Quick bit of advice _ Laptop

SSD hard drives are your friend.

Have a look at the 2nd hand market.

Got my MacBook Air used (in mint condition) with a two year guarantee for £400.

I always find the staff at Curry's very knowledgeable and, using their expertise, direct me to just what I want. Not.

Use this guide if you like, to choose and get it at your nearest store
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/st/laptops-between-300-and-400-pounds


Looks just the ticket....
HP 250 G5 Core i5-6200U 8GB 256GB SSD 15.6 Inch Windows 10 Laptop

Charltonparklane said:

pickwick said:

http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-310-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-/p2901246?colour=Silver - Lenovo good solid machines and free 3 year guarentee at John Lewis

Cheers, had reserved this for some price at curry's however the 3 year guarantee is a bonus at John Lewis

Word of warning, I've got the 305 and the trackpad on it is dreadful - scrolling is really imprecise (not a problem if you use a mouse but that kinda defeats the purpose). Not a fan of the keyboard either. No other problems with it.

Bauer sent off

I have bought cheap laptops from here in the past.

https://www.laptopoutlet.co.uk/toshiba-c50-b-16u-15-6-laptop-intel-n3540-4gb-ram-1-tb-hdd-wifi-windows-8-1.html

carly burn said:

Need to get a new laptop, primarily for my boy who has just started secondary school.
Are Chromebooks suitable for the first couple of years?
Not really sure he'd need office and the like but I suppose it would be helpful further down the line? My budget is around the £300 mark.

Any ideas?

No need to spend actual money on the Office software. Either LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice do more for no money.

Both have versions which are compatible with windows, linux or apple operating systems. In addition (I think) you have to shell out for the "Professional" version of windows to get a full suite.

Personally I'd go for a refurb over a chromebook unless he's going to be lugging it around often enough that the weight is going to be important. I usually get mine from www.morgancomputers.co.uk but you need to look carefully at the specs and work out what;s most important to you within your budget - win7 or win10, faster processor, more RAM (or option to upgrade to more RAM), more disk space, CD/DVD drive, screen size etc.

I think the HP Elitebook is the best of the windows 10 ones that are within your budget, although it's not entirely clear from the spec that it definitely has an optical drive, despite what it says in the sales blurb, so you'd need to double check with them if that's important to you. It's also only a 12.5", which for me would be an advantage as it makes it more portable, but if you'd prefer a slightly bigger screen, Fujitsu Lifebook has a 14" screen but less memory (though it is upgradable) and a slower processor, although it does come with Office 2013. It doesn't have a DVD drive either, but in theory there's a module where you can install one, although I don't know how easy this is in practice.

If you don't mind sticking with Windows 7, you've got WAY more options, but that will go out of extended support in January 2020, so you'll only get two years' use out of it before you'll need to upgrade the operating system to use it safely.

Anyone have one of these ? I need a cheap laptop to carry around to display photos using an external hard drive. Doubt I'll use the internet much at all, seems ideal just wondered if it's cheap & nasty ? Thanks

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-IdeaPad-110S-11-6-Inch-Notebook/product-reviews/B01MZ7YK6H/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent#R22HEI35C9H2A2