For home use, a little Word, a little Exel, internet & Youtube watching. Min 15″ screen, around £300.
I gave away my ~12 year old laptop that I paid £300 for in 2012 that did all that and more, so the good news is you can’t really go wrong. OTOH inflation means that £300 is becoming REALLY cheap for a laptop. Whilst the specs are all decent enough these days, costs get cut in other ways like the keyboards are horrible, the plastic chassis flex, etc. If you don’t care about specs or connectivity, then you’d be better off going into Currys and having a look even if you buy elsewhere. Maybe spend slightly more on one with a decent solid keyboard rather than keys that will pop off or break. Dell, Lenovo, etc are usually pretty good and don’t make the cheapest laptops. Asus, Acer, etc make a range so have a look at what currys will sell for £300 and compare the build quality to the equivalent £500 Dell or Lenovo then go buy a refurbished Dell or Lenovo. But to illustrate that, the cheapest laptop on the Dell outlet is >£300 and only has a 14″ screen. So you will need to stretch the budget slightly.
