Is this laptop from Currys a good one for personal and study purposes?

[sunshineandstarsgirl]

This laptop is 229 pounds.
HP Pavilion SE 14" Laptop - Intel® N200, 128 GB SSD, Silver

Pavilions are really solid, ime. I've had two. Both suffered extremely heavy use and a fair amount of abuse but never died, just went out of date. Your N200 processor isn't top spec but is recent, and will handle Windows 11. Apparently it can cope with most games; if you're a devoted gamer, you won't be looking at £200 laptops anyway!

I don't know what the fans are like on this machine, but I ended up buying stick-on feet for both of mine because they overheated with extended use on a table top. You can even get little laptop stands with fans in them, if that's an issue.

These are built to be workhorses, and they are.

Be aware of how poor Currys customer service is and the unnecessary upselling.

Or should I buy this laptop which is cheaper than the Currys one. The below laptop is only 189 pounds. I would mainly be using the new laptop for studying - online courses.

https://ao.com/product/82v700b2uk-lenovo-ideapad-1-laptop-cloud-grey-99366-251.aspx?_gl=11wrl8f7_gcl_auNzE1NzUzNzAzLjE3MTc4MDExMTg._gaNTY2MjQ0My4xNzE3ODAxMTE4_ga_4DSXGNC1RH*MTcxNzgwMTExOC4xLjEuMTcxNzgwMTM5OS40LjAuMA..

Laptops are like diamonds: You get what you pay for. At this price point, you are looking at old-tech spec, sluggish, slow-performing laptops that will need replacing within a couple of years.

Example of poor spec in 2024, I haven't looked at the specs of the ones you list

4GB RAM or lower - dog slow to bring data to the screen, even 8GB is slow with today's bloated operating systems

128GB HD - will get the operating system installed, but you must store data/photos on the cloud. You will run into storage issues quickly (swap file) as operating systems get better, have patches and you will need good disk management skills

These price point laptops will be slow to boot up, fairly unresponsive and not encourage regular use.

Double your budget for longevity and better performance, or buy two cheap ones.

I know this will be met with a barrage of 'it's fine', but no, honestly, it's not fine. It's a false economy.

Edit: These are my opinions, not carved in stone

Should I add care and repair for 80 pounds from Currys for the laptop? This 80 pounds is for 2 years.

No.

No, it's a rip-off.

Thank you. So, a 229 pounds laptop would be fine for online courses right?? Thank you for your response.

If you don't mind me asking- how much did you pay for your Pavilions laptops in the past- per laptop?

I believe so, yes. The Lenovo's cute but only has a 4GB swap memory which, as @SweetGingerTea says, is too small. The HP has 8GB.

If you smash your screen or something, the little shop down the road can replace it for £80 (or you can do it yourself these days). The Curry's service is really for people who don't know how to work computers!

Thank you so much for your response. 😊👍👍

Oh, god, OP, I have no idea what I paid! The first one was a 14" so probably similar to this one (for its time) and the second was a 17" with higher specs. Both had disc drives, though - things change quickly and prices come down for what you get.

I'm using a desktop PC and a Chromebook now, as I no longer need to carry work around with me.

If everything is online I would get a Chromebook of some kind.

I have an HP Pavillion, I’m not sure how the spec compares to the one you are looking at but it’s the best laptop I have ever had. I use it for work and personal use and its handles everything brilliantly. In the past for work I’ve had Dell and Lenovo and they have not compared to this. I bought mine refurbished on Amazon and it came with a one year warranty. I think it was around £300 at the time (around two years ago). I highly recommend HP Pavillion laptops.

Should i buy this from currys for 80 pounds - MCAFEE LiveSafe - 1 year for unlimited devices?? Or are there any cheaper antivirus options I can buy?

Did you buy antivirus for your laptop?

Is 128 gb enough for online studying? For the HP Pavilion? My friend said I should buy something with more storage??

I think anti virus programs have become a virus. They plague you with pop ups and slow you down. Microsoft defender is inbuilt and good enough ime aslong as you have your wits about you and don't click on stupid things.

Although tbh I don't know much about computers haha.

If you do want a separate anti virus though you are best off downloading it yourself.

If you can afford to upgrade, then do. These are £300-500 at HP. Use a memory stick or a plug-in hard drive to save your stuff, as well as (optionally) backing up online.

Thank you so much for replying. I want to buy a mouse with my laptop. Is any mouse ok for my HP Pavilion laptop? I am planning to buy 512 gb laptop.

Good for you ☺ Yes, any mouse that says it works with Windows will be fine. The sort with a wireless USB transmitter work more smoothly than Bluetooth ones and use less battery. The USB ports on laptops tend to be close together, so choose one with a slim transmitter - the majority now are but I've still seen a few that have sticky-out sides, meaning it's hard to get anything into the neighbouring port.

I bought windows separately and it came with anti virus.

My son works for currys. I have asked him for his honest opinion. He's 19 and sells a lot of laptops

He says no. "Because for not much more they can get an asus vivibook with an i3 and 256gb of storage around- £329"

From my own personal experiences of HP, I wouldn't anyway, because I got through 3 HPs in 5 years. They are notorious for overheating and battery issues.

McAffee seems a bitt bloated to me. As @Telephere says, Windows Defender's pretty good and already built in.

I use Malwarebytes, which is currently £52 for two years. I think they might charge £3 per extra device.