Please help me find a laptop under 250?

Jaguar19

Hi there,

I need to purchase a laptop quickly, priced £250 or less.

The laptop needs to be able to surf, do word processing and run multiple lightweight programs at one time.

I need to be able to download some software to it, too.

I don't want it to be a casual "netbook," I need it to be able to do proper laptop "stuff." Sorry for the poor wording, I'm not very technical!

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I have heard a lot about refurbished laptops. I'm a little sceptical about these, but if you feel they're worth it, please do say.

Thanks all :money:

I_have_spoken

A refurbished HP Elitebook 8440p would be my choice, been using one for years and it's still going! Plenty on t'Bay for under £150, e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-EliteBook-8440p-Intel-Core-i5-2-4GHz-4GB-250GB-HDD-Windows-10-Laptop-/152537813348

donniedarko

^^
Good enough spec, but already seven years old.

Here are a few more worthy of consideration;

http://
mcscom.co.uk/product/dell-inspiron-15-3543-i5-5200u-2-20ghz-8gb-500gb-geforce-820m-15-6-hd-w8-1-1yr-rtb-wty-mln464/

http://
mcscom.co.uk/product/dell-latitude-15-e5540-i3-4030u-1-90ghz-8gb-500gb-15-6-hd-w10p-1yr-rtb-wty-xmll394/ Full HD screen, but company logo etched on lid.

Frozen_up_north

Argos, for £249.99 you have the following:
668/4860 Acer 15"
669/1592 HP 14" (blue)
674/7075 HP 14" (same as above, purple)

I've not used any of them, but you are likely to have a store not too far away to pick one up today.

Jaguar19

Thanks everyone !

I'm quite interested by the refurbished laptops.

Can I ask approximately how many years they would last? I worry about them not having a long shelf life.

I am a light business user, though, so I am interested in the fact refurbished laptops allow you to access better specs at cheaper prices. Therefore I imagine they are worth it more than a new, supermarket purchased laptop?

Jaguar19

Can I ask for thoughts on/recommendations from current stock in the official Dell outlet? Thanks

donniedarko

Jaguar19 wrote: »

Can I ask for thoughts on/recommendations from current stock in the official Dell outlet? Thanks

Nothing worthwhile there within your budget.

Either of the two to which I've linked will cover your requirements.

Frozen_up_north

donniedarko wrote: »

Nothing worthwhile there within your budget.

Either of the two to which I've linked will cover your requirements.

The first one is only Windows 8.1, also don't forget to add £9.95 shipping and add vat to the total.

donniedarko

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

The first one is only Windows 8.1, also don't forget to add £9.95 shipping and add vat to the total.

What difference does that make?? They can move to Windows 10 Home for free if they wish
I have allowed for VAT and postage in my recommendations.

Frozen_up_north

donniedarko wrote: »

What difference does that make?? They can move to Windows 10 Home for free if they wish.

Laptop drivers are a risk, not sure about Dell, but Asus and Acer don't want to know about Win 10 upgraded machines. Had a backlight problem on an Acer and lost the WiFi on an Asus. The latter had been happily running Win 10 for months, eventually found a driver but Asus support were not interested. There was a workaround for the Acer, but it lost the ability to dim the screen on a low battery.

A computer professional friend said he wouldn't consider upgrading a laptop as drivers can be a problem.

I would get a laptop that was originally supplied with Win 10, that way it should be less likely to suffer from odd problems either now or in the future.

donniedarko

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Laptop drivers are a risk, not sure about Dell, but Asus and Acer don't want to know about Win 10 upgraded machines. Had a backlight problem on an Acer and lost the WiFi on an Asus. The latter had been happily running Win 10 for months, eventually found a driver but Asus support were not interested. There was a workaround for the Acer, but it lost the ability to dim the screen on a low battery.

A computer professional friend said he wouldn't consider upgrading a laptop as drivers can be a problem.

I would get a laptop that was originally supplied with Win 10, that way it should be less likely to suffer from odd problems either now or in the future.

"A computer professional......" Come on...that is just crazy.
A few seconds taken would confirm that DELL support the machine for Windows 10.

Jaguar19 is clearly interested in a high quality refurb, not cheap plastic with a Celeron or AMD E1 CPU.