Anyone fancy helping me choose a new laptop?

[BigFatBloomers]

I need a new laptop and I am just going round in circles as I don’t really know what’s what.

I have £500 to spend but would rather spend quite a lot less than that.

From reading up on it, I think I need 8gb, 256 ssd, 14 or 15.6 screen and the best processor I can afford.

It’ll be my work laptop. Most things are done online. I use a few big spreadsheets but I’ll also open up 6 tabs on chrome when I sit down to work and have them open all the time.
I want it to be fast to start up and fast to use.

I’m not going to be gaming, watching films, storing photos or the like.

Although, I’m pretty sensible, I’d quite like it to be nice to look at. Dell, HP and Lenovo all seem to be possibilities but HP seems to look nicer.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

i would have a look at the swift 1 by acer. It has a quad core so is great for multitasking x

Have a look here for some great deals

www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=laptop

Thanks. I’ll have a look at those.

What does anyone think about refurbs? Is good way to get more for your money or to be avoided at all costs?

Love my Chillblast

I dont know what they do for your budget mine was 750

My ASU's 303 is fab. Was £799 from John Lewis 2 years ago. Look for whatever updated that? It's touchscreen too.

The Chiliblasts that match the spec start at £650 and the ASUS still seems to be £750.

I need to spend less than £500
Anyone else? Or just some advice?
Happy to be told I’ve over spec’d

My dh helped me as I’m rubbish specs etc but I love my Lenovo yoga and I use for mix of personal and work. Was £450

The computer repair shop near me only sell Asus and dell as they reckon they're more reliable.

I had a long streak of disastrous HPs with bad graphics cards but my dad gave me his old one and its still OK.
But they are not my favourite.

I often buy from cex because they have a long warranty and have swapped one for me before that didn't work.

I had wondered about a refurbed Dell as I have a really old work one at the moment but there is part of me that wanted something a bit prettier.

I think you'll struggle getting something decent for under £500 brand new. Could you go down the route of a refurbished model?

Do you reckon they are a sensible option adaline?

Your budget isn't realistic for a work laptop based on the specs. You're after similar to what I spec for people in the office and I generally spend around £900 because it's a business laptop and I spend extra for the enhanced warranty and support. If you're set of that spec you need to go up to £750

I've been trying to buy very similar for months for under 500, but just couldn't find the spec with a decent processor. Ended up with an Asus that was 600, i5 8th gen, 256ssd, 8gb ram. Glad I spent the extra tbh, it's very quick, starts up in seconds.

Yesterday I purchased an Asus Zenbook. It meets your spec and costs 499 on Amazon. BUT for me it is a 'travel/meeting' laptop as it significantly smaller and lighter than my current chunky machine. It should be fine with chrome tabs etc but with an i³ processor you might get some lag switching between spreadsheets and chrome tabs with a lot of plug ins.

Thanks all
IWouldPreferNotTo do you think I’ve over spec’d? I’m a part-time va. I just want something that works well and quickly. Something more reliable than my old, tired, overheating and currently crashing at least once a day Dell.

IWantMyHatBack and terriblyangryattimes do you have links?

www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-aspire-5-a515-52-15-6-intel-core-i5-laptop-256-gb-ssd-silver-10188874-pdt.html

If you buy anything from currys they'll try and sell you a back up USB for the OS. Obviously told them where to go as these are easy enough to make yourself and so they included it FOC

This one looks good, smaller screen though.
www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-swift-3-14-intel-core-i5-laptop-256-gb-ssd-silver-10180997-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR

Thanks, IWantMyHatBack. They look good.
I’m hoping to get to a pc world to have a play tomorrow.

Ps don’t mind too much about the size of the screen as I plug it into a monitor most of the time.

I don't think you're over specced. For general purpose computing at work I spec an i5, 8GB ram and 256GB Ssd. That generally works for three years before I refresh them and people usually take them home and use them for two years more.

The view I take is that a laptop used for work needs to be reliable, efficient and have a good warranty as even a few days without a laptop has a cost higher than buying a new one. Its for this reason I don't fix them and get a new one every three years regardless

Thanks IWouldPreferNotTo
Still no further with my decision making however.

Thanks IWouldPreferNotTo

Still no further with my decision-making however.