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Affordable laptop recommendations: budget £350-£450

Slo-mo said:
If they are only 15 squid, that shifts the numbers a bit. That said, if they are that cheap, why don't manufacturers still include them?
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Weight and space mainly. Plus that's still getting on for 5% of the final retail price for something that most people don't use anymore.

One less thing to break too, I suppose. Which if you're value engineering everything to within an inch of its life has to be a consideration.
 
Thanks guys. Can I ask one last question? Do external DVD drives need a separate power adapter or do they draw power from USB?
 
Slo-mo said:
Thanks guys. Can I ask one last question? Do external DVD drives need a separate power adapter or do they draw power from USB?
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Draw power from USB

My Lenovo laptop was provided with an external DVD writer, I wasn't expecting it to be, so just something to be aware of.
 
Thanks. Hopefully my elderly Acer will limp on for a while yet but at least I don't have to rumage around on the second hand market when the time comes.

In an ideal world I'd go second hand every time for tech, but I've had too many eBay duds over the years, and the local second hand shops are overpriced.
 
450 quid for a reconditioned ASUS ultrabook ux303 with Nvidia 940m 8gb ram and 256 ssd. Looks good but from mid 2016 I guess. Bit cautious although cant afford much more really and unimpressed with new laptops I've seen around under 800 quid.

This thing should fly and only weighs 1.4kg max. But will it run ubuntu/linux ok? No fucking way am I faffing around with windows 10.

Currently running an oooooold Samsung from 2008 which is a fucking survivor. Weighs a lot but 4gb ram and ssd I installed so it flies with ubuntu/windows 7.
 
Riklet said:
450 quid for a reconditioned ASUS ultrabook ux303 with Nvidia 940m 8gb ram and 256 ssd. Looks good but from mid 2016 I guess. Bit cautious although cant afford much more really and unimpressed with new laptops I've seen around under 800 quid.

This thing should fly and only weighs 1.4kg max. But will it run ubuntu/linux ok? No fucking way am I faffing around with windows 10.

Currently running an oooooold Samsung from 2008 which is a fucking survivor. Weighs a lot but 4gb ram and ssd I installed so it flies with ubuntu/windows 7.
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Do you get a new battery? Being an ultra book I guess they are a bitch to change. Sounds good potential though.

Being unimpressed with budget laptops is why I got a Chromebook, but that of course depends what you actually need to do with it?
 
Didnt go for it.

Any tips for decent powerful but lightweight laptops folks? Under 1.6kg preferably. 500 quid max. Must must must have an ssd.

I dunno what I actually need to do with it. But aim to learn more it skills and some coding, browsing, photos and photo editing, some gaming. Words processing browsing videos downloading mucking around with ubuntu too. I want power with portability and aim to move away from windows probably.

Anything stand out I should be looking at/for?
 
Riklet said:
Didnt go for it.

Any tips for decent powerful but lightweight laptops folks? Under 1.6kg preferably. 500 quid max. Must must must have an ssd

I dunno what I actually need to do with it. But aim to learn more it skills and some coding, browsing, photos and photo editing, some gaming. Words processing browsing videos downloading mucking around with ubuntu too. I want power with portability and aim to move away from windows probably.

Anything stand out I should be looking at/for?
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Did you find anything?
I'm after something very similar (weight/portability not a biggie for me) I think so also looking for tips.
 
Bought a Dell xps 15 9550 from 2016 for 900 euros so like 750 quid. Formatted it and reinstalled windows 10 and linux mint.

It's a frickin beast. Bit outside the price range of this thread but any reconditioned or second hand xps machines going for 600-700 in the future would be an excellent investment.

It was that or a Lenovo. Some of the midrange ones look great. I would spend 500 for better specs n build quality tho probably.
 
Can anyone give me a rec please? I've done some searching but the laptop market has changed loads since I last bought one.

Him indoors needs a laptop since the old macbook pro finally died. Under £400. Don't want a chromebook because don't want to be tied into their ecosystem and apps.

Will mostly be used for work, writing, browsing, youtube, but if it can manage Civ 3 and maybe 4, and some of the gentler indie games, that would be ideal.

My own interjection into the preferred spec is as decent a screen as possible for that price (size isn't too much of a concern - not too tiny though), and SSD because I'm guessing it'll help mitigate a little of the slowness that will come from the compromises you have to make with cpu etc at that price point.

He'll be happier with closer to £350 but some arm-twisting would possibly get him closer to £400 if necessary.

Cheers!
 
My advice never changes - get a good condition used Lenovo. It will probably last for 10 years. Do an ebay search for used or refurbd with SSD and a £350 limit. The choice is huge. Pick a well reviewed youngish model with as much CPU as possible, for future proofing and gaming.
 
Check this out: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Ultrabook V2 i5 4300U 4GB 128GB SSD Backlit Win 10 | eBay Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review: Specifications | TechRadar A fairly safe buy. Loads of business sellers sell masses of these things, with a guarantee and immaculate feedback and so on. So if it was my money I'd take my time and get a more recent machine with more poke from a private seller! No guarantee but maybe an awesome deal. You can try to work out how well the machine has been looked after by quizzing the seller.

Eta: Lenovo build quality and repairability seem to me to be as good as ever. Their online support has slipped a bit...they don't help you with drivers and recovery copies of Windows as well as they used to. But I would still say they are in a league of their own for long-term ownership.
 
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I'd say Lenovo build quality is only there for the thinkpad range but still nowhere near as good as it used to be years ago, but that's down to users wanting lightweight laptops. My ideapad build quality is awful. Pretty sure it wouldn't survive a drop.
 
Dunno, I've got the Yoga 520 that we picked up new for under £400 and it's a damned sight more solid than the old Ideapad it replaced. Mostly metal construction, and that hinge is military-grade. Plus the Ideapad only felt flimsy. It absorbed a horrific amount of abuse and it still works.
 
It's probably going to be kept in the house, so robustness isn't as much as an issue as for someone carting it around all the time. (There's no room for a desktop, which of course would be cheaper, and he likes to use it on the sofa while relaxing.)
 
cybershot said:
I'd say Lenovo build quality is only there for the thinkpad range but still nowhere near as good as it used to be years ago, but that's down to users wanting lightweight laptops. My ideapad build quality is awful. Pretty sure it wouldn't survive a drop.
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My 4 year old Thinkpad 10 tablet is going nicely, despite the first owner breaking the bezel. I'm not sure what to make of it - it doesn't have a removable battery, but Lenovo doesn't discourage you from opening it up. Do the other mfrs compare? https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/videos/vid100420

Lenovo ThinkPad 10 review: a good Windows tab hurt by poor battery life

Nothing comes close to Thinkpads of yore. Stubborn IBM manufacturing bosses insisted on quality standards comparable to proper computers, so they were all sold at a loss.
 
I needed a laptop in a pinch a few weeks ago (I'm a contractor, so was better to fork out for one rather than not work at all!), and found that most of the second hand phone/electronics shops had a stock of refurb ex-business ThinkPads.

Got a ThinkPad X240 of a decent spec (8GB, i5 1.6GhZ, 256GB SSD) for £250 (was listed at £290, but he had a few so was happy to take that!). Absolutely solid, and the display on it was lovely too - if I didn't have the hassle of switching from a Mac I'd be more than happy with using one as my main computer. Windows is looking pretty nice these days.
 
drachir said:
Got a ThinkPad X240 of a decent spec (8GB, i5 1.6GhZ, 256GB SSD) for £250 (was listed at £290, but he had a few so was happy to take that!). Absolutely solid, and the display on it was lovely too - if I didn't have the hassle of switching from a Mac I'd be more than happy with using one as my main computer. Windows is looking pretty nice these days.
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I am thinking of buying one myself, just came on here to ask for tips actually. Would you def recommend? Thinkpads still seem pretty solid. I have a Dell XPS 15 but I'm going travelling for almost a month soon and I dont wanna take it with me cos it's not super light and I don't want to risk it anyway. Another option is not taking a laptop I guess...

There are X240s being sold here with 256gb SD and 4gb RAM for 210 quid, which seems like a steal. What's the display like? FHD or just normal HD? It comes with windows so will probably keep that and dual boot linux mint on it, see how that goes.
 
That does seem like a bargain, to me anyway.

This review makes me want one: ThinkPad X240s Review - ThinkScopes

Seems that this model was sold with different panels so might be FHD, but might not. You need to ask if it's a deal breaker for you. I imagine it might not be FHD considering the price, but what do i know?
 
Riklet said:
I am thinking of buying one myself, just came on here to ask for tips actually. Would you def recommend? Thinkpads still seem pretty solid. I have a Dell XPS 15 but I'm going travelling for almost a month soon and I dont wanna take it with me cos it's not super light and I don't want to risk it anyway. Another option is not taking a laptop I guess...

There are X240s being sold here with 256gb SD and 4gb RAM for 210 quid, which seems like a steal. What's the display like? FHD or just normal HD? It comes with windows so will probably keep that and dual boot linux mint on it, see how that goes.
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I can't say for certain, as I gave it to my girlfriend - will check tonight for you! I would guess at the price it was the normal HD one, but saying that it does look crisper than my MacBook Air (although that might just be because the screen is smaller).

Would definitely recommend regardless, they're a really nice size/weight for travelling.
 
editor said:
I had the X220. Fabulous machine.
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How come you got rid of it or changed? Reckon with a decent SSD and enough memory it'd still be worth using now? There's some cheap ones available second hand and it has the proper oldskool button trackpad, unlike the x240 model. I really want something cheap, light, robust and useable. I have a tablet and bluetooth keyboard and that would definitely be an option, but I like fiddling around online, writing, emailing without endless android notification and bullshit distracting me.

I guess for 200 cant really go wrong, in any case.....
 
Riklet said:
How come you got rid of it or changed? Reckon with a decent SSD and enough memory it'd still be worth using now? There's some cheap ones available second hand and it has the proper oldskool button trackpad, unlike the x240 model. I really want something cheap, light, robust and useable. I have a tablet and bluetooth keyboard and that would definitely be an option, but I like fiddling around online, writing, emailing without endless android notification and bullshit distracting me.

I guess for 200 cant really go wrong, in any case.....
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The cheap Chromebook I bought did all I needed and was faster, lighter and with a better battery life.
 
Got an x230 second hand today, in great condition tbh, the guy had 3 of them so I went for the best battery of the three after a few tests. Then I realised it slightly rattles and is very very slightly loose, so the gaffa tape has come out.

Tough as fuck machine, feels great to use and to type with, fair bit of power to it with 8gb RAM and even with just a normal HDD it's running well. Perfect for backpacking and easy to modify and fix if it goes wrong. I can see why the chromebooks are appealing, though, so will keep those in mind in future - swapping out one of the mini ssds for a 128gb one would be worthwhile, though.
 
You definitely could. I would look online for one with an IPS display though if you need colour accuracy, though. The standard display is a bit bleh, fine for me for the moment but compared to my Dell Xps it's shit. I would get one that's already got an IPS so you don't have to change it. The tablet x230T version also looks good for illustration arty stuff.

They are fricking powerful little beasts from what I've seen so far. I've just installed a Samsung 860 SSD and it's fast as hell. Well aside from the wasted hours reinstalling everything cos when I cloned the HD the windows bootloader got totally fucked up by linux one and just kept showing grub, couldnt fix it even with various tools or in command line, so I've just had to reinstall everything. Urgggg!!! But even that didn't take long with the SSD.

If you are techy and adventurous they are VERY servicable and you could get a dirt cheap x230 and then do it up, or else pay a bit more say 350 quid for one with SSD etc and already sorted. They seem seriously fixable and have a massive nerdy fanbase, plus are very portable. Worth a shot!
 
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