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I've got about £300 to spend on a PC laptop. I don't want anything to do with Apple, and wouldn't be able to get anything decent from them for that price anyway. But...
I am having a hard time navigating the incredible variety of specs out there when it comes to laptops, especially when I don't even really understand what's current.
I want:
1. a solid machine that does NOT have to be especially small or light
2. a decent-sized screen
3. a fast processor
4. the ability to use full MS Office, manipulate photos (& possibly videos and voice recordings), browse the internet without trouble or slowing down
I don't mind if it has, but don't actually need:
1. a touch screen
2. a large hard drive (I figure I can always plug in an external if necessary)
3. a disc drive (although I suppose I could use it to watch films that we have on dvd and upload some of my old music)
I once bought a new HP from Tesco that I thought would fit the bill. It certainly looked nice, but it was made entirely of plastic and felt flexible, so was not confidence-inspiring. Plus, it was pre-loaded with so many pop-up programs that it was almost unusable. I would rather buy refurb on the basis that, although my budget is small, I figure I can get more for the money than I would new.
So what should I be looking for?
Try the Dell outlet? I'm very happy with mine from there (more than your budget though)
Lenovo T-series (so T430 / T440 / T450 / T460 in budget). Enterprise/corporate standard issue because they're nicely built, 14" screen, decent keyboards, and easy to fix or swap out memory, hard disk etc.
Lots of corps lease them for 3 or 4 years then they end up with companies that refurb (usually just give a quick clean and wipe/reinstall Windows), endless choice on ebay. Should be able to get a later model with 8GB RAM and an SSD easily for £300.
I'd avoid anything with glitter on it.
Or any one that claims to have been fixed by someone named Jim.
I will, but even at the Dell outlet, there is an assumption that you know the difference between things like a Pentium processor (I didn't even know those were still around!), and an i7 etc.
1. a solid machine that does NOT have to be especially small or light
2. a decent-sized screen
3. a fast processor
4. the ability to use full MS Office, manipulate photos (& possibly videos and voice recordings), browse the internet without trouble or slowing down
I don’t mind if it has, but don’t actually need:
1. a touch screen
2. a large hard drive (I figure I can always plug in an external if necessary)
3. a disc drive (although I suppose I could use it to watch films that we have on dvd and upload some of my old music)
1 & 2 - 15.6" is the most standard size these days, and suits both of these purposes.
3 The processor has always been the headline grabber of PC sales for years, but it's rarely the bottle neck to performance. I'd be looking for a 6th or 7th Gen i5 or an 8th Gen i3 (these are Intel CPUs) for this as a sort of loose minimum.
4: Look for 8GB of RAM, but it's usually easy to upgrade, but any of the above will do this fine.
Don't minds:
1) you don't want this at this price point, or indeed ever. Windows isn't very touch orientated and it means either a smudgy screen, extra expensive and weight and usually both.
2) The biggest bottleneck to performance is the disc, You want an SSD (solid state drive) they typically come in 128GB or 256GB at this price point. Far better this and an external drive than a 1TB PC world spec HDD>
3) optical drives are getting very rare, they're seldom used these days. A better machine with an external optical drive for occasional use will be better than a bad laptop with one.
You definitely want an SSD drive. Refurbishes are now typically speccing these instead of physical drives for reliability. I’d be looking for a Lenovo Txx with 8GB min and 256 SSD. I’ve previously bought X220 and X240s. Smaller with docking stations for Uni duties. Both with i7 processors. I liked them so much I bought a new X280 eventually.
Ive recently bought a MacBook Pro with quad i7 and dvd Rom drive, but it was double your budget (needed the OS for son1). It’s not light and doesn’t have the price gouging retina screen. But is a nice device.
I think this ticks your boxes..
I use a T440 for my main computer, and it's pretty rock solid. It's certainly shrugged off a fair selection of knocks and bangs.
I have a dell outlet 15" inspiron.
No problems after nearly three years. Got a backlit keyboard as well which is handy.
Check dell outlet UK on Twitter as they are always putting discount codes on there anything between 10% to 20% off the prices on dell outlet website.
Itzoo is worth a look it's where my IT mate buys his from
Mines from there too
Had one from here for 2 years now as my Zwift/Turbo interface. I paid £229 and its was delivered clean with Windows 10. Battery doesn't last long running Zwift but I'm not bothered.