Budget laptop recommend

[Tribansman]

Can anyone recommend me a budget (£300ish) laptop/Chromebook?

Will be used pretty much exclusively for internet and word apps/equivalents (no requirements for anything particularly memory/processor heavy like photo editing or gaming).

Just need a basic, reliable machine with decent battery life and not too heavy. Had a look online but all reviews/curating-type articles inconclusive and full of shite.

Would anyone recommend getting a reconditioned one?

Any recommendations gratefully received...

 

[bonzobanana]

Chromebooks are reliable, long battery life, not too heavy but I'm not sure I'd recommend a reconditioned one as it might have support expiring soon. Better off new for a Chromebook I think.

This looks good for money but its a smaller 11.6" screen.

View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Touchscreen-Chromebook-Manufacturer-Warranty/dp/B096G3KP75/ref=sr_1_36?crid=1N4LC2MHJ9U5B&keywords=chromebook&qid=1640553336&sprefix=chromebook%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-36&th=1


I personally like a minimum of 14" screen with 15.6" preferable.

 

[Reynard]

I recently bought a refurbished Lenovo T460 from Amazon for £300 to do similar sorts of things. Should tick your boxes @Tribansman

14.1 inch screen, 8Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD. It's a business laptop, so built like a tank but not heavy in the slightest. It's capable of taking up to 32 gig of RAM and has a slot for an additional hard drive.

I'm keeping my elderly Sony Vaio with 15.4 inch screen for photo editing, as to my knowledge, the Lenovo (with Win 10) can't run Photoshop CS2. Alas, with a £300 budget, you are faced with the choice between good spec and small screen or big screen and poor spec. I went for the former.

 

[PaulSB]

Can anyone recommend me a budget (£300ish) laptop/Chromebook?

Will be used pretty much exclusively for internet and word apps/equivalents (no requirements for anything particularly memory/processor heavy like photo editing or gaming).

Just need a basic, reliable machine with decent battery life and not too heavy. Had a look online but all reviews/curating-type articles inconclusive and full of shite.

Would anyone recommend getting a reconditioned one?

Any recommendations gratefully received...

I can't recommend a machine but if you're looking for reviews can I suggest Which? I'm a member but I believe one-off access is available for £1-2.

I like help with these decisions and find Which? very good. I don't trust online reviews in any form.

 

[Blue Hills]

I replaced my small chromebook with one of these recently.

View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Chromebook-311-C722-MediaTek/dp/B08ND39QWZ

though I got mine direct from Acer for £170 delivered.

Very pleased with it - amazing battery life.

I also have a 14 inch or maybe 14+ chromebook - I won't be replecing that when its updates run out - am perfectly happy with this size of screen.

As above I wouldn't buy a second hand chromebook unless very very recent due to the updates issue.

I selected mine because of long updates.

I would always check this list before buying a chromebook - retailers tend not to highlight this issue:

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?p=auto-update-policy&visit_id=637506224016861792-928769827&rd=1#zippy=,axioo,acer

 

[cougie uk]

There's lots of sites that review laptops. I'm not so keen on Which. I was up until they reviewed products that I knew about and their reviews were lacking and their tests pointless.
Go with the specialist sites.

 

[bonzobanana]

There's lots of sites that review laptops. I'm not so keen on Which. I was up until they reviewed products that I knew about and their reviews were lacking and their tests pointless.
Go with the specialist sites.

I'd agree not a fan of Which at all. They often recommend Miele products which are reliable but have obscene repair costs when they do go wrong and only have marginal improvements in reliability compared to some other brands which are far cheaper to have repaired. Also vacuum cleaners where they prioritise low noise but don't factor in the cost of replacement bags for bagged cleaners. Their logic just seems very strange at times.

Also in the past they had a favourable tax situation because they claimed they were a charity operating for consumer rights but clearly its a commercial operation and there was a picture of the Which HQ with a huge number of high end cars outside, Mercedes etc. I don't know if they still have that charitable status but it seemed very dishonest at the time.

I have zero respect for the organisation except the general reliability data supplied by readers although without repair costs its only part of the picture and also they can give some decent financial and legal advice but their product reviews are shockingly bad at times often written by people it seems who only have a basic understanding of the product.

Also for a so called consumer organisation they aren't very value friendly which surely is the point of such an organisation. I've seen recommendations with appalling value and ongoing costs across a wide range of products.

 

[Cycleops]

Unless you really need a laptop I'd buy a tablet. The best tablet with an OS specifically designed for tablet use is iOS.
A 64gb 10.2 iPad comes in at a shade over your budget and will be supported for a lot longer than a Chromebook plus it's just a joy to use.
If you want a you can add a keyboard, all iPads now have mouse support too.

 

[Tribansman]

Thanks all for your advice and recommendations, appreciated. Especially to @Blue Hills for that list of update dates, which prevented me from getting a pig in a poke.

Opted for a reconditioned one that's only a couple of years old and way better spec than we could have afforded new. Health of battery not really an issue as don't often use it without being plugged in (and I know this isn't great for maintaining battery health, but my previous one did ok). Fingers crossed!

 

[Blue Hills]

Thanks all for your advice and recommendations, appreciated. Especially to @Blue Hills for that list of update dates, which prevented me from getting a pig in a poke.

Opted for a reconditioned one that's only a couple of years old and way better spec than we could have afforded new. Health of battery not really an issue as don't often use it without being plugged in (and I know this isn't great for maintaining battery health, but my previous one did ok). Fingers crossed!

no probs
is this a chromebook you got?
if so, which one?

 

[Tribansman]

Nope, a Windows laptop. All the Chromebooks that had a decent number of years left were out of our budget.

 

[DRM]

I recently bought a refurbished Lenovo T460 from Amazon for £300 to do similar sorts of things. Should tick your boxes @Tribansman

14.1 inch screen, 8Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD. It's a business laptop, so built like a tank but not heavy in the slightest. It's capable of taking up to 32 gig of RAM and has a slot for an additional hard drive.

I'm keeping my elderly Sony Vaio with 15.4 inch screen for photo editing, as to my knowledge, the Lenovo (with Win 10) can't run Photoshop CS2. Alas, with a £300 budget, you are faced with the choice between good spec and small screen or big screen and poor spec. I went for the former.

We have an older T420 that’s still going well, dual boots W10/Zorin Linux, same spec as @Reynard even has a SIM card slot for use away from home

 

[wafter]

While it can be a bit of a lottery and laptops aren't (usually) as easy to user-repair as bikes, I'd strongly suggest considering used.

Your budget puts you firmly in the "consumer" range new, and while I never appreciated it from just looking at pictures and specs, there's usually a massive difference between consumer and business-grade machines. From the numbers they might look similar on paper, however usually business machines are significantly, tangibly better in pretty much every regard.

The Lenovo X200 series look pretty nice and your budget would probably stretch to an X280 which without a ton of research is probably the way I'd go (although I'm very much a fan of small laptops, you may not be). Pro-grade Dells are probably worth a look too..

 

[ColinJ]

While it can be a bit of a lottery and laptops aren't (usually) as easy to user-repair as bikes, I'd strongly suggest considering used.

Your budget puts you firmly in the "consumer" range new, and while I never appreciated it from just looking at pictures and specs, there's usually a massive difference between consumer and business-grade machines. From the numbers they might look similar on paper, however usually business machines are significantly, tangibly better in pretty much every regard.

The Lenovo X200 series look pretty nice and your budget would probably stretch to an X280 which without a ton of research is probably the way I'd go (although I'm very much a fan of small laptops, you may not be). Pro-grade Dells are probably worth a look too..

Do keep up at the back!

Thanks all for your advice and recommendations, appreciated. Especially to @Blue Hills for that list of update dates, which prevented me from getting a pig in a poke.

Opted for a reconditioned one that's only a couple of years old and way better spec than we could have afforded new.