Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Affordable laptop recommendations: budget £350-£450

editor said:
I tried to do it myself with my Lenovo X200. Disaster followed :(
Click to expand...
To be fair, it should have been simple but there were some definite oddities in the way that thing works. (But it was a good lesson for the rest of us!) And secondly, anything new will be set up with SSDs in mind in the first place.
 
Is Windows 8.1 really bad or not? I'm used to Vista Home and 7 Pro. Presumably you're able to can all that tile shit and just use Windows (more or less) like you're used to? I'm not a sophisticate or anything (office and a bit of Reason - which may be a problem as I don't have a paid for copy), so not really that arsed as long as it isn't massively more confusing than what I'm currently doing.

The alternative is to buy something cheaper or reconditioned with 7 on it.
 
discobastard said:
I'm going for this one when it goes on sale. £375 (using VAT back), i5, 8GB, 1TB.

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/59414062-Lenovo-G50-70_1673073.html
Click to expand...

That's a great deal! Especially with a 4th generation i5 :)

discobastard said:
Is Windows 8.1 really bad or not? I'm used to Vista Home and 7 Pro. Presumably you're able to can all that tile shit and just use Windows (more or less) like you're used to? I'm not a sophisticate or anything (office and a bit of Reason - which may be a problem as I don't have a paid for copy), so not really that arsed as long as it isn't massively more confusing than what I'm currently doing.

The alternative is to buy something cheaper or reconditioned with 7 on it.
Click to expand...

You can use 8.1 pretty much like 7 with only minor changes to navigation n'stuff and it's easy enough. I use it and never see the tiles, just toggle it to the traditional desktop view.

If you really do hate 8.1 you may be able to downgrade to 7 with your 8.1 licence.
 
discobastard said:
Is Windows 8.1 really bad or not? I'm used to Vista Home and 7 Pro. Presumably you're able to can all that tile shit and just use Windows (more or less) like you're used to? I'm not a sophisticate or anything (office and a bit of Reason - which may be a problem as I don't have a paid for copy), so not really that arsed as long as it isn't massively more confusing than what I'm currently doing.

The alternative is to buy something cheaper or reconditioned with 7 on it.
Click to expand...

Not really. I'm a die hard linux fan, and I have a tablet with win 8 on it (not entirely legit, and set not to open in metro), I hate to say it but I actually like it. The metro tile thing is a waste of time and don't even bother to go anywhere near the "app" store but they have made some small but significant improvement to the OS. It boots faster and operates smoother, if you have a touch screen device it does work really well, once you get used to the charms (swiping from the sides, for quick access to menus, or from the top to close apps).

After reading about it and hearing other people opinions of it, I didn't want to like it, but I actually do, they have got a lot of things right.
 
I find windows eight really bloody awkward, even after several months. It keeps opening up the stupid apps page when I scroll to the right, it's not always easy to find your documents, and you have to download vlc because the version of wmp on there doesn't play DVDs. Yes, really; it's because it's cross platform and phones and tablets don't have dvd drives.

Still, considering the specs I got for 300 quid I'm very happy. It costs more to get Windows 7 and the inconvenience isn't worth as much as that.
 
TBH W8.1 takes some getting used to. But once you do it's pretty easy to never see their Apps or Start Menu splashes. Nearly everyone I know uses it that way even with a touch screen. They are a long way off from making the OS a competitive tablet IMO. I'm re-building mine this weekend and now wish I hadn't started but I had some errant processes that I couldn't pin down to one program but together they were utilising a constant 50% CPU :(

The re-build including factory reset, recovering 400gb of data, re-installing all program's and then setting all your preferred settings is a two day job. Wish I hadn't even started now but need it for work tomorrow :(
 
Lenovo G500 £300
  • Intel® Core™ i3-3110M processor
  • Windows 8.1
  • Memory: 4 GB
  • Hard drive: 500 GB
Or Acer Aspire E5-571 £329
  • Intel® Core™ i3-4030U Processor
  • Windows 8.1
  • Memory: 4 GB
  • Hard drive: 500 GB
Help me choose Urban! :)
 
Excuse me for throwing this one back in the mix, but for £265 it is a total bargain and my swanky Vaio W8.1 touchscreen ultrabook has remained untouched since I bought it.

asus-transformer-tf701t-review-2014-20-720x393.jpg

http://www.stuff.tv/asus/asus-transformer-pad-tf701t/review
http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/125230-asus-transformer-pad-tf701t-review
 
Mr.Bishie said:
Lenovo G500 £300
  • Intel[emoji768] Core[emoji769] i3-3110M processor
  • Windows 8.1
  • Memory: 4 GB
  • Hard drive: 500 GB
Or Acer Aspire E5-571 £329
  • Intel[emoji768] Core[emoji769] i3-4030U Processor
  • Windows 8.1
  • Memory: 4 GB
  • Hard drive: 500 GB
Help me choose Urban! :)
Click to expand...

Not much to choose on the minimal specs provided. The Acer has a slightly better CPUS but IMO the Lenovo is likely to have a better build quality.

Other specs would make a difference to you in terms of what you want like No and type of ports, connectivity etc & form factor.
 
Cpatain Rbubish said:
Not much to choose on the minimal specs provided. The Acer has a slightly better CPUS but IMO the Lenovo is likely to have a better build quality.

Other specs would make a difference to you in terms of what you want like No and type of ports, connectivity etc & form factor.
Click to expand...

Cheers. Looking at the screen spec in more detail, the Acer has LED backlighting. What is this, & would it be beneficial to me when using photo editing software?
 
Reading reviews of both of my choices, & other Lenovo's, the screens are shite. Realistically, I'm not going to get a laptop with a decent screen for photo editing for that money am I?
 
Mr.Bishie said:
Reading reviews of both of my choices, & other Lenovo's, the screens are shite. Realistically, I'm not going to get a laptop with a decent screen for photo editing for that money am I?
Click to expand...
Oh, I dunno. I've done photo editing on far shittier laptops. It's not like you're outputting to print, is it?
 
Mr.Bishie said:
Fortunately not. So don't be put off from bad reviews regards poor screen view?
Click to expand...
At this price range you're not going to get a wunderscreen, but it'll still be better than what most people were using 5 years ago.
That said, the screen on the Asus is a beaut.
 
editor said:
At this price range you're not going to get a wunderscreen, but it'll still be better than what most people were using 5 years ago.
That said, the screen on the Asus is a beaut.
Click to expand...

My Samsung is on it's last legs, about 5 years old second hand, & the screen is excellent. Which Asus?
 
You have to read a lot of reviews to get any balanced idea. You can always find a broad spectrum of positive, neutral and negative about anything your considering.

As to LED backlighting it can vary enormously dependant on the type and quality at the end of the day. You can read reviews of laptops that o the face of it are similarly specked e.g. QHD led backlighting where on one machine it's good and on another there are issues raised.

Sorry I'm not much help. I always look at reviews from pro reviewers but also consumers (their often more objective). I find a lot of pro reviews are based not solely on the product in question but against what they consider to be 'alike' products. Often they are not alike at all.
 
Cheers for that. I've done nothing than read reviews tbh :D & I've decided on a Lenovo Thinkpad B590 from ebuyer :)

Plus it has Win7 pro!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

editor
Recommendations: best internal HDD with 12TB+ capacity
Replies
5
Views
212
editor
editor
nick
Question Quality Laptop - what to look for?
Replies
14
Views
443
Monte
Monte
Elpenor
Help Wifi wont connect to internet on laptop
2
Replies
33
Views
704
Chz
Chz
P
Cleansing a work laptop before returning it?
Replies
5
Views
315
Kid_Eternity
Kid_Eternity
story
Home printer recommendations please…
2
Replies
46
Views
1K
danski
danski
Back
Top Bottom