It’s time to replace my ageing laptop and I have no idea what to replace it with. It will mainly get used by my wife, a teacher, to put together school work, so reports on Word, plans on Publisher, a bit of PowerPoint, that kind of thing. There will also be some of the obligatory web browsing along with some iTunes and Garmin Connect based fun. I debated a ChromeBook but as I will occasionally use it on the train it may not have web access all the time so have decided against this route. Open on budget as I have no idea how much these things cost but I want something that will last reasonably well, does £300 – £400 sound too little?

I think the requirements are pretty basic so I wondered if anyone could suggest something suitable? Thanks all.

(iTunes and Garmin connect rule out chrombook, working on a train doesnt necessarily do so, I use mine on the train all the time)

Something with a touchscreen, Windows 8 actually makes sense then.

My Lenovo Yoga is pretty good. Was a bit more than that but I think you can pickup the older models cheaper.

Not sure I want a touch screen job, simplicity is the key here. I just want a bog standard laptop that runs Windows and is reasonably reliable.

Is it worth going to PC World or is this an easy way to have my pants pulled down?

It worth going and looking in PC world, and occasionally buying but they ‘tend’ to have slightly older stock, than you’ll find online.
Get a feel for what you want at PC world (CPU i3 or i5 minimum, lots of memory say 8GB min, hdd are so big you’ll never fill them, after that go for a screen size you like.. colour scheme you like..), then go and buy something online. I’ve always quite like Dell, but there not a lot in it these days.
Windows 8 works better with touch screen, but TBH I don’t really see the point as you end up with a laptop screen smeared with finger prints.. and you still need to use the keyboard to type..
I’d buy a non-touch screen one and install Classic-shell (free) so that it goes back to looking like Windows 7 (or whatever earlier OS you’ve run)

I’d go for a top spec older machine with 7 on it (New old stock maybe), i3 up, 8Gb RAM min and probably an SSD rather than pure capacity unless you know you need a lot of space. That’ll give you plenty speed and better battery life, plus quicker suspend/resume which is nice when travelling. Smaller screen can be a positive if used on the train / flying a lot.

I have 7,8,8.1 and OS X laptops, and the 8/8.1 ones just feel like an ill thought out collision of touch and mouse control. Fair shout using classic shell though if you can find something suitable with 8 on it. If I had the same requirement and the spare cash I’d go Macbook Air, but you can get a PC close enough within your budget now.

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_R50-B-12V_15.6IN_CI5-4210U_4GB_500GB_PSSG0E-023001EN/version.asp

We’ve just deployed a few dozen similar models to these (Pro version) and they’re very good.

It’s got the netbook spec i5 – so only 1.7Ghz in normal use – quieter and more power efficient, but can turbo to 2.7Ghz when needs be.

Like most off the shelf laptops it’s only got 4GB of RAM, but you can up that to 8GB for a few quid, you just need a screwdriver and about 5 mins time (and a RAM card of course)

Standard HDD is 500GB which is enough for most – again if you want to upgrade it you could use something like this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st1000lm014-25-solid-state-hybrid-drive-sata-iii-slim-6gbs-8gb-ssd-64mb-cache-pc-mac-ps4

Hybrid drive so you get the quick start-up, plus it’s quiet and energy efficient – bit harder to do as you need to reinstall the OS, but pretty easy, especially if you’re doing to a brand new machine.

It’s windows 8, but I really like 8, takes a couple of goes to get used to it – I personally can’t stand touch screen, I hate using a screen covered in marks – I hardy ever use the metro screen anyway, except for the brilliant type to search feature.

I’ve wondered about one of those, as I tend to need more storage than with a normal SSD (yes, I could do it with NAS or something similar, but it’s easier having it in the machine). Do you have experience of those then?

I agree with the suggestion that you don’t need/want a touch screen, and also with the suggestion to get an old spec machine with W7. Still busy installing W7 on new systems here, as currently 8.1 is a lot more hassle (though I have peculiar requirements).

@aracer

Yeah we’ve installed 10 or so over the last year – Seagate seem to be the ones to have, you can usually find them with a free license for some decent imaging software to copy over your existing disc too.

We assumed that it would work as two separate drives, a small C for the OS and whatever else you wanted in there and a large D data and less critical programmes – but it’s entirely automated – I’ve got one running on my netbook, if you reeeeeally care it goes dead to log-in screen in 4 seconds, same as it did on my old 128GB SSD and I can’t see any difference in performance between the two.

If you want a larger pure SSD, I know a lot of gamers like them, they’re not as other-worldly as they used to be £150-£200 will get you a 500GB 2.5″ SSD.

I just bought one of these about two-or-so weeks ago on the advice of one of my IT guys at work, and I’m pleased if that counts for anything.

This thread crops up regularly, and to be honest the answer to “what laptop for light Office and Web use” is pretty much “any of them.” You’d be harder pressed to find something that wouldn’t fit the bill.

Standard advice is to go with a known brand, avoid home brew outings and ‘exclusive’ shop brands.

I’m a big advocate of “the more RAM the better” but I’d hesitate to say that 8Gb is a minimum requirement. Desirable, definitely, but for your usage I’d say 4Gb would suffice.

More pertinently than any numbers on paper / a web page, at the budget end you’re looking at large variations in build quality, screen size, keyboard and so on. It’s worth a trip to a large retailer with “PC” in the title to go and prod a few display models. I’d find something not made out of cheese before worrying about specification.

I’m a big advocate of “the more RAM the better” but I’d hesitate to say that 8Gb is a minimum requirement. Desirable, definitely, but for your usage I’d say 4Gb would suffice.

I thought that and then I installed Yosemite 🙂 – fair point though.

And I did forget to point out, unless you get x64 Windows there is no point in having more than 4Gb anyway. If it’s x32 get 4Gb and an SSD.

What ever laptop you decide on, before buying check to see if the manufacturer has a outlet website.

I’ve bought a few computers and laptops from Dell’s outlet site and got some very good discounts ~30% off.

These are computers that have been returned either with a fault or just unwanted or left over stock. The computers are checked and any faults are fixed and come with a full warranty and after sales support.

You can select which grade you want, so if you don’t anything with scratches etc you don’t have to pick it.

I got a new laptop in Jan, it was one from their current range (not old stock) and looked absolutely brand new not a blemish on it.

I was going to say “Think you’d have to go some to find a ‘new’ machine with an OS that doesn’t address that whole memory issue” but a quick search suggests you still can get Win8 with 32 bit.. so that is worth noting!

I’m a big advocate of “the more RAM the better” but I’d hesitate to say that 8Gb is a minimum requirement. Desirable, definitely, but for your usage I’d say 4Gb would suffice.

I know 4 GB would be fine, but most machines are replaced due to becoming extremely slow, that 8Gb will hold that off for the longest IMO & so be a worthwhile initial investment. So in giving advice to someone not too techie, suggesting a 8Gb min* seemed fair

(* with a 64bit version of the operating system)

Yup, I don’t disagree with any of that, it’s good advice (and I went through exactly the same i386/x64 thought process too).

My point was more that if the OP finds the laptop that’s perfect in all ways, don’t reject it because it’s “only” got 4Gb of RAM and doesn’t meet the minimum requirements. 8Gb is a sensible recommendation, but not really an absolute minimum. There might be better ways of spending that money.

RAM is also readily upgradable of course, one of the few laptop components that is. Fitting 8Gb today and throwing the existing RAM in the bin will cost ~£50 and it’ll probably be cheaper still by the time Windows 10 rolls around.

I’d still defend the position, in that if he’s here asking what laptop to buy.. is he really going to upgrade the memory on it? Doubtful would be my reponse… and we could debate the cycle of memory pricing, that by the time you really need it & think to upgrade, it’s stupidly expensive..

Though yes, I will re-word my memory advise to this mouthful… “4GB is the practical minimum memory for your needs, but 8gb would be my suggested real world minimum” 😯

I’d still defend the position, in that if he’s here asking what laptop to buy.. is he really going to upgrade the memory on it? Doubtful would be my reponse…

And you’d be correct!

I am not a complete technical Luddite, I can use and talk tech until it comes out of my ears and I reckon I could even upgrade memory in a laptop if I needed to, though it’s unlikely I would. Sadly, recently at least, all my IT based tech has been provided my my employer hence me being a touch behind on what is good/bad/indifferent.

Dell outlet has some Inspiron laptops with i5 Core processors, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drives and Windows 8.1 for £300 ish. Does that sounds reasonable and/or an OK price? An i7 processor would put the cost up to £600 ish which I’m reluctant to pay.

Ergonomics are important, I bought a nice MSI but I just couldn’t get on with the touchpad at all. So I’d say either demo first or make sure you can return it.

Dell outlet has some Inspiron laptops with i5 Core processors, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drives and Windows 8.1 for £300 ish. Does that sounds reasonable and/or an OK price?

Sounds great, i7 are lovely if you’ve lots of spare cash or have a ‘software’ requirement for it (none of your listed stuff needs it)
I’d just compare that spec to what you can get from the likes of PC world, to confirm it isn’t overpriced, purely for a peace of mind thing..
(I don’t keep a close eye of IT kit pricing, but sound fine).