New Laptop Needed

[Fierce_LiNk]

Hey people!

 

I am on the look-out for a new laptop. I've been leeching off Ine's old Macbook for a while now and it is finally dying. (after about 9 years)

 

This would mostly be used for seeing all of your sexy faces on N-Europe/Facebook, BBCSporting and, more importantly, catching up on my school work. So, as you can see, I don't need anything too taxing. I am not on the look-out for a gaming laptop.

 

The catch is that my budget is small. I will not be spending more than £500 and would prefer to be looking well beneath that. At the most, I'll be working on some sort of word document with spotify and BBC Sport on in the background. So, nothing too taxing whatsoever. The budget and getting good value for money/reliability is what I'm after.

[MoogleViper]

Hey people!

 

I am on the look-out for a new laptop. I've been leeching off Ine's old Macbook for a while now and it is finally dying. (after about 9 years)

 

This would mostly be used for seeing all of your sexy faces on N-Europe/Facebook, BBCSporting and, more importantly, catching up on my school work. So, as you can see, I don't need anything too taxing. I am not on the look-out for a gaming laptop.

 

The catch is that my budget is small. I will not be spending more than £500 and would prefer to be looking well beneath that. At the most, I'll be working on some sort of word document with spotify and BBC Sport on in the background. So, nothing too taxing whatsoever. The budget and getting good value for money/reliability is what I'm after.

 

What sort of screen are you after? Obviously the best value would be a smaller screen, but perhaps worth getting a larger screen to make school work easier.

 

Here are a few examples I found quickly (can probably find better):

Zoostorm i5 4200M - £455

HP 355 G2 - £325

HP 255 G3 - £200

 

Let me know what you think of those and we can go from there.

 

Then another option would be to go down the tablet + keyboard route. Would that suit or would you prefer a laptop?

[bob]

To be honest if all you want is Internet, Word and Spotify, you have loads of options for £500. You probably be able to get something nice for £300 even.

 

Have you considered a Chrome book? Or a tablet? They'd both be around £300?

[Fierce_LiNk]

What sort of screen are you after? Obviously the best value would be a smaller screen, but perhaps worth getting a larger screen to make school work easier.

 

Here are a few examples I found quickly (can probably find better):

Zoostorm i5 4200M - £455

HP 355 G2 - £325

HP 255 G3 - £200

 

Let me know what you think of those and we can go from there.

 

Then another option would be to go down the tablet + keyboard route. Would that suit or would you prefer a laptop?

 

I believe I'm currently using a 13" display. Ine's macbook has a 15" display and it's a lot easier using that. I can live quite comfortably with the screen size I've currently got, although I wouldn't mind jumping up to a larger display if the price difference isn't too great (still within the budget).

 

I quite like the look of the 355 G2, although the zoostorm seems to be getting great reviews. The downside of that though is the lack of operating system. I'm confident I can get somebody from work to sort me out with Windows 8 there. For my needs, each of these three are very suitable, so thanks for those.

 

I've also been pondering the tablet/keyboard idea and am quite open to trying something different. Due to taking a large portion of work home with me, I tend to use usb sticks/memory devices and use this to transfer my data back and forth. Eventually, I'll be getting a portable hard-drive. So, if I were to go down the tablet route, it would have to be able to access these devices.

 

To be honest if all you want is Internet, Word and Spotify, you have loads of options for £500. You probably be able to get something nice for £300 even.

 

Have you considered a Chrome book? Or a tablet? They'd both be around £300?

 

I know that there are tons of options, so this thread is more so about getting good value for money and getting a good product. Chrome books are quite appealing from what I've seen and I've mentioned the tablet stuff above. If I could get something for around the 300 mark which was more than decent, I'd be happy.

[Sheikah]

There's a few options here.

 

You could go with a laptop/tablet combo where you can separate the screen from the keyboard and also use it like a tablet. That will set you back £250: Asus T100TA. The plus side to this is you can use full versions of office (it's Windows), it has an SSD for snappy loading, and you can use it on your lap like a tablet when you're not doing serious work. The downside is that the screen is only 10.1 inches.

 

Then you've got Chromebooks which are super speedy, available in large screen sizes and are really cheap. They've also got great batteries. The downside is that they don't run Windows and Microsoft Office applications are not natively supported. You have to get app versions which aren't as good, but if your use of office applications isn't extensive then it should be ok. A great one is the 14 inch HP Chromebook 14 Tegra K1 for £230.

 

Lastly are standard laptops. You can get them with SSDs too, and tend to be on the heavier/lower battery scale, but you can find ones with an SSD and larger screen sizes than 14 inch (the typical upper limit of chromebooks). Saying that, you've got more options with a standard laptop, being able to run Office applications (and pretty much any applications), and they're much more powerful. The G2 that Moogle mentioned is a good choice, but lacks any form of SSD (although has much more storage space).

 

Note that throughout when I refer to SSDs, for this price they are usually eMMC, which are not as good as the SSDs people buy when building their own PCs. Still a good improvement though.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Sheikah

[Fierce_LiNk]

There's a few options here.

 

You could go with a laptop/tablet combo where you can separate the screen from the keyboard and also use it like a tablet. That will set you back £250: Asus T100TA. The plus side to this is you can use full versions of office (it's Windows), it has an SSD for snappy loading, and you can use it on your lap like a tablet when you're not doing serious work. The downside is that the screen is only 10.1 inches.

 

Then you've got Chromebooks which are super speedy, available in large screen sizes and are really cheap. They've also got great batteries. The downside is that they don't run Windows and Microsoft Office applications are not natively supported. You have to get app versions which aren't as good, but if your use of office applications isn't extensive then it should be ok. A great one is the 14 inch HP Chromebook 14 Tegra K1 for £230.

 

Lastly are standard laptops. You can get them with SSDs too, and tend to be on the heavier/lower battery scale, but you can find ones with an SSD and larger screen sizes than 14 inch (the typical upper limit of chromebooks). Saying that, you've got more options with a standard laptop, being able to run Office applications (and pretty much any applications), and they're much more powerful. The G2 that Moogle mentioned is a good choice, but lacks any form of SSD (although has much more storage space).

 

Note that throughout when I refer to SSDs, for this price they are usually eMMC, which are not as good as the SSDs people buy when building their own PCs. Still a good improvement though.

 

Ine pointed out something to me about Chromebooks:

 

"You already get pissed off when using word on Macbooks, I think Chrome will be similar..."

 

She's got a point, I guess.

 

The first link you provided looks like it could be a winrar. Also, Moogle's link. Could be a toss up between those two.

 

Ine's sister came around today with her Surface Pro and it does actually seem quite tempting. The screen size is the biggest issue and it's whether I can live with something of that size. It's either that or go for a more traditional laptop.

 

Thank you all for your replies, it's given me a lot of ideas. The annoying thing is that the macbook is now working almost perfectly, but I'll need to move on from this in the long term.

[bob]

Surface Pro is a smexy machine, but a bit out of your price range i would have thought? I really looked into buying one, but all the bits add up. The keyboard is like £99!

[Sheikah]

Ine pointed out something to me about Chromebooks:

 

"You already get pissed off when using word on Macbooks, I think Chrome will be similar..."

 

She's got a point, I guess.

 

The first link you provided looks like it could be a winrar. Also, Moogle's link. Could be a toss up between those two.

 

Ine's sister came around today with her Surface Pro and it does actually seem quite tempting. The screen size is the biggest issue and it's whether I can live with something of that size. It's either that or go for a more traditional laptop.

 

Thank you all for your replies, it's given me a lot of ideas. The annoying thing is that the macbook is now working almost perfectly, but I'll need to move on from this in the long term.

 

This one might make it a bit easier

 

11.6 inch version of the same transformer tablet/laptop.

 

£350, but also has a 500GB flash drive which is pretty darn good.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Surface Pro is a smexy machine, but a bit out of your price range i would have thought? I really looked into buying one, but all the bits add up. The keyboard is like £99!

 

Really? Fuuuuuuck, that's expensive. I'll rethink that then.

 

This one might make it a bit easier

 

11.6 inch version of the same transformer tablet/laptop.

 

£350, but also has a 500GB flash drive which is pretty darn good.

 

That looks pretty damn good actually. 500GB is more than enough, too, especially when you add in the portable drives I'd be using.

 

Seems to be getting good reviews. How long would I seriously be able to use this for before the whole thing falls apart? Is the build quality good? Reliable?

[Sheikah]

Really? Fuuuuuuck, that's expensive. I'll rethink that then.

 

 

 

That looks pretty damn good actually. 500GB is more than enough, too, especially when you add in the portable drives I'd be using.

 

Seems to be getting good reviews. How long would I seriously be able to use this for before the whole thing falls apart? Is the build quality good? Reliable?

It also has a slot in the tablet for an expansion card to get even more space. Seems pretty damn good actually, reviews are all very positive and say it's sturdy.