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Affordable laptop recommendations: budget £350-£450

OK, a little bit over 450 at 479, but what do you think of the specs on this Asus touchscreen. People have been criticising the second generation intel i3 pentium processor like it is a big deal, but I wouldn't know. I'm tempted on this one.


ASUS Vivobook S500CA 15.6" Touchscreen Laptop < click for link to currys

l_19765625.jpg


Processor Intel® Core™ i3-2365M processor (1.4 GHz, 3MB Cache)
Operating System Windows 8
RAM 4 GB (DDR3)
Graphics card Integrated Intel® HM76 Express
Screen type 16:9 HD LED Backlight Glare Touch Panel
Screen resolution 1366 x 788
Screen size 15.6"
Screen features 10-point touchscreen
Hard drive 500 GB, SATA III (5400 rpm)
 
I think it's expensive for what you get, to be honest. It's slightly thinner than most 15.6" laptops, but given that none of the other specs are impressive I think it's overpriced. Is a half a centimetre of thickness and the touchscreen worth an extra £100?
 
I hate keyboard touch mice thingies. I heard there is some alternative to a normal laptop touch mouse that you can wear on your finger - some infrared thing. Editor on here was talking about the touch screen like it is a breath of fresh air. I've never used a laptop enough to have that feeling, but from using my sister's Dell now and again I could believe it is true.

As for the thickness - are we talking weight? Because yes, I think less weight is important. My main concern is the processor. I don't know how much of a limitation it really is. Would it run something like Google Chrome and Photoshop at the same time? Or would it grumble about video editing? That is the most I would use it for I think.
 
It could run two things, since there are two processors. It would run them slowly, mind you. 1.4GHz is less than half the speed of most i3s.

The weight difference looks to be a bit less than a pound. It's hardly lightweight, you'd want to look at 13" models for that. I bought a 13" Lenovo with a faster processor, a lot smaller and weighing quite a bit less last year for £350. That was a great sale to be fair, but it puts this one in the spotlight anyhow. Plus Lenovos have the nipple if you don't like the touchpad.
 
Could you give me the model so I can look that one up? Again since I haven't used many laptops I'm not sure about 13inch screens. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I am tall and don't want to be lowering my head to try and see the screen properly. Especially since I am typing CSS / PHP. I might be talking bollocks, but that is my concern about a smaller screen.
 
Having used both, I find the screen resolution more important than the size so long as 13.3" is a minimum. And for under £5-600 they all have the same low-ish resolution. The laptop I got last year was a Thinkpad Edge E320, which is discontinued. The E330 replaced it, but they appear to be out of those as well pending the release of Intel's new mobile processor. The nice trick in those is that they've managed to use a standard mobile processor in a thin and light platform. Unlike the above laptop where they've used a neutered ULV processor (which sips power and stays cool, but runs at less than half the speed) in a package that's not terribly thin or light.
 
I've happily coded on a 12 inch screen, but if I was doing it long term I'd want 14+. For coding resolution/quality is important, as is keyboard quality. Processing speed is rarely an issue. I was running huge simulations on a ULV processor, 14 inch 400 quid acer timeline. It was great for the money. I'd highly recommend looking them up if you're on a budget and want something that's lightish with good battery life.

339 quid, argos refurb: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ACER-TIME...t=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item4d0a7ce103

414 quid, thiner, lighter, new, great battery: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Trav...t=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item53f02aef8c
 
I'm after a laptop for no more than £400 - Windows 7, 4GB RAM, 15.6" screen, nothing flash just a decent machine that works well for general use. Any suggestions? Thanks :)
 
Prince Bert said:
OK, a little bit over 450 at 479, but what do you think of the specs on this Asus touchscreen. People have been criticising the second generation intel i3 pentium processor like it is a big deal, but I wouldn't know. I'm tempted on this one.


ASUS Vivobook S500CA 15.6" Touchscreen Laptop < click for link to currys

l_19765625.jpg


Processor Intel® Core™ i3-2365M processor (1.4 GHz, 3MB Cache)
Operating System Windows 8
RAM 4 GB (DDR3)
Graphics card Integrated Intel® HM76 Express
Screen type 16:9 HD LED Backlight Glare Touch Panel
Screen resolution 1366 x 788
Screen size 15.6"
Screen features 10-point touchscreen
Hard drive 500 GB, SATA III (5400 rpm)
Click to expand...

I can see why people are slating the processor, my 1st gen i3 is 2.53 gHz! :eek:

In fact bar the weight/thickness and the touchscreen those specs are near enough identical to the nearly two year old Lenovo I am typing this on right now (except I have a faster i3 processor), and all for about £20 more. :D

Sounds like a massive waste of cash.
 
stuff_it said:
In fact bar the weight/thickness and the touchscreen those specs are near enough identical to the nearly two year old Lenovo I am typing this on right now (except I have a faster i3 processor), and all for about £20 more. :D

Sounds like a massive waste of cash.
Click to expand...
Apart from the touchscreen of course.
 
editor said:
Apart from the touchscreen of course.
Click to expand...

It's a lot to give up just for a touch screen that you will rarely use. If you want to use a touchscreen all the time you'd be better off with a convertible/tablet doda, if you don't use one that much it seems a waste of cash.

Having had a convertible years ago (now sadly deceased) I found that though it was amazingly handy for several things including graphics input there was nothing that I can't make do without and I didn't actually use it that much. After all you can scan paper pictures in or use a graphics tablet, or indeed if you own a tablet use that and then move the files across.

To be fair it's the weight that might sway me towards something like that rather than the touchscreen, though it's nice to know that if I'm ever short of a hammer my trusty Lenovo could probably step in and I wouldn't fancy carrying around all the time if I had back problems.
 
I'm back in the market for a laptop - budget is £350. No special requirements apart from Windows 7 and 2 USB ports min. Anyone want to suggest what might be the best way to spend my money as this moment?

Cheers
 
porno thieving gypsy said:
I'm back in the market for a laptop - budget is £350. No special requirements apart from Windows 7 and 2 USB ports min. Anyone want to suggest what might be the best way to spend my money as this moment?

Cheers
Click to expand...
found anything?
am trying to find something around the £450 ideally with win 7 rather than 8 on it.
 
editor said:
How do you know that? I use the touchscreen on my laptop all the time, so much so that the trackpad is barely touched.
Click to expand...
Because I've had a touchscreen before and barely used it except to twizle it round flat and draw on. If they all had that hinge and were transformable it would be a different matter.
 
Number one daughter is heading off to Uni in a couple of weeks. She needs a laptop to take with her. We can't afford it, but both sets of grandparents are going to come in on the venture. We were hoping for about £300, but realise that might be optimistic.

I personally don't like touchscreens, but since Windows 8 is all the rage now, and it isn't for me anyway, that probably shouldn't figure.

I'm currently considering two on Amazon:

Asus VivoBook S400CA 14-inch Touchscreen Laptop - £386.00

Toshiba Satellite C850 15.6-inch Laptop - £315.00

What do you think? The Asus VivoBook sounds better to me, but is it worth the extra £70?
 
I'd go for the Asus - I'm an ex-Toshiba owner and now have 2 Asuses (Asi?) and the build quality etc is much better.
Disclaimer: I am just an end-user, not a geek. However one of my best friends who is a massive geek and runs a programming company also owns only Asus computers :)
 
trashpony said:
I'd go for the Asus - I'm an ex-Toshiba owner and now have 2 Asuses (Asi?) and the build quality etc is much better.
Disclaimer: I am just an end-user, not a geek. However one of my best friends who is a massive geek and runs a programming company also owns only Asus computers :)
Click to expand...
Thank you. End-users' experiences carry great weight in my opinion.
 
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