| Laptop advice 15:53 - Feb 3 with 2989 views | itfcjoe |
Off back of lack of motivation thread....need a change of scenery so want to get out of my office
Want something with a decent sized screen, mainly be word processing and Excel but will be wanting to play the odd game of FM on there too....have PMd DanTheMan who is always helpful, but any advice would be great.
Don't want to spend loads, but need it to last me a few years |  |
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| Laptop advice on 16:18 - Feb 3 with 2623 views | Basuco |
I have a Toshiba Kira and would recommend one. |  | | |
| Laptop advice on 16:38 - Feb 3 with 2570 views | CrayonKing |
Understand you're probably not looking for a Mac but I've been completely blown away by the new M1 MacBook Air. Upgraded from last year's Intel one and the difference is night & day. |  | | |
| Laptop advice on 16:41 - Feb 3 with 2557 views | Bluefish |
You will get lots of suggestion of stupidly over priced and over powered machines. Personally I would got an HP touchscreen windows one from Currys a few years ago and it has been spot on for the needs. Wasn't sure about a touchscreen because have ipads but it is much easier |  |
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| Laptop advice on 16:51 - Feb 3 with 2528 views | giant_stow |
My advice: don't be afraid to buy a second hand. I'm on an i7 x1 carbon, 8gb ram, 256gb ssd and its done me well. Can't even remember when I bought it, but the screen is caked in my coughs and sneases, so going by that, I reckon it must be 3 years old and going strong. |  |
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| Laptop advice on 16:54 - Feb 3 with 2516 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Laptop advice on 16:51 - Feb 3 by giant_stow |
My advice: don't be afraid to buy a second hand. I'm on an i7 x1 carbon, 8gb ram, 256gb ssd and its done me well. Can't even remember when I bought it, but the screen is caked in my coughs and sneases, so going by that, I reckon it must be 3 years old and going strong. |
"Don't be afraid to buy a second hand ... [mine] is caked in my coughs and sneases [sic]"
Might want to buy some alcohol screen wipes with it too! |  |
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| Laptop advice on 16:56 - Feb 3 with 2510 views | itfcjoe |
| Laptop advice on 16:38 - Feb 3 by CrayonKing |
Understand you're probably not looking for a Mac but I've been completely blown away by the new M1 MacBook Air. Upgraded from last year's Intel one and the difference is night & day. |
I'm PC everywhere else in main office and home office so need to stay with that in reality | |
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| Laptop advice on 16:57 - Feb 3 with 2505 views | giant_stow |
| Laptop advice on 16:54 - Feb 3 by Nthsuffolkblue |
"Don't be afraid to buy a second hand ... [mine] is caked in my coughs and sneases [sic]"
Might want to buy some alcohol screen wipes with it too! |
Yes Joe, buy wipes, don't be like me, I'm scum, but its too late to change now and I like my collection of splutters. They're my friends. [Post edited 3 Feb 2021 16:57]
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| Laptop advice on 17:00 - Feb 3 with 2488 views | Herbivore |
I got a Lenovo Ideapad about 3 years ago for around £350 and it's been great. Not had any issues with it, it runs smoothly. Like yourself I use it for Word, internet, and occasional Football Manager, plus Teams calls for work, and it handles it all well. Battery life is still good even though I tend to run it off the plug most of the time. This is my first laptop with a SSD and I'd recommend it, definitely seems to run more quickly and with cloud storage you don't need to worry about lower internal HD capacity these days. |  |
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| Laptop advice on 17:02 - Feb 3 with 2478 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Laptop advice on 16:57 - Feb 3 by giant_stow |
Yes Joe, buy wipes, don't be like me, I'm scum, but its too late to change now and I like my collection of splutters. They're my friends. [Post edited 3 Feb 2021 16:57]
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Your own germs isn't the problem.
It is buying the second hand ones in that I was referring to. Hence, why alcohol ones! | |
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| Laptop advice on 17:03 - Feb 3 with 2473 views | giant_stow |
| Laptop advice on 17:00 - Feb 3 by Herbivore |
I got a Lenovo Ideapad about 3 years ago for around £350 and it's been great. Not had any issues with it, it runs smoothly. Like yourself I use it for Word, internet, and occasional Football Manager, plus Teams calls for work, and it handles it all well. Battery life is still good even though I tend to run it off the plug most of the time. This is my first laptop with a SSD and I'd recommend it, definitely seems to run more quickly and with cloud storage you don't need to worry about lower internal HD capacity these days. |
yeah ssd is a must now I think.
Bought a Lenovo Ideapad for my boy recently for school - it has a better spec than mine and is like sh1t off a shovel. £300, but that was mates rates from a techy i know. | |
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| Laptop advice on 17:03 - Feb 3 with 2472 views | giant_stow |
| Laptop advice on 17:02 - Feb 3 by Nthsuffolkblue |
Your own germs isn't the problem.
It is buying the second hand ones in that I was referring to. Hence, why alcohol ones! |
Ah, sound advice! | |
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| Laptop advice on 17:04 - Feb 3 with 2475 views | DanTheMan |
"Hi Joe, my only advice would be to get an i7 or equivalent if possible, as opposed to i5 chip"
This is not good advice. The average user will see no difference between an i7 and an equivalent i5, especially in laptops. Unless you need to use a computer as a workstation (and by that I mean doing something like 3d animation or something like virtualisation) there is not need to go for an i7.
If anything the advice at the moment would be to go for an AMD processor, given their price to performance points.
Oh and Joe, I've just finished work so I'll start looking now and will PM you shortly. [Post edited 3 Feb 2021 17:05]
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| Laptop advice on 17:11 - Feb 3 with 2453 views | itfcjoe |
| Laptop advice on 17:04 - Feb 3 by DanTheMan |
"Hi Joe, my only advice would be to get an i7 or equivalent if possible, as opposed to i5 chip"
This is not good advice. The average user will see no difference between an i7 and an equivalent i5, especially in laptops. Unless you need to use a computer as a workstation (and by that I mean doing something like 3d animation or something like virtualisation) there is not need to go for an i7.
If anything the advice at the moment would be to go for an AMD processor, given their price to performance points.
Oh and Joe, I've just finished work so I'll start looking now and will PM you shortly. [Post edited 3 Feb 2021 17:05]
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Thanks Dan, appreciated.
Gaming wise it is literally just FM so nothing major required onn that - and just need basic tasks other than that.....Office, streaming and browsing | |
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| Laptop advice on 17:26 - Feb 3 with 2426 views | Herbivore |
| Laptop advice on 17:03 - Feb 3 by giant_stow |
yeah ssd is a must now I think.
Bought a Lenovo Ideapad for my boy recently for school - it has a better spec than mine and is like sh1t off a shovel. £300, but that was mates rates from a techy i know. |
Because I only really do basic stuff I always buy entry level laptops and I have to say the Ideapad is easily the best entry level laptop I've owned. Really can't fault it to be fair. | |
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| Laptop advice on 17:42 - Feb 3 with 2387 views | mikeybloo88 |
Got my son a laptop for Uni last September...Lenovo with 8gb RAM, 250 SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 9000 processor about £400 from Laptops Direct. Really fast. Second Lenovo we've had, I really rate them. |  | | |
| Laptop advice on 17:58 - Feb 3 with 2362 views | Plums |
Once you’ve got the laptop, have you found https://www.window-swap.com/ ?
I find a change of scene in the corner of the screen every now and again helps - although the row of lockup garages in Hemel didn’t really inspire me. |  |
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| Laptop advice on 19:08 - Feb 3 with 2293 views | Durovigutum |
Go to the Dell Outlet store. They have some nice 10th Generation i5 Latitude laptops with a 14" FHD+ screen, 8GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD for £425 plus VAT. Think the 512 GB SSD version was £50 more. I bought a "scratch and dent" one for our Foodbank, the scuff on the lid was something you'd do putting it in your bag and we saved £250 compared to the full price on the regular site.
If that's too much, there were some miserable spec 15" units for £285 + VAT. |  | | |
| Laptop advice on 19:14 - Feb 3 with 2277 views | gordon |
I got a Lenovo Yoga about a year ago and it's been brilliant.
Also worth saying a bit before that I got a custom made laptop from PC Specialist where the build quality was pretty poor and there were various problems out of the box which I returned (I guess they're better for desktops rather than laptops), |  | | |
| Laptop advice on 23:59 - Feb 3 with 2133 views | unstableblue |
| Laptop advice on 17:11 - Feb 3 by itfcjoe |
Thanks Dan, appreciated.
Gaming wise it is literally just FM so nothing major required onn that - and just need basic tasks other than that.....Office, streaming and browsing |
Apologies Joe - Dan actually knows what he's talking about. Checked on line and consensus i5/i7 only differentiated if you are running hungrier apps, Adobe, etc.
I think the switch to i7s at work and at home, and greatly improved performance/reliability that we've experienced, more relates to higher spec/more expensive machines, and some having a need for power apps or hungry Excel.
Hope search goes well. |  |
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| Laptop advice on 00:36 - Feb 4 with 2118 views | jeera |
| Laptop advice on 17:11 - Feb 3 by itfcjoe |
Thanks Dan, appreciated.
Gaming wise it is literally just FM so nothing major required onn that - and just need basic tasks other than that.....Office, streaming and browsing |
Might sound obvious but it can be easy to overlook some of the features you prefer when you spot one you like. Worth writing those down as a check-list.
I always like a seperate numerical keypad for example, and a DVD drive can be handy on top of your tech requirements.
Like Herbs, I only need the entry level stuff, but am finding my Lenovo V110 pretty ok so far some 2 and a half years down the line. £350 mark it was.
Had HPs before this but the Lenovo build quality just feels that little bit better.
But as you know, you won't go far wrong with Daniel as a rule anyway. |  |
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| Laptop advice on 08:32 - Feb 4 with 1999 views | DanTheMan |
| Laptop advice on 00:36 - Feb 4 by jeera |
Might sound obvious but it can be easy to overlook some of the features you prefer when you spot one you like. Worth writing those down as a check-list.
I always like a seperate numerical keypad for example, and a DVD drive can be handy on top of your tech requirements.
Like Herbs, I only need the entry level stuff, but am finding my Lenovo V110 pretty ok so far some 2 and a half years down the line. £350 mark it was.
Had HPs before this but the Lenovo build quality just feels that little bit better.
But as you know, you won't go far wrong with Daniel as a rule anyway. |
"I always like a seperate numerical keypad for example, and a DVD drive can be handy on top of your tech requirements."
Thankfully these can both now be bought as add ons, via USB. | |
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| Laptop advice on 09:11 - Feb 4 with 1961 views | Churchman |
I had a Surface Pro for 3 or 4 years before I finished work 18 months ago. It was connected through a docking station at work and another at home to screens and was a well made, flexible brilliant piece of kit. But they are quite expensive.
I have an iPad and iPhone and they’re great. But Apple stuff costs, even if it is more virus resistant
Laptops? They are much better than they used to be and last longer. I had a Compaq (HP) one for years and that was good as was er indoors’ Toshiba, but the HP one my sister bought 3 years ago was rubbish from the off. I think it’s a bit pot luck but I’m sure there are plenty of better qualified people out there who will offer a better view. [Post edited 4 Feb 2021 10:08]
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| Laptop advice on 09:53 - Feb 4 with 1927 views | longtimefan |
| Laptop advice on 09:11 - Feb 4 by Churchman |
I had a Surface Pro for 3 or 4 years before I finished work 18 months ago. It was connected through a docking station at work and another at home to screens and was a well made, flexible brilliant piece of kit. But they are quite expensive.
I have an iPad and iPhone and they’re great. But Apple stuff costs, even if it is more virus resistant
Laptops? They are much better than they used to be and last longer. I had a Compaq (HP) one for years and that was good as was er indoors’ Toshiba, but the HP one my sister bought 3 years ago was rubbish from the off. I think it’s a bit pot luck but I’m sure there are plenty of better qualified people out there who will offer a better view. [Post edited 4 Feb 2021 10:08]
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I had a Sony Vio for work for 9 years. Was still running fine but had to be replaced because it didn’t include the hardware security features deemed necessary by our IT division. |  | | |
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