New Laptop

[addjunkie]

Been a non gadjet type, Im needing a new laptop to replace my 8 year old Dell 1200 pound pc, with Windows 7 Pro on it. Still works but getting a bit slow and some things wont let me in because of security. Its my old work computer, and I dont have the windows license. Shame its a nice machine to use.

What do I need to be looking for spec wise, brands to avoid, etc please, Its used for word, excel, power point, little bit of desk top publishing etc, nothing over bearing.

 

[Kayos]

First question is budget?

 

[addjunkie]

I had 800 in mind from browsing….

 

[tigdlo]

What's important to you? Screen brightness/resolution/size, sound quality, graphics performance, general performance, storage space, backlit/fullsize keyboard, battery life, touchscreen, aesthetics?

 

[Munkul]

I got myself a top spec i7 HP Spectre 16 last year, I'm pleased as punch with it. Super powerful, super practical, and the 4k oled screen on it is fabulous. I wonder if you can get a lower spec one for £800.
Definitely look for 13th gen processor if you can, they're a lot more power efficient than the 11th or 12th.
Also make sure it has thunderbolt 4, it makes docking into a desktop super easy and gives you tons of options for connecting stuff.

 

[bump]

Second question, what are you going to be doing with it?

Web browsing and email is a bit of a different beast to photo editing and CAD.

 

[addjunkie]

Second question, what are you going to be doing with it?

Web browsing and email is a bit of a different beast to photo editing and CAD.

Dont do photos or cad, mainly normal small office stuff. To be honest the old one does what I need, but because its old and out of date I cant access some things. It does open drawings and stuff though, or it did when I needed such things.

 

[skotl]

£800 is a decent budget. Probably the biggest cost influence is going to be around screen - larger screens being more expensive, and touch screen a bit more.

To be honest (and I suspect I'll get a bit of ire here) I'd just look at Dell and HP and find a spec that works best for you. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of laptop manufacturers but Dell and HP are good solid dependable workhorses.

If it was me I'd probably go for a Dell XPS next (had an HP Envy 360 for 3 years)

 

[mart]

I had 800 in mind from browsing….

I paid £1200 in about 1998 for a brand new (Tiny brand) desktop tower, screen & printer on windows 98 op system. That was way before the prices dropped

I would not dream of even paying anywhere near the £800 budget you mention.

Go second second hand and don't go above £250 max.

I bought a 'windows ten' desk top PC for around £160 a few years ago. There are places online that buy up job lots of computers from offices when they are updating their computers. Look online,

 

[skotl]

Agree with @mart if saving money is the prime motivation .

But going against my own advice above (slightly) I think this is hard to look past: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/lap...-laptop/spd/inspiron-16-5635-laptop/cn56309sc

£700 for a Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM and 16" screen. The only thing that might make me pause is that it doesn't have a touch screen - I was against touch for years but having had one for three years, I do think it makes it much more usable.

Edit: touch screen version https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/lap.../spd/inspiron-14-7435-2-in-1-laptop/cn74605sc

By the way - left field thinking.... if it's just for web surfing then genuinely consider an ipad with a keyboard. From a usability perspective, they are hard to beat (but not if you want any non-standard or Windows-only apps)

 

[Wedg1e]

Hardly the latest tech, but I use a pair of Lenovo z580s.
i7, 16Gb RAM, 500Gb SSD, DVD-ROM, USB3, HDMI, VGA, card reader, widescreen 15.6" display.
Will run AutoCAD 22 on Windows 10 and you can pick them up for £80 as they're about 10 years old.

 

[Ruffian]

Same as above,
If only office stuff then a 3 year old computer will probably do you well, so a refurb or similar would be great.

I got a lenovo from ao when was "last years model" and paid £700ish but then was £1000 machine. But then for video editing, photoshop, and cad I have even had to add a second 2tb n.2 drive as well as bumped up to 32gb of ddr4 ram.

 

[addjunkie]

Agree with @mart if saving money is the prime motivation .

But going against my own advice above (slightly) I think this is hard to look past: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/lap...-laptop/spd/inspiron-16-5635-laptop/cn56309sc

£700 for a Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM and 16" screen. The only thing that might make me pause is that it doesn't have a touch screen - I was against touch for years but having had one for three years, I do think it makes it much more usable.

Edit: touch screen version https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/lap.../spd/inspiron-14-7435-2-in-1-laptop/cn74605sc

By the way - left field thinking.... if it's just for web surfing then genuinely consider an ipad with a keyboard. From a usability perspective, they are hard to beat (but not if you want any non-standard or Windows-only apps)

Why the Ryzen chip, over intel, is it price, or better?
I use an ipad for general surfing, have a keyboard for it too, but never use it. The pc is for our business stuff mainly…..dont even watch films etc and utube etc just use the ipad.

Budget isnt really a concern, what I have now is probably as good as any used machine if I wiped it and started again. But Im all for a quiet life.

 

[sako243]

Why the Ryzen chip, over intel, is it price, or better?

It's a few years out of date but when I built my big workstation the Ryzen had proper cores. So a 16-core Ryzen actually had 16 physical cores but an Intel advertised as 16 cores was usually 8 Hyperthreaded cores.

For gaming there wasn't much difference but I was using it as a work desktop which could utilise the truly independent cores for different processes.

 

[Keithmac]

I've gone to Lenovo Thinkpads for my home laptop and works Diagnostics computer.

Very well built and quality kit.

 

[skotl]

Why the Ryzen chip, over intel, is it price, or better?
I use an ipad for general surfing, have a keyboard for it too, but never use it. The pc is for our business stuff mainly…..dont even watch films etc and utube etc just use the ipad.

Budget isnt really a concern, what I have now is probably as good as any used machine if I wiped it and started again. But Im all for a quiet life.

For Ryzen, definitely performance per pound. A small element is Intel's reputation for critical CPU bugs but to be honest that doesn't affect 99.99999% of people.

 

[voipio]

My works laptop came with numeric keys to the right of the qwerty keys. Numeric entry can be a pain without it.

 

[ATGNI]

My prefference is for a small laptop with an external screen for CAD stuff. I use CAD full time and dont really see this being a major issue anymore regards processor speed, memory and graphics engine. Any entry level laptop can do CAD. What really need high specification is video edditing and gaming.

I run, Fusion, Microstation, Autocad, Proteus and Kicad on an entry level laptop and upgrade every three years or so.

 

[addjunkie]

New Dell ordered thanks for your input. Old one is an I5 chip from 2015 vintage, 8gb ram…so our local pc guru is going to wipe it for me, stick Windows 11 home on it, and Im going to give it to a teenager in the village whos struggling for one for their school work.

 

[octo0072000]

New Dell ordered thanks for your input. Old one is an I5 chip from 2015 vintage, 8gb ram…so our local pc guru is going to wipe it for me, stick Windows 11 home on it, and Im going to give it to a teenager in the village whos struggling for one for their school work.

make him come do some work for you on the farm for it