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Thread: Laptop recommendations please!

  1. #1
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Laptop recommendations please!

    I'm looking to buy a new laptop before the end of the financial year for my online teaching business. It will be used for Skype and Zoom calls and I'd like at least a 15 inch screen. Regarding budget, I'll go up to £2k ish if it can be justified. I don't really know what I'm looking for hence asking for advice.

    Amazon have the Samsung Galaxy Book Ion 15.6 Inch with 8 GB and Intel Core i5-10210U Processor. Is this a good one? Any more recommendations very welcome, thanks!!

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Gal...s%2C182&sr=1-6

  2. #2
    Master
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    Thats a very healthy budget and if its mainly video meetings you should be more than ok with something a lot cheaper than that.

    A few suggestion here
    https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/best-15-inch-laptop


    One of those suggested in the above article
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082QJVF...eniuslink=true
    Last edited by Rob s; 22nd February 2021 at 17:40.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by beechcustom View Post
    I'm looking to buy a new laptop before the end of the financial year for my online teaching business. It will be used for Skype and Zoom calls and I'd like at least a 15 inch screen. Regarding budget, I'll go up to £2k ish if it can be justified. I don't really know what I'm looking for hence asking for advice.

    Amazon have the Samsung Galaxy Book Ion 15.6 Inch with 8 GB and Intel Core i5-10210U Processor. Is this a good one? Any more recommendations very welcome, thanks!!

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Gal...s%2C182&sr=1-6
    If you are going to travel with it or move around then I would consider a smaller/more portable laptop and a larger screen. We dock all ours at work using Targus docks altough with USB-C may not even use a dock (I dock my surface via an MS dock as already had it). Might be useful if you only need the 15.6 screen part of the time.

  4. #4
    Master stoneyloon's Avatar
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    I just got this for the daughter and it seems more than good enough for what she and you need...

    You might like this at John Lewis:
    https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ide...are=jlappdroid

    (Hopefully the link works from the JL app.)


    Cheers,

    Adam.

  5. #5
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob s View Post
    Thats a very healthy budget and if its mainly video meetings you should be more than ok with something a lot cheaper than that.
    I bought a HP Pavilion a few years ago that was just under £600 and it's started behaving a little strange during video calls over the last 6 months or so. Battery isn't holding charge either now. I assumed spending more than this (into the £1k+ territory) would get you better internals and reduce the risk of failure. 100% of my income is from online VOIP calls now so I'm prepared to spend more to minimise the risk of the laptop letting me down. Happy to spend less though!

  6. #6
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stoneyloon View Post
    I just got this for the daughter and it seems more than good enough for what she and you need...

    You might like this at John Lewis:
    https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ide...are=jlappdroid

    (Hopefully the link works from the JL app.)


    Cheers,

    Adam.
    Many thanks Adam. Funnily enough my mate just suggested a Lenovo!

    Quote Originally Posted by MB2 View Post
    If you are going to travel with it or move around then I would consider a smaller/more portable laptop and a larger screen. We dock all ours at work using Targus docks altough with USB-C may not even use a dock (I dock my surface via an MS dock as already had it). Might be useful if you only need the 15.6 screen part of the time.
    Great point. I didn't think of a plug in screen. It'll be used quite a lot in the house so a large separate screen will be a massive advantage. Any particular screens I should be looking at?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rob s View Post
    Thanks for those!

  7. #7
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    Just checking - do you definately want a Windows machine & not a Mac?

  8. #8
    Master
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    There's a nice Dell XPS 17 on the Dell Outlet for £1956 inc VAT:

    https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/...UqSl5alMgwAajl

  9. #9
    Don't spend £2k!!

    You could get a very nice windows laptop that will do everything you want for under £1000

    HP Pavilion is a good shout. I have one costing £500 with a 15inch screen and it does everything you would want up to 4k video. It has a moderate battery, so if I was to change it I'd spec a bigger battery for about £150 more. Also look at Dell outlet store. And Laptops direct. Co. Uk

    You want 8Gb of Ram and 256Gb SSD as a minimum.
    Don't buy anything with a Hard disc drive HDD.

    Don't buy huge SSDs because off-chassis storage is far better, either networked or backed-up or both (Synology NAS)

    spend the remaining £1000 on your kids or beer.

    And don't for the love of Boris buy a Mac. You'll need £3k for that :)

  10. #10
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Pointy View Post
    Just checking - do you definately want a Windows machine & not a Mac?
    Yes. I'm not keen on going Apple tbh. Regarding the Dell - looks good but is the extra cash worth it over some of the £800 - £1k suggestions? I'm thinking laptop plus larger screen for home use is the way to go now.

  11. #11
    Master blackal's Avatar
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    Perhaps you are Flat-rate VAT?

    If so - then all IT equipment purchased on the same invoice over £2000, will be VAT deductible.

    It means that a purchase from a single supplier of £2001, costs £1,600 effectively.

    So - if you had a laptop, Storage drive, external screen, additional mic etc - all from someone like Ebuyer, then the sums can make sense.

  12. #12
    Master CamCG's Avatar
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    My wife and I have just been through a similar process.

    We considered everything from "£600" to "£2k" for a new laptop.

    We've both been lifelong Windows users, so primarily considered those.

    However, after reading umpteen reviews, we ended up buying a M1 chip Macbook Pro with 16GB memory and 512GB storage.

    The reason being that the new M1 Apple chips seem to be a giant leap forward on what was available previously, both in terms of battery preservation and performance.

    At your budget, my advice would be to consider one.

    We also bought a Microsoft Office package so that we could use all our old files and continue to use Word and Excel.

    So far, we've been very impressed with the laptop and wouldn't consider going back to a Windows equivalent.

    Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

  13. #13
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackal View Post
    Perhaps you are Flat-rate VAT?

    If so - then all IT equipment purchased on the same invoice over £2000, will be VAT deductible.

    It means that a purchase from a single supplier of £2001, costs £1,600 effectively.

    So - if you had a laptop, Storage drive, external screen, additional mic etc - all from someone like Ebuyer, then the sums can make sense.
    Thanks but I'm a sole trader and not VAT registered so I don't think this applies?

    Quote Originally Posted by The Doc View Post
    Don't spend £2k!!

    You could get a very nice windows laptop that will do everything you want for under £1000

    HP Pavilion is a good shout. I have one costing £500 with a 15inch screen and it does everything you would want up to 4k video. It has a moderate battery, so if I was to change it I'd spec a bigger battery for about £150 more. Also look at Dell outlet store. And Laptops direct. Co. Uk

    You want 8Gb of Ram and 256Gb SSD as a minimum.
    Don't buy anything with a Hard disc drive HDD.

    Don't buy huge SSDs because off-chassis storage is far better, either networked or backed-up or both (Synology NAS)

    spend the remaining £1000 on your kids or beer.

    And don't for the love of Boris buy a Mac. You'll need £3k for that :)
    Thanks for the specific advice. Quick look on laptop direct and found this Lenovo with specs in line with your recommendations. Quite tempted to go with it. https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/leno...uk/version.asp

  14. #14
    That one looks fantastic but I've only skimmed the stats

    Now buy single machine licences for MS Office 2019 from https://theunitysoft.com/ or Softwaregeeks, none of this stupid direct debit software "subscriptions"!

    If you are planning lots of storage and a home server to send video and stuff to all your devices and children in the house, And back up all your files etc,.....
    Then ask me about a NAS. :)

  15. #15
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Doc View Post
    That one looks fantastic but I've only skimmed the stats

    Now buy single machine licences for MS Office 2019 from https://theunitysoft.com/ or Softwaregeeks, none of this stupid direct debit software "subscriptions"!

    If you are planning lots of storage and a home server to send video and stuff to all your devices and children in the house, And back up all your files etc,.....
    Then ask me about a NAS. :)
    Awesome thanks. I was actually going to bundle their MS Office with the laptop. Not planning home server shenanigans but I have had laptops die on me in the past and I lost all my accounts (excel spreadsheets) for the year so I could do with a backup proceedure. I guess regularly saving to an external hard drive is the way to go?

    Go on then, what's NAS? It's nothing to do with NSFW is it??

  16. #16
    Grand Master Carlton-Browne's Avatar
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    If you are planning to use a docking station with more than one external monitor I’d consider a laptop with a separate graphics processor.
    In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.

  17. #17
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carlton-Browne View Post
    If you are planning to use a docking station with more than one external monitor I’d consider a laptop with a separate graphics processor.
    I imagine it'll only ever be used with one external monitor at home.

    Thinking about it I will take the laptop with me to schools and use it to play music files via the phones out using a headphone splitter.

  18. #18
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    I know you’ve already said you are not keen on Mac which is fair enough I wanted to offer an alternative view / option that mainly is also true for Windows.

    I support three or so windows laptops, only one is mine and overwhelmingly the issues centre around windows updates and individual app updates, being forced to undertake them at inopportune times or post update issues. I suspect a fair few of the ones I see are older cheaper hardware and user influenced. My main machine is a 2013 MacBook Pro and it’s been rock solid for me, I tend to recommend macs for those individuals who rely on a machine for there income who are not comfortable with IT.

    That’s the Mac pitch done.

    Have you considered if the video calls are critical to your income having a second ‘backup’ device?
    Irrespective of Mac or pc you could have a larger format tablet as a second device it should run your conf call software of choice and allow you to take the calls on either meaning a hardware, software issue or the oh dang coffee spill doesn’t put you out of action.

    Also I know with Mac you can use a iPad as a second (or third) screen potentially mitigating some of the costs as can getting a lower cost Mac or pc in the first place, I believe that you can also use a iPad with a windows laptops as an additional screen but I have not used that myself. I assume you can do the same with android tablets but again not an area I’ve tested.

    Obviously if it’s of interest don’t leave it to the time you need it to use it and try to make a regular weekly call to check the backup system is working okay.

  19. #19
    Never had a problem with Windows updates for years now. Admittedly PC not laptop but don’t see why they should be different.

  20. #20
    NAS is Network Attached Storage.

    It;s a little box sitting somewhere in your house connected to your internet router. It's like a computer with no screen solely dedicated to storing and serving files.

    As an example, mine holds
    1. auto backups from all the PCs and laptops in my house
    2. all my photos
    3. Videos - Films -the actual video files I have downloaded, not streaming.
    4. Work, including a backup of my dropbox account.

    I have 2Tb storage, and I'm only using 34% currently after 4 years. There are 300 films on there

    It sends videos to all the devices in the house that ask for it. We watch films on the family room TV using my PS4. It sends films to the kids tablets. You can even watch films from far away on it. Last year the kids watched films that it sent from under the stairs in my house to the chalet in the Alps !
    I am just about to connect a CCTV camera to the NAS, because it will operate and store the video from 2 cameras for free.
    mine has 2 hard discs in it, and it runs a fail-protect system so that I won't lose any data if one hard drive goes pop. It also saves this same data to the cloud for offsite storage (in case of total loss like house fire)

    I can access all the stuff on it, work files, presentations etc from any other computer in the world. You "dial" into it, and the little box under the stairs wakes up and does its thing!

    The two big players for domestic NAS are Synology and Qnap. The commercial stuff is mostly Microsoft, but also ££££.

    Cost: about £250 for the NAS box and a further £150 for 3-5Terrabytes of storage.
    Last edited by The Doc; 22nd February 2021 at 20:46.

  21. #21
    Master Skier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kingstepper View Post
    Never had a problem with Windows updates for years now. Admittedly PC not laptop but don’t see why they should be different.
    I'm the same. From memory the ONLY issue I've ever experienced in over 20 years of running Windows desktops and laptops was an inability to see/access my NAS - resolved within about 20 minutes of searching the www for solutions. I currently have a personal desktop and laptop and 3 work laptops (on two of which the Windows version and updates are controlled centrally but the IT Dept.) and the third which accepts updates as offered by Windows Update; never had an issue with any of them.

    Incidentally, the last time I purchased a laptop I purchased one very similar to THIS (HP Spectre); it has been superb.
    Last edited by Skier; 22nd February 2021 at 20:53.

  22. #22
    Master jukeboxs's Avatar
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    I strongly disagree on the Lenovo recommendations - I bought Lenovos for each of my daughters (Vet student and A-Level student), both very careful, and both laptop cases now falling apart, hinges (and screen) very loose and all base screws came out (which is an easy fix, but shouldn't be needed). Both £700-800 Lenovo laptops, both within 3 years. That's the last money Lenovo will see from me. [In comparison, my wife's 10 year old MacBook Air still running smoothly, and my 2015 Pro works like a dream.]

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Skier View Post
    I'm the same. From memory the ONLY issue I've ever experienced in over 20 years of running Windows desktops and laptops was an inability to see/access my NAS - resolved within about 20 minutes of searching the www for solutions. I currently have a personal desktop and laptop and 3 work laptops (on two of which the Windows version and updates are controlled centrally but the IT Dept.) and the third which accepts updates as offered by Windows Update; never had an issue with any of them.

    Incidentally, the last time I purchased a laptop I purchased one very similar to THIS (HP Spectre); it has been superb.
    Interesting re the HP. I'm also in the market for a laptop and choice was between that and a Dell XPS. The HP is significantly cheaper, longer warranty and pen included whilst the Dell is available with bigger memory....

  24. #24
    Master blackal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jukeboxs View Post
    I strongly disagree on the Lenovo recommendations - I bought Lenovos for each of my daughters (Vet student and A-Level student), both very careful, and both laptop cases now falling apart, hinges (and screen) very loose and all base screws came out (which is an easy fix, but shouldn't be needed). Both £700-800 Lenovo laptops, both within 3 years. That's the last money Lenovo will see from me. [In comparison, my wife's 10 year old MacBook Air still running smoothly, and my 2015 Pro works like a dream.]
    I have had nothing other (apart from a disastrous foray into macbook for a year) for 20 yrs. Admittedly, I go for up-range models but I still have a W520 which was dragged all over the world for 6yrs, and with a new HDD is still my back-up)

    I am a big fan of Lenovo, which passes my first demand- a proper keyboard, as I touch-type.

    Now, I dare say that in the sub £500 range- they are built to a price, but I think when you go above that (subject to the odd anomaly)- they produce a better machine.

    I still think they live up to the IBM adage : “Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM”

  25. #25
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    UPDATE: Just got off the phone from Jamie at Laptops Direct who convinced me to get a 'Dell Precision 3550 Core i7-10510U 16GB 512GB SSD 15.6 Inch Quadro P520 2GB Windows 10 Pro Mobile Workstation Laptop.' plus 12 month subscription to Microsoft 365 which comes with 1TB cloud security for backing up files. He also suggested a Samsung T5 ssd with 1TB for manual backups but Amazon have them cheaper so I'll get it from them. I spent £1.2k on the laptop plus MS subscription.

    EDIT: The Dell laptop has a 3 year warranty which is pretty impressive imo
    Last edited by beechcustom; 26th February 2021 at 12:18.

  26. #26
    Master Alansmithee's Avatar
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    Give this is for business and for teaching - I would not mess around with buying office but get office 365 instead as you have done. I'd never consider going back to stand-alone office so I have thought you have done the right thing.

    By the way office365 subscriptions stack so I tend to buy them when on offer - I have office365 for six people through until 2025 for basically buttons this way.
    Last edited by Alansmithee; 26th February 2021 at 14:25.

  27. #27
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    By the way office365 subscriptions stack so I tend to buy them when on offer - I have office365 for six people through until 2025 for basically buttons this way.
    Good to know, many thanks :-)

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