How much do I need for a laptop?

[Crustyloafs]

I know it's a how long is a piece of string question but I'm getting very confused and would appreciate it someone could give me a ball park figure please?

I'm not fussy but need a lap top to do admin on internet and play games. The games aren't anything high tech. More Sims than Call of Duty. I don't need to buy "office" so that isn't a concern.

I use mine for the same thing as you do and I always pay about £300-£400 from Tesco.

Essentially it depends on what your requirements are and what your budget is and whether quality of sound and speed is important to you.

Power
If you want to play games, I would suggest one with an i7 processor for speed, multi-tasking etc.

Screen size
Depends on what size laptop you prefer. I prefer a 15.6" , others prefer a 14".

Storage
A Solid State Drive (SSD) will also access data much faster than an HDD because it doesn't have moving parts. Probably important with games.

Other considerations
Touch screen or not?;
Whether you want to use it just as a normal laptop or be able to turn keyboard under and use like an ipad (can't remember what that functionality is called);
Number of USB ports;
Weight;
Reliability of make (look up Which? reports)

Best to buy something that is better than you need right now rather than have to change to a better product if you decide to, say, play high tech games.

Just remember in general that you get what you pay for. Don't expect all the bells and whistles unless you are paying around £900 (obviously far more if an Apple machine).

Personally, I'd say the minimum spend, if you can afford it, would be about £5-600ish. Anything cheaper is likely to be crap (I know, I've been looking to upgrade mine. For what I want £7-800 is more realistic.)

You could look at refurbished, my last two were refurbished and were good laptops at a good price.

Have a look on ebuyer, they have some decent specs for good money. I agree about the SSD above. You need a decent processor to play sims. My daughter got a laptop for about £380 from Ebuyer which is a Ryzen 5 and plays sims.