@CassandraCross the acer I had was murder from just a few weeks after I bought it, retailer was not at all helpful. But also I failed to assert myself as a consumer, won't make that mistake again. I very much regret not returning the damn thing! I can be stubborn to my own detriment and was determined to make it work.
@Janaih I haven't found the Currys reviews very descriptive so I'll check out the Argos ones thanks
Lighting in my place isn't great and as I live in Scotland daylight hours are minimal especially in winter and even in daytime can be poor eg I already have my lights on today! It's gloomy here - hence need for backlit keyboard
@pourmeanotherglass does she not backup her files?
I was always taught to always backup regularly, it's stood me in good stead and I do so a number of ways. I'm talking when I first backed up filed it was to tape! 
(told you I was old) that workplace had 5 tapes one for each weekday so that files were backed up for a week when I first worked there. Then we had a server problem cause a major loss and after that we moved to monthly backup and later quarterly - also to tape. Took ages! More recently I use iCloud, and even emailing/messaging files and info to myself, the emailing I started at uni as the uni servers had repeated issues and students couldn't backup to cloud at that point and discs/thumb drives are easily lost physically (though I used these too)
With cloud storage it's then very easy to download to the new device.
All that said I think devices should be built to last longer - whole other thread!
Definitely new not second hand or refurbed had terrible experiences with that before
Chromebook was one of the refurbed ones - awful! Not just the "innards" but things like the charger port literally fell out! Keys stuck badly etc just a nightmare
Wish I could stretch to a MacBook but not only unaffordable but fairly limited software wise I believe?