Need Laptop recommendation - sub £200

Need some assistance GR, I need a laptop but I don't need a fancy pants super powerful machine. What I need it for is

- Connect my IPhone to so I can install ITunes/backup data/ restore previous deleted data
- Connect my SNES mini to so I can 'add extra games' to the device :shifty:

- Needs to run Microsoft office programs like Word, Excel etc..
- General web browsing/downloading

I don't want to spend a lot as I mainly use my IPad to surf the web but this is for the instances when I need to do something an IPad won't allow me to do.

Anyone able to give me some ideas of a good laptop to suit my needs costing under £200?

ITSMILNER wrote:Need some assistance GR, I need a laptop but I don't need a fancy pants super powerful machine. What I need it for is

- Connect my IPhone to so I can install ITunes/backup data/ restore previous deleted data
- Connect my SNES mini to so I can 'add extra games' to the device
- Needs to run Microsoft office programs like Word, Excel etc..
- General web browsing/downloading

I don't want to spend a lot as I mainly use my IPad to surf the web but this is for the instances when I need to do something an IPad won't allow me to do.

Anyone able to give me some ideas of a good laptop to suit my needs costing under £200?

Amazon are doing 20% discount on open box stuff at the moment. Might be worth having a look as you could get something decent for sub £200 if you're not too picky about it being open box.

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It is the days people spend 2 to 3x on a mobile device than their computer.

I can't recommend any laptop for under £200. I would say go to an independent computer shop and see what they have going second hand and you'll probably be better off with a warranty of some sort. Might be able to squeeze in a good Intel i3 or i5 processor and a few gigs of RAM that way and a usable screen/keyboard.

PostRe: Need Laptop recommendation - sub £200 by KK » Wed Mar 21, 2018 9:13 am

I’m currently using a HP Stream 14. It started off usable but less than a year later it’s turned into a bit of a nightmare. The SSD is so small (32GB) it can no longer update Windows 10 (there is a number of complaints about this online) and web browsing is very judery, especially on advert laden sites. It also can struggle with YouTube in full screen. Installing iTunes on it would completely wipe you out.

It does have its positives, such as Office 365 free for a year, the keyboard is decent, and the battery lasts a full day.

A frustrating user experience however and one I wouldn’t recommend unless it’s nothing more than a temporary measure or as a back-up computer to shove in a drawer.

I was gonna say that you need to up your budget, but if you don't mind refurbished then some of these actually don't seem terrible for the price:

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/st/core ... ortOrder=1

The i5 ones are old CPUs so I wouldn't expect it to run many games, but for web browsing and office I'm sure they'd cope.

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Refurbished is a good shout as anything new under 200 quid is going to be a nightmare eventually, some great options from asus for 300 quid as they already represent such good price/performance and build quality

Core i3 1080p 4gb with 1TB disk, not bad, not a horrible design https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbi ... ersion.asp

I think I'd be quite happy with that in a pinch. I'd consider it when my macbook eventually dies (already resets constantly if it switched to dedicated graphics), which speaks for the kind of lifespan you can expect for 8x the budget - only about 5 years.

It doesn't state it in that product title but it's in the product code, apparently "A1" basically means an open box return with very minor marks.

Has it really got to be a laptop?

Thanks all, it has to be a laptop as I don't have room for an actual Desktop PC. Plus I just want something I can fold away

If I up the limit to £250-300, would that be better? Tesco seem to have some decent ones in that price range?

https://www.tesco.com/direct/technology-mobile/all-laptops/cat3376345.cat?catId=4294960185+40693&icid=alllaptops_textlink_200300_slot2

ITSMILNER wrote:Thanks all, it has to be a laptop as I don't have room for an actual Desktop PC. Plus I just want something I can fold away

If I up the limit to £250-300, would that be better? Tesco seem to have some decent ones in that price range?

https://www.tesco.com/direct/technology-mobile/all-laptops/cat3376345.cat?catId=4294960185+40693&icid=alllaptops_textlink_200300_slot2

Anything new at that price will have a crap CPU. If you filter that Tesco site to include Intel i3 then you get only refurbished laptops.

Another problem these days is that the cases are often moulded so that you can't do any upgrades. It means you need to get decent specs from the start or else you'll replacing everything sooner than you'd like.

I would go used for that budget.

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For 300 snoops honestly that Asus should be really good for you, it's A1 condition apparently so it is just returned in a box, have a look around those refurbs, that's a good shout and I've done a lot of these threads. :slol:

If you want a warranty maybe you can purchase an extended one from somewhere on a refurb? Or local indies will do 1year warranties, so will CEX.

satriales wrote:
ITSMILNER wrote:Thanks all, it has to be a laptop as I don't have room for an actual Desktop PC. Plus I just want something I can fold away

If I up the limit to £250-300, would that be better? Tesco seem to have some decent ones in that price range?

https://www.tesco.com/direct/technology-mobile/all-laptops/cat3376345.cat?catId=4294960185+40693&icid=alllaptops_textlink_200300_slot2

Anything new at that price will have a crap CPU. If you filter that Tesco site to include Intel i3 then you get only refurbished laptops.

Another problem these days is that the cases are often moulded so that you can't do any upgrades. It means you need to get decent specs from the start or else you'll replacing everything sooner than you'd like.

Yeah and they're also these great hulking plasticy things that are just horrible to hold and use, if you're going to get a technically not great laptop at least have it pleasurable to use if a bit slow. The refurbs normally going for the RRP £500 mark will be better designs with good screens, touchpads and keyboards (plus the RAM slot you mention). £500 is generally a good amount of money to spend on even a mid-entry range laptop in my experience so a refurb should reflect that.

With 1 year warranties with most laptops due to their nature and stingy manufacturers with planned obsolescence/poor quality builds, overheating, error prone hard disks and interconnects etc you are not going to get a laptop that lasts very long anyway honestly. Horrible things.

I've kept so many laptops alive over the years costing £900-£1,600 I'd much more strongly consider a second hand or refurb in the future (so I'd get an ultrabook sort of thing, an overspecced netbook or macbook air and PC for real work stuff). They all end up with similar problems: battery, hard disks, slow RAM/buses of various types (disk bottlenecks etc) and hardware issues like keyboard/touchpad failing.

I kind of wish people just didn't buy these cheap laptops or they weren't even offered, it doesn't represent a good return on investment versus a literally faster to use touch device.

You can get pretty descent second hand stuff off ebay these days. You won't get anything new at that price. If you go a bit higher you could get a Chrome Book if that would be suitable.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-Latitud ... 33e3680139

I'm also in the market for a cheap laptop, the problem is I don't think what I want really exists. All I want is something small and portable to do some writing on when I'm traveling on the bus/train. Cheap tablets don't seem to fit the bill as I want a proper keyboard, and if I get a bluetooth keyboard there is still the problem of propping up the screen when using it on my lap (which is the most likely use case). All I really care about is portability and battery life, as I'm likely to stick ubuntu on it and use libre office. If I could forgo a webcam and microphone I would, but alas, this is the world we live in.

tl;dr shopping for cheap laptops is hard, good luck

OrangeRakoon wrote:I'm also in the market for a cheap laptop, the problem is I don't think what I want really exists. All I want is something small and portable to do some writing on when I'm traveling on the bus/train. Cheap tablets don't seem to fit the bill as I want a proper keyboard, and if I get a bluetooth keyboard there is still the problem of propping up the screen when using it on my lap (which is the most likely use case). All I really care about is portability and battery life, as I'm likely to stick ubuntu on it and use libre office. If I could forgo a webcam and microphone I would, but alas, this is the world we live in.

tl;dr shopping for cheap laptops is hard, good luck

I've got a small Chromebook, I think it costs around 250 new. It has a full keyboard and can be folded back into a tablet the battery life is around 12 hours as well.

It's a Acer Chromebook R11 is you're interested.

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Unfortunately tablets killed of the netbook market which is what you want and exactly what I had for about 3 years (Asus EeePC 901, I still have it but the keyboard has gone mental). The battery lasted 7-9hours and it had an SSD so could be in hibernation for weeks.

The closest thing now is a Chromebook, sadly they are more expensive. I remember Eee PCs started at £120 or something ridiculous. The fact mine ran XP usably and even OSX was ridiculous.

If you don't mind buying used you'll be able to get an old Thinkpad or Dell for £200 or so that will do everything you need.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHEAP-FAST-L ... Swm~daU0ff is a decent portable option

Last edited by satriales on Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've just bought this laptop for £390:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B016TRO2A6

The seller has lots of other variations including a slightly cheaper one with 16GB RAM instead of 32GB.
I'm expecting it's a scam and I'll be asking Amazon for a refund, but if it's real then that a bargain and perfect for a what I need (mostly coding and some Unity3d/Blender).

There's a HP 250 with an i3 and an SSD from Ebuyer for £348.99, but has £50 cashback till the end of April if you purchase it from there...

https://www.ebuyer.com/819843-hp-250-g6 ... sy33es-abu

satriales wrote:I've just bought this laptop:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B016TRO2A6

The seller has lots of other variations including a slightly cheaper one with 16GB RAM instead of 32GB.
I'm expecting it's a scam and I'll be asking Amazon for a refund, but if it's real then that a bargain and perfect for a what I need (mostly coding and some Unity3d/Blender).

That one looks pretty decent.

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Lol, the review for a cheaper version on there

"Very slow. Chrome will not open. Lags when playing candy crush"

Why do these people buy laptops.

That MSI looks like a grey import, as the questions clarify it comes with an added UK power adapter. Which would explain the price. Anyway, it's not available anymore. Anything like that should be covered by Amazon A-Z guarantee so you can get your money back, Amazon give you the money and then they sort it out with the seller, which is quite helpful.

If you really want to go own the cheap laptop route, and bearing in mind it isn't going to be anything fast, there's Lenovo IdeaPad with a nice aluminium body, 2.3Ghz mobile Pentium processor and 128GB SSD albeit just 1336x768 screen with £100 off Amazon at the moment, so it's £299, at 14" it shouldn't look that bad, hopefully more functional than most at this price range: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078YTTF7H

I'd like a laptop at just 1.7KG tbh.

Need Laptop recommendation - sub £200

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