Looking to buy a laptop

[dwynnehugh]

I’m looking to buy a new laptop for my daughter – price not really an issue but may lean towards HDD with the amount of photos she has on her old one – I know the advantage to an SSD and she also has a 1TB ext hard drive to back all her stuff onto but ……!!!!

Wants a decent 15.6 screen min, 8GB RAM poss? Not too slow – 2.2 ish GHz?

Had a look at Medion on Ebuyer – a name which I have long associated with Lidl etc. Quality??

Her current laptop is Acer and I have always stuck to what I consider to be well known names / brands.

Any suggestions please?

 

Thanks in advance,  Dave

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

[Ed P]

Why new? Based on Dave’s previous advice I purchased a used Lenova Thinkpad from Microdream. Not only is this an approved centre for recycling Microsoft products they run a complete laptop refurbishing system eliminating any knocks/dings etc to give a like-new appearance. I was very pleased with the product and it meant that someone else ate the 60% first-year depreciation that is normally seen for non-Apple laptops. (Apple products tend to have a lower rate of depreciation).

Many of these laptops are ex Office use and come with an industry standard tpm module, which means with only a little work you can get a fairly secure baseline on which to install a reputable AV package.

Although you are not concerned about price a second hand route can give you a very high quality laptop at a reasonable price.

[The Duke]

Also I would take a used thinkpad over a new Acer every time

The kids have very decent i5 lenovo yogas, and I have an I7 thinkpad carbon. Total for 3 was under 600. The carbon alone was a 1000 machine 2 year prior. The yoga about 5/600 a pop.

If money is no object a dell xps 13. May be smaller than the 15 inch wanted, but because its edge to edge display and higher res, it feels like a 15 and it is the new  benchmark for a laptop keyboard. Better than the new think pads.

[Dave Rice]

Well I am a big fan of the Thinkpads or HP Elites and MicroDream will put a 1TB SSD in for £100 which pretty much cost price.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T450s Ultrabook – HDF+ (1600×900) Core i5-5300U 8GB 1TB SSD WebCam WiFi Bluetooth USB 3.0 Windows 10 Pro

With an extended 3 years warranty £439

I hate the thought of anything without an SSD, but new I’d be looking at the Lenovo V15 Core i5 8GB 1TB HDD £445 direct from Lenovo. I’ve bought a fair few of the V series (they are aimed at entry level SMB), you must consider them sealed units. They are a lot lighter than a Thinkpad but obviously not as robust.

 

[Ed P]

Dwynne, while I agree with Dave re a 1TB SSD, one thing I would stress to your daughter is that using an SSD brings a requirement to have a very regular backup regime. SSDs die without warning, while HDDs tend to throw errors or make noises before they die. I’d also suggest that from time to time your daughter runs a slideshow of her backed up photos – there is nothing more frustrating than to discover that a back-up photo is corrupt and that the master has been wiped!

[Dave Rice]

In my experience everyone ignores the signs of a failing HDD until the bitter end anyway! If they do notice they usually get me to check for the virus that’s slowing thing down 😊

As far as photos are concerned, these days I think they belong in the cloud rather than on a PC. Google give you unlimited storage for photos up to 16MP and 1080P video.

[dwynnehugh]

Thanks one and all for the suggestions etc.

Sorry for the delay in responding – my elderly mother had been in the local hospital (Bangor) for the past 2 weeks and came home last Friday – things have been a bit manic during and since.  Dave

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

[Richard]

There is talk that the Covid-19 issue is causing a slow down if not a drying up of portable computer supplies. Firms are either buying items to be used for newly created home workers or holding on to existing items in case of a need for the next few months. It might be wise to track what you can see.

Sorry to hear about your mother, issues like that really concentrate your mind on where it matters most. I trust that she is making good progress and getting all the help and care she needs.

[dwynnehugh]

Thank Richard, yes back home last Friday and driving me around the twist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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