[Technology] Laptop advice please

[upthealbion1970]

My step daughter wants a laptop of some description.

She’s 13 next month, uses Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube etc and will need to do some schoolwork on it.

We don’t want to spend more than £300 on it if possible, neither I or my Mrs have any idea where to start....

Over to you NSC what do you recommend?

Thanks [emoji1303]

 

[SeagullinExile]

Lenovo are very good. I only ever use them now.

 

[Dick Head]

Chromebook.

 

[upthealbion1970]

Thanks chaps, what sort of specs should we be looking for?

 

[SeagullinExile]

I'm no expert! All I know is that I've never had any issues in 8 years of using Lenovo. As for spec? Someone with more knowledge would be better help! Sorry.

 

[Superseagull]

You can get some pretty decent second hand used Lenovo’s for £300. Loads of big companies have contracts with Lenovo which means there are loads of 2 year old ones in good condition that get sold off after being returned from companies as part of there contracts. They are not the prettiest looking laptops but great value for money.

 

[Official Old Man]

I've only ever used Lenovo. Served me well. On my second in 15 or so years and don't buy the top of the range.
But technical question.
Many now only have SSD and 128 GB at that. What happened to the old style 1TB hard drive? Do you have to store everything 'in the cloud' and if so, what happens if you take your portable lap top out with no internet?

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I recently installed 5 new laptops for Shropshire Cricket Board - their spec criteria was:
largest screen size = 15.6"
Decent performance = Intel i5 with 8Gb RAM
Adequate storage = 256Gb
Decent battery life whilst away from mains power = SSD disk drive consumes a lot less power and is very fast to boot up
Having a DVD/CD was deemed not mandatory

From the above, several manufacturers provide a close match to this spec as this aligns to business use standard.

We went for the HP [well respected / robust brand] model G7
By surfing around I was able to source these for under £400 [in Feb] - this may be a tad above your target price but should be worthy of consideration.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I've only ever used Lenovo. Served me well. On my second in 15 or so years and don't buy the top of the range.
But technical question.
Many now only have SSD and 128 GB at that. What happened to the old style 1TB hard drive? Do you have to store everything 'in the cloud' and if so, what happens if you take your portable lap top out with no internet?

Cloud is the way things are leaning toward nowadays for data file storage - you can get 1Tb SSD but they're not cheap.
With tethering to mobile phones, there aren't too many places now where the internet is completely out of range ...

 

[Saunders]

I buy from newegg some lenovos on there decent price. https://www.newegg.com/global/uk-en/p/pl?N=100202571 601296059 601311244&Order=PRICE

 

[upthealbion1970]

Thanks for the help, will have a look see what’s about [emoji1303]

 

[Easy 10]

Chromebook.

This. Cheap, reliable, quick, perfect for browsing. Built-in antivirus so no faffing with McAfree or whoever. And no hard drive, its a solid state build so no moving parts, so it won't deteriorate and slow down like a conventional laptop.

Wish I'd got one years ago.

 

[Bakero]

This. Cheap, reliable, quick, perfect for browsing. Built-in antivirus so no faffing with McAfree or whoever. And no hard drive, its a solid state build so no moving parts, so it won't deteriorate and slow down like a conventional laptop.

Wish I'd got one years ago.

Had my Toshiba Chromebook for 5 years now and it's as fast as the day I bought it.

 

[Goldstone1976]

I've only ever used Lenovo. Served me well. On my second in 15 or so years and don't buy the top of the range.
But technical question.
Many now only have SSD and 128 GB at that. What happened to the old style 1TB hard drive? Do you have to store everything 'in the cloud' and if so, what happens if you take your portable lap top out with no internet?

I recently specced a new Lenovo for gaming on their website. 256GB SSD and a 2TB fast HDD. Best of both worlds. Not cheap by the time I’d added the various other bells and whistles I “needed”, but it’s excellent.

 

[Easy 10]

Had my Toshiba Chromebook for 5 years now and it's as fast as the day I bought it.

Good to know. I'm kicking myself for not switching years ago, I've had at least 2 windows laptops that have run down to shite when I could've gone and got one of these. My own fault for being ignorant of them, I should've looked into it.

Recently helped my dad invest in a new laptop from his decrepit slow old piece of windows junk. Steered him towards a new Chromebook, and he's happier than a dog with two dicks. They are so simple and easy to set up and use.

 

[upthealbion1970]

Nice one

Any particular brand of Chromebook in our price range?

I like the idea of it running fast for her as she’s easily frustrated

 

[herecomesaregular]

I recently installed 5 new laptops for Shropshire Cricket Board - their spec criteria was:
largest screen size = 15.6"
Decent performance = Intel i5 with 8Gb RAM
Adequate storage = 256Gb
Decent battery life whilst away from mains power = SSD disk drive consumes a lot less power and is very fast to boot up
Having a DVD/CD was deemed not mandatory

From the above, several manufacturers provide a close match to this spec as this aligns to business use standard.

We went for the HP [well respected / robust brand] model G7
By surfing around I was able to source these for under £400 [in Feb] - this may be a tad above your target price but should be worthy of consideration.

Quoted this as seems sound advice but where did you get a G7 for under £400?!

 

[astralavi]

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-V14...9c51f153a1cffff70c9&_mwBanner=1&_rdt=1&ul_noa

20 per cent off 304 pounds