When did laptops get so expensive?

[grubadubdub]

In October 2015 I bought a laptop with 8GB RAM and 1TB storage for £260. Today I'm looking at a laptop of the same make, with the same specification, and it's £480! I've checked other makes and the story is the same. What happened? Please tell me it's just the wrong time of year ... maybe all the students-to-be are pushing up prices?

I think it's because people used to buy laptops to do what you can now do with a tablet, so the market has narrowed, and prices have increased

Is all the spec the same? Same processor etc?

Tbh, pretty much any laptop under £500 is probably pretty rubbish.

What do you mean by rubbish Lights?

This HP cost about £299 and works perfectly fine.

I also see the £899 laptops out there - some of them look quite cute and light - but apart from that seems fairly normal and fail to see what "extra" you get for that.

Mine was older than yours OP and cost £500. Maybe you just got a good deal at the time?

The processor will make a difference in price. What make is the processor and how powerful is it.
Also a lot of new laptops come with a solid state hard drive... Quicker slimmer no moving parts.. But more expensive
It sounds like you got a good buy the last time

As I understand it, all the uncertainty over Brexit has led to the pound falling, which means it buys less from overseas suppliers (such as computer companies). Add to that the usual peak in the run up to September with students who have money to burn (and Christmas afterwards) and they're stupid expensive.

Are you having to replace a laptop, or are you getting a second for some reason? If the former, you could look at replacing a part instead.

I noticed it too. I've just bought an HP for around £500 and it doesn't do anything the ones I've bought in the past for half that or £300 or so did. I thought about a Huawei as my phone was cheap and is good, but their laptops were all around £900!

Not so very many years ago, a decent laptop would have cost £3000+!
My own laptop is 5 years old. I bought it in 2014 for £750. DH's is almost 2 years old and cost £1,400 new.

So, less than £500 still seems very, very cheap to me, OP!

I don’t know why OP but I’ve found exactly the same.

Amazon do reconditioned ones for £100. Mine looks new & has all the 'toys' etc. Battery wasn't great but I just leave it charging all time.

Not so very many years ago, a decent laptop would have cost £3000

I suppose people have different definitions of 'decent' !

Weak pound & inflation.

@BlkPlimsole
Usually when it gets to that price point the difference is between a dedicated graphics card and an onboard graphics card that’s part of the motherboard.
On board card is fine if you just want to use it for browsing or for business use but if you’re going to play games it needs a dedicated graphics card.

There’s also usually more ram or a better processor.

I used to work in IT support and I assure you you can still get an excellent laptop for around £350 as long as you know what’s ok to compromise on and what isn’t. I’ve got a great one with a SSD for under this price. Try ebuyer for some good deals.

I was looking for one after my pc broke, just for every day use. I found Argos has a selling site on ebay, I guess they are returns but the prices are good and still get a years warranty. Might be worth a try.

Tbh, pretty much any laptop under £500 is probably pretty rubbish.

Could be. We were forced to replace ours earlier this year. We spent just under £500, we don't use it for gaming or anything like that it is just Internet, documents, spreadsheets, email. The performance is unbelievably bad. We feel we made a bad choice

Does one you're looking at now have a 1TB SSD rather than a 1TB HDD? If so that would account for the price-hike as the former is a far superior and more expensive technology.

I bought a laptop recently for about £200, wasn’t expecting great things. Just needed to be able to open a couple of tabs in chrome and have a word document running. Really didn’t think I was asking much but even turning the thing on takes a lifetime. Whereas I bought a laptop 10 years ago for £250 which still runs fine and quick (was trying to go for a lighter weight option to cart to work). I’ve returned to the old one even if the battery is dead now and needs constant charging. I’m not techy but did look at specs and it should have done what I needed it to do, but nope, waste of £200. Completely agree OP.

Currys also have an eBay site.

Depending on what you want it for, have you considered a chromebook or 2-in-1?

The worst part is that you really do get what you pay for, even more so these days. (Unless it's apple of course. Those are all horrendously expensive for no particular reason)

netbooks and chrome books have kinda taken over the sub £300 market so if your looking for a decent running laptop for more than the basicis then they are dearer

Was your old laptop a HP?

No, it was a Lenovo.

The laptop is for my 15yo, going into y11, but I would like it to last him though his uni years too. He's not a gamer - it's for homework etc.

We're used to Windows devices, and would prefer to stick to that rather than jumping ship.

Ah, just wondered as I had a HP bought 5 years ago which was great, and then couldn't find anything in a similar price bracket when it needed replacing.

Argos on eBay might be worth a look - they have end of range and reconditioned laptops.

Exactly my thought a few months ago OP!! Bought a Lenovo for DC two years and went to buy same spec/ brand for myself. £299 had turned into £465 and spec. for new one was not as good!!!

Are you shopping at John Lewis by any chance OP?