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Laptop recommendations

OnTheRopesOnTheRopes Posts: 460
edited September 2018 in Indoor training and turbo forum
Looking for a decent but not OTT laptop for running Zwift/RGT
I will normally plug HDMI into large screen telly but needs to be able to stand alone when away from home.
Budget is £500 max though I would prefer £250-£300. I will only use it for Zwift really and maybe Golden Cheetah

Posts

  • cougiecougie Posts: 22,512
    My laptop couldn't cope so I got a refurbished desktop that is about your price range.

    But from the zwift site -

    You do not need a fancy gaming computer to run Zwift. Minimum specs are Windows 7 (64bit) or higher, or macOS 10.9 or higher. You’ll want at least an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of memory. If you’re running iPhone, you need an iPhone 5 or higher and for iPad, it’s iPad Air or iPad 2 or higher. And Apple TV is 4th gen or higher.
  • OnTheRopesOnTheRopes Posts: 460
    Cheers
    I don't use Apple products and its for when I'm working away so needs to be a laptop
  • super_davosuper_davo Posts: 901
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    I've had a similar dilemna because I too refuse to have any Apple products. I found somewhere else on the Zwift site that the most important thing was the graphics card; CPU and RAM specs are nothing too demanding. Zwift say you need minimum 1GB dedicated GPU, or embedded Intel HD4000/AMD R5 as minimum, but the recommended spec is 2GB Radeon R9 200 series, or NVIDIA GTX 650.

    So lots of laptops can be minimum spec, but to get to recommended spec you'd really need a gaming laptop which start to come in at the £700 mark (the vast majority of laptops have inbuilt graphics). A nearly new second hand would probably come in right on budget, assuming you can find one.
  • graememacdgraememacd Posts: 386
    super_davo wrote:
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    I've had a similar dilemna because I too refuse to have any Apple products. I found somewhere else on the Zwift site that the most important thing was the graphics card; CPU and RAM specs are nothing too demanding. Zwift say you need minimum 1GB dedicated GPU, or embedded Intel HD4000/AMD R5 as minimum, but the recommended spec is 2GB Radeon R9 200 series, or NVIDIA GTX 650.

    So lots of laptops can be minimum spec, but to get to recommended spec you'd really need a gaming laptop which start to come in at the £700 mark (the vast majority of laptops have inbuilt graphics). A nearly new second hand would probably come in right on budget, assuming you can find one.

    I was looking at getting one of the Xiaomi tablets purely for using with Zwift as my laptop isn't up to scratch. Are you happy with the quality of it for other apps/videos as well?
  • slowbikeslowbike Posts: 8,498
    Intel Core Duo 2 - 4Gb yer - my laptop exceeded that - it had 8Gb ram - couldn't run Zwift - ran Bkool ok until they updated the software ...
    It's down to the graphics capability.

    If you really won't go Apple products - then I suggest you look at the laptop with the best graphics card possible for the money you have to spend - to ensure it's as future proof as you can. Otherwise, I'd just an iPad or Apple TV and be done with it...
  • jgsijgsi Posts: 5,042
    I know it is weird science , but my tiny lenovo WIN10 2017 mixx tablet with a miniscule setup can run Zwift.
  • zeeezeee Posts: 103
    EBay your best bet. Zwift recommend radeon r9 or nvidia gtx. If you ebay search the words 'laptop nvidia gtx' you will get a lot of used/refurbished high spec laptops for less than 50% rrp.

    Get one with a decent processor and gpu. Ram can be upgraded for pennies if required.
  • keef66keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Keep an eye on Morgan PC and the like. They do industrial quantities of refurbed laptops and occasionally you'll see one with decent graphics.

    When our old Vista laptop gave up the ghost I got a refurbed Fujitsu with Win 10 Pro 64 bit and MS Office Pro for £250 from Morgan. Would've needed to spend closer to £700 to get a similar spec / software new.
  • super_davosuper_davo Posts: 901
    graememacd wrote:
    super_davo wrote:
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    I've had a similar dilemna because I too refuse to have any Apple products. I found somewhere else on the Zwift site that the most important thing was the graphics card; CPU and RAM specs are nothing too demanding. Zwift say you need minimum 1GB dedicated GPU, or embedded Intel HD4000/AMD R5 as minimum, but the recommended spec is 2GB Radeon R9 200 series, or NVIDIA GTX 650.

    So lots of laptops can be minimum spec, but to get to recommended spec you'd really need a gaming laptop which start to come in at the £700 mark (the vast majority of laptops have inbuilt graphics). A nearly new second hand would probably come in right on budget, assuming you can find one.

    I was looking at getting one of the Xiaomi tablets purely for using with Zwift as my laptop isn't up to scratch. Are you happy with the quality of it for other apps/videos as well?

    I've got lots of Xiaomi stuff - all has been great. I really like the A1 because it is pure Android, with no skin over it or bloatware, regular updates guaranteed for two years. Its a baby Pixel. Would totally recommend. Though I'd get a Pocophone F1 if I wanted for gaming.
  • graememacdgraememacd Posts: 386
    super_davo wrote:
    graememacd wrote:
    super_davo wrote:
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    I've had a similar dilemna because I too refuse to have any Apple products. I found somewhere else on the Zwift site that the most important thing was the graphics card; CPU and RAM specs are nothing too demanding. Zwift say you need minimum 1GB dedicated GPU, or embedded Intel HD4000/AMD R5 as minimum, but the recommended spec is 2GB Radeon R9 200 series, or NVIDIA GTX 650.

    So lots of laptops can be minimum spec, but to get to recommended spec you'd really need a gaming laptop which start to come in at the £700 mark (the vast majority of laptops have inbuilt graphics). A nearly new second hand would probably come in right on budget, assuming you can find one.

    I was looking at getting one of the Xiaomi tablets purely for using with Zwift as my laptop isn't up to scratch. Are you happy with the quality of it for other apps/videos as well?

    I've got lots of Xiaomi stuff - all has been great. I really like the A1 because it is pure Android, with no skin over it or bloatware, regular updates guaranteed for two years. Its a baby Pixel. Would totally recommend. Though I'd get a Pocophone F1 if I wanted for gaming.

    Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at the Pocophone f1 then. Something to add to the Christmas list!
  • zeeezeee Posts: 103
    super_davo wrote:
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    As far as I am aware the beta for zwift android is full. I've been trying to download it for weeks. I even got the apk files but still won't run.

    Do you have another way to get this working on android?

    Cheers

    Z
  • super_davosuper_davo Posts: 901
    Zeee wrote:
    super_davo wrote:
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    As far as I am aware the beta for zwift android is full. I've been trying to download it for weeks. I even got the apk files but still won't run.

    Do you have another way to get this working on android?

    Cheers

    Z

    The APK won't work on all devices. Couldn't get it to work on my old Hudl2 or my TV box. Zwift suggested it needed a certain level of graphics capabilities which limited it to a small number of newish or top end devices. One of which, fortunately, was my phone.

    I think they are limiting the number of users that can run it, but if you can't even get it the APK to load that suggests it may be that your device isn't on their "passed" list yet.
  • zeeezeee Posts: 103
    super_davo wrote:
    Zeee wrote:
    super_davo wrote:
    You could try Zwift for Android... there is a "beta version" on the Play store. Needs a pretty new phone / tablet, but it runs pretty well on my £130 Xiaomi A1. The advantage of a phone, especially if travelling is that any cheap holder can attach in to the bike / gym bike etc. then the controls are right at hand. Small screen isn't exactly "immersive" mind.

    As far as I am aware the beta for zwift android is full. I've been trying to download it for weeks. I even got the apk files but still won't run.

    Do you have another way to get this working on android?

    Cheers

    Z

    The APK won't work on all devices. Couldn't get it to work on my old Hudl2 or my TV box. Zwift suggested it needed a certain level of graphics capabilities which limited it to a small number of newish or top end devices. One of which, fortunately, was my phone.

    I think they are limiting the number of users that can run it, but if you can't even get it the APK to load that suggests it may be that your device isn't on their "passed" list yet.

    Thanks for the response. I have a one plus 5t which is on their list of devices that it runs well on so it's not that. The apk installs but says there are files missing. I'm assuming it needs to download something but they have disabled this as the beta is full.
  • Bumo_bBumo_b Posts: 211
    I had an Acer Swift refurbished laptop from Ebay (Argos) for £130 which they still have, purchased in an emergency. Assumed it wouldn't run Zwift but tried anyway before going out and purchasing another laptop. Really surprised but it did no problems. Also, as long as you use OneDrive or equivalent, it is good for most other light uses, plus a real 10 hour battery life.
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