Topic starter
Evening,
I’m just about to head down the consultancy path. It’s come at a time when it’s a little forced; accordingly, I’m not financially prepped for the transition. No drama, I have a contract starting next week but a bit of a dead period in between my last payslip and my first invoice.
Preamble done, I need a laptop to carry out my function. Broadly speaking, It needs to be minimum 2.2ghz dual core processor with 8gb ram and running a pro version of windows 10 or 11. Preferably with a screen no smaller than 15”. I am currently using a system with the minimum requirements and it can become overwhelmed with identical software as I’ll be using when I move. So, I’d like to squeeze as much spec out of my budget as possible. Not too fussed about future proofing but I’d like it to last 12 months.
Does not faze me whether it’s new or refurbed.
Budget I hear you say? £600 inclusive of VAT.
Had a look in the usual places; curry’s, sell outlet, scan.
Wondering if I’m missing somewhere.
Cheers
Posted : 25/04/2023 9:02 pm
Try CEX.
Posted : 25/04/2023 9:09 pm
Laptops Direct?
Posted : 25/04/2023 9:18 pm
This was a good recommendation from a previous thread - there have been some very good deals.
Posted : 25/04/2023 9:29 pm
Dell outlet.
There's usually discount codes as well if you have a search
Posted : 25/04/2023 9:35 pm
Really happy with the £150 Thinkpad T480 I grabbed from eBay for my dad. 7th gen i5, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Even came with a brand new extra battery.
Seller is called “newanduserlaptops4u” and you get 20% off with the voucher code “APRIL20”.
Posted : 25/04/2023 10:13 pm
If you need a Pro version of Windows you are not likely to get that off the shelf from Currys, John Lewis or other consumer focussed outlets.
Given your requirement I would probably be looking at a second user Lenovo Thinkpad such as the one at the link below:
Posted : 25/04/2023 10:20 pm
This looks pretty decent if you want brand new and less than £600...
I'd avoid high end processors in laptops as tehy are not good for battery time between charges.
Posted : 25/04/2023 10:23 pm
continued.
Having 16GB of memory will help performance over 8GB.
Alternately could you not buy a nice new laptop on interest free credit? One of the good things about being an independent would be that you could get a nice Macbook rather than a Windows laptop.
I have recently changed jobs and am a bit annoyed as the laptop I have been given is a 15.6 inch Thinkpad which ways more than twice what my personal laptop does. I normally use an external keyboard and monitor so the extra size and weight is just an irritation rather than being useful.
Posted : 25/04/2023 10:26 pm
The oft overlooked Argos in town was where I ended up getting mine from.
Posted : 25/04/2023 10:31 pm
Side note, you can buy a win 11 pro key for like €3.50 if you really need the pro version.
But if youre a subby/consultant then home is fine as you wouldn't want to integrate your PC into the Customers domain.
The pro version is really only needed for cooperate company owned PC's.
Posted : 25/04/2023 10:58 pm
If money is tight and you only want it to last a year then I'd go with the refurb ThinkPad that Cletus posted. Son bought one a few years ago from eBay and it's been great. Also being a ThinkPad you can get loads of spares easily if you want to.
Finally rocking up at a client's with a ThinkPad just looks professional.
Posted : 25/04/2023 11:05 pm
A bit small screen wise but this is a fantastic deal imo.
APRIL20 gets it you for 340
Posted : 25/04/2023 11:06 pm
If you need a Pro version of Windows you are not likely to get that off the shelf from Currys, John Lewis or other consumer focussed outlets.
Correct. But I'd counter that with "what do you need Pro for?" About the only thing I can think you'd gain as a sole consultant outside of a business environment is Bitlocker.
Posted : 26/04/2023 2:12 am
Topic starter
Thanks all,
Will have a sift through recommendations.
The consultancy stuff is two pronged; I’ll be taking on part time Locum contracts and still servicing existing relationships from within a fee-share consultancy structure. The software is required for the latter. Windows Pro is, apparently, a software requirement. This software does not run on a MAC OS either.
If I got a laptop with a home version, I would have had to take into account the licence fee to ‘upgrade’
Posted : 26/04/2023 7:21 am
Also have a look at this for a 14" screen and a great spec
Posted : 26/04/2023 7:43 am
Lenovo are listed in the Singletrack Member rewards so worth a browse via that link.
There may be a refurb place local to you as well. For instance, down in Dorset there's https://www.elf.co.uk/about-elf.php who may be worth a call for their pricelist. Mostly HP but sometimes have Apple in stock.
Posted : 26/04/2023 10:12 am
Will you be 'invoicing' the laptop through your Limited Company, or aren't 'expenses' allowed any more?
If so, no point skimping, buy new with a collection warranty and ignore the VAT.
Will you be using a monitor or laptop screen only - if the former, go smaller footprint.
I've used decent company Dell's at work for years, nice to use circa £1000 but the last laptop I bought was a small screened high-end Fujitsu Lifebook back in 2017, still working fine today.
Posted : 26/04/2023 10:30 am
I may be a luddite, but I've gone back to using Curry's for most things. It's a compromise as you may not get exactly the perfect spec, but just found the ability to walk into the store to drop off/collect for repairs, rather than waiting in all day for couriers etc has trumped online retail. Mind you, that only works because Curry's is a few minutes down the road.
We've bought a few laptops for the business and generally had free insurance/replacement bundled in.
Posted : 26/04/2023 10:32 am
I’d avoid high end processors in laptops as tehy are not good for battery time between charges.
The new efficiency/performance core processors are pretty good at this, my work laptop lasts an incredibly long time even (intermittently) running simulations. Only quirk is the "battery life remaining" will cycle between 12 hours and 34 minutes (exaggeration, but it's not far off). It'll probably get better as windows and individual applications get optimized to work with them.
Posted : 26/04/2023 10:46 am
Tier1online.com
I've had a couple of laptops for the kids and they are really good, they do corporate refurbs and they are clear about the grade of the refurb - and you can specify which windows OS you want
but a very quick search gives
which is exactly what I'm typing on right now and it's a nice bit of kit
[EDIT] they'll do a business account purchase, phone them if you need assistance
Posted : 26/04/2023 11:14 am
Windows Pro is, apparently, a software requirement.
Well, that's surely a nonsense. I'd double-check that if I were you.
Posted : 26/04/2023 11:33 am
May not be. I remember some software back in the dim and distant past that would only run on Windows home edition. I think it was free for personal use but a licence was required for business use. They obviously assumed that no one outside of a business would be runn the Pro edition of Windows.
So it would be a bit odd to check a pro version of Windows is present but it is do-able.
But as someone else said a peo licence key is like £10 or something of the internet.
Posted : 26/04/2023 11:49 am
Over your budget, and i hate to be that guy who posts not what you asked for, but, as an advocate of right to repair, and resisting the trend to disposable electronics and e waste, i will never not post a link to framework, for your consideration
you could still buy one without an OS to keep the costs down, and then get an OE license off ebay.
Posted : 26/04/2023 2:33 pm
Just had a look at the framework website. It looks like every other laptop I've had open in the last 20 years. What's special about it?? In fact in some ways it's worse as the battery is screwed to the main board rather than being externally replaceable.
Posted : 26/04/2023 3:05 pm
I like the ethos of that framework laptop but the pricing isn't exactly transparent. Base price is £849 but that excludes fairly vital components such as RAM, SSD, bezel, keyboard and power supply. Adding the base versions of those increases the price by £280. That excludes an os.
As I say I love the ethos but sadly there's a price based barrier to entry.
Posted : 26/04/2023 3:32 pm
I like the ethos of that framework laptop but the pricing isn’t exactly transparent.
Same. But it kinda feels like a solution looking for a problem. Like, you can unplug your HDMI module and replace it with a DisplayPort module, that's neat! Or, you could just use an external USB-C hub.
It's not hard to make a laptop which is a joy to work on, or an utter pig. These are design choices. My old Dell, the baseplate had half a dozen captive screws and you could remove the entire thing giving you full access to everything inside. On the Lenovo I acquired from work a HDD swap or RAM upgrade is one screw each, the keyboard is a second screw giving access to the fan (about the only thing that ever fails on them), anything more involved and it's not much harder to split the whole thing in half. My partner's HP is loads of screws and those horrible plastic clips which snap if you fart in the wrong key, before you've even started working on it.
Posted : 26/04/2023 3:56 pm
