Laptop for normal stuff plus a bit of gaming - must spark joy!

[ponygirlcurtis]

I am driving myself loopy here researching laptops. and spending way too long doing it and now I am dreaming about it

I am looking for a laptop to do the usual stuff - working from home, video calls, browsing online - plus give my DS the option of playing some online games (the min. req. for Scrap Mechanics, the game he wants, is 2.6gz processor, 8GB RAM, Intel HD 520 graphics). There are various laptops eg this Dell Inspiron that look like they meet the reqs, but also specific gaming laptops like this Acer Nitro. I don't know whether to go for gaming-specific or not - DS is only 9, he's already got a Switch so it's really only a couple of specific games he's wanting to play online.

Plus it's technically my laptop! I had a Dell before and I really liked it - I don't know if I am paying more for the name but I like my tech to spark joy. But it's a lot of money to spend to not be sure if it's the right thing!

Anyone got any advice or recommendations for specific laptops? Will the Dell be OK for what I need? Thank you!

First of all does it have to be a laptop, you'll get 3 times the spec for the same money if you buy a desktop and it is easier to upgrade.

Yes, unfortunately. I don't have a home office. I work off my kitchen table or in the living room, sometimes my bedroom. I imagine in a few years' time DS will get a gaming desktop pc (like his older brother), so it's something to suit both me and DS till then.

The Dell will be very good for office use with it's better cpu but really only suitable for light gaming because of it's less capable graphics performance. The specs you quoted for Scrap Mechanics are the minimum required to play the game.
The Acer machine would be better long term bet for gaming and includes an IPS screen which is a bonus. The only drawback is the meagre 256GB SSD (hard drive) which is standard on most entry level laptops nowadays. In theory this can always be upgraded at a later date.

Thanks @Mutunus - is it worth pushing the price a bit to nearer £700, which is my absolute top limit, will it make a huge amount of difference to performance/gameplay? I don't think DS will play many games but I don't want to limit him if a wee bit extra spec/money will get him there. Equally, I don't want to spend loads if the extra won't do that much.

Eg what about this Dell which has a 512GB SSD and a dedicated graphics card, or this Lenovo (although it's still 256gb).

Or this Dell from the Dell website which has 10% off so would work out at £584 but has a very similar spec to the Dell I linked to above that's £679 at Curry's - only really difference I can see is it's integrated graphics rather than discrete but seems to be a better version (Iris Xe, which gets decent reviews while not being a direct match for a discrete card)?

The iris Xe is about half the speed of a GTX 1650 or 1650ti.

Keep an eye on laptopsdirect, they have an asus that goes in and out of stock for £700, 15" screen, 8Gb Ram 512Gb HDD, 1650ti graphics.

Probably the Lenovo for the gaming side of things as it's the good graphics chipset (IMO). The SSD size is a bit of a problem but as long as DS doesn't download too much and you don't fill it with loads of photos, different programmes etc it will be OK for a while.
My main machine (non gaming) has the same size drive and I have all the usual office programs plus a couple of photo editing programs and the SSD is only half full but I tend to move stuff to a backup drive to save space.

Thank you both, it's much appreciated.

@FixTheBone, is it this Asus? It's at AO.com rather than laptopdirect.com, but looks like the same spec (also out of stock, unfortunately).

I am currently doing a similar search.
I don’t want to spend lots on a laptop as it doesn’t get used much beyond a bit of homework and photo storage. Ds (9) wants to play Minecraft on it too though, so I don’t want to end up with something that is rubbish for that - it won’t even load on our current laptop due to some bug with certain Intel processors 🤷🏼‍♀️

Currently looking at a refurbished Dell on laptops direct. For £429

@ponygirlcurtis

Thank you both, it's much appreciated.

@FixTheBone, is it this Asus? It's at AO.com rather than laptopdirect.com, but looks like the same spec (also out of stock, unfortunately).

Not quite, the laptops direct one had a ryzen 5 4800 and the 1650ti which are both a step up on the ao.com one.

One of the issues at the moment is gaming graphics chips are in short supply and the prices have almost doubled in the last 12 months....

We ended up getting a Lenovo from Laptops direct, it is 8gb and AMD Ryzen 5. Really pleased with it, as is ds because minecraft and Roblox work well on it!

I would seriously consider a laptop with 16 GB RAM if you can afford it