[Technology] Laptop purchasing advice

Berty23 · Oct 15, 2020

Hi all

I have twin daughters in year 6 and they have been nagging me for a couple of years about getting a laptop so with year 7 around the corner And who knows what for Covid, I am going to finally give in for Xmas. They don’t need anything really fancy just something where they will be able to use Microsoft office and watch a bit of YouTube.

Has anyone bought a relatively cheap one recently for their kids that they would recommend. I don’t really want to spend more than 350 quid each if I can avoid it and the internet is full of reviews that contradict each other. Therefore I am after real life recommendations from the trustworthy folk of NSC. Any you would recommend plus of course any you would avoid!

Thanks in advance.

Rob.

beorhthelm · Oct 15, 2020

all much the same these days. where comparing specs, chose memory over processor.

happypig · Oct 15, 2020

Ex corporate Lenovo thinkpad off ebay.

herecomesaregular · Oct 15, 2020

I wouldn't ever go back to HDD after having a SSD laptop. Soooo sloowwww. If it wasn't for for fact that you said Office I'd say get a Chromebook for £170-200. Also, I'm a Windows hater - much prefer Ubuntu Mate or Chrome OS.

I'm not sure this is much help tbf.

Papa Lazarou · Oct 15, 2020

Bought a Lenovo Yoga 2 in 1 for my son at Uni. We got him the higher spec one with 512GB SSD, but this is the lower spec version.

https://www.mycheaplaptop.co.uk/product/lenovo-yoga-12/

Live by the sea · Oct 15, 2020

Funny enough just bought one today . Took a lot of advice. Because I use multiple Microsoft apps like word, excel all open at the same time plus zoom was strongly advised to make sure my laptop had at least 8gb of ram plus 256 gb of memory and at least a 1.5 Pentel processor .

Rugrat · Oct 16, 2020

herecomesaregular said:
I wouldn't ever go back to HDD after having a SSD laptop. Soooo sloowwww. If it wasn't for for fact that you said Office I'd say get a Chromebook for £170-200. Also, I'm a Windows hater - much prefer Ubuntu Mate or Chrome OS.

I'm not sure this is much help tbf.

I'm just in process of replacing my laptop and thought I might go for chromebook ... not sure why really.

I use WPS Office for spreadsheets and docs but only for personal stuff and happy to save anything on USB or Drive. But I looked at running WPS on Chromebook and it all looked a bit complicated. I thought a chromebook could download android apps and I could get WPS Office that way, am I mistaken?

Not a fan of Google Docs btw (probably just familiarity) and it looks a bit 'home made'

Audax · Oct 16, 2020

Rugrat said:
Not a fan of Google Docs btw (probably just familiarity) and it looks a bit 'home made'

How recently have you used Docs stuff? It's come a long way from the early days. Still not reached feature parity with Word as yet, but it has everything the majority of people will need.

dadams2k11 · Oct 16, 2020

beorhthelm said:
all much the same these days. where comparing specs, chose memory over processor.

No way choose memory over CPU.

You can upgrade memory far cheaper that you can a CPU

dadams2k11 · Oct 16, 2020

Live by the sea said:
Funny enough just bought one today . Took a lot of advice. Because I use multiple Microsoft apps like word, excel all open at the same time plus zoom was strongly advised to make sure my laptop had at least 8gb of ram plus 256 gb of memory and at least a 1.5 Pentel processor .

RAM and memory are the same thing.

Think you meant 256GB Harddrive?

Audax · Oct 16, 2020

dadams2k11 said:
No way choose memory over CPU.

You can upgrade memory far cheaper that you can a CPU

Especially in a laptop - at the cheaper end the CPU might not be upgradeable at all, while the RAM should be and is often quite easy to do yourself. Likewise on HDD / SSD - if you're tight on funds now there's no need to go big on these, especially if they aren't going to be used for any substantial gaming. For day-to-day internet and Office usage, especially for kids, you don't need a massive drive. They can be upgraded in future if you need to.

But I would second the advice to go for SSD if you can. System start up times, and performance of software running off the SSD, makes a big difference and will help prolong how long the machine retains acceptable performance as software etc moves on over time.

beorhthelm · Oct 16, 2020

dadams2k11 said:
No way choose memory over CPU.

You can upgrade memory far cheaper that you can a CPU

fair point, thing is basic CPU has been more than sufficient for typical users of years (aside games). memory is bigger bottle neck with web applications, sloppy code, multimedia, etc.

nicko31 · Oct 16, 2020

Some of the AMD stuff, they have 7nm chips which means less power and more bang for your buck versus Intel stuff

Look for Ryzen 3

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ace...5.6-inch-fhd-windows-nx.a0vek.002/version.asp

SSD if you can, speeds things up (just don't defrag your drive!!)

schmunk · Oct 16, 2020

nicko31 said:
SSD if you can, speeds things up (just don't defrag your drive!!)

SSD is a MUST these days.

Don't worry about defragmenting - Windows 10 is clever enough to recognise an SSD and won't do a traditional defrag; instead a TRIM.

Rugrat · Oct 16, 2020

Audax said:
How recently have you used Docs stuff? It's come a long way from the early days. Still not reached feature parity with Word as yet, but it has everything the majority of people will need.

I took another look this morning (sheets as it's spreadsheets I use mostly) and agree it's better than was But I am so used to the structure and layout of WPS that I'd prefer to keep it. If I can't then using Google isn't the end of the world at all

schmunk · Oct 16, 2020

Rugrat said:
I took another look this morning (sheets as it's spreadsheets I use mostly) and agree it's better than was But I am so used to the structure and layout of WPS that I'd prefer to keep it. If I can't then using Google isn't the end of the world at all

You will be able to use the Android WPS Office on a Chromebook.

Beanstalk · Oct 16, 2020

For your needs I'd highly recommend a Chromebook.

I presume your twin daughters will want a laptop each and this is the cheap but reliable option. You can afford two chromebooks for one flashier Windows 10 model. Firstly, as with any teenager, I'd expect the main use to be internet based which Chromebook excels at. Secondly, for schoolwork, they'd be absolutely fine with google docs/sheets/slides as they all work natively with office apps.

As a first laptop it really does everything they need and will want. For 11/12 year olds it will be a dream and most importantly, affordable on your part. If when they're a bit older they want/need something a bit more complex, you will have got your moneys worth by then. Don't overspend on things that they really don't need yet!

Live by the sea · Oct 16, 2020

dadams2k11 said:
RAM and memory are the same thing.

Think you meant 256GB Harddrive?

Apologies yes I do

Berty23 · Oct 16, 2020

Cheers all. Really useful. I will discuss with the wife.

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