Cheap laptop gotchas?

moneysaver1978

Looking to buy a cheap laptop for my aunt - she would use it only for word processing, spreadsheet, emails, browsing, Zoom meetings, etc.

I haven't shopped for a laptop for many years (typing this on my 2013 Macbook Pro and it's still going strong!) and the search functionality on this forum doesn't seem to work.

Requirements:
- Max budget is £300-£350
- Portable and not too heavy (she needs to travel for meetings)
- at least 14" screen

Based on my research:
- Avoid Windows 10 and try to go for Windows 11 instead
- Minimum 8GB RAM
- Minimum 250GB storage
- Avoid Celeron-based processor

Anything else I need to watch out for? 
Also is Chromebook worth considering? As she's in forest management (she might be offline), could she still save files to Chromebook?

gefnew

try these to have a look at.
Coda 1.4 Windows 10S Laptop £85.96 with code delivered @ Laptops Direct | hotukdeals
ASUS VivoBook M515UA 15.6" Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5, 256 GB SSD, Silver for £399 @ Currys | hotukdeals
Lenovo refurb P50 Laptop Core i7 6820HQ 2.70Ghz 8GB 256GB - £247.50 delivered with code at ITZOO | hotukdeals

grumpycrab

gefnew said:

Coda 1.4 Windows 10S Laptop £85.96 with code delivered @ Laptops Direct | hotukdeals

Was the Coda a mistake?   OP - what computer does your Aunt use at present?

moneysaver1978

grumpycrab said:

gefnew said:

Coda 1.4 Windows 10S Laptop £85.96 with code delivered @ Laptops Direct | hotukdeals

Was the Coda a mistake?   OP - what computer does your Aunt use at present?

According to the comments, the spec for the Coda doesn't look great.

I think she had an Acer laptop but doesn't know the spec.

This looks like a good deal https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7UdS5PSkv+Bo3LdfTsgqamhdbWOcsrx9BozxzCVzDF48eiZ7HuhEAF29XdDWGKGujP9ldOd5yH11LeRzfureXiO75MXZvXG3yh2v7yYDrPK9Ipc2f7y5eKvDpCmX6qkiIMCwfMEw4SBn41gfQG8W8Ji4qTvV1HPjKsVc1c/+e6Bcv/BAh+ZjwOCZrm7gpyC4RieoX6/ri7XLLHC6bqUqx6HkcD2rEBBqkqVthOpx2lh1djZnWbgGxVPYU= right?

grumpycrab

moneysaver1978 said:

This looks like a good deal https://outlet.euro.dell.com...

Looks ok to me (not that I'm an expert on laptops).  Might be slightly bulky (14inchers are quite good these days.)

mobileron

Why dont you get her current machine updated, i see home users changing machines every 2 years but business users every 5/6 years.
Also consider a tablet if she works remotely.

sk2402005

Dont buy too cheap, it will be massivly obsolete, and incredibly frustrating to use.

I would go with somthign like this as a minimum.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14-5000-series-ryzen-5-5500u-1-x-8gb-ram-upgradeable-256gb-nvme-ssd-3955662

mgfvvc

moneysaver1978 said:

Looking to buy a cheap laptop for my aunt - she would use it only for word processing, spreadsheet, emails, browsing, Zoom meetings, etc.
Based on my research:
- Avoid Windows 10 and try to go for Windows 11 instead
- Minimum 8GB RAM
- Minimum 250GB storage
- Avoid Celeron-based processor

There's no reason to avoid Windows 10 that I know of. Just check that it's upgradeable to Windows 11 in case it outlasts Windows 10 end of life.

Other than that they all seem reasonable criteria.

mluton

Some deals: https://www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=laptop