Need a bit of help guys. We're looking at getting a laptop. SWMBO needs it to do her NVQ on for work. Plus normal day to day stuff.

Budget £400

What do you recommend?

Sent from my Galaxy S5

Need a bit more info about how it will get used. i.e. away from power for long, on the move or just plugged in at home as a small pc. Screen size 14/15/17

 

£400 should get you something decent with an intel (not celeron) processor i3 or an i5 with a bit of luck. 4Gb ram min. You won't get an SSD for that budget.

 

AMD stuff is cheaper and probably fine but I'm not up to date on it.

 

Try before you buy if you can just in case the keyboard or case aren't to your taste.

 

Dell outlet is worth considering, we picked up a well specced i5 laptop for about £450, despite being a "refurb" it was as new when it arrived. Still had the shipping covers on it. Same warranty as new ones.

 

Also keep an eye on Hotdealsuk.com for anyone posting laptop offers.

Last couple of laptops i have opted for are Lenovo refurb - which have been a bargain.

 

£200-300 with i5 minimim, 4GB DDR, 320GB HDD etc.

Solid build and battery life is superb; so far 100% reliable.

 

Only thing is some are very business orientated..... speakers are pretty poor.

 

Worth a look around "refurb options" though. 

I'm and IT Manger/System Admin by trade. I'd +1 the Lenovo's. 

 

I always buy in Lenovo's for our mobile staff. They're just far more robust then most other manufactures. But we get our's from corporate IT suppliers and it's difficult to find the same models for the same price on the consumer market. 

 

An alternative would be looking at Asus, another great make. I've linked one bellow within your budget more then capable of what you're after. 

 

Asus Pro 500CA 

 

I'd avoid HP and Dell like the plauge these days. They're build quality is shocking compared to how they used to be, the hardware they use is also terrible at optimising performance. I'd also avoid PC World if you can, they'll flog you anything they can for ludicrous money. Scan UK which I linked above are a great source for laptops, as well as Overclockers.co.uk. The likes of Scan and Overclockers also offer downgrades to Windows 7 if you're not keen on Windows 8.1. 

 

Hope it helps. 

Thanks for the help guys. It will be used at home for her to do projects on. Not worried about SSD

Sent from my Galaxy S5

Just goes to show you can never tell.

 

We're all Dell and HP round here with very few problems. The Lenovos we have feel very budget and they've had a lot of problems with them. Toshibas have also had lot of BIOS related deaths.

 

Worse than bleedin' cars

Just goes to show you can never tell.

 

We're all Dell and HP round here with very few problems. The Lenovos we have feel very budget and they've had a lot of problems with them. Toshibas have also had lot of BIOS related deaths.

 

Worse than bleedin' cars

 

Interesting indeed - i guess to help focus in on models i was initially recommending;

i've had both an X201 and X220... currently looking at T420 as well - with cheap i7 refurbs appearing.

Another for HP. Asus and Acer have some great models too.

HP here too.

 

The previous Acers have been poo.

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15-3542-laptop/pd

 

i5 one for £379.  Cracking value.

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15-3542-laptop/pd

 

i5 one for £379.  Cracking value.

 

That's a good deal. We paid about £100 more for an outlet Inspiron 15 of similar spec. Ours had a 1Gb graphics card but tbh that is next to pointless unless you plan to game on it.

Ours had been faultless on the 2yr we've had it despite SWMBOs abuse.

I'd recommend keeping an eye on the Dell outlet as the PC's there are usually in brand new condition but can be quite a bit cheaper than the main site and usually ship quicker as well.

 

John

Had HP in the past and generally pleased with them.

 

Asus are to be avoided. Had a couple of bad experiences with Asus netbooks.

 

Acer aren't too bad but if I could find another brand for about the same/slightly more I would.

 

Lenovo are also good. I bought a 12" netbook a few years ago. It was an Atom powered one with NVidia Ion graphics. Was dirt cheap at the time and lasted ages. The only issue I had was the backlight flickered now and then. Sold it on and think it's till going strong now.

 

I currently have Toshiba U840W Ultrabook. Intel I5, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD with 32GB SSD (it caches frequently used files to speed up boot times etc). Got this with a cashback offer at currys and cost be £499 but then £100 cashback.

 

Phil