Ideally 15″ ish screen, Core i3, 4Gb RAM, storage not really an issue, but let’s say 500Gb. Suspect it will be separated a lot as kids will use it for surfing, wife wants it work home working and out-and-about more as a traditional laptop, so robust quality over cheapest-of-the-cheap…..

What d’ya recommend?

Lenovo Helix sounds like what you want…
http://goo.gl/k2gVbq

I know I said quality over cost, but that’s probably a touch spendy – £500 to £700 bracket would be ideal. Bigger screen compared to that Lenovo would be better, but I realise that is going to drive the price to a greater or lesser extent….

Not sure you’ve seen them but modern 13″ screens have brilliant displays – very clear with smaller text than I can look at on my 15″ laptop.

My wife just got a Lenovo Yoga for about £650 from John Lewis – it’s a lovely bit of kit.

Thanks WWW – it’s a fair point that I am starting from a point of relative ignorance having not bought a laptop in ~6 years. At this stage, just looking to get a few real world recommendations before walking into a shop.

Why not a cheap laptop and a tablet for the kids?

Not one of these then?

Why not a cheap laptop and a tablet for the kids?

Them’s the rules….

hehe ^

Look at the dell outlet and they have i3 inspirons with 15″ screens from just over £200 + vat.

also their 11″ tablet with i5 for around £300 or atom for £200.

Another option is just get a tablet and a BT keyboard case.

Just be wary of the version of Windows they run – I had a look at one a while back, had some kind of slimline Win 8 which wouldn’t run a lot of stuff, even Sky Go was a non-starter.

Thanks andy

Another option is just get a tablet and a BT keyboard case

That, or something similar, is another option……

I have a Helix (i5, 4Gb, 256Gb SSD). It’s a very competent piece of work.
Screen is as noted above excellent.

Everything I don’t like about it is down to Windows 8.1 rather than the hardware, with one exception that may be irrelevant – the docking option is essentially a USB3 port replicator, that means leaving the screen open on a stand. I much prefer a standard dock, but it’s not an option – don’t think there is a competing product that does this either though.

To be quite honest though, if I were paying myself, I’d get a nice laptop and an iPad.