Laptop Under £200

sillygoose

I am kind of in the same market as the op as next child needs one now.

A couple of years ago I was able to get my older child an HP 255 G3 brand new for £200 and its been/still is absolutely fine, the AMD A4-5000 CPU (despite sniffy reviews) has proven perfectly capable and even plays moderate gaming easily. It came with Windows 8 but I wiped it and put Win7 on, a few quid for a recycled licence off Amazon.

The current replacement is the G4 and G5 which is pricier for not much improvement and I may not be able to get Win7 drivers for them.

I am perfectly open to buying used, although many seem overpriced to me. But I am reluctant to buy unseen over the internet, I don't want anything with a worn track pad, cheesy keyboard and too many scuffs. Its impossible to tell real condition from sellers rating systems and descriptions. Anywhere that sells 'as new' graded with worn parts like tracker pads replaced?

Ebuyer used to sell bare laptops with no OS and you could load what you want yourself but I don't think they do now.

Terry98

Many thanks for all the replies and advice.

We have decided to leave the purchase until next summer although if we see a good deal on a new laptop we might buy earlier.

What really made us change our minds were the 'keeping up with the Joneses' points that we had not considered.

tibawo

Whilst I am not technically minded I think that keeping up with the jones is not all it is cracked up to be. Having tried this and watched students since, it can mean they do things beyond their means and can cause problems further down the line.

Your true friends accept you no matter what and this is far more important than what laptop you have.

DavidP24

sillygoose wrote: »

I am kind of in the same market as the op as next child needs one now.

A couple of years ago I was able to get my older child an HP 255 G3 brand new for £200 and its been/still is absolutely fine, the AMD A4-5000 CPU (despite sniffy reviews) has proven perfectly capable and even plays moderate gaming easily. It came with Windows 8 but I wiped it and put Win7 on, a few quid for a recycled licence off Amazon.

The current replacement is the G4 and G5 which is pricier for not much improvement and I may not be able to get Win7 drivers for them.

I am perfectly open to buying used, although many seem overpriced to me. But I am reluctant to buy unseen over the internet, I don't want anything with a worn track pad, cheesy keyboard and too many scuffs. Its impossible to tell real condition from sellers rating systems and descriptions. Anywhere that sells 'as new' graded with worn parts like tracker pads replaced?

Ebuyer used to sell bare laptops with no OS and you could load what you want yourself but I don't think they do now.

Seems the OP decided their need is not as urgent as first thought.

You make a valid point that people can manage with kit even if not latest and greatest.

The trick to buying a 2nd hand laptop or even a new laptop is to get one that has good upgrade options, you can tell the max ram for any model on the Crucial website if you can't find the spec on the manufacturers site.

For most important is a CPU that can be upgraded, if it is soldered in it can't be upgraded. If you are not sure google the model number and cpu upgrade, if it can be done there will be a youtube video showing how. One thing I do not touch is AMD, they overheat and use too much power, they have not kept up with Intel on getting high performance on low power fabs, in my too many years I have just seen too many issues with AMD.

The same applies to keyboard and trackpad, I bought a new KB for my child's laptop for £12, the trackpad is usually part of the chassis but again a few pounds, and the trackpad buttons £7. The back of the screen case cost me £14, it was actually a resprayed one and perfectly good.

That is why I bought a 2nd laptop of the same model, I can swap out parts if required.

When buying on eBay you want a genuine user, not a recycler, you need plenty of real pictures of what you will be actually buying. Do not be afraid to ask for more photos.

Look at the time of the auction, a savvy seller knows the prime time is between 7pm to 9pm on a Sunday, so they time their auction for that window. An amateur seller will probably end up struggling with eBay and get the thing up at 2am. You do not need to stay up till 2am, whatever the time, you use auctionstealer to bid in the last few seconds. Bidding on the actual ebay site just makes other people bid higher, don't do it. Decide your max price, by looking at the lowest sold listing for that model over the last 30 days, add a few quid, but factor in delivery. It does not matter if you miss out, there will always be another one coming along soon.

Win10 is nothing more than an affiliate and ad tracking platform, Google did it with their browser, now M$ has done it with the whole Win10 OS, why do you think they are giving it free! They stopped it being free but that is to create scarcity, it will be free again soon. As an OS I hate it, so when I can't use Win7 anymore I will probably move to Linux, Win10 is so foreign to me if I have to learn something new then Linux is the way I am going to go.

However, chances are that I can get Win7 working on new kit, I have an unlimited license and I can fudge the drivers for most things. I think the clever manufactuers are creating support for Win7 because they can see that even with Win10 being free there is a huge market that do not want to move to it. So that might factor into the decision on what model to buy.

For your 2nd hand laptop I would set a budget of £50, look for models that are good cosmetically and upgrade the components as you see fit. You can find videos on YouTube showing you the order to dismantle and doing that with your kid is a great experience. You will need a clear table and plently of places to store differnt types of screws. Most important is the order, so make notes if you have not done this sort of thing before. Pay particular attention to how delicate ribbon connectors attach, no need to ever force anything, it should all come apart and reassemble with ease if you get it right.

DavidP24

bsod wrote: »

That's a lot of I got's, this is not about you, or what you have, the comment you rubbished was about what your average teenager/student would like, £200 cash, £200 new laptop, £200 towards a new laptop, or some second hand stuff at least 5 years old

an old thinkpad isn't impressive, thanks for the offer to 'see it', I've 'seen' thousands, and can easily outbrag your statement when it comes to ownership of old working equipment.

Student life has changed since the 1970's, ipad's, slimline laptops, smartphones and £150-£200 trainers are the norm, scrimping on a laptop in that environment would be a little strange - few put up with tiny disks, poor battery life, missing keys, and broken hinges when new machines are so cheap

Look if you come on here and say sheeet people are going to call you out on it and give their own opinions and experiences, that is what a forum is all about.

The "I got" means I got this you can too, it is not about me it is about helping the OP.

I share my experience, I do not pay £200 I pay £50 and perhaps another £50 to beef it up.

Funny thing is people bring me their laptops because they feel slow, I remove the bloatware, adware and other kwap they do not use or need (often with two competing AV progs upsetting each other), I create proper user and admin profiles and partition the disks. They say it works better than new and it does, problem is they bring me all their other ones!

The simple fact is that there is very little extra value in new laptops, the quality of manufacture is actually lower.

Now it may not be the way BSOD does it in BSOD house but we are all entitled to our way, even BSOD, in effect we are all markets, just some are happy to buy Sky and pay for it, others OK with Freeview and others (like me) neither because I found a better way that affords me a lifestyle choice that suits me.

Your "give them cash" idea has to be one of the poorest suggestions; what experience do they have in understanding the products and what you get for the money? The other day I saw a so called "laptop" in ALDI for £100, a guy asked me if it was any good, it had no hard disk, just a 32gb flash card and an atom processor. It was not even a laptop, it was a netbook. A child has no idea and giving children money is foolish IMO, give them what they NEED, otherwise there are plenty of people that will take that money.

As I said in an earlier post there are as many models as opinions, do not make a personal attack against me just because I disagree with you, instead make a better argument for what you suggest.

One of the best life lessons you can give a child is not to keep up with the Jones' and not living for the approval of others. Getting by on adequate kit leaves money for other things, who cares about slimline, just reduced functionality is all you get. They also learn that if you do want an Ipad you have to find the money and that means aiming for work that affords such kit or deciding it is not for you. They are the norm for parents who either have so much money that they do not care or they spend money they do not have on things they do not need and then end up in debt.

We all have a choice, you can spend £919 on a fully loaded 6 inch Iphone or spend £70 on a half decent Android Alcatel Pixi 4.6" reduced from £85 at Tesco. Sales of androids in the market are 5x the number of iPhones, Apple just sells to a dumb market that is prepared to pay over the top, it is clever marketing but the technology as a whole rather poor. Now their unit shipments are down for the first time since release which shows the market is saturated. The Laptop market has been this way for a while, that is why they are making new kit of poorer quality, so it does not last so long.

I do not have any missing keys, I have a brand new KB, my hinges are fine, scimping as you call it is a life skill. Translate that to a business and it is a key lesson, making a profit is often about reducing your costs rather than charging more (often you can't because of competitors). Kids will fill hard disks no matter how big they are, the OS needs no more than 100gb, in fact 50gb will be OK. so a 320gb interal is fine, after that, learn to archive or buy an external 4tb. Mega.nz will give you 50gb online for free, a perfect alternative to Microsoft who screwed customers down to 5gb. As for battery, as I said, 5 to 6 hours is pretty good and it cost £13, oh and you can replace it yourself, no sending the laptop to Apple for a £100 swapout. Another example of how modern kit cuts functionality, if you needed 12 hours you could have three £13 batteries and swap them yourself.

You see these are all "markets", you can find a product to fit your product NEED and price point , no matter how low it is and you do not need any broken or worn kit.

One of my kids got their laptop in 2006 and is considering changing it next year when they get their bonus, it lasted all through Uni and several years of employment and they are now a junior director of a large multinational. They will probably buy new from the Dell outlet, but they will make sure the model is upgradable. They DO have an iPad that they funded since uni by selling the old and paying the difference. Same with their iPhone, they made theirs last for years and I am still using their oldest because it does the job.

Indulging kids for what they think they need does them no favours in life, but learning to get by is a great life lesson.

The OP had a budget and we all provided options, they decided it could wait till the summer next year and that is the truth, you do not need the latest and greatest and you do not need it now.

dollydosh

At the Dell outlet this computer is just over £200 with the extra 15% discount they are offering today

Inspiron 15 - 5558
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 3825U (2M Cache, up to 1.90 GHz)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
8 GB DDR3 Memory 1600MHz (2 DIMMs)
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
8X DVD+/- RW Drive
Software
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-AC 3160 + Bluetooth 4.0
LCD Back Cover for Non-Touch Screen - Black gloss + Texture palmrest
40 WHr, 4-Cell Battery (removable)
15.6 inch LED Backlit Display with Truelife and HD resolution (1366 x 768)
Internal English Keyboard

http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukdfh1/campaigns/shop-outlet-deals?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&~ck=pn

sillygoose

dollydosh wrote: »

At the Dell outlet this computer is just over £200 with the extra 15% discount they are offering today

Inspiron 15 - 5558
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 3825U (2M Cache, up to 1.90 GHz)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
8 GB DDR3 Memory 1600MHz (2 DIMMs)
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
8X DVD+/- RW Drive
Software
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-AC 3160 + Bluetooth 4.0
LCD Back Cover for Non-Touch Screen - Black gloss + Texture palmrest
40 WHr, 4-Cell Battery (removable)
15.6 inch LED Backlit Display with Truelife and HD resolution (1366 x 768)
Internal English Keyboard

http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukdfh1/campaigns/shop-outlet-deals?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&~ck=pn

I presume the 'Scratch and Dent' on the selection page means it has undefined scratches and dents? hmm doesn't sound attractive, it could turn up looking like a car crash?

John_Gray

I'd also be a bit worried about the Internal English Keyboard...

motorguy

bsod wrote: »

second hand laptop which will most likely be deposited in a dustbin in a very short space of time, either out of failure or embarrassment.

Embarassment? Are you one of these sheep who has to go with the herd when something new comes out?


Business quality machines are usually light years ahead of new budget domestic quality machines, and usually far easier upgraded.


I've, as I said a 10 year D620 and its going strong - and it does exactly the same job for me as my new HP Envy i7.

bsod wrote: »

I've yet to see a laptop free of plastic

You missed the key word there -"shiny" - and by that, you know I mean cheapest shiny plastics that the cheapest machines, built down to a price are usually made of.

motorguy

bsod wrote: »

That's a lot of I got's, this is not about you, or what you have, the comment you rubbished was about what your average teenager/student would like, £200 cash, £200 new laptop, £200 towards a new laptop, or some second hand stuff at least 5 years old

A lot of businesses replace their laptops @ 3 years old, when the warranty expires. An easy bargain to be had there, as they normally give them away to recycling companies.

bsod wrote: »

an old thinkpad isn't impressive, thanks for the offer to 'see it', I've 'seen' thousands, and can easily outbrag your statement when it comes to ownership of old working equipment.

The impressiveness comes from the longevity. You'll not get that from a consumer laptop built down to a budget price.

bsod wrote: »

Student life has changed since the 1970's, ipad's, slimline laptops, smartphones and £150-£200 trainers are the norm, scrimping on a laptop in that environment would be a little strange - few put up with tiny disks, poor battery life, missing keys, and broken hinges when new machines are so cheap

You're having a laugh now aren't you? I take it you haven't actually seen what that sort of money buys you in a quality used business laptop?


500GB drives are common on used machines these days, an irrespective, most people stick their stuff on cloud. I know I do.


As has been said already. Batteries on business spec machines are easily replaceable and don't cost much - I think the last one I got was £11 delivered.


Missing keys? What nonsense. Any refurber will usually have a new keyboard on it. Again, last replacement keyboard I put on used laptop cost me £9 delivered for a brand new genuine one.


Hinges are usually rock solid as they're not built down to a price.


Genuinely cant believe you're making judgements on something you clearly know nothing about.