How do you buy a laptop?

Social
88

Can anyone recommend me a place to start with a new laptop? I think I’ve had this one for close to ten years and it’s at the end of its useful life.

I get Office 365 through work and will mainly be using this for creative writing and general interweb browsing. There’ll be a bit of video calling and music listening (and possibly recording) too.

I feel like I bought my last one based on storage and screen size, but I have hard drives and cloud storage which cover one of those bases, and I have a better TV now so don’t rely on the screen so much.

That Dell link upthread doesn’t work any more.

Light/ quiet/ good battery life thanks @shinymcshine

£600-800.

Any tips?

89

Very much budget dictated, innit. That sounds a bit flippant, sorry.

I would maybe think about the things you value. So i had a sony one that was too loud and heavy so when i got a new one i wanted something light, quiet and with decent battery life. But i spent ages narrowing it down.

Find techradar’s lists quite useful. So you can search best budget laptop techradar or best premium laptop techradar etc…

1 Like
90

8GB RAM
256GB SSD

minimum

91

Mad that you can still buy laptops with less tbh.

1 Like
92

Chromebooks?

4GB is fine for my mum and dad as it runs Facebook and email

93

Seems like a sensible budget where you should be able to get something that will last you a good while.

I’ve got an hp envy 13 and i rate it but models have moved on since i bought it. You can get a second hand one on ebay for 600.

One option you might not have considered is a second hand one from cex where you get a 2 year warranty as standard.

Brand new you’ll still get very good bang for your buck.

1 Like
94

Perhaps there’s a bit more of a case with Chromebooks, but I’m kinda of the opinion that at this stage any laptop with only 4GB is basically designed to need replacing in about 3 years time, even if it’s only getting light usage.

95

This gets a decent write up on techradar.

1 Like
96

I’d maybe check how this screen size feels for you - maybe try one out in currys or something. It took me a wee bit to get used to it but i don’t do hunners with two apps side by side anyway so i got used to it and it makes it really light and portable.

1 Like
97

hello nerds. i need some advice.

my laptop is about 8 years old. still works an that, it was quite spenny at the time link to laptop

however it doesn’t seem to handle teams calls very well and i need to start doing interviews from it from next week.

my ultimate Q is would a usb type camera thing for my current laptop improve the quality of teams calls, or is this laptop too old now to handle that kind of stuff and should i give in to consumerism and get something new?

ty

98

Hmm, if you’ve a tablet then try installing the Teams app there or even on your phone. I mean it sounds like maybe your laptop needs replacing though.

99

I agree, if you only need an upgrade for Teams then just install it on your phone

100

cheers @1101010 @daggers

you can’t really do interviews for team on your phone right? i don’t have a tablet.

101

They wouldn’t know. Just rest it somewhere in landscape where you look natural?

102

They would have no idea. Plus it’s none of their business. You’re not going to get rejected for a job because you interviewed on your phone.

I would also advise some earphones so you can hear clearly or even hook it up to external speakers if you have them

1 Like
103

Online or in store

3 Likes
104

cheers but not sure i could really sure i could stare at my phone for two hours. looks like i need a new laptop.

ffs.

105

pop it on a shelf on your desk it would be just like staring at a laptop but only smaller

106

I’ve had this model (or the 2018 equivalent) for 4 years now and it’s still going strong, hasn’t skipped a beat, it only gets relatively light use but seems like it could go on another 4 years easy.

Well built and decent screen too

2 Likes
107

i just can’t really see how that’d work tbh, really don’t like the idea of it. cheers though.

i’m just trying teams on my laptop and actually think my camera is the issue. might try a usb one.

1 Like