Best laptop deals for student around £500

Looking fora laptop for my daughter, usual student requirements nothing too intensive (doesn’t want a chromebook) would prefer lightweight as her old one is  a bit of a brick. Normally I would be looking to pick up a good condition second hand but just looking around at whats available new – there are a couple on Currys that look okay –

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lg-gram-14-14z90sg.ar55a1-14-laptop-intel-core-ultra-5-512-gb-ssd-black-10264166.html

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-yoga-slim-6-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-storm-grey-10263573.html

Anything better out there? Would you go new or second hand?

Cheers.

Was going to suggest the Dell outlet store as an option I’ve had a couple of decent laptops from, but with those discounts I doubt you’d get better value there.

That Curry’s website is hateful, making you scroll past numerous up selling offers before getting to the specs right at the end of the page.

I’m always suspicious of discounts like that, thinking they’ve artificially bumped the price up for a few months, but still they seem like okay deals.

I’ll check the dell outlet as well, thanks.

Refurbed MacBook Air M1 can be had for £400+

M1 processor is still really fast for everyday applications, very light, and excellent battery life.

What are “usual student requirements”? You’ve basically asked “recommend me a laptop” to which the answer is “buy a laptop, then.” My daughter wants a bike, what should I buy?

Do you want a cheap bargain; something which will last her years; something that she can used for 3D modelling on her Engineering course; something suitable for 4k video editing on her Media course; something which will cope with complex maths on her Game Design course; or something to run Microsoft Word and a web browser?

For “usual student requirements” with no further qualification I’d be down at Cash Converters looking for something with a good screen and a nice keyboard.

Refurbed MacBook Air M1

… would likely be a terrible choice for most students.

… would likely be a terrible choice for most students.

Why? Unless there’s Windows specific software needed, then Office365, Adobe, etc. all run fine on Macs.

They’re fast, light and run cool and quiet, what’s not to like?

What screen size does she want?

This could be a an option..

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/c/new/screenband/13-to-14/smlld/512gb/rmld/8gb/mc/48361/pt/laptops?rangeattribute=1~300~400

14″ really wins on portability over a 16″ one… I’d not go back to a bigger one now but I do have the option of plugging it into a monitor at home if I want.

I do like the yoga above as it has a 2.2k screen rather than 1080

Why?

Because,

a) As you say there may well be “Windows specific software needed,” buying a Mac to run Mac-specific software hasn’t existed in decades.

b) A student with a desirable piece of tech is liable to be a target for theft.

c) If she’s not used to it, the OS is one extra thing to learn on top of everything else.

d) The instructions provided by a lecturer may well differ from what she’s seeing.

e) “Buy a Mac to run Microsoft Office” said no-one ever.

f) Why would you pay an Apple premium for a student laptop? What would it gain outside of fanboyism?

g) Where are you finding £400 Macbook Airs?

h) The first time she drops it, it’s f’ked.

i) The first time she wants to upgrade it, well, see h).

j) Need I continue? Macbooks have their use case but “my daughter is starting college” is not one of them.