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New laptop recommendations
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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.1
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Interesting. Thanks. I’m a Mac user personally so a little out of the loop with win 11 requirements.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.Sounds like that vivobook with the oled screen might be difficult to beat on all fronts then for that money0 -
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....thanksOre even this one at Currys, https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-15fc0514sa-15.6-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-256-gb-black-10250853.htmlWhich 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 £300ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605YA Laptop | 16" WUXGA Screen | AMD Ryzen 5-7430U | 8GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD | Windows 11 Home
£320 amazon
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The problem for photo edit with refurb laptop is the seller seldom list out the spec of the screen.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.
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...1 -
- 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.
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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....thanksOre even this one at Currys, https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-15fc0514sa-15.6-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-256-gb-black-10250853.htmlWhich 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 £300ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605YA Laptop | 16" WUXGA Screen | AMD Ryzen 5-7430U | 8GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD | Windows 11 Home
£320 amazon
Is there an easy way to find out if RAM is upgradable,0 -
https://uk.crucial.com/upgradesAidanmc 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....thanksOre even this one at Currys, https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-15fc0514sa-15.6-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-256-gb-black-10250853.htmlWhich 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 £300ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605YA Laptop | 16" WUXGA Screen | AMD Ryzen 5-7430U | 8GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD | Windows 11 Home
£320 amazon
Is there an easy way to find out if RAM is upgradable,2 -
ACER Aspire Lite 15" Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5, 512 GB, Silver
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-aspire-lite-15-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-512-gb-silver-10277329.htmlAny views on this ?
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