Quick, Which laptop? is £100 difference worth it?

[HaveAGoodDay]

So, after searching for a new laptop, i've narrowed it down to 2. There is £100 difference between them. Primarily this is what we'll be using it for; internet, storing photos and watching films from netflix linked to TV.

www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3393491.htm

and

www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3403611.htm

I'm swaying towards the cheaper one as £100 is a lot for us - will it show in performance? Our current laptop is around 6 years old, a Toshiba (Intel Core DUO CPU 2.10GHz), half the keys are missing and screen flashes so its on its way out.

I've reserved the cheaper one last night which is just as well as they are out of stock now at my local Argos. But reservation expires today! So have to decide quickly!!!

[keepitsimple0]

I googled the processors. Let's call E and C the expensive and cheap ones, respectively.

Apparently, E has a much more powerful chip that consumes more power. However, for some reason, it has more battery life (other components). I imagine the graphics card in E is better.

On the face of it, you get 50% more ram (nothing to sneeze at), double the storage, and a faster chip in E, and probably a better graphics card.

But you aren't doing heavy computing it sounds like. All of that should be plenty fast for netflix. If you are storing photos and video files on it, the larger storage might be handy. I imagine the drive, based on the age of your laptop is 125 or 250 gigs. If you are happy with that (even C doubles the top end of that), maybe the cheap one is good enough.

[HaveAGoodDay]

Thank you Keepitsimple0 for your prompt reply.

I forgot to mention that at some point in the future, i may be using the new laptop for an online course, which one i'm not sure of yet!

Not relevant but I do have an old desktop G4 iMac - prob 2002 - which i refuse to let go of! Its not wi-fi enabled and still runs on OS X - when we enquired about broadband (talk talk) we were told it was possible but via ethernet cable not wireless so it would have to be dial up. Would love a Macbook but can't afford the ££££!!!!

[keepitsimple0]

ethernet isn't dial up.

Wireless is slower than ethernet. if you have a hub with any company any computer can hook up to it via ethernet, and it is usually much faster than wireless (although wireless is catching up).

even my laptop bought this year has an ethernet port. Of course the advantage of wireless is that it is, well, wireless.

You should have no problem hooking up your old mac to an router via ethernet. But a mac from 2002 is probably quite slow. if you could be a used mac from someone you trust, I would imagine you could get one circa 2010 for pretty cheap.

[vinegarandbrownpaper]

CHROMEBOOK
.. it will save you a fortune and do all that comfortably

[vinegarandbrownpaper]

Chromebook = 7-8 hour battery life, 8 second boot

[keepitsimple0]

i've never used or seen a chromebook.

[SwedishEdith]

Agree that a Chromebook is worth looking into if only need it for what you want.

[ThinkingOutLouder]

I've just googled Chromebooks lol! They sound like super 'snazzy' machines - only I'd want the security of being able to have MS office at some point.

Yes my old iMac is very slow & not worth upgrading or should that be can't be upgraded!!! The latest iMac's will be 100 x faster (closer to several hundred probably!) even back then mine cost £1600 but that was pre-kids so I had money ha ha!!

Anyway, just to add we got the Acer laptop - the cheaper one - and so far so good......