw driver.

I have a 2007 T.60 thats really been through the wars as my daughter used and abused it for years. It still works well running Win 10 Pro and Linux.

You will be able to run macOS in a VM under Win 10 but no OpenGL and limited graphics RAM.

Cheers,

DV
 
This looked like decent value, and seems to have a good review on independent review sites so long as you're not too fussed about it being a TN panel - HP 250 G7. There is an even cheaper version on the same site using a CPU graphics solution but for the extra I'd look at this one (and Quidco is available for the site)
 
One day, one day, PC makers will catch up to apple with regards to the track pad then we will have a genuine fight on our hands.

Touch screen aint it sorry.
 
I currently use a Macbook Pro (late 2013) and it runs both W10 and Mojave. W10 is very snappy indeed, so much so than my collegues' real PCs. I for one would not for the world buy a plastic PC either. Yuck.
And Windows sucks as it always has. And it's uuuugly too. But since my 50 PCs at work use it, I just have to have one too. Only it's on a Mac! ;)

I've had only bad experiences with HP laptops. Noisy and slow.
 
No doubt you can buy a shit pc laptop. Equally you can buy seriously good laptops, however they are similar price to apple offerings.

the reality is 500 is going to get you a seriously mediocre pc laptop, which will reinforce the idea that mac is better. Shame because 1500 quid pc laptops are great.
 
Yes but you can't run Mac OS on them, not really. And Macs are so light and silent... all the great PCs I see are big, heavy and noisy.
 
garyi said:
the reality is 500 is going to get you a seriously mediocre pc laptop, which will reinforce the idea that mac is better. Shame because 1500 quid pc laptops are great.
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I don't get this "you have to spend £1500 or it's crap" bit . My laptop is 9 years old, cost £450 and is Asus brand. Other than a battery every 4-5 years it's never missed a beat. It does everything I ask it to.
 
No doubt, but its plastic, the keyboard bends when you touch it, the track pad is crap and the screen is not great.

Macs are built far far better. My only point was if you are willing to spend the money, Dell/HP/Lenovo etc have all caught up in that respect, brands like razer are killing it. But you have to spend the money.

500 quid will get you a mediocre laptop.
 
chartz said:
Yes but you can't run Mac OS on them, not really. And Macs are so light and silent... all the great PCs I see are big, heavy and noisy.
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Indeed if you need mac os for some reason then there really is no choice. Personally i think Windows and MacOS are great.

I use mac for laptops, PC for desktop.
 
gintonic said:
that really isn't true anymore. In fact our technicians get more of macs in for repairs than our surface 4's or Surface Laptops.
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I've owned 6 desktop and 3 laptop Macs since '96, all bougth 2nd hand except for the first 3 desktops.

The only problem I've had has been with optical drives, and only because I use them to rip CDs. Too much ripping will inevitably end up damaging your drive.
 
gintonic said:
well clearly you haven't seen them all.



that really isn't true anymore. In fact our technicians get more of macs in for repairs than our surface 4's or Surface Laptops.
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Actually I hear where you are coming from. I have had the keyboard replaced on my mac (well they had to replace the whole base) and they had to replace the screen as well. The upside of course is this was done for free and in good time. Not something you can say for microsoft sadly.

But in principle they are well built, i.e. solid, trackpads are great, screens are great, quality finish etc.

But yes not without their issues, I expect the next gen will get rid of the shit keyboards and they should be back on track.
 
garyi said:
No doubt, but its plastic, the keyboard bends when you touch it, the track pad is crap and the screen isn't great.
500 quid will get you a mediocre laptop.
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Yet this apparently mediocre item has been in the repair shop no times in 9 years. Its plastic body is fine barring wear on the contact points. The keyboard still has all its keys in spite of being worn shiny, the track pad works fine and the screen looks fine to me. At £450 that's £1 a week. Your "better" machine's been in the repair shop twice. Mine just works. You pays your money and you makes your choice. Mine's made, YMMV.
 
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