Buying a First laptop

HereToday

grumpycrab said:

Looks like the Dell is a bit better (faster and bigger SSD).  Not a great time to buy a laptop when the last 2 only have i3 CPUs for about £400. 

Bigger(15.6") wide view screen. ASUS makes no mention of Wide View nor IPS.

Sandtree

WLM21 said:
So many of the electrical retailers have very poor customer service, compared to JL.

I actually got my PC made for me by a local company, who I had dealt with previously, but they don't make laptops.

Historically I would have agreed with you but having just had to take JL to court to get them to deal with our faulty freezer I now have my doubts (they settled in full out of court but it shouldnt require issuing proceedings)

Due to the limited space in a laptop the level of customisation that can be done by anyone other than the manufacturer is very limited hence they tend to be sold pretty much as a sealed box with at best the ram and harddrive being user replaceable. 

neilmcl

There's an AMD Rysen 5 version of this on HUKD but I think it may have gone now, although there's a possibility you may get it at Currys for a similar price - DELL Inspiron 15 3000 15.6" WVA FHD, Ryzen 3500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Black Laptop, £419.16 delivered with code at Dell - hotukdeals

grumpycrab

The Ryzen 5 appears to still be available at Dell for £420 with code BFDAS20.
For £370 you get 8GB memory and 256GB PCIe SSD but with Ryzen 3 (using same code)
https://www.hotukdeals.com/visit/comment/42791308/16558871
Of-course the disadvantage with Dell (in these cases) is delivery.  Always check delivery estimates before buying.

[Deleted User]

I have Del Latitude 12 inch. Has 8 GB memory and 256 GB SSD. Bought from CEX for £220 a year ago, with a 2 year warranty. It knocks the socks off anything new for that price. 
This feels like a premium machine as it feels so well built and runs very smoothly.

TOP_CAT

The refurb market seems busy .
My take on it is alot of people couldnt care less about a overpriced Currys Apple or John Lewis  type  shopping experience they just want tools that work at 200 odd or under 300-400.
The whole lower end buy Shiny New right now at 400-500-600 plus with highly varible after sales service isnt as great as they make out .

whenever

I generally find that Lenovo provide the most bang for the buck and on their website you can get a 10% discount for signing up to the newsletter which can save a lot of money. I'd recommend going for the following spec-

AMD Ryzen 3 4300u (newer 4000 series chipset, best all round performance at lowest cost).

8GB RAM (4GB is not enough RAM).

256GB SSD (128GB will leave you with not very much disk space after Windows and a few productivity apps are installed).

Windows 10 (10S doesn't matter, it's just a setting which can be changed/removed).

Ideapad 3 or 5 is probably your best bet for this sort of spec around the £400 mark with the newsletter disount.