I require a new laptop. All I need this laptop to do is to assist me in my studying thus I would need it to word process and browse the internet. My budget is £200. Ive no idea where to begin. Should I be considering refurbished ones? Are they reliable? I really don’t know much about laptops!

Ive had a quick look at Amazon but I honestly don’t know if what im looking at represents good VFM. Any help would be appreciated.

i’m looking for exactly the same reasons but think will be looking at a tablet with bluetooth keyboard

It would be literally impossible to buy a laptop which didn’t fulfil that requirement.

Have a look at the Dell Outlet.

Recommend a laptop for me

When I am King (and let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time) people who misuse pronouns will be killed to death. I think it’s a reasonable punishment.

For web browsing and word processing a Chromebook might be a better option, especially if you’re not overly clued up on laptops.

https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-chromebook-c423-intel-celeron-processor-4gb-ram-32gb-emmc-14-silver-metal/p3959533

How do you write word documents ?? if you use google docs or other online word processors then maybe a chromebook is the answer. You could even use a word processing app for a nicer experience as opposed to running google docs through a browser. £200 is the bottom end of the laptop price range but would get you a good chromebook.

Also, do you have an iPhone or android ? consider how the two bits of kit are going to work with each other (syncing through the user access account etc)

Recommend a laptop for me

This is correct. While I’m not normally a grammar nazi, using myself in this context signifies that you are either a) an idiot trying to make yourself sound smarter or b) a massive idiot who thinks it’s correct.

I must be an idiot who’s trying to sound smart

My 2c,

Get a windows laptop (i.e. anything that isnt a chromebook) and a student licence for Word, excel etc (which is significantly cheaper than the grownup licence).

Yes google docs is free, so is open office. But you will then waste days of your life transposing formulas from google sheets to excel as they have different functions and vba wont work . Or writing your dissertation in open office only to find 2 hours before the deadline that the formatting is all wrong when you try and print via word on a university computer.

In terms of spec your buying the ford fiesta of laptops, the best you can do is a fiesta and the worst is a corsa and in reality both will do what you need and are basicly the same. Except a chromebook, thats like asking what bike to get and ending up with a Segway.

+1 on staying with word if that’s what your study establishment runs with…..

I did the open office dissertation thing…..nightmare and a bloody long night sorting it out

MS Office online is free.

https://products.office.com/en-us/free-office-online-for-the-web

(And Libre Office is better than Open Office.)

£200 really isn’t that much for a laptop. A friend bought one for that sort of money and has regretted it but after spending the money she then couldn’t afford to replace it with something better.

£250-300 will get you something that is far more useable for little more. Lay off the beer for an extra month if you need to find the cash?

If you really cant afford the extra then a refurbed one from laptops direct could work. Specs wise don’t go lower than 4gb ram and try to get an ssd rather than old style hard drive. It will run a lot faster for it. Extra usb sticks for storage are cheap as chips so don’t be blinded by 1tb drives.

Edit:
I agree with the MS word thing.
If it was my money I’d be looking at something like this:
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-lenovo-ideapad-330s-core-i3-8130u-4gb-128gb-14-inch-windows-10-a1-81f400lguk/version.asp

Myselves would of suggested this for yourselves if it weren’t for you’re grammer errors
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T440-Core-i5-4300U-1-90GHz-8GB-Ram-240GB-SSD-Windows-10-Laptop/153437534163

Extra usb sticks for storage are cheap as chips

Please don’t use usb sticks for storage. Use a proper external hard drive.

HoratioHufnagel

Member

Myselves would of suggested this for yourselves if it weren’t for you’re grammer errors
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T440-Core-i5-4300U-1-90GHz-8GB-Ram-240GB-SSD-Windows-10-Laptop/153437534163

That’s a good call, the battery is easily replaceable too (and widely available).

Please excuse my grammatical error. I think maybe I could stretch to £300 if I run summer tyres all winter.

Ed I have a perfectly good chromebook (it’s old but serviceable) that you can have for owt if you want it, will probs do what you want let me know.

In payment for taking the pee earlier

Re: that T440 ebay laptop there ^^ The Lenovo T400 series is fantastic and the build quality is unrivalled, £200 with 8GB and an SSD I’d be tempted myself if I didn’t already have a T420. I’m struggling to see how you’d beat that, buy it.

My T420 came from work after it was declared end of life. I gave it 8GB, an SSD and a clean install of Windows 10 and it is rapid, aside from GFX performance it destroys the Dell that replaced it.

For under £200, you could get a Windows based tablet with keyboard. Will do all the usual stuff quickly and it’s small 10″ and portable. Look at ACER, or Linx for example. Sufficient for Word and Internet.

Get one that comes with a keyboard – looks a little like a laptop, but you undock the screen, and can use as a tablet.

Chromebook, or bargain laptop. From the John Lewis returns section.

Oh, and nickc for President.

Depending upon what’s required you might need MS Office – it’s free if in Education. I had a guy at work that insisted on using google apps, despite using a Microsoft Surface Pro (he had apple before).

Sent me a spreadsheet in google and the formulas etc didn’t convert well to Excel which is industry standard. We couldn’t check it, so someone had to re-build it all in excel.

+1 on that T440, pretty much what I use day in, day out as a geek type person. It’s been dropped more than I care to admit, is more upgradable than 90% of laptops and doesn’t shout “steal me” the way shinier silver laptops trying to look like fruit branded offerings do.

I’m looking for a budget laptop too is the t440 the one to go for then. My current one has a 17 inch screen which I like but it’s old now I swapped it to an ssd and swapped the 2gb to 4gb but the processor is an old and Turion 64×2 2.0ghz , will the T440 Core i5-4300U 1.90GHz 8GB Ram 240GB SSD be noticeably better thanks I know nowt about computers

Daft-ish question, whats a bigger screen version of that t440?

I’m looking for a budget laptop too is the t440 the one to go for then.

Well, it is rather old. My T420 is from 2011, and the models increment T430, 440, 450… approximately year on year so the T440 will be 2013/2014 vintage. T490 is current I think.

The T-series is Lenovo’s “premium” range, the ‘4’ designates a 14″ screen (there’s a T5xx series of 15″ models also). Anything with a suffix ‘p’ (eg, T440p) is a performance model.

Is it the one to go for? Only you can answer that, it depends what you’re doing with it. But seeing as 99% of “what laptop” threads in the last decade have been “… for browsing the web and occasional Office use” I’d guess it’ll probably do.

I’m not going to be running modern games on my T420 but as a general purpose machine it’s absolutely fine. But it was nearly £1500 when it was new so I’d hope there’s a bit of life left in it yet. (He said, typing this on a 2008 Dell which cost less than half that.)

Personally I (demonstrably) reject the widely held notion that Windows PCs only last three years. If you buy something half decent to start with and look after it you can eek out plenty more life out of them. An SSD, a decent amount of RAM, a clean Windows install and you’re generally good to go so long as it wasn’t a bargain basement PoS to start with. Some Apple owners like to wax lyrical about Mac longevity but you’d hope that to be the case when you’ve dropped two grand on a laptop, comparing that to a £200 supermarket special Wintel lappy is, if you’ll pardon the pun, apples and oranges.

Daft-ish question, whats a bigger screen version of that t440?

As above, T540.

Unless you have eyesight considerations I’d argue that resolution is more important than physical size. My T420 is 1600×900, but it’s a higher end model, most of them were [something]x768. The 5s (generally) have the same resolution options as the 4s but an additional higher one also – so you could end up with a T5xx with a worse screen than a T4xx. I’d have to google for exact details.

I know the T4xx models well because I dealt with shedloads when I did a stint covering in IT a few years back, the T5xx not so much (I think I saw one, ever). Common failures were the hard disk (moving parts) and the fan (ditto), and the odd keyboard / touchpad failure. Beyond that the only returns of note were the ones that had been flung across the car park. Solid bit of kit, designed for the corporate market where users generally gave zero shits about looking after them.

Oh, here you go. Good old Wikipedia, everything you ever wanted to know about T-series Thinkpads but were afraid to ask:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_T_series

Oh, and,

Lenovo have service manuals freely available on their support website, should you find yourself in a position to have to make repairs or fit upgrades.