[Closed] Laptop recommendations under £300.00

£300 budget might be a low for a laptop.

You need to look for something with:

In the order of importance ... 😛
1. [b]RAM = 8GB [/b](look for 8GB RAM if possible as standard 4GB might be a bit slow)
2. HD = SSD 256GB min (with external storage) or standard HD > 500GB.
3. CPU = any I supposed but not sure about how good Intel Celeron is to handle all the tasks.

[url= https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-310-laptop-intel-core-i3-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-/p3140941?colour=Silver ]Lenovo IdeaPad 310 Laptop, Intel Core i3, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 15.6", Silver £399.95 [/url]

[url= https://www.johnlewis.com/hp-laptop-intel-celeron-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-/p3249219?colour=Smoke%20Grey ]HP Laptop, Intel Celeron, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 15.6", Smoke Grey £329.99 [/url]

Or this one as ideal ... the budget is completely out now ... 😆

[url= http://www.argos.co.uk/product/7503737 ]Acer 15.6 Inch i5 8GB 256GB Laptop £549.99[/url]

I had a quick look and couldn't find a single laptop <£300 I would recommend 🙁
When I bought a cheap laptop, we bought a £299 laptop, but then spent £25 on RAM and £69 on an SSD on top of that.

[url= http://www.ryli.net/is-120gb-128gb-solid-state-drive-ssd-enough/ ]128GB SSD will be very limited as the OS HD.[/url]

Cheers gents. Budget is £300 only. Anything from Dell direct you would recommend? 😛

[b]Inspiron 15 3000 @ £299.01[/b] <<< This is within your budget but I would make this 8GB RAM. Not sure about the CPU.
Intel® Celeron® Processor N3060
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
[b]4GB, [/b]1600MHz, DDR3L, up to 8GB (you need to make this 8GB RAM)
500GB 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive
15.6-in. display

[b]Inspiron 15 5567 @ £389.01[/b]<< this one seems to fit the bill but I am not sure about the CPU ...
Intel® Pentium® Processor 4415U
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
8GB Single Channel DDR4 2400MHz, up to 16GB
1TB 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive
15.6-in. display

[b]Inspiron 15 5567 @ £449.01[/b] << this one is ideal but you budget out the window. 😀
7th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-7100U Processor
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
8GB Single Channel DDR4 2400MHz, up to 16GB
1TB 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive
15.6-in. display

You'll get a decent refurbished one from Tier 1 or Gigarefurb that meets chewkw's spec. Why the insistence on new?

Dell have an outlet site with returned laptop. We've bought two from there quite a bit cheaper buying New, might be worth a look

FFS chewkw, 8Gb and an SSD as minimum requirements? She's running Word and the basic version of Sibelius, you could do that on a Netbook.

Dunno why it "needs to be new," stuff from the Dell outlet will be near-perfect condition unless it says otherwise. Have a look at https://tinyurl.com/y7vew8jx

Cougar - Moderator
FFS chewkw, 8Gb and an SSD as minimum requirements? She's running Word and the basic version of Sibelius, you could do that on a Netbook.

I don't know Sibelius but I know my Firebox browser is hungry.

As for the SSD I have Samsung 256 on mine (Desktop PC) and I hardly play game nor install anything on it apart from Microsoft Office, Firefox, some security software and they have already consumed 81.2GB. If you have 128GB SSD that will be very tight. Not impossible but tight. 😛

Edit: memory usage 57% average.

[url= http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandid=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&frid=125 ]Some good ones on Dell refurb[/url]

edit:

Cougar - Moderator
Dunno why it "needs to be new," stuff from the Dell outlet will be near-perfect condition unless it says otherwise. Have a look at https://tinyurl.com/y7vew8jx

[b]^^^ This one @ £299.64 [/b]. Good call Cougar.

I have a Dell i5, 4gb ram. It's absolutely fine for general duties. It's probably about 5 years old now.
SSD is highly recommended but not really possible on that budget if you want brand new.

Second hand /refurbished is your best bet really.

8gb or more ram simply isn't nessesary unless your gaming or doing some other memory hogging tasks.
My main gaming machine has 16gb ram and it's only games that see it consume more than 8gb, and even then, not that often.

13 inch screen though.. Other than that it looks fine for the job.

I find 13 inch screens and the itty bitty keyboards annoying, that's personal preference though.
Maybe look for something with a 15 inch screen in a more standard form factor rather than 2in1.

She is 15. Believe me, it has to be new 😀
(Fussy teen/mega Strop if not new. She has to fit in in school y' know)

mattyfez - Member

13 inch screen though.. Other than that it looks fine for the job.

I find 13 inch screens and the itty bitty keyboards annoying, that's personal preference though.
Maybe look for something with a 15 inch screen in a more standard form factor rather than 2in1.

The one Cougar suggested is 15.6 inch screen.

Inspiron 15 - 5567
Tech Specs
Inspiron 15 - 5567
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-7100U (2 Core,3M Cache,2.40 GHz,15W)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
8GB (1x8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 SDRAM Non-ECC
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
8X DVD+/- RW Drive
Software
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 802.11ac, 1x1, 2.4 & 5GHz + Bluetooth 4.2
LCD Back Cover for Non-Touch Screen with HD Camera-Fog Gray
Power Cord : 250V
Primary 3-cell 42W/HR Battery
[b]15.6 Inch HD (1366x768) Truelife Non- Touch LED-Backlit Display[/b]
Internal English Non Backlit Keyboard

😛

monkeysfeet - Member
She is 15. Believe me, it has to be new
(Fussy teen/mega Strop if not new. She has to fit in in school y' know)

Their father (my Bro-in-law) ended up spending nearly £3K for two Apple Macbook ... 😆

You're just not going to get anything decent brand new for £300.
Unless she wants a netbook.

What's her preference for size/screen size?

Not fussed about screen size but she will be taking it to school. The Dell refurbs look good. How do the Refurbished laptops compare to new (ie. Could I get away with saying it's new) 😀
Thanks for the help guys.. appreciate it.

The one Cougar suggested is 15.6 inch screen.

My bad.. Looks like a decent deal then, but still, if it has to be brand new it's a no go.

No one's going to know it's not brand new anyway once it's not in a box anymore.

mattyfez - Member
My bad.. Looks like a decent deal then, but still, if it has to be brand new it's a no go.

Monkeysfeet can pretend it is new ... 😆 (I am imagining Monkeysfeet repacking it to make it "new" but during the process also tries to hide his trick by keeping a straight face 😆 )

On second thought better buy new, otherwise he will get a lot of screaming and telling off from a 15 year old ... 😆

On second thought better buy new, otherwise he will get a lot of screaming and telling off from a 15 year old ...

No change there then.. :D. If the Dell 15 3000 @ £299 is any good I will go for that one

Future proof.

It's a damn sight easier to upgrade the RAM / drive at a later date than be lumbered with a Pantium Celeron.

Monkeysfeet can pretend it is new ...

Tell her it's new, she almost certainly won't be able to tell any different and even if she can then after a fortnight in the hands of a 15-year old it'll look the same regardless of whether it was new or refurbished to start with.

Or, tell her to tell her friends it's new - no-one will know other than her and you.

I don't know Sibelius but I know my Firebox browser is hungry.

Edit: memory usage 57% average.

As discussed on previous "what laptop" threads, you have no idea how Windows memory management works.

Consumed RAM isn't bad, and 43% sitting there unused is a waste.

😆 😆 if she finds out it'll be " Cougar said it would be reet.."

Cougar - Moderator
It's a damn sight easier to upgrade the RAM / drive at a later date than be lumbered with a Pantium Celeron.

Agree. 😀

Monkeysfeet can pretend it is new ...

Tell her it's new, she almost certainly won't be able to tell any different and even if she can then after a fortnight in the hands of a 15-year old it'll look the same regardless of whether it was new or refurbished to start with.

Or, tell her to tell her friends it's new - no-one will know other than her and you.

The one Cougar has suggested is [url= http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukdfb1/campaigns/dell-why-dell-outlet-uk ]Certified Refurbished[/url], which means pretty good by Dell's definition. 😀

Consumed RAM isn't bad, and 43% sitting there unused is a waste.

The one Cougar has suggested is Certified Refurbished, which means pretty good by Dell's definition.

Quite. They have a separate classification for ones with scratches / cosmetic damage. It's not going to look like it's been dragged across the car park.

monkeysfeet - Member
😆 😆 if she finds out it'll be " Cougar said it would be reet.."

Cougar - Moderator
Quite. They have a separate classification for ones with scratches / cosmetic damage. It's not going to look like it's been dragged across the car park.

But not sure why sometimes I get a spike and the memory usage got to 80% without doing much.

Because:

you have no idea how Windows memory management works.

Windows will use spare memory for other optimisation duties, precisely because it's a waste to have it sitting there doing nowt. If that memory is then needed by other applications Windows will dump it. "In use" is not the same as "unavailable for use."

This might be worth a look

[url= http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-hp-pavilion-15-au176sa-15.6-intel-core-i3-7100u-8gb-128gb-ssd-a1-z9f62ea/version.asp ]http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-hp-pavilion-15-au176sa-15.6-intel-core-i3-7100u-8gb-128gb-ssd-a1-z9f62ea/version.asp[/url]

Yes, the other classification is 'Scratch and Dent' which will have "... considerable cosmetic blemishes ..."

I've had 4 scratch and dent ones, 3 of which I couldn't find a thing on and one had the feintest of feint marks on the back. They were all effectively 'new'.

Opening the box from anything Dell outlet looks like you're getting a brand new machine, because effectively you are.

Cougar - Moderator

you have no idea how Windows memory management works.

Windows will use spare memory for other optimisation duties, precisely because it's a waste to have it sitting there doing nowt. If that memory is then needed by other applications Windows will dump it. "In use" is not the same as "unavailable for use."

mattyfez - Member

This might be worth a look

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-hp-pavilion-15-au176sa-15.6-intel-core-i3-7100u-8gb-128gb-ssd-a1-z9f62ea/version.asp

Saw that just now but it's the 128gb SSD that might be a problem. If it is 256gb SSD then that will be a very good deal..

cp - Member

Yes, the other classification is 'Scratch and Dent' which will have "... considerable cosmetic blemishes ..."

I've had 4 scratch and dent ones, 3 of which I couldn't find a thing on and one had the feintest of feint marks on the back. They were all effectively 'new'.

Opening the box from anything Dell outlet looks like you're getting a brand new machine, because effectively you are.

That really sounds good.

Also... Dell outlet stock varies all the time. It used to get updated with new stock around 3pm each week day, but it appears a bit more random now.

Check it regularly!

Chewkw > read this as a starter for 10.

https://www.osnews.com/story/21471/SuperFetch_How_it_Works_Myths

In some strange sort of ouroboros moment maybe you could consider a Chuwi laptop!??!

[url= http://www.anandtech.com/show/11821/the-chuwi-lapbook-123-review-premium-feel-budget-price ]http://www.anandtech.com/show/11821/the-chuwi-lapbook-123-review-premium-feel-budget-price[/url]

Smaller screen but higher quality by miles than you've any right to expect at the price (they also do a [url= http://www.anandtech.com/show/11161/the-chuwi-lapbook-141-review-redefining-affordable ]14inch one[/url], but this is nicer I think)

This from aldi for £250?? https://www.aldi.co.uk/medion-11-6%22-2-in-1-laptop/p/079509165808600

I know its a notepad really, but it might say laptop on the box..........

Sticker on my Acer says i3-5005u/8GB/1TB.
Was £280 from PCWorld 18 months ago.
Has one of the better keyboards I've used and one of the only trackpads I've ever got on with.
Overall case feels a bit flimsy for my liking, but other than that better than my OH's Toshiba in every way.

Had a look, you'll struggle to match that spec without some serious shouting.

I hope you've already bought that outlet Dell