laptops

[sparky]

What makes of laptops are best to avoid, if looking for a replacement

[crabbyob]

what kind are you replacing...?
do you want a dvd drive

[sparky]

Crabbyob, I am researching for my son, prefer with DVD but not escencial , no gaming, just everyday surfing, letter writing, emails, etc.

[Traveller]

If you want a new one,  I'd just look for the best deal, but not all have DVD drives.

If you want a refurbished one, then my first choice would be Dell as you can get them at a fraction of new price.  There are plenty of companies that buy up laptops in bulk when firms upgrade (or go bust)  and refurbish them.  They usually give options as to things like RAM and disk size.  I've got a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad with a Solid state drive which allows software to load very quickly.

[xetog]

If you go solid state drive, go for SSD, not HDD.


Mike.X

[Diasi]

If you go solid state drive, go for SSD, not HDD.

Mike.X

An HDD isn't a solid state drive so HDD wouldn't be an option.

In my 11 year-old laptop I've fitted a 500GB SSD as the primary (OS) drive with a 1TB SSHD as the secondary (data storage) drive, by removing the optical drive.

[sparky]

Thanks for all the useful feedback guys.

[Alex22]

Mine's a Lenovo from Currys, I've had it almost a year now and I still don't like it    Nothing wrong with the laptop - it's me, I just prefer a desktop.

[klondike]

I always go for refurbs and always with an SSD fitted. For either a laptop or desktop I'd consider £200 to be top whack. You can get quite high end ex business machines about 4 years old for that and they just about always come with a fresh Windows 10 Pro installed. If they come with nothing you can get a serial number for less than a fiver and download the install from the Microsoft site. The Laptops are usually Lenovo and the desktops HP or Dell. You only get real clunkers for that sort of money new.

[Flying bomb]

My SSD boots W10 very fast. 

[Traveller]

My Lenovo with SSD boots Ubuntu 20.04 very fast too.  It annoys me that most laptops come with Win 10 loaded instead of selling them with the option of  letting you install your own.  This machine has Win 10 pro pre-loaded.
I don't use it, but if I ever have to, at least the PRO version allows you to disable updates using the group policy.

[klondike]

I wonder how much of the price of new machines goes to Microsoft. Certainly you can buy a key for peanuts but if you buy the product it is megabucks. The keys always seem a bit dodgy but they certainly work as I've used them several times with no problem.

[zoony]

I always go for refurbs and always with an SSD fitted. For either a laptop or desktop I'd consider £200 to be top whack. You can get quite high end ex business machines about 4 years old for that and they just about always come with a fresh Windows 10 Pro installed. If they come with nothing you can get a serial number for less than a fiver and download the install from the Microsoft site. The Laptops are usually Lenovo and the desktops HP or Dell. You only get real clunkers for that sort of money new.

I agree. My refurbished DELL has a SSHD and has been/is an excellent machine. It was £180 I think, about 8-10 years ago now and I see no need to change it..I have a Chromebook laptop but we don't get on that well.

[Yellowbird]

Though expensive I would go for an Apple laptop everytime, in fact rather hoping if Father Christmas is allowed he will bring me a new one to replace my very old Apple Mac desktop

[sparky]

Thanks again guys for your informative input.