Affordable laptop recommendations: budget £350-£450
- Thread starter psycherelic
- Start date
TruXta
tired
The Dell ones are supposedly quite good.
editor
hiraethified
Only if they come with a full warranty.
TremulousTetra
prismatic universe
If you're not bothered about Flash, I would recommend looking at Lenovo .on my 2nd laptop,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
work horses.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I'm in the market, the build quality on the Toshiba Shatellite my mum kindly bought me is so poor that I aim to return it.
I'm looking at max £450, would prefer a processor over 2.1 gHz, dedicated graphics, pref 8GB RAM but make do with 6GB.
Sadly it's uni season and many places have sold out of the ones I want.
I'm looking at max £450, would prefer a processor over 2.1 gHz, dedicated graphics, pref 8GB RAM but make do with 6GB.
Sadly it's uni season and many places have sold out of the ones I want.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I'm taking a chance and buying an old Lenovo T400 from ebay for about £150, then spending about another £70 to drop in 750gb Hybrid SSD/HDD. You can replace the DVD drive with another hard disk if you want a laptop with two drives. Spend a bit more and you can get a T410 with an i5.
Way I look at it is I'm still running Core 2 Duo on the desktop with an SSD and it's still a very quick machine for anything I do and by buying an old corporate workhorse, it should have way better build quality then modern consumer jobs.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I still have my old Lenovo, but because I did such a hardcore wipe I've lost Windows forever (no sticker, no way to recover as like a fool my recovery media was stored in the same infected external HD
)
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I still have my old Lenovo, but because I did such a hardcore wipe I've lost Windows forever (no sticker, no way to recover as like a fool my recovery media was stored in the same infected external HD
Cheaper to buy a new copy of windows surely?
Lenovo Ideapad Z500 15.6-inch Laptop (Dark Chocolate) - (Intel Core i5 3210M 2.5GHz Processor, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Nvidia GeForce GT635, Windows 8) currently £483 at amazon
Has been as low as £430 may do so again.
Has been as low as £430 may do so again.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I'm looking at going now and getting this, as the return computer is also from Argos and I could just go and get it right now. Will I be sorry or is it a good plan, as I'd end up with two working Lenovos (one W8 and one Linux) and at some point one buy of 8GB of RAM would upgrade both machines.
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Browse?storeId=10151&langId=110&catalogId=10001&mRR=true&c_1=1|category_root|Technology|33006169&c_2=2|33006169|Laptops and PCs|33007795&c_3=3|cat_33007795|Laptops and netbooks|33014243&r_001=8|Type|Laptops|1&r_002=9|Brands|Lenovo|1&r_003=10|RAM (GB)|6|1
Also, do not fucking buy a Toshiba no matter how cheap it seems. This thing is literally not fit for purpose.
↑ This
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
You're forgetting this tale of computer woe involves my family..
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Get a Dell. Argos does them too.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I got the Lenovo in the end. *shrug*
It will be sufficient until I make some more money. TBH I'd quite like my next lappy after this to be some £1k bad-boy.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Your call.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I can't recommend this laptop enough for my needs. Bigger screen than my old Lenovo and despite not having dedicated graphics and only having minor performance improvements over my last machine - 6GB RAM and 2.6 gHz processor vs my previous Lenovo with 4GB RAM and a 2.3 gHz processor I no longer get compatibility warnings from Adobe Creative Suite CC and Illustrator and Photoshop run smoothly. Performance in this type of application was one of the things pissing me off about the old one.
The sound quality is much improved, especially in the built in speakers which are pretty impressive for a budget laptop. Build quality is what you would expect from Lenovo. The power cable is one of the new rectangular ones so less likely to get damaged. Using each new port is like defiling a virgin compared to most machines they are so well engineered.
It's doubtless possible to get a marginally better deal online but if anyone needs a £400 lappy you could do far worse.
The only bad points are that with that speed of processor the battery life isn't amazing, and it's not the lightest laptop. Definitely more than adequate as a budget desktop replacement, so perfect for my travelling/wandering lifestyle as I can cope without being able to play the latest games when I'm away but I'd be dead without my music and I do quite a lot of processor-heavy things on occasion.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
How is the build quality holding up?got one of these last week
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...14-4-ultrabook-silver-black-17056575-pdt.html
Says £499 but if you get it online they take a further £50 off if you are a new acct - I simply used a different email addy and they were chuffed
Seems good so far except for the vile Win8 as they installed OS
TremulousTetra
prismatic universe
Try here;I still have my old Lenovo, but because I did such a hardcore wipe I've lost Windows forever (no sticker, no way to recover as like a fool my recovery media was stored in the same infected external HD
you will only buy the serial key, so much cheaper, and download the software elsewhere.[/QUOTE]
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
Have you read the thread? I have a new Windows machine, the other one can stay on Linux.
I do have access to embedded versions of Win 7 and Win 8 for nowt, anyone know how to get them working in a VM on the old machine?
hipipol
Peckham Wry
Well it was doing well but is currently under repair as some fuck smashed the screen
Came back to the apt I was renting after my Mums funeral and it was fucked
Am getting it back on Monday, lets see how it fairs this time
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
Like I said my £350 Tosshiba fared rather less well.
Mouse and cursor freezing, one USB port not even wired in, had to reset w32time, audio jack lasted two weeks, hotkey driver frequently crashed, card reader not working properly, etc
dervish
if you flibble when you wibble, don't wobble
I think you have been very unlucky with your Toshiba stuff it, we've had four Toshiba's over the last eight years and they have all held up extremely well. My tecra is about six years old and still works (keyboard is broke, but a replacement is cheap). Their customer support has been fantastic as well, repairing two laptops for free that were out of warranty, one of them by many months.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
To be fair the Satellite is a much cheaper machine. I suspect it's a bit like those shonky "Whirlpool" appliances you get with a new house/kitchen, but in computer form. Not by a long shot the quality of the "real" thing.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Aye my old man got one recent. Fine for him as it never leaves the house, but the build quality seems on the shoddy side, flexes all over the place.
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
Ok. It is with barely contained fury that a mere 14 months after my last purchase (an asus transformer prime) I now need another new fucking machine.
Budget is actually zero, because I'll have to go into debt for it whatever... So probably that means as little as possible, but I might be persuaded to spend more if it ticked all the boxes.
And what are the boxes?
Must haves:
Reliability. The bloody asus was a lemon literally from week one, when it wouldn't switch on one day, and I had to send it back. Then, a catalogue of minor faults (docking station stopped charging; headphone jack died after about tenth use; a bit just snapped off the three pin plug when I put it down on a tiled floor; bits of the screen beading keep breaking off; one of the interior catches on the docking station just fell off...) I use it every day but I'm not rough and it's never been dropped or wet. It's only left the house twice in just over a year! The last two days it's been fussy about recognising either of my chargers - power supply is a common problem, over on the transformer forums. I bought yet another fucking charger (they're not cheap), because apparently that can do the trick. It didn't. Transformer is now a brick.
Must run ms office. Open office, shareware etc is no good. The fonts aren't right. I need to be able to create word, excel, publisher and ppt documents in a format that will look exactly the same as it will on my work windows pc.
Plays iplayer, 4od, YouTube AND FLASH. The last year has been like I'm accessing about 80% of the content I would like. I've downloaded various patches, plug-ins and workarounds but none have worked consistently. Maybe it's the lemon. Maybe it's my lack of skillzzz. I also want to be able to play Netflix, iplayer etc in the background while I use other tabs in my browser.
Desirable:
Might be cloud-cuckoo land for the price, but the only unambiguous, regular joy of the transformer has been the solid state drive.
Lightweight and long battery life. These were also things I liked about the transformer.
Decent front facing camera/web cam. I think the transformer is something like 1.6MP, which is pretty good for a webcam. Better than the iPad etc.
I don't play proper, graphic-heavy games, btw.
I need it for watching stuff, surfing the Internet and stuff for work as detailed above.
Budget is actually zero, because I'll have to go into debt for it whatever... So probably that means as little as possible, but I might be persuaded to spend more if it ticked all the boxes.
And what are the boxes?
Must haves:
Reliability. The bloody asus was a lemon literally from week one, when it wouldn't switch on one day, and I had to send it back. Then, a catalogue of minor faults (docking station stopped charging; headphone jack died after about tenth use; a bit just snapped off the three pin plug when I put it down on a tiled floor; bits of the screen beading keep breaking off; one of the interior catches on the docking station just fell off...) I use it every day but I'm not rough and it's never been dropped or wet. It's only left the house twice in just over a year! The last two days it's been fussy about recognising either of my chargers - power supply is a common problem, over on the transformer forums. I bought yet another fucking charger (they're not cheap), because apparently that can do the trick. It didn't. Transformer is now a brick.
Must run ms office. Open office, shareware etc is no good. The fonts aren't right. I need to be able to create word, excel, publisher and ppt documents in a format that will look exactly the same as it will on my work windows pc.
Plays iplayer, 4od, YouTube AND FLASH. The last year has been like I'm accessing about 80% of the content I would like. I've downloaded various patches, plug-ins and workarounds but none have worked consistently. Maybe it's the lemon. Maybe it's my lack of skillzzz. I also want to be able to play Netflix, iplayer etc in the background while I use other tabs in my browser.
Desirable:
Might be cloud-cuckoo land for the price, but the only unambiguous, regular joy of the transformer has been the solid state drive.
Lightweight and long battery life. These were also things I liked about the transformer.
Decent front facing camera/web cam. I think the transformer is something like 1.6MP, which is pretty good for a webcam. Better than the iPad etc.
I don't play proper, graphic-heavy games, btw.
I need it for watching stuff, surfing the Internet and stuff for work as detailed above.
This ticks most of your boxes. Not sure of the reliability of Acer laptops though? I'll keep looking.
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ACER-M3-581T-NX.RY8EK.011_1290265.html
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ACER-M3-581T-NX.RY8EK.011_1290265.html
Cost = £380
editor
hiraethified
spanglechick If I may dare suggest another Asus machine, the Asus Transformer Book T100 is an absolute bargain. It runs Windows so can do everything a regular (modest) laptop can do, has a massive battery life, and it's ridiculously cheap. It costs around £350.
Review: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/385585/asus-transformer-book-t100
And: http://www.trustedreviews.com/asus-transformer-book-t100_Tablet_review
*For what it's worth, I'm still using my Asus Android tablet and it's perfect for most of what I need to do, but I am missing some Windows features/programs when it comes to heavy duty photo back-up/editing. This T100 does look interesting.
Review: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/385585/asus-transformer-book-t100
And: http://www.trustedreviews.com/asus-transformer-book-t100_Tablet_review
*For what it's worth, I'm still using my Asus Android tablet and it's perfect for most of what I need to do, but I am missing some Windows features/programs when it comes to heavy duty photo back-up/editing. This T100 does look interesting.
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