Help - which laptop?

[MuttsNutts]

My DS is going to university in September and needs a laptop. It’s many years since I bought one and have no idea what to look for.

He says he wants Windows but other than that we’re clueless. It will be for university work and probably watching TV but no gaming. He uses his iPhone for most other stuff and will likely continue to do so.

The limited research I have done suggests that I should look for SSD but have no idea about RAM size, which type of processor, etc.

Would also appreciate guidance on which free antivirus - I have AVG on my ancient laptop but is Kapersky or something else better nowadays.

Top budget is £500 but no idea if we need to spend as much as that or not.

Asking here because I trust you all more than I trust Currys PC World who are out for the commission (sorry any CPCW employees!)

Thanks

I trust you all more than I trust Currys PC World

If Frank Spencer arrived direct from the 70s he would give better technical advice than (some of) the staff of Curry's.

Would also appreciate guidance on which free antivirus

Avast or Bitdefender. AVG is perfectly OK if you prefer it.

which laptop?

1. Set a budget. Prob £350 to £500 ish.
2. Go to ebuyer.com
3. You want 8GB of memory. Storage should be SSD, size probably won't be an issue, say 256GB. You want an Intel core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor.
4. Check battery life. If you spend less it will be poor (say 2-3 hours in use). You can get away with the i3/Ryzen 3 processors if you want more battery. For £500 you should get it all.
5. Check reviews of that model as best you can- really just making sure there are no big issues with a particular line.
6. Check the price on Amazon. Make sure the spec is identical.

Thanks @donquixotedelamancha

The cheapest one on ebuyer.com with that spec (8gb, AMD Ryzen 5, SSD) is £642.99 . Did you mean to actually buy from there or just research there and then shop around elsewhere for models that come up?

Sorry, like I said, I’m clueless!

Actually there are a few (HP/Lenovo - are they ok?) under £500 with an Intel Core i5 so maybe that’s the way to go.

A quick search on ebuyer comes up with one at £420 for that spec.

www.ebuyer.com/879510-hp-250-g7-laptop-intel-core-i5-8265u-1-6ghz-8gb-ddr4-256gb-ssd-6mp21es-abu

That's about right, the £600 ones don't seem obviously better to me. The £700+ Lenovo ThinkPads have a good reputation but you are paying £300 more for the same spec. No one can tell you about a particular computer without playing with it, but HP are a big brand and the first two reviews I found for that one were ok.

I suggested ebuyer because they are cheap and searchable- you might well find it for a few quid less, probably on Amazon.

I recently bought that spec for £350 but I compromised on battery life and build quality, and got a bargain.

You could cheerfully cut the spec I suggested to 4GB memory, i3 or Ryzen 3 processor and HDD (non SSD) storage and go under £300; it will be a bit slower is all.

Get a lenovo convertible (yoga range). I have a high end one, my little sister has a middle range one. She can play games on it, and it flips so you can write on it. Its in your budget. Unless he's a gamer don't worry to much about specs.
As a student, being able to convert from laptop to touch screen and hand write notes/scribble on documents is really useful.

He would like a DVD player as well ideally and the Lenovo one has that (not whether the second HP one does or not) so I’m going to take all your advice and have a good look around using the specs you have recommended.

Thanks so much for your help.

Thanks @negomi90