Techie advice needed: laptop for KS4 poss KS5

[Chiefspidercatcher]

Couldn't find a techie topic but actually need traffic as hoping to make a purchase asap so here I am.

Need to spend some money. DDs need a laptop for yr11 / yr9 level studies (I'm hoping it may last the youngest until at least GCSE's are done, but ideally 4-5 yrs to end of her A-levels).

Ss 2+2= I need to buy a laptop ASAP.

I have no clue about specs needed.

Budget thinking around £300-400 but upto 500 if the extra nudge in cost is justified by the better spec.

DD's I expect will use it mainly for school work, word processing, browsing online. Posssibly streaming shows(?) Not currently gamers tho.

I've leant towards min 16GB, Intel Core 5 or 7, ssd 512GB but am I missing something. Also brand HP I know is good, but other brands I'm less clear on. A JL sakes person told me a few yrs back that Asus, Acer & Lenovo offer variable quality & reliability in different models which made me wary since but that might be outdated.

Ideally I'd like to stick with retailers like JL costco, argos, currys than amazon incase of issues I prefer a physical store to return & discuss.

If anyone with knowledge can help I'd v much appreciate it! Thanks for reading.

It's a shame you prefer a physical store - their laptops will be overpriced and sold with bloatware more often than not, and the customer service rubbish. It also means I cant recommend pcspecialist, who I will always get my laptops from if I want reliability (although I've just had a look and they're not offering cheaper options like they used to! It seems 600+ for a functioning laptop now).

Gun to my head, if I had to buy from argos, I'd recommend Asus. I actually bought a vivobook as a backup to my main custom built laptop (from pcspecialist). And go to the higher end of your budget always with laptops. They degrade fairly rapidly.

Don't listen to the sales floor people. They're trained upsell, or sell products that are otherwise not selling well, not actually give you what you need.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4668668?clickSR=slp:term:asus:51:107:1 maybe?

Work have given me a HP laptop which has been fair but I do prefer the Asus.

I have always found local Currys great and helped me find the cheapest that met my needs. The bloatware comes whereever you buy, doesnt it?? And its a simple yes or no as to whether you want the maintenance and add ons.
If using office 365 and Teams, they use a lot of resources (way more than video streaming). Otherwise, you mightn't even need all your budget

JL every time and luckily they aren't gamers so the spec doesn't need to be too high. Asus, Acer all have specs specifically aimed at students. But max out your budget. I find the lower spec HPs really bad but their printers are good.

Also Dell do a refurbished programme but I'd stick to a major retailer.

Does anyone have an easy way to understand the difference between Intel processors & AMD?

Is this a good deal..?
www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-3-laptop-intel-core-i7-processor-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-15-6-full-hd-abyss-blue-microsoft-365-personal-1-year-subscription-for-1-user-and-mcafee-total-protection-1-year-subscription-for-1-device-bundle/p241588693?s_share=jlappdroid

Or is this better?
www.johnlewis.com/asus-vivobook-15-laptop-intel-core-i7-processor-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-15-6-full-hd-silver/p111535575?s_share=jlappdroid