Want a laptop, where from though?

UturnTony

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After years of Ipadding Mrs. uturn is wanting a windows device so, i'm looking for a decent home use laptop
Where to go for one is the question. I know there is PC world/Currys but you don't get a lot of bang for
your buck there so i'm wondering if anyone here has a "go to place" they can recommend.
Anyone got recommends for a refurbished supplier perhaps :nenau
 
Why Windows?

Why Windows? Good question. For one, you get more for your money as MAC stuff is eye wateringly expensive and for what the
Mrs. needs is overkill. I have found windows machines to be easier to work with as far as hardware and software is concerned
and have little problem delving into a Windows PC to some degree to effect a repair. Don't get me wrong, i like the MAC stuff
and the operating system seems excellent although i have little actual experience of it.
There is Chromebook but that's a non starter.

Edit; Just seen the sales suggestion and you know what? that's a great idea; in my quest for a xmas gift i'd overlooked the sales period is looming :thumb2
 
Two of my kids have Macbook air and a pro.
Both cost £1000+.
Both have failed at least twice in the past two years.
Both are less than 5 years old.
Both needed several hundred pounds each to fix.

My Dell windows laptop is about 7 years old.
Slower than it was no doubt.
Cost me £299 in 2011.
Still works.
 
Have a look at the Dell Outlet on the Dell web site. Fully refurbed PCs with a Dell warranty
 
Two of my kids have Macbook air and a pro.
Both cost £1000+.
Both have failed at least twice in the past two years.
Both are less than 5 years old.
Both needed several hundred pounds each to fix.

My Dell windows laptop is about 7 years old.
Slower than it was no doubt.
Cost me £299 in 2011.
Still works.

Yup - my 2010 Lenovo (£2,100) eventually required a new HDD after 8yrs
My 2017 MacBook Pro (£3,100) needed a new keyboard (a complete new chassis job) at 13months old - biggest heap of crap I've ever bought.

Back to Lenovo for me :rob
 
Yup - my 2010 Lenovo (£2,100) eventually required a new HDD after 8yrs
My 2017 MacBook Pro (£3,100) needed a new keyboard (a complete new chassis job) at 13months old - biggest heap of crap I've ever bought.

Back to Lenovo for me :rob

Yep, i have a Lenovo about 5 years old and the HDD started giving problems so a very reasonably priced 1TB Hybrid HDD was
bought, the old drive cloned to it and presto all back up and running; it's what i'm on now although i use it as a desktop rather than a laptop
as i have a small windows tablet for mobile use.
 
I’ve had more than a hundred Mac-years with my own kit (MacBooks, iMacs and MacPros) and those I support for friends and family. Other than the occasional hard disk I never had a hardware failure.
 
Mac OS v Windows would always have me opting for a Mac but if cost is a major consideration than I’d have to learn with the things I dislike about Windows 10.

I’d still choose John Lewis over any of the other major retailers and as suggested, see what the post Xmas sales bring.
 
I'm in a similar position, Rather than buy a "consumer" product, I was looking at buying a 2nd user "Commercial" product from ebay...
Making me think now...
 
Would agree with the Dell recommendation. I have issued several hundred Dell laptops at work and haven't had a single failure in 2 years. We typically buy the more basic Vostro models but the 5000 series is also quite a nice looking laptop as well.

From a work point of view.

HP, horrific failure rate and pretty poor customer service. One year we bought 150 units and none of them were still working 2 years later!
Lenovo, A few failures but their warranty ended up being practically worthless 3 years ago on the models that we were buying.
Dell, zero failures through fault but a few through people problems and support were always ok to deal with.
ASUS, we have had a few but they were always a weird setup that was a pain to deal with. Kit ws ok though although nothing stands out to recommend them on.

There are of course many more manufacturers but those are the ones I have mostly dealt with.
 
Just been through this. Wanted a larger screen for general home use. The 12" Samsung has been lovely and will still be a decent enough travel companion if the phone won't do. The SSD is near full and it's a bit of a strain reading Readly and some other things for daily use. After 5 years it has the occasional off day when it just shuts down for no reason so I am putting it into semi-retirement.

As I'm not going to travel with this machine I'm using now, I decided a 1TB hard disk would be okay. A lot slower to boot up but once running it is good for watching videos, general surfing etc. My eyes are a lot happier with the bigger screen.

The machine is a Lenovo Ideapad 330 with A9 processor, HD screen, 8GB RAM & 1 TB hard drive, from Argos for £300. I would normally use John Lewis as they include a 2 year guarantee but they don't offer much for £300. The Lenovo is a revelation as unlike other brands, it does not come stuffed to the gills with crapware. I binned the McAffee trial and use Windows Defender. Binned the MS Office trial and installed my Office 2009 bought for £10 under the Microsoft Home User programme at work. There's something called Lenovo Vantage which you can run to customise settings and install some addons or you can ignore it. I only installed one, an older version of Cyberlink PhotoDirector - free and just a small nag banner to try to get you to upgrade to the new version.
They have increased the price by £50 so expect a "sale price" back to £300 in January https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8437589

If you need more oomph then look at the Lenovo Thinkpads. These are their robust laptops designed for business users. I'd buy one of these with a large SSD if I wanted a portable device, but that will cost over 3x as much e.g. https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ref...b-13.3-inch-windows-a2-20jh003buk/version.asp

Argos didn't used to be competitive on laptops but they seem to be better value than Currys, plus they have better customer service IME. They have an outlet store on Ebay if you want to save a few quid and get a refurbished device. Added advantage of Argos being in Sainsbury's across the road so I could pick it up when buying groceries.
 
You still get a 2yr warranty under UK consumer law (as I pointed out to Apple who wanted to charge me £418 to repair the keyboard on my MacBook after 13months.

While I suspect that Lenovo are building down to a price point on their budget laptops - I would still put more faith in them than other makes. Up until I shelled out on the MacBook (having listened to so many people say “The best windows laptop is a MacBook”) I had never strayed from IBM/Lenovo since the late ‘90s and lugged them all over the world without issue. The main reasons for choice were the professional keyboard that suits my touch-typing and the modular construction. DVD burner failure - slot in a new one. Want a 2nd HDD instead of the DVD - fit one. Want a 2nd battery instead of the DVD drive - they produce a battery with the same form-factor.
Keyboard fault - you can get replacements and fit yourself.

Honestly - I cannot see past them :rob
 
You still get a 2yr warranty under UK consumer law (as I pointed out to Apple who wanted to charge me £418 to repair the keyboard on my MacBook after 13months.

While I suspect that Lenovo are building down to a price point on their budget laptops - I would still put more faith in them than other makes. Up until I shelled out on the MacBook (having listened to so many people say “The best windows laptop is a MacBook”) I had never strayed from IBM/Lenovo since the late ‘90s and lugged them all over the world without issue. The main reasons for choice were the professional keyboard that suits my touch-typing and the modular construction. DVD burner failure - slot in a new one. Want a 2nd HDD instead of the DVD - fit one. Want a 2nd battery instead of the DVD drive - they produce a battery with the same form-factor.
Keyboard fault - you can get replacements and fit yourself.

Honestly - I cannot see past them :rob

I've had a Lenovo Moto G5 dual SIM phone which has given me confidence in the brand - it is cheap but just works.
 
I've been used to pentium processors but notice that the Lenovo recommended by Wessie has an AMD one - is one better than the other or is the speed what I should look at rather than the name?
 


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