Lap top advice

Behind Enemy Lines · May 28, 2015

I need to get a new lap top. Not interested in a mac just want something reliable and reasonably quick. Not keen on spending more than £500--600 if i can.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

beorhthelm · May 28, 2015

at that price they are all more or less the same, and they will all be quick (its the crap you put on them that slows them down). look at a brand's "business" lines, which will be a little lower specs, less shiney shiney but better built. Lenovo, Dell, HP, all decent.

Herr Tubthumper · May 28, 2015

Behind Enemy Lines said:
I need to get a new lap top. Not interested in a mac just want something reliable and reasonably quick. Not keen on spending more than £500--600 if i can.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

It's a mac I'm afraid.

El Sid · May 28, 2015

Purely from personal experience I would keep well away from anything with a Dell badge.

StonehamPark · May 28, 2015

Behind Enemy Lines said:
I need to get a new lap top. Not interested in a mac just want something reliable and reasonably quick. Not keen on spending more than £500--600 if i can.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

Depends what you'll be using it for.

I just bought a Toshiba Chromebook for £220.00 from John Lewis.
4GB Ram - Full HD Screen - 16GB SSD Hard Drive - Long Battery Life

All I need it for is basic word processing, emails and the internet.
It'll probably last me 3-4 years without slowing down too.

John Lewis Toshiba Chromebook

However, it can't do a few things that a Windows laptop can do as it's a Chromebook.

Horses for courses and all that.

W.C. · May 28, 2015

I'm on a similar search so bumping. Want at least 8gb ram. Where are good places to buy from?

Badger · May 28, 2015

Slightly above your price range but I've just myself an ASUS UX303LA and I'm very impressed so far. It's a well built Ultrabook with similar styling to a MacBook with specs to match.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-13-3-Inch-Notebook-i7-5500U-Integrated/dp/B00QVGFOBM

I've got the i7 version because I wanted the beefier CPU but if you're not worried about that there's a £650 version with an Intel Core-M which increases battery life. It's also got an SSD which boots up Windows in a few seconds.

Easy 10 · May 28, 2015

Got me a Lenovo G700 last year for £300. Nice big 17.3" full HD LED screen, as I primarily use it for watching sports on SkyGo and MLB.com, plus a bit of surfing. Not the highest spec, 6GB RAM, 2.4G Intel processor, but suits my needs perfectly.

EXCEPT - why is it so tough to find a laptop with a MATTE screen these days ? Just about every one you go for nowadays have the glossy screens, which being as I use mine outside a lot, is annoying. I've ordered a matte screen cover this week, hopefully that'll help snort it. Miss my old matte Dell though, that screen was the shiz.

Superseagull69 · May 28, 2015

W.C. said:
I'm on a similar search so bumping. Want at least 8gb ram. Where are good places to buy from?

Got myself a HP Envy 17" from PC world, which is pretty good. Although mine was £850, I think you could get a refurb for about £550

Ram 12GB, Hard drive 1TB, i7 processor

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/search-keywords/xx_xx_xx_xx_xx/hp+envy+17/xx-criteria.html

happypig · May 28, 2015

You might not want a mac but...

9 months ago the Mrs and I both got new laptops. I fancied a change and got a macbook, Mrs H knows how to work windows (just about) so plumped for a windows 8 laptop.
I've had to reboot once because it got itself in a bit of a lather; Mrs H is complaining every day about something not going right or that she is having to "wait while the f***ing thing does something".

I had to use a windows machine today to do some networky stuff with a security camera; I honestly don't know why so many people put up with it when there are viable alternatives (Osx, Linux)

clippedgull · May 28, 2015

happypig said:
You might not want a mac but...

9 months ago the Mrs and I both got new laptops. I fancied a change and got a macbook, Mrs H knows how to work windows (just about) so plumped for a windows 8 laptop.
I've had to reboot once because it got itself in a bit of a lather; Mrs H is complaining every day about something not going right or that she is having to "wait while the f***ing thing does something".

I had to use a windows machine today to do some networky stuff with a security camera; I honestly don't know why so many people put up with it when there are viable alternatives (Osx, Linux)

It's a shame you didn't both get macbooks. Then you could have run Windows on her Macbook and had OSX on there at the same time to woo her over from the dark side!!

W.C. · May 29, 2015

Superseagull69 said:
Got myself a HP Envy 17" from PC world, which is pretty good. Although mine was £850, I think you could get a refurb for about £550

Ram 12GB, Hard drive 1TB, i7 processor

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/search-keywords/xx_xx_xx_xx_xx/hp+envy+17/xx-criteria.html

Thanks. How are you finding the HP? Money's a little tight at the moment but I really need to upgrade my aging computer and so was thinking of getting something like this http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...ith-beats-audio-white-10108688-pdt.html#cat-0 to tide me over a couple of years. Never owned an HP machine.

happypig · May 29, 2015

clippedgull said:
It's a shame you didn't both get macbooks. Then you could have run Windows on her Macbook and had OSX on there at the same time to woo her over from the dark side!!

We're in Brighton tomorrow, I might swing by the Apple store and see if I can persuade her (I wonder if she'd go for me getting a new one and her having my 9-month-old one ?)

boik · May 29, 2015

beorhthelm said:
at that price they are all more or less the same, and they will all be quick (its the crap you put on them that slows them down). look at a brand's "business" lines, which will be a little lower specs, less shiney shiney but better built. Lenovo, Dell, HP, all decent.

That "crap" is called Windows. Just built a PC for a mate and made it dual boot Win7 and Linux Mint. He can't believe how much faster everything is when you get away from windows. Don't think he's going to be booting into Windows any more.

happypig · May 29, 2015

boik said:
That "crap" is called Windows. Just built a PC for a mate and made it dual boot Win7 and Linux Mint. He can't believe how much faster everything is when you get away from windows. Don't think he's going to be booting into Windows any more.

100000% this. Windows is into its 8th iteration and yet, for example, it still loads a heap of unnecessary libraries and controls at boot up and still needs a reboot for something as simple as changing a network setting.

Superseagull69 · May 29, 2015

W.C. said:
Thanks. How are you finding the HP? Money's a little tight at the moment but I really need to upgrade my aging computer and so was thinking of getting something like this http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...ith-beats-audio-white-10108688-pdt.html#cat-0 to tide me over a couple of years. Never owned an HP machine.

For me its great. I use AutoCAD quite a bit & the speed is excellent. Personally I have never had any problems with Windows either & we have 3 HP laptops in my household. HP far outperforms the Samsung laptop I previously had too. Only comment I would make on the laptop in your link is its a i3 processor, depending on what you need it for if you could stretch a little further try & go for an i5 at least.

CheeseRolls · May 29, 2015

Check out both www.ebuyer.com and www.simplyasus.com for laptops and then decide if PC World is really the best place to buy.

We have two Asus Windows 8.1 laptops with touchscreens in our house, bought for under £400 each. The catch ? battery life is very poor (sub 3 hours), but I knew that when I bought them and as these machines rarely stray from teen bedrooms and college power supplies, it really wasn't an issue. Otherwise they are excellent.

If you just need a laptop to get on the Internet and really don't want to be bothered with computer "issues", then Chromebook, has to be a serious consideration. Low cost trouble free computing, made simple. [MENTION=17571]StonehamPark[/MENTION] recommended a belter for the money.

W.C. · May 29, 2015

Superseagull69 said:
For me its great. I use AutoCAD quite a bit & the speed is excellent. Personally I have never had any problems with Windows either & we have 3 HP laptops in my household. HP far outperforms the Samsung laptop I previously had too. Only comment I would make on the laptop in your link is its a i3 processor, depending on what you need it for if you could stretch a little further try & go for an i5 at least.

Thanks. The most demanding thing I'll be using is music production software (Ableton Live). I'm running it on my 8 year old laptop now, so I'm hoping that for a couple of years, even the laptop I linked to should run it no problem.

StonehamPark · May 29, 2015

CheeseRolls said:
Check out both www.ebuyer.com and www.simplyasus.com for laptops and then decide if PC World is really the best place to buy.

We have two Asus Windows 8.1 laptops with touchscreens in our house, bought for under £400 each. The catch ? battery life is very poor (sub 3 hours), but I knew that when I bought them and as these machines rarely stray from teen bedrooms and college power supplies, it really wasn't an issue. Otherwise they are excellent.

If you just need a laptop to get on the Internet and really don't want to be bothered with computer "issues", then Chromebook, has to be a serious consideration. Low cost trouble free computing, made simple. [MENTION=17571]StonehamPark[/MENTION] recommended a belter for the money.

I've had my Chromebook since Sunday and absolutely love it.
Great value for money, amazing screen, amazing battery life, light as anything and great speakers too.
Couldn't recommend it enough.

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