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Thread: Where to buy new laptop, suggestions please....

  1. #1

    Where to buy new laptop, suggestions please....

    Where do we reckon the best place is for a new laptop??

    I need a new house laptop, and having had my fingers burnt with the present, failing, crappy Dell, I want some better value.

    Requirements:
    16" screen or bigger
    Decent Keyboard
    Up to date Chip
    Windows architecture
    it's for browsing, watching films and light word processing

    Doesn't need:
    Hard drive space, I have an 8Tb Synology NAS, current laptop has filled only 150Gb of 900Gb onboard
    Fancy graphics card - nobody does any PC gaming or graphics manip in my house
    Named brand
    onboard CD/DVD - got external

    Budget.... Ideally £500, and if you bear in mind I don't want a gaming rig, or a 2Tb HDD or (shudder) Apple......

    an online retailer ?

    an eBay store ?

  2. #2
    Master
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    Bought my last one from John Lewis as i like the two year warranty.

  3. #3
    Journeyman
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    Had a myriad of laptops over the years which in 6-12 months are out of date and slow as f@ck. Got a Macbook Air a couple of years ago and I can honestly say I would never buy any other make of laptop again. Apple all the way for me now. it will still run as quick as the day you bought however many years you've had it.

  4. #4
    I'm a Mac user for work, but a large screen Chromebook will do the job perfectly and cheaply. I got rid of an MBP because it was overkill for the same kind of use as you, and have been delighted with a 15 inch Acer Chromebook. Laptops Direct is the place I used.

  5. #5
    Master Alansmithee's Avatar
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    Dell outlet - the offers and availability change every day but if you keep looking you'll get a deal.

  6. #6
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    Dell outlet - the offers and availability change every day but if you keep looking you'll get a deal.
    Not bought a laptop from there but had good value desktops so I'm sure it's worth a look.

  7. #7
    Master Geralt's Avatar
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    My last two I got from here. Never had a problem.

    https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

  8. #8
    This is all very useful and I thank you. I shall go and have a look at laptopsdirect

    I simply cannot countenance an Apple product, even though there are many happy purchasers. I cannot deal with iOS, Bonjour, iTunes, no user hardware/software access and the ridiculous price premium.
    I have now eradicated all Apple software and hardware from my household. Spent the savings on the kids. I know I'm a little out there on this.

  9. #9
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Doc View Post
    This is all very useful and I thank you. I shall go and have a look at laptopsdirect

    I simply cannot countenance an Apple product, even though there are many happy purchasers. I cannot deal with iOS, Bonjour, iTunes, no user hardware/software access and the ridiculous price premium.
    I have now eradicated all Apple software and hardware from my household. Spent the savings on the kids. I know I'm a little out there on this.
    As an avid blackberry and Microsoft fan as that’s what I did for a living at one point I have an iPhone X and recently a MacBook Pro and can say they are the best things I’ve bought in 20 years, the first colour laptop I sold was an Olivetti with a 386 processor and was a snip at £18,000. Times have changed along the way.


    Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

  10. #10
    Master blackal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mjc1216 View Post
    Bought my last one from John Lewis as i like the two year warranty.
    You get 2yrs under UK consumer law, in any case - despite what the likes of Apple would like you to think.

  11. #11
    Master blackal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Doc View Post
    This is all very useful and I thank you. I shall go and have a look at laptopsdirect

    I simply cannot countenance an Apple product, even though there are many happy purchasers. I cannot deal with iOS, Bonjour, iTunes, no user hardware/software access and the ridiculous price premium.
    I have now eradicated all Apple software and hardware from my household. Spent the savings on the kids. I know I'm a little out there on this.
    I followed the advice of: “the best windows laptop...... is a macbook”

    What a mistake! After 15yrs of IBM/Lenovo purchases - I had a £3,000 MacBook Pro which suffered a keyboard failure at 13months. “That will be £418, sir”

    Got it repaired (under UK consumer protection - for free) and promptly sold it.

    Back to a Lenovo with a proper keyboard and no quirks. Previous Lenovo is 7yrs old with no issues, and was dragged all around the world in that time.

  12. #12
    Grand Master VDG's Avatar
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    Refurbished MacBook. Thank me later.
    Fas est ab hoste doceri

  13. #13
    Master blackal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by VDG View Post
    Refurbished MacBook. Thank me later.
    P1sh

  14. #14
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackal View Post
    P1sh*



    *Other opinions are available

  15. #15
    I would also recommend Apple hardware first, albeit their hardware peaked in 2015 and has gone downhill slightly since then. If you wanted something smaller but not Apple, I'd suggest taking a look at the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2.

    But for what you actually want, I'd recommend Asus.

    Something like this for example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBo...dp/B07FF9WXX2/

  16. #16
    Journeyman
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    I have had a surface pro 2 for personal use and i alsi log on remotely via citrix to work form it.
    previously had a MacBook pro and sold it as I couldn't get on with it.
    Love the surface wouldn't be without one

  17. #17
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackal View Post
    You get 2yrs under UK consumer law, in any case.
    Not 100% true....

  18. #18
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    Dell outlet - the offers and availability change every day but if you keep looking you'll get a deal.
    A tick for the Dell outlet. I have had two from there and each time very good reliability. On the first one, after 5 years, the battery charging/whatever circuit went but I still used it for a couple more years with just mains power only getting rid of it when it couldn't keep up with windows and the programmes. The current one is an i5/17" and that is also c. 5 years old and still going strong. No problems.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by robt View Post
    I would also recommend Apple hardware first, albeit their hardware peaked in 2015 and has gone downhill slightly since then. If you wanted something smaller but not Apple, I'd suggest taking a look at the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2.

    But for what you actually want, I'd recommend Asus.

    Something like this for example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBo...dp/B07FF9WXX2/
    Apple is a complete no, sorry.
    No on software/OS, and no on price/value, I simply cannot abide the closed minded Apple approach to users. "You do what we say with the product, not what it's capable of."

    That link however looks fantastic. The i5-8250U chip is really fast and it has an SSD, so I can add RAM to it at the start, or in a year. That one is a contender for the job !

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    A tick for the Dell outlet. I have had two from there and each time very good reliability. On the first one, after 5 years, the battery charging/whatever circuit went but I still used it for a couple more years with just mains power only getting rid of it when it couldn't keep up with windows and the programmes. The current one is an i5/17" and that is also c. 5 years old and still going strong. No problems.
    Current Dell has succumbed to the mains/charging issue you speak of, which is a motherboard problem. So it is now tied to the charging lead with battery stuck at 0%

    Burnt fingers from Dell, sorry not going back. It was only vaguely average for it's money anyhow, so I don't owe them any loyalty.

  21. #21
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Doc View Post
    That link however looks fantastic. The i5-8250U chip is really fast and it has an SSD, so I can add RAM to it at the start, or in a year. That one is a contender for the job !
    Which laptop onthat page are you looking at? The one linked doesn't have an SSD, only has 4Gb of RAM & has a dismal 1366x768 screen. The one with an SSD & better screen is £700.

  22. #22
    Master
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    I bought mine from these guys three or four years ago and can heartily recommend them:

    https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

    I don't remember any problems with the service, I do remember the communications being good. Assembled here in the UK so not long to wait for delivery either. The machine is still going strong, it has a solid state boot drive and it beats our (admittedly older) Sony tablet at booting up.

    You can pretty much spec you laptop as you wish and so you can do away with most superfluous bits and bobs. It does look like their screen sizes might not be enough (15.6" and then leaping to 17.3")

    Sounds like all you'll need is a smallish solid state drive as a boot drive and a good intel chip.

    I run mine on Linux (not a scary as it first sounds) and reaped the Microsoft dividend which I ploughed back in to the spec.

  23. #23
    Master W124's Avatar
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    Costco have a good range of laptops - Windows and Apple

    excellent pricing and two years warranty as standard IIRC.

  24. #24
    Last time I was buying a laptop (2016) I used scan.co.uk -- I got what I wanted, no complaints about the experience. Here's their home/office offer: https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer...ome-office/all

  25. #25
    Grand Master Glamdring's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    Dell outlet - the offers and availability change every day but if you keep looking you'll get a deal.
    I've had three from there over the years. The arrive looking untouched and I've been pretty pleased. I only changed when I fancied an upgrade.

  26. #26
    Master Alansmithee's Avatar
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    I notice the outlet has a 30% off on various laptops at the moment (bear in mind the price you see does not include VAT...)

  27. #27
    Master
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    Despite these being good suggestions the OP has trenchant views on Dell & hence won't hear of having another. He'll probably end up with something from HP or the like.

  28. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Pointy View Post
    Which laptop onthat page are you looking at? The one linked doesn't have an SSD, only has 4Gb of RAM & has a dismal 1366x768 screen. The one with an SSD & better screen is £700.
    Oops, you're right about the screen resolution. I thought it was 1080p because the title says so, but it's wrong. That was however, just the first Asus model I found and it looked OK and bang on OP's budget. I'd still be looking to them over most other brands at that price point because for the same spec, the overall quality will be a lot better than Acer, HP etc.

  29. #29
    Thread closure.

    Bought an HP 15/6" Pavilion with 1920x1080 screen
    Ryzen 5 2500U with Radeon vega graphics
    256 Gb SSD
    8Gb Ram

    A1 refurbished from Laptopsdirect.co.uk
    1yr warranty

    £459

    the Ryzen chip scores nearly as well as the i5-8250 and I am pleased so far

    https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare...00U/3042vs3123

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