Build Quality HP v Lenovo Laptops

Eclipser

Hi All,

Been looking to replace my aging 10 Year old Dell Vostro Laptop.

Seen two laptops that suit my price range and spec.

Lenovo V130 - i5-7200U - 8GB DDR4 RAM
HP 250 G5 - i5-7200U - 8GB DDR4 RAM

Which is the better build quality HP or Lenovo?

I would also be replacing the HDD with a SSD at some point in the future so easy upgrading would also be helpful.

Thanks

motorguy

Eclipser wrote: »

Hi All,

Been looking to replace my aging 10 Year old Dell Vostro Laptop.

Seen two laptops that suit my price range and spec.

Lenovo V130 - i5-7200U - 8GB DDR4 RAM
HP 250 G5 - i5-7200U - 8GB DDR4 RAM

Which is the better build quality HP or Lenovo?

I would also be replacing the HDD with a SSD at some point in the future so easy upgrading would also be helpful.

Thanks

You havent told us your budget but i'm deducing around £300-£350.

To me, these are consumer grade machines and as such the built quality wont be fantastic.

For better build quality and ease of upgrades, you'd be better looking at an ex business machine and ideally with an SSD in now.

I'd be looking for a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon ideally.... something like this -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cheap-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Core-i7-4600U-256GB-SSD-Ultrabook-Win-10-Laptop/222681737713?hash=item33d8dda9f1:g:HBoAAOSw2idbNi4A

OR a T series....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T540p-Core-i7-Quad-Core-2-80GHz-8GB-Ram-256GB-SSD-Webcam-Laptop/232772219385?epid=1038357390&hash=item36324e31f9:g:H1gAAOSw5cNYQD3I

I've two T series machines and they're fantastic. Much better build than my HP Envy 13

pmartin86

Eclipser wrote: »

HP 250 G5

I was unfortunate enough to have to deal with about 40 of these at work at one point, id rather chew my own hands off than touch one again!





Also, motorguy is right, your much better going for an ex business grade model, id probably chose the carbon out of the 2 linked, but thats just personal preference, nothing much between them in terms of performance.

motorguy

pmartin86 wrote: »

I was unfortunate enough to have to deal with about 40 of these at work at one point, id rather chew my own hands off than touch one again!





Also, motorguy is right, your much better going for an ex business grade model, id probably chose the carbon out of the 2 linked, but thats just personal preference, nothing much between them in terms of performance.

+1

The Carbon would be my choice, however you'd probably get a slightly fresher T series for the same money.

Frozen_up_north

My OH used to have a Thinkpad from work, not sure of the exact model, but it ran Win10 Pro with Bitlocker, had a touch screen and an SSD. It was extremely fast, both booting up, running programs and shutting down. However the built in mouse pad was very awkward to use, maybe that was the reason for the red stick in the keyboard? She hated the thing and I didn't like that pad either. It was lightweight and ran about 9 hours on a charge, other than the mouse pad, it was really good.

Her colleagues seemed to have a lot of problems with Thinkpads, but not sure if that was software installed by her organisation or a hardware/driver issue, probably the software if I was guessing.

flashg67

All the family have had HP at dome point - my last one a fairly expensive one. Found build quality a bit flimsy, and upgrading to an SSD meant pulling the whole base apart. What happened to leaving an easy access panel underneath

John_Gray

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

However the built in mouse pad was very awkward to use, maybe that was the reason for the red stick in the keyboard?

No, the 'red stick' was a feature of the original IBM ThinkPad - I never used it.
I never use the mouse-pad of any laptop either - I always use an ordinary USB-connected mouse.

Robisere

John_Gray wrote: »

No, the 'red stick' was a feature of the original IBM ThinkPad - I never used it.
I never use the mouse-pad of any laptop either - I always use an ordinary USB-connected mouse.

Wife has had a Lenovo B50 for 3 years now, only i3 but happy with it and build quality is good, especially for a low budget item She uses a tiny wireless USB and a mouse, works well for her.

Eclipser

Have a budget up to £500

motorguy wrote: »

You havent told us your budget but i'm deducing around £300-£350.


To me, these are consumer grade machines and as such the built quality wont be fantastic.

For better build quality and ease of upgrades, you'd be better looking at an ex business machine and ideally with an SSD in now.

I'd be looking for a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon ideally.... something like this -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cheap-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Core-i7-4600U-256GB-SSD-Ultrabook-Win-10-Laptop/222681737713?hash=item33d8dda9f1:g:HBoAAOSw2idbNi4A

OR a T series....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T540p-Core-i7-Quad-Core-2-80GHz-8GB-Ram-256GB-SSD-Webcam-Laptop/232772219385?epid=1038357390&hash=item36324e31f9:g:H1gAAOSw5cNYQD3I

I've two T series machines and they're fantastic. Much better build than my HP Envy 13