Laptop £200 - is this madness?

[polkadotchristmas]

I'm looking for. Laptop and can spend £200. It's for my 11 year old for high school homework and ideally to use with the home 3D printer I am getting for myself (!). Will £200 get me anything or is that just madness to think I can get something for this type of budget. I mean I know I can buy one but will it be crappy ? Is there a non amount to spend for an average pre teen school work user help please you wonderful lot.

On that budget I would go for a Chromebook-I used one all through uni so should be fine for 11 year old homework, the only thing I’m not sure about is 3D printing and whether it would be compatible with whatever software you use.

You can certainly get a good Chromebook for that but it won't play games or anything but she will be able to surf the web, watch youtube and use Google docs etc.

I have an Asus Vivobook and it's a great little laptop. Think it's about 329 on Argos at the moment.

I haven't checked what software the printer uses but wondering if I get one with memory not a chrome book and suck up the cost and put another £100 in of my own

Do you need to get yourself a 3d printer? Could you not put the money towards a higher spec laptop for your daughter so it's worthwhile / not a wasted investment in something that won't be performant enough or actually suit her needs

I would look at CEX or places like Back Market if you are on a lower budget as you will get more for your money on a refurbished one.

But why do you need a 3d printer? Unless it os a work related expense then surely the priority is ensuring your child has the right equipment for school?

My warning on chrome books would be check what software the school run and whether their homework apps etc run on chrome books. A friend of mine bought her dd a chrome book and it was a waste of money as none of the apps were compatible.

CEX have good deals.

I don't need it. It would put budget to £320 - would that get a nice enough laptop ? I don't really want refurbished after a friend had a bad experience

And thanks for making me realise I really don't need the printer and best to invest in the laptop

If its just for school work I've picked up (actually 2) £150 is laptops for me and DD (one was curry's one argos down to stock levels). They run windows and office no problem. I can run a windows based card game. DD actually has a far more powerful one but prefers the lighter weight one for uni.
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Dell refurbished is good as it comes with warranty and it's direct from Dell.

We're doing that to get. A higher spec for our (low) budget

Dell Outlet, I haven't bought a laptop from anywhere else for over 10 years. Currently starting at £250 - although the lower priced models would benefit from a bit more RAM. Plenty good enough for high school homework and a bit of light gaming. Should also run basic amateur 3d modelling programmes for generating 3d print files.

Dell Outlet is a mixture of refurbished, cancelled orders, and overstock. All with manufacturer warranty.

Do not buy from CEX

Personally speaking, I wouldn't go for a chrome book ever, nor would I want a refurbished laptop.

It is possible to get a cheaper laptop if you're on a budget, I have just purchased one via Curry's, at £199 - it's an Entity one. It's absolutely fine for writing/emails/homework, a standard student laptop. It runs Windows 11 and has 114GB so plenty of capacity for my own use.

In my experience, the cheaper models are usually because the graphics aren't quite as detailed (on my laptop photos are perfectly good but not the brilliant quality you'd get with a Dell, for instance) and because they're relatively unheard of models. And memory and capacity are also an issue.

For an extra £100 you'd get a nice ASUS or similar, Dell are probably the best spec but also the most expensive for the same item. A cheaper laptop will play games but you'd notice a speed issue if the owner was wanting to play quite complex, high level games and therefore you'd need a more expensive model. Depends if the laptop's primary use will be for homework/student with the odd bit of gaming, or primarily for gaming.

Honestly, if you were only planning to spend 120 quid on the 3D printer, it would have been pretty useless to you vs. putting the money into a better laptop.

for 320 you'll be able to get something useful - Dell, Asus - see if you can squeeze out 16Gb RAM and 512Gb Harddisk if you can - always better to have more memory and space

I bought a cheap Acer laptop 2.5 years ago - it was £299 from Argos. I use it for web browsing, doing admin etc and it's still going strong. It came with office 365 for a year included.

Check out curry’s refurbished models … come with guarantee too !

I purchased a refurbished Dell about 3 months ago from Back Market. Am very pleased with it and it has a warranty. Was not aware of buying refurbished direct from Dell. One point, many are saying invest in a top notch one but do you think that is really needed at this age and will it be appreciated and looked after. Whilst agree about not buying the 3d printer it does not mean that that money has to be spent on laptop.

I got a refurbished one year old MacBook Air (I know it's out of your price range) and it just died after 12 years. Although it cost about £800, if you do the economist's thing of working out what it cost per year - it was a bargain.

My point being that some refurbishments can be very good value.

Look at John Lewis they have loads of laptops at the £200 mark for you to look at and compare @polkadotchristmas

These for example

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@LilacLilyBird what's wrong with CEX? We've bought loads of electronics from them over the years and never had a problem.

I'd recommend you don't get the cheapest 3D printer - I had one and it literally never worked. It was all very frustrating! I'd suggest an Ender - the company is very helpful if you get stuck and there's a subreddit for ideas & suggestions.

Maybe it's just by area then

They're not good here

Look into what benefits you or partner get via work or sector.

I just bought myself a new laptop, originally £1299 for £829, with a mixture of blue light card and my employer voucher discounts. I also used pricerunner to see cheapest place and researched best way possible with the discounts I had access to.