OT - Laptop recommendations ......

velohutts

The EPO is after a new laptop which obviously puts me in massive credit for pending purchases !

MrsVH is looking for something lightweight , windows based can be a 2 in 1 but doesn't have to be, more ram than memory 8gb ish, going to be used for presentations, documents and written reports etc, decent usable size screen.

With my distinct lack of technical knowledge putting it out there for any recent purchases or greater knowledge than mine(not difficult to achieve !)

Thanks in advance.

VH

We have had Lenovo suggested , thoughts ? Any others ......

kajjal

Do you have a budget in mind ?

Things to think of are an SSD drive so the laptop runs and boot quickly. Think about screen resolution, size and quality as well since saving money to get a poor screen is not a good idea. Finally a decent processor makes the laptop run smoothly, you don't want to be giving presentations on a poor quality laptops that runs very slowly.

velohutts

Kajjal wrote:

Do you have a budget in mind ?

Things to think of are an SSD drive so the laptop runs and boot quickly. Think about screen resolution, size and quality as well since saving money to get a poor screen is not a good idea. Finally a decent processor makes the laptop run smoothly, you don't want to be giving presentations on a poor quality laptops that runs very slowly.

It's something she will use regularly, so budget wise , I'm happy to put decent money to it north of £500 but less than an iMac at over £1000.
The bits you mentioned above are what I know next to nothing about and don't want to get sold something that is totally wrong for what she needs it for.
Cheers VH

itboffin

+1 on the Lenovo range, seriously good bits of kit especially for the money I have two for work both with 16gb of ram and 1tb HDD as well as a 500gb ssd

tangled_metal

I got a HP envy. Came with AMD A10 processor for about £300ish. No.hard drive though. 8gb RAM 1tb hdd. Boots w10 very quickly and seems to go well. Mine has WiFi adaptor issues practically from new but I still think it's a decent laptop. Good battery and screen too.

No optical drive but loads of usb 3.0 sockets and 1 usb 2.0. WiFi ac version so the newer, faster 5ghz router modems will work as well as the potentially crowded 2.4ghz frequency.

HP envy models available with AMD and Intel processors. Get into your budget range and you'll find Intel i5 or even i7 processors I think.

I know people who rate Apple products but for your needs I reckon too expensive and not better than pc's you can get for a lot less. It's just the screen is better. Hard to find a pc with Apple quality of screen.

Others will be along with better knowledge than me but I've been in your position earlier this year. I nearly got a Lenovo with AMD A8 until I saw the A10 processor for about £30 more.

velohutts

She's looking at;
LENOVO YOGA 510 14" 2 in 1

Windows 10
AMD A9-9410 APU
RAM: 8 GB / Storage: 1 TB HDD

What's your thoughts? Worth going up on any of the above bits ?

velohutts

Tangled Metal wrote:

I got a HP envy. Came with AMD A10 processor for about £300ish. No.hard drive though. 8gb RAM 1tb hdd. Boots w10 very quickly and seems to go well. Mine has WiFi adaptor issues practically from new but I still think it's a decent laptop. Good battery and screen too.

No optical drive but loads of usb 3.0 sockets and 1 usb 2.0. WiFi ac version so the newer, faster 5ghz router modems will work as well as the potentially crowded 2.4ghz frequency.

HP envy models available with AMD and Intel processors. Get into your budget range and you'll find Intel i5 or even i7 processors I think.

I know people who rate Apple products but for your needs I reckon too expensive and not better than pc's you can get for a lot less. It's just the screen is better. Hard to find a pc with Apple quality of screen.

Others will be along with better knowledge than me but I've been in your position earlier this year. I nearly got a Lenovo with AMD A8 until I saw the A10 processor for about £30 more.

Cheers TM, is the Hp envy quite light ? MrsVH will be lugging it around .... Does the newer processor just make it faster ? Is the i5/7 worth it?

velohutts

itboffin wrote:

+1 on the Lenovo range, seriously good bits of kit especially for the money I have two for work both with 16gb of ram and 1tb HDD as well as a 500gb ssd

Thanks ITB, she is currently scouring the Internet looking at various recommendations.

Man Of Lard

I was in the same market recently and ended up buying a core i5 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (and keyboard) - *only* has 4GB RAM & 128GB SSD but weighs half of sod all boots instantly.

tangled_metal

Envy range is without optical drive, dvd/blue ray, so it's a lighter laptop. Nice metallic look and different looking hinge mechanism to most laptops which lifts the back up a bit to aid airflow and cooling if the marketing blurb is to be believed.

Overall I think it's a light laptop with decent battery life.

I think the i5 and i7 are better processors than AMD equivalents but they're more expensive. I read that AMD chips are better at graphics like games especially if they have good graphics cards Radeon ones I think. If you get A8 processors from AMD or i5 or above from Intel then you'll be ok.

mamil314

Surface Pro 4 is ultimate in portable power, among lightweight laptops Dell XPS 13 is often recommended.

Wheelspinner

Lenovo Yogas - wouldn't touch with someone else's pole.

Know of a couple that have just failed completely, requiring new motherboards. They were *very* light use ones too, not banged around workhorses. They look good, but failed. Other Lenovo might be a better option.

Dell keyboards these days seem to be consistently rubbish, again, would avoid them.

I'd probably get an HP is I had to pick a non-Apple one (use Macbook mainly).

I absolutely hate Windows 10. I have the last of the Sony VAIO ones before they stopped making PC's, with excellent hardware in it (i7 quad core). Win 10 updates cause it to fail to boot regularly.

asprilla

itboffin wrote:

+1 on the Lenovo range, seriously good bits of kit especially for the money I have two for work both with 16gb of ram and 1tb HDD as well as a 500gb ssd

This. Good value, excellent keyboard and track pads make the ergonomics brilliant. Also internal and external batteries will give 16hrs of work between charges.

I've got a Surface Pro because weight is always my main driver but if it wasn't then I'd have a Lenovo Thinkpad.

dhope

mamil314 wrote:

Surface Pro 4 is ultimate in portable power, among lightweight laptops Dell XPS 13 is often recommended.

This

I've got the Surface Pro 3. It's great. I'd maybe go for the XPS 13 next time though, but purely because I don't use the pen on the Surface much. Or the Surface Book 2 if I'm feeling flush 8)
Can't go too far wrong with Lenovo either.

mpdouglas

I bought my son a Dell XPS13 and it's awesome. A really well made bit of kit. At the top end, it comes with a Solid State Drive and a 4K touch screen (this is the model I got him and it really flies). John Lewis stock some of the variants of this model so you can try before you buy if you have one near you.

mudcovered

mpdouglas wrote:

I bought my son a Dell XPS13 and it's awesome. A really well made bit of kit. At the top end, it comes with a Solid State Drive and a 4K touch screen (this is the model I got him and it really flies). John Lewis stock some of the variants of this model so you can try before you buy if you have one near you.

Got one of those as well and I've been very happy with mine although according to online reports some people have had issues. Model I've got is outside the suggested price rance but I suspect there is something in the XPS range from dell that would match your requirements.

tangled_metal

Accidentally upgraded to w10 on my work laptop. Seriously good mistake. Boots incredibly quickly as in less than 2 minutes from turn on to viewing new outlook emails. Before I upgraded it would take 15 minutes. I'm not kidding 15 minutes sometimes longer. AMD e450 processor IIRC and 8gb RAM. Useless, nearly obsolete laptop but unlikely to be replaced until it dies (I'm working on that as far as I can without getting fired) or it needs software that isn't able to run on it. I believe w10 can breathe new life to old laptops.

pblakeney

Tangled Metal wrote:

Accidentally upgraded to w10 on my work laptop. Seriously good mistake. Boots incredibly quickly as in less than 2 minutes from turn on to viewing new outlook emails. Before I upgraded it would take 15 minutes. I'm not kidding 15 minutes sometimes longer. AMD e450 processor IIRC and 8gb RAM. Useless, nearly obsolete laptop but unlikely to be replaced until it dies (I'm working on that as far as I can without getting fired) or it needs software that isn't able to run on it. I believe w10 can breathe new life to old laptops.

Jeez!
People can criticise Macs if they want to (and they do) but I can shut down (not sleep) my Macbook Pro and be back on here in 40 seconds. It is 5 years old and I timed that just now. From Sleep takes less than 5 seconds.

tangled_metal

Less than 2 minutes I've never timed it. TBH I'm so used to the bloatware carp on the old w7 os that I'm still in the habit of turning it on then going off to get changed out of cycling gear. When I'm back in a matter of minutes it's waiting to enter the password then a little more processing and outlook is up. Most of that password entry and subsequent processing is related to a double sign in to get onto the server. I'm not sure that's the fault of w10.

The OS gets to the first password stage almost instantly. I'll try to time it properly but if I ignore the server login I reckon.it'll match your 40 seconds. My laptop is 5 years old and was an old model when bought. Probably the same age as your old Mac, only much lower spec. Correct me if I'm wrong but at the huge prices of Macs you'll get decent specs. My company paid little for my work laptop. Seriously w10 works well even on lower spec laptops IMHO. Perhaps w7 could do that if I reloaded it but who has time to do that. Or the inclination.

pblakeney

I don't want to argue, and I'm not getting into one of these arguments. I was just stunned that someone might think that two minutes to boot up was fast. I'd be thinking something was wrong.

itboffin

Aye two minutes is not good and avoid AMD chipsets unless you're really not bothered about performance.

elbowloh

I bought a Lenovo z500 a couple of years back with Intel i7, 8gb ram, 500gb hard drive, 17 inch screen and a dedicated NVIDIA GT 740 graphics chip for £460. Been great so far.

tangled_metal

Not arguing but 2 minutes is not bad on obsolete laptops struggling with the carp setup our IT consultant has in (I don't rate him). However I almost timed it this morning. I turned it on and remembered I'd said I would time it but the log on screen had already come up. A lot less than 40 seconds I reckon. Then about another 10 seconds to get outlook up. It's better than I thought. So if I had been timing it I think it's under 40 seconds if you don't sign onto the file server. Must admit my AMD A10, 8gb RAM personal laptop isn't much quicker. I suspect w10 deals with bloatware better.

I've not logged onto the server where the files are though. Seems that's the backlog not the actual boot up.

shmooster

I'd be looking for:

Intel core i5/i7 6th gen
1080p screen
SSD
8GB or more RAM
decent battery life

The HP x360 at £599 fits the bill, although the SSD is a bit small at 128GB. I got one of these for my wife for £500 a few months ago, and it's a really nice laptop. Shame they put the price up but it's still a good deal.

velohutts

Thanks a lot to those who have given some advice.

Mrs VH is now compiling a list of potentials to go and look at in the flesh.

avery

Second the Lenovo. I'm using a Lenovo Y510 which has a decent processor, excellent memory and storage as well as battery life.

avery

You can check out this site when you're looking up laptops http://gaminglaptopunder1000.org/gaming-laptops-under-1000/

keef66

We had Dells at work a few years ago, and about 30% of them suffered HDD failures!..Last 2 rounds of replacements have been Lenovo, and they've proved a lot more reliable.

Current ones are i5 based with 8GB RAM and SSDs and seem pretty quick

At home we've had a succession of Samsung laptops, all of which have developed problems. One graphics card packed up, one trackpad lost it's left click, one screen failed. And the batteries seem to go downhill relatively quickly. Son's Samsung 'ultrabook' is impressively thin and light, but it's had WiFi issues from new (but he CBA to take it back... :roll: )

velohutts

Cheers all, my credits are in place !!

One HP now in action in the VH household, may leave it open with routes to Provence in late summer attached !!