Apparently a normal, decent, inexpensive laptop is like unicorn shit!

[pollypenguin01]

So I need a new laptop.

I’ve spent hours trying to research the best for my budget and I’m getting nowhere!
One site tells me that a certain Dell is the best laptop ever, the next site says it’s shit get a MacBook.

Every good review seems to want me to spend over £1000 some even flippantly expecting a £2000 budget for a laptop as reasonable and normal.

I just want a laptop with decent memory, can cope with my OU studying, can occasionally play games/watch YouTube/Netflix and doesn’t cost more that £600.

AIBU, is this like fucking unicorn shit to find? Because I seem to be utterly incapable of finding one with my wants, at a decent price, with ok reviews and not going to blow up within a week!?

Help me....PLEASE! 🤯

We got this Dell for our daughter for Christmas, to use for GCSE revising and to play SIMs. She adores it. The quality of the graphics and game experience is very high.

It is slightly outside your budget but worth a stretch?: Dell G3 15 3000 15.6-Inch FHD, IPS, Anti-Glare Gaming 2019 Laptop - (Black) (Intel Core i5-8300H, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 4 GB GDDR5 Graphics, Windows 10 Home)

I do not know much about laptops and wonder whether I could have got away with a cheaper brand/model.

I've never spent over £500 on a laptop and they do all the things you want to do. THere's a big difference between playing games on your laptop which i do and gaming stuff which is stupid expensive.

I have a version of this from 3 years ago. Still going strong. www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-aspire-3-a315-53-15-6-intel-core-i5-laptop-1-tb-hdd-black-10188915-pdt.html

An SSD is great, but I wouldn’t go for a small SSD over a larger HDD, unless you don’t have a lot to store on it of course, or you use cloud storage. But if your installing games and storing photos and videos, you’re going to need a lot of storage. Some laptops come with a regular HDD but have space to add an SSD, which is exactly what I did to mine. I use my SSD for Windows and for game installations and use my HDD for my “Libraries”. My 480GB SSD only has 50GB free.

My gaming laptop was £599 Asus nitro super fast and works perfectly. I play elder scrolls online on ultra high graphics. Got it from pc world. I'll see if I can find a link or pic or something.

www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Nitro-AN515-42-Gaming-Notebook/dp/B07JG7W9C6/ref=asc_df_B07JG7W9C6/?hvlocphy=1006707&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=310879464421&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos=1o4&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-644787792162&hvrand=721782867869180324

And that is a proper gaming laptop. It's extremely heavy tho case made out of steel basically a portable pc. I love it.

I am getting frustrated with this myself. I need a computer that can edit videos that don't crash every 10 minutes.

@Meangirls36 this is affordable. I have booked marked it for when I have saved up.

I bought a geo for exact same reasons, I use it for my MSc study and very occasionally Netflix / surfing. Meme pry isn't great but enough for studies, works well and was less that £300

ElizaPancakes
I play the Sims4, but only occasionally.

I do need a decent amount of storage and would be quite pleased if it managed to cope with having word, publisher and the internet open at the same time without too much lag when I go from one to the other.

I honestly don’t need anything super fancy but understand that any gaming is going to need a speedier computer.

I really don’t want to get into the realms of paying £1000 or more tbh. I would really rather keep it below £600 if possible and am happy to try a refurbished.

Thank you very much for the links so far, I will have a decent look.

If anyone else would like to link some of their favourites that would be fab!

meangirls yours does not have an SSD. Does that make a difference?

Get yourself a MacBook, second hand anywhere from 2012+ in the Pro range. Will run just as well as any new laptop, can handle The Sims 3 with all expansions & The Sims 4 and just works.

A newer MacBook (Air, normal MacBook) would be fine but they're £££. I have a 2017 Macbook and a 2012 MacBook Pro. The new one is lighter for taking to work, studying and generally carting around but the older one still runs like an absolute dream and the kids use it now for Roblox gaming, word processing, YouTube etc. I picked it up for £400 on the Facebook Marketplace 3 years ago.

Mines reconditioned, it looks new, its a Dell & was £100 off Amazon: with all the toys etc. I just went for the one with 97% positive reviews. The battery isn't great so I just leave it charging all time when not using it, but new one won't break bank when I get round to it.

It's got a 1tb hard drive I don't think so why would it? It's very fast like a decent gaming laptop I've not had a problem yet.

Ok might be a really stupid question but does the MacBook have Windows as standard?

I bought a HP Notebook a couple of years ago from Argos for around £500 and its been brilliant. I occasionally play Sims 4 too and its more than happy with that. I know a few friends who've got HPs too and really recommend them.

Don't get a MacBook they've got inbuilt obsolescence and it drives me nuts. I loved it when I first had it as do intuitive but I'd never spend as much again on a laptop.

My MacBook Air is 6 years old, tins like a dream still. I bought Windows for Mac separately.

Hi OP

I got a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad from TierOne, link to their website below.

It was £300 but would have cost more than double that new. It is excellent.

TierOne also provide advice over the phone is you get stuck with anything. They helped me remotely connect my wireless printer to my laptop as I was clueless.

I thoroughly recommend them.

www.tier1online.com

If you are studying, invest in an external hard drive anyway to store and backup files, work etc. They are pennies now, even for 1TB, and if you can't get online and/or the laptop hard drive fails, you will save a lot of pain and heartache.

I got a chrome book. Yes you have to use "google docs" instead of Microsoft but they work practically identically, and can save under the right file type so no issues in opening them on another system. I study through the OU, and it works perfectly for me. Cost me about £250 2 years ago. Looks modern, does what I need and fairly inexpensive compared to most

I recently got a Lenovo idea pad for £299 from Very on sale, highly recommend! I'm a student too and also use it for Netflix/general online use. I think it's originally £500 full price? Looks like a MacBook too!

Price doesn't matter, you need a reliable brand like stone, Lenovo or acer. Then look for 8gb ram, good storage and a faster processor so pentium i3 or i5 or the faster available amd ones.
You can get all that for £400 - 600.

You only need to spend more for better graphics, screen and gaming power. But even a good screen and gamers laptop can be bought for £800.

Amazon do regular offers and john Lewis price match and offer a longer warranty.

Lots of good offers mentioned here, I don't see why anyone would spend £1k unless it was for a name or for a specialist purpose.

Avoid hp. They look nice but are crap.