Help pls - budget laptop

malebolge

My grandson, who's going to be 15 soon, has asked for a laptop. My daughter is a single mum & usually skint, so we only have a budget of £300. Two laptops I've found within that budget are a Lenovo from Currys - https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10169166-pdt.html and an Acer from Tesco Direct - https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10169166-pdt.html

I know it's not a lot of money to spend, but it's all we have. He doesn't want it for gaming or anything fancy; more for his schoolwork. I'm going round in circles trying to compare laptops. I've always had Acers but have read that Lenovos are ok. Neither of us are in the slightest bit tech savvy and my head is spinning with dual or quad core processors, amount of RAM etc. Bottom line is I have no idea what I should be looking for. His birthday is in 8 days and this will be his only pressie. I really would appreciate any help. Thanks.

J_B

'Ray' on another forum bought this for £215 ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Inspiron-15-3000-15-6-inch-8GB-1TB-Laptop-/222771407397?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=QO52OR0r1sP9YCvo0r%252FDhs2BOrA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

It was described as 'grade C' but he says it's as good as new.
Food for thought perhaps?

were

the above is not bad.

I would go second hand route, and opt for a business model. Lenovo/toshiba/dell

You should be able to get away with a refurb dell e6230. Yes, you may want an ssd, and at possibly a new battery? They are smaller, possibly not as robust but lighter than the e6430.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6430-Laptop-Core-i5-3320M-2-60GHz-Microsoft-Office-HDMI-Warranty/232371781355?hash=item361a6ffeeb:m:mks3gOLzRvzpzXgS64GzIwA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6430-Laptop-Core-i5-3320M-2-60GHz-4GB-Ram-128SSD-64-Bit-Win7-HDMI/263444615790?hash=item3d5685d26e:g:xDMAAOSwYNxaYGMc

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6230-12-5-Cheap-Core-i7-Laptop-8GB-RAM-120GB-SSD-Windows-10-Pro/401418155696?epid=7007318107&hash=item5d7662f6b0:g:VQ4AAOSwm7pZ12Gv

EveryWhere

J_B wrote: »

'Ray' on another forum bought this for £215 ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Inspiron-15-3000-15-6-inch-8GB-1TB-Laptop-/222771407397?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=QO52OR0r1sP9YCvo0r%252FDhs2BOrA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

It was described as 'grade C' but he says it's as good as new.
Food for thought perhaps?

Scraping the barrel with an Intel Pentium N3710. It's all a bit too basic.

https://mcscom.co.uk/product/dell-latitude-3550-i5-5200u-2-20ghz-8gb-500gb-geforce-830m-15-6-fhd-1yrs-rtb-wty-mll782/ is a bit nicer, but still a bit dull. I'm sure he'd like a Touchscreen, however useless.

EveryWhere

were wrote: »

the above is not bad.

I would go second hand route, and opt for a business model. Lenovo/toshiba/dell

You should be able to get away with a refurb dell e6230. Yes, you may want an ssd, and at possibly a new battery? They are smaller, possibly not as robust but lighter than the e6430.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6430-Laptop-Core-i5-3320M-2-60GHz-Microsoft-Office-HDMI-Warranty/232371781355?hash=item361a6ffeeb:m:mks3gOLzRvzpzXgS64GzIwA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6430-Laptop-Core-i5-3320M-2-60GHz-4GB-Ram-128SSD-64-Bit-Win7-HDMI/263444615790?hash=item3d5685d26e:g:xDMAAOSwYNxaYGMc

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-E6230-12-5-Cheap-Core-i7-Laptop-8GB-RAM-120GB-SSD-Windows-10-Pro/401418155696?epid=7007318107&hash=item5d7662f6b0:g:VQ4AAOSwm7pZ12Gv

Small low resolution screens and as little as one month warranty.

SPFreely

Ebuyer happen to be selling HP laptops, brand new for under £200 with fairly modest specs. If you head on over there you should soon establish which model I am referring to. One downside is that they come with no OS preinstalled, but it might pay in the long run to own a copy of Windows 10 anyway or...Windows 7 if you're a tad nostalgic about your preferred OS.

toshi

malebolge wrote: »

My grandson, who's going to be 15 soon, has asked for a laptop. My daughter is a single mum & usually skint, so we only have a budget of £300. Two laptops I've found within that budget are a Lenovo from Currys - https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10169166-pdt.html and an Acer from Tesco Direct - https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10169166-pdt.html

I know it's not a lot of money to spend, but it's all we have. He doesn't want it for gaming or anything fancy; more for his schoolwork. I'm going round in circles trying to compare laptops. I've always had Acers but have read that Lenovos are ok. Neither of us are in the slightest bit tech savvy and my head is spinning with dual or quad core processors, amount of RAM etc. Bottom line is I have no idea what I should be looking for. His birthday is in 8 days and this will be his only pressie. I really would appreciate any help. Thanks.

I would also suggest a business republished model. Actually £300 is a hell of lot money to get a decent notebook :cool:

OK, let's beat your Lenovo. Business models are far better construction and durability, For instance, this kind consumer model of mouse-pad, keyboard are very unpleasant, and much worse, in a couple of years, a mouse-pad would become less responsive for instance. (All consumer models are more or less same, because of consumer models!)

Your grandson may not be happy about a refurbished notebook initially, he will appreciate once start using. (Let him know the original price of the below Dell Latitude E6430,well £800-1200? :T)

Well, I personally don't need a powerful processor, but we will have to make your grand son happy Oddly, it seems that people still make a judgement of notebook value with CPU power (brand ?), then we will get a decent i5 CPU to beat your Lenovo,

[Edit start]

Intel Pentium 4415U (Your Lenovo's CPU) = 3236
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+4415U+%40+2.30GHz&id=2977

Intel Core i5-3340M (Dell Latitude E6430 CPU) = 4228
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-3340M+%40+2.70GHz&id=1889

[Edit end]

Dell Latitude E6430 - i5-3340M 2.70GHz

Upgrade Your Hard Drive : 120GB SSD
Memory Upgrade : 8GB
Operating System Windows 10 Home - Installed as standard
Warranty Options : 1 Year RTB Warranty

TOTAL including all upgrade £ 248.50
********************
Alternatively, get a 160GB hard disk model, and replace it with Crucial MX500 250GB SSD (5 year warranty) by yourself.

£ 213.50 + £70.79 + £ 5.95 = £290.24

Crucial MX500 250GB (a band new model. 5 years warranty)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT250MX500SSD1-MX500-NAND-Internal/dp/B0764WCXCV

USB ENCLOSURE (option for cloning)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORICO-2-5-Transparent-5Gbps-USB3-0-to-Sata3-0-HDD-Case-Tool-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/202172931453

Happy computing !:)