What laptop do I need?

[YoureTheTop]

Hi Geeks,
Please can you help me.

I'm about to start a new job working remotely. I'll be using my own laptop, but as my current laptop is old and slow, I'm thinking of buying a new one.

It doesn't need to be anything flashy, just reliable and will last a few years. AFAIK, i'll be running Microsoft Office and a graphics package, Chome or other browser. I may need to run other software too.

I'd like a decent-sized screen (at least 15") and a number keypad and would prefer a well-known brand (I like Acer and Toshiba)

Any suggestions please, and any suggestion where to order from? I'd want it delivered this week

Budget is about £500

Failing that, how can I speed up my current laptop without restoring factory settings?

Thanks in advance,
YTT

Last I looked it was hard to find much that was decent around the £500 mark.

For an old and slow laptop, replacing a magnetic hard disk with a solid state disk will give you a significant speed boost. Extra RAM may also help. I would suggest that if you have less than 8GB RAM, you should upgrade to 8GB. Whether upgrading is actually worthwhile I couldn't say. It depends how old and what spec your current laptop is.

Won’t your work issue you a laptop?

A quick look at Laptops Direct shows a Core i5 Samsung, with 8 GB and an SSD at £500. It looks decent at first glance, but check the reviews.

If you have a laptop with a disk drive, just get it updated, extra memory, new graphics card, whatever it needs, will be cheaper than buying a new one. I had a new screen, extra memory, updated graphics card, cost me £275 including labour. Runs like a dream, faster than ds brand new one & I can still use it to watch DVD, upload music to transfer to my phone as I have cd's that aren't available on YouTube Music.

Thanks for replying.
I went on a Currys I think site and the chat popped up. A nice human suggested a couple of different ones, so I had a look around for an open box one

uk.dynabook.com/laptops/satellite-pro/satellite-pro-c50/satellite-pro-c50-h-101/

The employer doesn't supply the devices. in my line of work it is quite usual to use your own devices

My old laptop is very tatty and although is still going ok today it's at least 8 years old and was ex-demo then, so I'll use it for watching dvds/non work use. It needs a new battery.

It was cheap and it has earned its keep

The new (open box) one did not cost the price in the link (about £180 less) and I am vat registered