Right my darling GF and she who must be obeyed has decreed she needs a new laptop in advance of her masters project and to be honest her old one is basically an abacus with a keyboard.

Max price £400 ideally closer to £300 (student and all).

Would like something that will last a few years. Useage will be mostly Office packages and limited graphics packages – i.e. maybe a bit of Illustrator etc. Preference is for a 15.6″ screen so its big enough to work on but not too big for her to carry about as her 17″ is a bit cumbersome.

I have looked at a couple of Levovo B50-80s and an ASUS, the Lenovo’s are 5th gen i5 and the Asus is late fourth gen.

Lenovo essential B50-80-laptop £329

Lenovo essential B50-80-laptop £399

Asus x555ld-xx057h laptop £399

Just wondering if it is worth spending closer to £400 for the extra memory and the dedicated video chip. At the moment the £399 Lenovo is winning on screen resolutions but that is about it.

Any other recommendations in this price range appreciated

Just wondering if it is worth spending closer to £400 for the extra memory and the dedicated video chip. At the moment the £399 Lenovo is winning on screen resolutions but that is about it.

I would. Especially if you want something that’s going to be good for a few years.

You can always add memory later, but for the price differential there (plus the GFX card and better screen) it’s a no-brainer.

Oh,

We have the T-series at work. The lower res screens aren’t just lower resolution, they’re a considerably poorer (cheaper I guess) display all round. Given the prerequisite for graphics work, you’d be mad not to go for the better display.

Can’t comment on the ASUS, but Lenovo’s USP is build quality. Again, if you want something to last then it’d be my first choice (he says, typing on a 2008 vintage Dell).

Thanks, I actually just looked at Dell’s as well but its the top side of £550 for a similar spec machine.

The one review I had read about the Asus suggested the build quality and keyboard were poorer. However the review I read of the Cheaper Lenovo was that the screen wasn’t the best though I don’t know if this is the case with the higher res screen.

I don’t know about that display specifically, but I’ve got the 1600×600 panel in my T420 and it’s great.

1900×1020 is a lot of screen in a 15″ laptop. My Dell is relatively high res and it’s 1900×1200 in a 17″ form factor. I don’t know for sure, but I’d expect that to be a fairly high end part. Either way, it’s almost certainly better than the other one.

The only reason I went with Dell is, at the time they were offering custom builds. You could select what features you did and didn’t want; to get what I was looking for with any other manufacturer would have cost almost twice what I paid (because they all came with all sorts of other crap I didn’t want).

Thanks for the advice, i figured that a full HD screen was probably worth the extra.

We had a budget Lenovo here for a few years – built like a brick, and worked well for 3-4years.

Until one day some random part of the mother board when bang, whisp of smoke the whole nine yards…

Dell do student discounts , so might be worth a look
http://www.dell-sci.co.uk/

Or take a look at there Outlet/refurb store.

Those B50’s are a little flimsy / lightweight. However everyone who asks me about a laptop gets recommended the B50-30 as for £170 they are fantastic. That said I think you are right to go for the better screen.