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New laptop recommendations

24

Comments

  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,938 Forumite
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    Benson, don't get carried away with keyboards... I have a Dell Vostro laptop, it is the business grade laptop range a step down from the Latitude. When only a few weeks old, one of the key tops "flipped" up due to a manufacturing fault with the plastic scissor hinge and Dell refused to repair it under warranty as they claimed any keyboard fault was the fault of the user being heavy handed or dropping something on it! Those Dell scissor hinges are very flimsy. I had an old Asus Vivobook that I tried to pull a key top off to see if the hinge would fit the Dell and I couldn't pull it apart... It was far stronger than the Dell. Fortunately, I was able to obtain a spare part from good old eBay, so much for Dell support.

    Old business laptops and desktops can sometimes be OK, but beware that there are old models that are not compatible with Windows 11 which have been "hacked" to run Windows 11. Buyer beware.

    The only problem I have experienced with the Vivobook is the silver keys with white letters... hard to see in some lighting.
  • benson1980
    benson1980 Posts: 850 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    Frozen_up_north said:
    Benson, don't get carried away with keyboards... I have a Dell Vostro laptop, it is the business grade laptop range a step down from the Latitude. When only a few weeks old, one of the key tops "flipped" up due to a manufacturing fault with the plastic scissor hinge and Dell refused to repair it under warranty as they claimed any keyboard fault was the fault of the user being heavy handed or dropping something on it! Those Dell scissor hinges are very flimsy. I had an old Asus Vivobook that I tried to pull a key top off to see if the hinge would fit the Dell and I couldn't pull it apart... It was far stronger than the Dell. Fortunately, I was able to obtain a spare part from good old eBay, so much for Dell support.

    Old business laptops and desktops can sometimes be OK, but beware that there are old models that are not compatible with Windows 11 which have been "hacked" to run Windows 11. Buyer beware.

    The only problem I have experienced with the Vivobook is the silver keys with white letters... hard to see in some lighting.
    Interesting. Thanks. I’m a Mac user personally so a little out of the loop with win 11 requirements. 

    Sounds like that vivobook with the oled screen might be difficult to beat on all fronts then for that money
  • Cisco001
    Cisco001 Posts: 4,191 Forumite
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    edited 15 August at 9:19AM
    Aidanmc said:
    Thanks for your replies and suggestions.
    What would this one be like,

    ASUS Vivobook 15.6in i3 8GB 512GB Laptop Bundle

    Only thing i can see is the processor speed is lowish at 1.2ghz, i dont really know what burst speed is.
    This old pavilion i have has 2.2ghz processor, but probably less cores, dont really understand cores either but im sure more is better....thanks


    Which of these 2 would be the better?




    If screen doesn't matter, the only recommendation is get something which can RAM upgrade in future.
    No for HP.

    other cheap alternative for £300


  • Cisco001
    Cisco001 Posts: 4,191 Forumite
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    edited 15 August at 9:14AM
    benson1980 said:
    Not intending to hijack this thread and was going to post my own, but there's such an overlap with what I was going to ask about and the recommendations it seemed best to just post on this one as any replies might assist the OP as well. Thus OP, hope you don't mind....

    My parents need a new laptop, mainly used for photo editing. I'd been steering them towards business refurb as being a far better option generally for best VFM and said I'd find something for them when the time comes. They have actually on a slight whim ordered this Asus Vivobook the other day, albeit they can return it:

    https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-vivobook-15-laptop-intel-core-i5-processor-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-15-6-full-hd-silver/p113233234

    The one recommended above by Cisco looks like a far better option though esp for photos, with a superior screen for £20 more? Processor wise looks like this one might be better suited for them as well as it won't leave their study and will always plugged in (they are adamant that they want a laptop)

    Anyway, I have scoured business refurbs and to be honest I'm struggling to get anything that matches the spec of these vivobooks- mainly the processor speed. The one I settled on (with a little help from chatGBT) was a Dell Latitude 5520 Core i5 1135G7 but struggling to get one on budget with 512SSD which they do need in fairness rather than 256.

    I have still advised they go with a refurb as the general build quality and specifically the keyboard would be better but would be interested in any other refurb options around £400 mark.

    The problem for photo edit with refurb laptop is the seller seldom list out the spec of the screen. 
    Can I assume it is just a hobby, nothing serious?

    For around £400 laptop, the £430 with OLED screen probably the best option.

    Alternative
    CEX £410
    Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 14IMH9/Ultra 5 125H/16GB Ram/512GB SSD/14"OLED/W11/B

    Newer CPU smaller screen, but used product.
    5 years warranty from CEX vs new from currys...


  • Vitor
    Vitor Posts: 953 Forumite
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    edited 15 August at 10:13AM
    - My parents need a new laptop, mainly used for photo editing. - 

    Three things needed for photo editing 1) Min 16GB RAM, ideally 32GB 2) Fast SSD and 3) High CPU clock speed. Most photo editing apps don't use multi-core CPU very well, so outright clock speed is important.

    I use Lightroom/Photoshop and it's tolerable on an HP 840 Elitebook with Intel 1255U (Max 4.7GHz on      P-core), 16GB RAM and an Samsung SSD in PCIe Gen 3 × 4 lanes.
  • Aidanmc
    Aidanmc Posts: 1,505 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Cisco001 said:
    Aidanmc said:
    Thanks for your replies and suggestions.
    What would this one be like,

    ASUS Vivobook 15.6in i3 8GB 512GB Laptop Bundle

    Only thing i can see is the processor speed is lowish at 1.2ghz, i dont really know what burst speed is.
    This old pavilion i have has 2.2ghz processor, but probably less cores, dont really understand cores either but im sure more is better....thanks


    Which of these 2 would be the better?




    If screen doesn't matter, the only recommendation is get something which can RAM upgrade in future.
    No for HP.

    other cheap alternative for £300



    Is there an easy way to find out if RAM is upgradable, 
  • Cisco001
    Cisco001 Posts: 4,191 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Aidanmc said:
    Cisco001 said:
    Aidanmc said:
    Thanks for your replies and suggestions.
    What would this one be like,

    ASUS Vivobook 15.6in i3 8GB 512GB Laptop Bundle

    Only thing i can see is the processor speed is lowish at 1.2ghz, i dont really know what burst speed is.
    This old pavilion i have has 2.2ghz processor, but probably less cores, dont really understand cores either but im sure more is better....thanks


    Which of these 2 would be the better?




    If screen doesn't matter, the only recommendation is get something which can RAM upgrade in future.
    No for HP.

    other cheap alternative for £300



    Is there an easy way to find out if RAM is upgradable, 
    https://uk.crucial.com/upgrades
  • Aidanmc
    Aidanmc Posts: 1,505 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper


    ACER Aspire Lite 15" Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5, 512 GB, Silver

    Any views on this ?



  • Aidanmc
    Aidanmc Posts: 1,505 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Most laptops have touchpads that are off-centre. 
    I may find it a bit difficult to adjust to this. 
    Any laptops out there that have centred touchpads!
    The only one i can see is the MSI one suggested by @Cisco001 but there must be others?
     
  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,938 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Aidanmc said:
    Most laptops have touchpads that are off-centre. 
    I may find it a bit difficult to adjust to this. 
    Any laptops out there that have centred touchpads!
    The only one i can see is the MSI one suggested by @Cisco001 but there must be others?
     
    Both our laptops (a Vivobook and a Dell) have touchpads offset to the left.

    There is a good reason for this, currently I am sat in an armchair with the Dell on my lap, I am right handed and my right elbow is against the right arm of the chair. My right hand naturally lies towards the left side of the laptop, not the centre.

    If you use a laptop on a desk, then a £10 Logitech wireless mouse may work better for you.

    Don’t forget that a laptop is for temporary use, they are poor from an ergonomic point of view and when used for any length of time should be raised above a desk and used with an external keyboard and mouse. This is the advice from the HSE.
    https://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/good-posture.htm
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