Looking for a 13" Laptop with W7

FreddieM

A little help please, I need a small light 13" Laptop that has Windows 7 to use just for my little business. I like the HP Stream which runs W8.1 I'm just a creature of habit. I would like to spend no more than £200. Anyone guide me here? Thanks

henm2

I bought this refurbished one a few months ago off ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370916356683?clk_rvr_id=835627216014&rmvSB=true for under £90 and then spent another £20 with Crucial so I could upgrade the RAM from 2gb to 4gb. Works really well with surprisingly good battery life (2 hours plus). There appear to be lots more available.

[Deleted User]

FreddieM wrote: »

I like the HP Stream which runs W8.1 I'm just a creature of habit.

Get a Win 8/8.1 machine, then install Classic Shell.

Any particular reason it must be 13"?

FreddieM

Yes I have to carry a briefcase, compact etc I do have a Lenovo 15.6" Far to bulky Never heard of classic shell?

agrinnall

I'm typing this on a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 13.3", it wasn't cheap (although if you can find one it may be cheaper now as the Pro 3 has been introduced) but it is light and compact. It comes with Windows 8, I just upgraded to 8.1 and used that rather than mess about trying to get it to look like Win 7, we all have to move on at some point otherwise we'd still be using MS-DOS. And if you really don't get on with 8, just download an early version of 10, which I understand has more 7-like features.

FreddieM

Thanks for that, your comments have been really helpful

[Deleted User]

FreddieM wrote: »

Never heard of classic shell?

Classic Shell is a small, free program, which allows you to make Win 8/8.1 look and act like XP, Vista, Win 7 etc.

It gives you back the Start Button, Menu, Control Panel, etc.

I have it on both my tower and my laptop.

http://www.classicshell.net/

It gives me ease of use, by making 8.1 behave like my Win 7 work computer, while keeping the fast boot of Win 8.1 :cool:

Johnmcl7

I'd second the classic shell recommendation if you are worried about getting to grips with Windows 8 plus I'd much rather have Windows 8 on lower end hardware as it's better optimised than Windows 7 making it quicker and more responsive even on older, slower hardware.

John

henm2

On the refurbished laptop mentioned previously (Thinkpad X200) I have a dual boot system of Windows 8.1 and Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon edition. For the windows side of things, which I still occasionally use, I find that Classic Shell makes things a lot easier to manage.

prowla

Yes, I'd suggest looking at the Lenovo sub-notebooks too.

(Windows 8 with Classic Shell is in some ways like Windows 7, but not others...)

FreddieM

I'm getting there folks, all advice is appreciated, I've been trawling the net most of the weekend to try and get the right thing