Laptop – budget £300 – Mainly as a study aid

[TCBarrett]

I haven’t shopped for pcs/laptops for several years now. Looks like you can get a Chromebook for under £200?

https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-chromebook-c223-intel-celeron-processor-4gb-ram-32gb-emmc-11-6-grey/p4327063

 

Are they any good?

Family. Coffee. CrossFit. WordPress. にほんご。

[Dave Rice]

HP EliteBook 840 G1 14-inch Ultrabook (Intel Core i5 4th Gen, 8GB Memory, 180GB SSD, WiFi, WebCam, Windows 10 Professional 64-bit) (Renewed)

£265 on Amazon

There were some G2 about for the same price bracket but seem to have gone. Performance wise there was nothing in  it but they have 1600 x 900 screens.

These are very nice bits of kit.

[Ed P]

For a reasonably dispassionate comparison with a Windows laptop, check out this review. I guess you need to define ‘study aid’ a little more thoroughly to see which fulfils the requirement best.

[blacklion1725]

+1 for Dave’s suggestion – bought one on his recommendation a while back – really pleased with it. I’ve pimped mine a bit but even out of the box a very nice bit of kit.

[dwynnehugh]

In June 2019 I was looking for a new laptop and Dave Rice suggested the following

HP 255 G7 Ryzen 3 8GB 256GB Full HD 15.6in Win10 Laptop,  Ebuyer Q/find code 874549 currently £329.98 – my daughter is extremely pleased with it and it fulfills all of her requirements.

Thanks Dave – spot on!!

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[TCBarrett]

Ed P wrote:

874549

Hmm.. not sure the quote is working?

Anyway – study aid – meaning it is for someone that is studying 😀

Seriously, they need to be able to research (Google stuff) and “do Office stuff” (Google Docs). So, genuinely not anything spectacular. It is currently a no tablets or PCs household. Not sure they even have smart phones. Even if they do, you can’t be writing essays on a phone.

 

Thanks for all suggestions so far. They look good. Amazing B4B these days!

Family. Coffee. CrossFit. WordPress. にほんご。

[PlaneMan]

I can’t argue with the suggestions put forward so far but if lightweight and excellent battery life is important then it’s a Chromebook  all the way.

I’m almost totally on ChromeOs and Android.  A Chromebook with Android support will do all you ask and more.

 

[blacklion1725]

Only reason I’d avoid Chromebooks for study is that MS Office is still the standard/assumed office suite (or at least was when my two went through university).  A snappy Windows laptop will do everything a student needs – a Chromebook may not.

[Ed P]

The link still works for me, but the site was this:

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebooks-vs-windows

[Dave Rice]

I get the Chromebook vs Windows if you are in total control and know how to get around the gotchas. But as BL says expectations are you’ll be using Windows / Office and everything is geared to that.

Then there’s the whole getting ready for the big wide world thing. In business it’s going to be Windows. I know some big names like Airbus have moved Google Apps but it’s still on a Windows machine.

My kids are pretty tech savvy and things like Linux don’t phase them, but there’s no way they were going to Uni with anything other than a Windows machine. Harriet, who trashes everything (her new Lenovo didn’t last 6th form), went with a refurb Elitebook 8460 that I put an SSD in. Looked like new (it doesn’t now – stickers) and 3 years in (so it’s probably 8 years old+) it’s i5 is still more than capable and isn’t going to fall to bits thanks to the aluminium case.

[Bob Williams]

My eldest Gdaughter still has the HP Pavillion d7 that was ours, at least 10 years old now. She has had it about 5 years and you could grow stuff on it! She used it when she was a chef and it really needs degreasing; now she works in a Barclays bank and still uses it for work appointments, etc. I put in another 2GB Ram and an SSD in the DVDRW bay. It is still solid as a rock, quite heavy compared to today’s lappies, gets hammered by her and truck owner/driver BF. They are about to move into their first home together and I jokingly suggested she should pass it to the firstborn. “Of course granddad: it’s a family heirloom now!”

I think the old HP will have to be shot at some point. It just won’t die from natural causes. They don’t make ’em like that any more!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
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