New laptop needed

[Mandofred]

Any good mid priced laptops (sub £700) somebody can recommend?

My old Macbook is over heating like crazy. Blew out the vents about a year ago which helped a lot, but here we go again. It's 6 years old, but I don't really want to take it in and spend money when it's this old. I use a desktop to play games etc on so all I really need is a handy dandy laptop/chromebook for internet/movies/very minor work. Just starting to do the research and wanted to stay under £700. I've never used a Chromebook, but they seem like they might do the job for a bit less money. Wanting to get away from the Macbook and back to Windows (my desktop is windows).

 

[fundy]

Any good mid priced laptops (sub £700) somebody can recommend?

My old Macbook is over heating like crazy. Blew out the vents about a year ago which helped a lot, but here we go again. It's 6 years old, but I don't really want to take it in and spend money when it's this old. I use a desktop to play games etc on so all I really need is a handy dandy laptop/chromebook for internet/movies/very minor work. Just starting to do the research and wanted to stay under £700. I've never used a Chromebook, but they seem like they might do the job for a bit less money. Wanting to get away from the Macbook and back to Windows (my desktop is windows).

Depending on how portable/what size screen you want would take a look at the Microsoft Surface, mines been excellent, powerful, highly portable and a great screen, find myself using it rather than my desktop a lot and notice no difference in speed. They are quite expensive for the specs unless you can get one in the sales though

Will leave laptops to those who know better (Phil/Greig)

 

[upsidedown]

Bought a ASUS VivoBook F515JA 15.6" Laptop - Intel® Core™ i3, 256 GB SSD, from Currys the day this lokcdown was announced and it was delivered 4 days later

 

[Mandofred]

Bought a ASUS VivoBook F515JA 15.6" Laptop - Intel® Core™ i3, 256 GB SSD, from Currys the day this lokcdown was announced and it was delivered 4 days later

I'm trying to go with 13-14" screen if I can. Are you happy with the ASUS so far? They have good reviews. Kind of seems these days that quite a few companies have about the same reputations.

I really don't need a workhorse laptop....if I need to do any work (rarely) the desktop is where I go.

 

[GreiginFife]

My advice would be use the desktop for the light use unless you really need or want a laptop. Unless portability is the primary use case, laptops represent terrible value for money.

That said, if you are set on a laptop then look at systems that are Ryzen 4000 series powered (R5 and R7 are the proper power chips) over the "obvious" Intel chips.

If it's a really, really basic usecase then a chromebook will suffice around the £350-£400 mark but don't then expect it to perform miracles afterwards.

Again, unless you really need a laptopn, my professional advice is not to get one. They were a fad about 10 years ago that seems to have clung on despite all sense indicating the faddishness of them.

 

[Mandofred]

My advice would be use the desktop for the light use unless you really need or want a laptop. Unless portability is the primary use case, laptops represent terrible value for money.

That said, if you are set on a laptop then look at systems that are Ryzen 4000 series powered (R5 and R7 are the proper power chips) over the "obvious" Intel chips.

If it's a really, really basic usecase then a chromebook will suffice around the £350-£400 mark but don't then expect it to perform miracles afterwards.

Again, unless you really need a laptopn, my professional advice is not to get one. They were a fad about 10 years ago that seems to have clung on despite all sense indicating the faddishness of them.

Don't NEED a laptop. I've always had one though.....Like you said, for the money....desktops rule. But I use the laptop for slobbing around on the sofa....quite often have it next to the bed since I wake up real early. I also have a tablet, but won't get another one....it's fine for watching the occasional tv/netflix type thing but not much else for me. My wife also uses the laptop while in the living room, and she take an online Pilates class and she does that in the kitchen.

I'll probably just get another laptop since that is the easiest choice. In the past I've bought some powerful laptops, to also play games on....but those days are probably over.

 

[upsidedown]

I'm trying to go with 13-14" screen if I can. Are you happy with the ASUS so far? They have good reviews. Kind of seems these days that quite a few companies have about the same reputations.

I really don't need a workhorse laptop....if I need to do any work (rarely) the desktop is where I go.

Yes very happy, only bugbear is poor webcam so bought a plug in one for £15 ish for the Zoom calls

 

[spongebob59]

Don't NEED a laptop. I've always had one though.....Like you said, for the money....desktops rule. But I use the laptop for slobbing around on the sofa....quite often have it next to the bed since I wake up real early. I also have a tablet, but won't get another one....it's fine for watching the occasional tv/netflix type thing but not much else for me. My wife also uses the laptop while in the living room, and she take an online Pilates class and she does that in the kitchen.

I'll probably just get another laptop since that is the easiest choice. In the past I've bought some powerful laptops, to also play games on....but those days are probably over.

Chromebook would probably do then. I got one last year (An HP) when I was going through chemo and it did everything I needed.
If I'd done my research, I would have got a touchscreen one with a slightly better resolution screen, as I still can't remember some of the chrome keyboard short cuts .

 

[GreiginFife]

Don't NEED a laptop. I've always had one though.....Like you said, for the money....desktops rule. But I use the laptop for slobbing around on the sofa....quite often have it next to the bed since I wake up real early. I also have a tablet, but won't get another one....it's fine for watching the occasional tv/netflix type thing but not much else for me. My wife also uses the laptop while in the living room, and she take an online Pilates class and she does that in the kitchen.

I'll probably just get another laptop since that is the easiest choice. In the past I've bought some powerful laptops, to also play games on....but those days are probably over.

Fair enough, then I would recommend a Ryzen 4000 series APU powered laptop.

Gaming on laptops though, like entering a speedboat race on a pedalo.

 

[Mandofred]

Fair enough, then I would recommend a Ryzen 4000 series APU powered laptop.

Gaming on laptops though, like entering a speedboat race on a pedalo.

I'm 63...only an easy gamer. Just cranked up the old Borderland 1 game yesterday. Nothing complicated....see it, shoot it, run like he**.

 

[YandaB]

Fair enough, then I would recommend a Ryzen 4000 series APU powered laptop.

Gaming on laptops though, like entering a speedboat race on a pedalo.

Greg, do comparisons on this site make sense? https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+5+4500U&id=3702 is there a target for a reasonable workhorse (non-gaming) machine? My current one is 2000 and something (about 11 years old now)!

 

[GreiginFife]

Greg, do comparisons on this site make sense? https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+5+4500U&id=3702 is there a target for a reasonable workhorse (non-gaming) machine? My current one is 2000 and something (about 11 years old now)!

Benchmarks don't make a huge amount of sense IMO as they are always synthetic. You don't buy a laptop or PC to run Blender or Cinebench.

Ryzen APUs just have a better value proposition for me over Intel just now. Better IPC (Instructions per Clock) rather than pure blunt force speed (MHz).

A reasonable machine would be in the £550 - 800 bracket. But again, unless you absolutely need a laptop, they just aren't the best option IMO.

 

[GreiginFife]

I'm 63...only an easy gamer. Just cranked up the old Borderland 1 game yesterday. Nothing complicated....see it, shoot it, run like he**.

Borderlands 3 runs on my gaming rig, but not at high framerate son Ultra. Games have moved on a lot.

Problem that a laptop will always have is thermal throttling problems. You just can't get away from them and big games generate a lot of heat from both CPU and GPU.

 

[Ethan]

Any good mid priced laptops (sub £700) somebody can recommend?

My old Macbook is over heating like crazy. Blew out the vents about a year ago which helped a lot, but here we go again. It's 6 years old, but I don't really want to take it in and spend money when it's this old. I use a desktop to play games etc on so all I really need is a handy dandy laptop/chromebook for internet/movies/very minor work. Just starting to do the research and wanted to stay under £700. I've never used a Chromebook, but they seem like they might do the job for a bit less money. Wanting to get away from the Macbook and back to Windows (my desktop is windows).

The new Mac M1 runs pretty cool. I have a Mac Mini and like it a lot, although am writing this on a 2011 MBP (with maxed out RAM and an SSD I put in).

 

[drdel]

For 'out and about' and casual sofa surfing stuff I use a Samsung tablet around £400 with cellular) with a keyboard case. With Android version of Office 365 enables sync with desktop/NAS etc.

 

[Mandofred]

Borderlands 3 runs on my gaming rig, but not at high framerate son Ultra. Games have moved on a lot.

Problem that a laptop will always have is thermal throttling problems. You just can't get away from them and big games generate a lot of heat from both CPU and GPU.

Borderlands 3 still runs fine on my desktop (3 years old) on high quality. I'm not serious at gaming, so I should get another couple years out of it I hope.....I never buy a "new" game....usually a couple of years old. I also never play online.....

Again...the laptop I will buy just needs to be "decent". I have bought laptops in the past that were too expensive, that £550-800 range is about right for me and what I'm after these days. Could probably go a little cheaper and it would still do the job just fine. I don't pay any attention to computers in-between buying them, so I'm just starting to look at the components needed in that price range....at least 8 ram, ss hard drive....doesn't need to be very big, decent but not great screen in that 13-14" size. I need to look into the Ryzen. Any particular site to buy from? My desktop I think I bought through Scan

 

[GreiginFife]

Borderlands 3 still runs fine on my desktop (3 years old) on high quality. I'm not serious at gaming, so I should get another couple years out of it I hope.....I never buy a "new" game....usually a couple of years old. I also never play online.....

Again...the laptop I will buy just needs to be "decent". I have bought laptops in the past that were too expensive, that £550-800 range is about right for me and what I'm after these days. Could probably go a little cheaper and it would still do the job just fine. I don't pay any attention to computers in-between buying them, so I'm just starting to look at the components needed in that price range....at least 8 ram, ss hard drive....doesn't need to be very big, decent but not great screen in that 13-14" size. I need to look into the Ryzen. Any particular site to buy from? My desktop I think I bought through Scan

I should have pointed out my Borderlands performance is Ultra on 1440p 144Hz. That's with a RTX 2070 Super GPU.

Laptop wise, you could probably get away with a lower spec machine if it's for light use but obviously you have longevity in mind as you don't want to change systems very often.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...-7-512-gb-ssd-platinum-grey-10207945-pdt.html

For me, this is one of the best deals out there. Got one of these for my son's Christmas for him doing school work from home and he can play minecraft on it too.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...d-ryzen-5-256-gb-ssd-silver-10207935-pdt.html

Also a very good spec for the money.

Currys, as much as it pains me to say it, actually have some of the best deals going at the moment.

 

[ColchesterFC]

Resurrecting on old thread rather that starting a new one.......

Can any computer experts tell me if this is a decent laptop? I'm in the market for a new one and saw this advertised but I've never heard of jumper as a brand before....

Amazon.co.uk

 

[Pants]

I'm not a computer expert but ...

-74% £499.99
Was: £1,899.99

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Too many hyphens, poor grammar and !!! for my liking. ??Foxy moonlighting for the Chinese perhaps??

Buyer beware (imho of course)

 

[GreiginFife]

Resurrecting on old thread rather that starting a new one.......

Can any computer experts tell me if this is a decent laptop? I'm in the market for a new one and saw this advertised but I've never heard of jumper as a brand before....

Amazon.co.uk

Too many red flags there. Not least the “new 2023 laptop” carrying a discontinued 2019 i5 chip.

There’s no chance on Earth that would sell for £1899.99, at any time, any where on the globe.

My personal advice is avoid buying this type of thing, few comments indicating battery issues and what look like paid for reviews.

Also, 24Gb is just an odd amount of RAM. I’m thinking 8Gb is soldered and the rest is a bank of 16. So not running dual channel.