Advice for laptop under £400

Pixiesfield

I would like to buy a laptop for my son, but I don't know what all the different processors are, my budget is £400 maximum. It needs to be able to access the internet for him to research homework and for him to work on it for his homework, plus it needs a usb to connect to the printers and so he can use his usb stick to upload his work from school. Also he would probably be playing a few games on it, nothing huge.
I am looking online and in stores and was told to look at the processor speed not the processor type but now I am totally confused.
I have seen these two in Currys as a starting point
Lenovo G500 Intel® Core™ i3-3110M Processor (2.4 GHz, 3 MB cache)4 GB DDR3 (16 GB maximum installable RAM)500 GB HDD, 5400 rpm 15.6" screen at £299

or Asus X550CA Intel® Core™ i5-3337U Processor (1.8 GHz, 2.7 GHz with TurboBoost, 3 MB cache)4 GB DDR3 750 GB HDD, 5400 rpm 15.6" screen at £399

and also at dell an Inspiron 15 3000:
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-4210U processor (3M Cache, up to 2.7 GHz)8GB Single Channel DDR3 1600MHz (8GBx1)1TB 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive Tray load DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD) 15.6 inch LED Backlit Display with Truelife and HD resolution (1366 x 768) £399

Can someone please help, am I on the right track and what should I be looking for?

Many Thanks

ktk

I have just bought the Lenovo Flex 15 for £365 on a daily deal from Amazon, which I think is a good price. It is also for my son to do the same as you describe!

NiftyDigits

UK wrote: »

I always, always always reccomend HP laprtops and computers. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a Toshiba anything! Had a laptop from them in the past and it simply died 1 day after the 1 year warranty!

HP do a good range within your price bracket and quality and lifespan of the machine are always top notch!

Who would take a recommendation from a SPAMmer??

My Toshiba machine is still running more than five years later, whilst I'm sure that many have their own horror stories concerning HP.
A brand name is not always a guarantee of good quality.

MsSupertech

You could try e-bay for a professionally refurbed Ex-business machine... I'm trying to avoid Windows 8 but my old Win7 machine is faltering. Just bought a refurbed Win7 for under £150 from company with 100% positive feedback over several years. should keep me going for 2-3 years until I'm ready to get a Win10 (or 12/15/??...??) machine

Richie-from-the-Boro

MsSupertech wrote: »

You could try e-bay for a professionally refurbed Ex-business machine... I'm trying to avoid Windows 8 but my old Win7 machine is faltering. Just bought a refurbed Win7 for under £150 from company with 100% positive feedback over several years. should keep me going for 2-3 years until I'm ready to get a Win10 (or 12/15/??...??) machine

Win10

- due out last two months of this year
- the TP is already available for a download for those who want it
- word is its somewhere between free and a nominal sum for those 8.1v existing buyers

Herzlos

Do you know what Operating System he'll be using at school? If it's like the schools up here it's probably still XP/Windows 7, in which case you'll want to try and find a Windows 7 laptop, as Windows 8.x is wildly different.

Beyond that, any laptop made in the last 10 years will do everything he needs. Just get him the cheapest laptop you can find with a 15" or bigger screen.

I have to ask though; does it need to be a laptop? Like, does he need the portability? You'll get much more bang for buck with a desktop, and it'll be better to use if it's just sat at a desk at home all the time.