Laptop recommendations

d8m

I've had a dell precision tower since 2010 but it's old and now we've moved I could really do with a laptop to save on space.

New MacBook Pro is steep and I'm not convinced by the lack of ports anyway.

budget is around the £1k mark but I could stretch slightly over if it was a good machine. Want it to last a few years aswell!

not to concerned about portability as it will spend most of its time in the house would rather get something a bit larger that has better cooling.


requirements:

1. Decent screen, at least HD and LED would be nice
2. 8GB RAM minimum as that's what my current tower has.
3. SSD 256GB minimum.
4. 13" minimum screen size, 15" preferable.
5. Decent build quality(macs always win here)

Bonus:

1. Built in SD card reader
2. Dual HDD(second drive can be spindle)

Not a fan of the place but this is in PC world and is the best option I can see so far.

anyother suggestions?

fendergibson

You could get a top spec gaming laptop for a grand !

 If that's not required I'd just advise a £500max i5 chip laptop....Lenovo, HP, etc...

d8m

Biggest problem is I am so use to high spec laptop for work that I may be over estimating what I really need.

Been using i7 machines since I got this tower so im finding it hard to judge whether  an i5 etc would be ok.

Needing a machine to run solidworks is unlikely now but photoshop etc would still be required.

Sambostar

Don't know if this site is any good to you comparing newere I5's with older I7's etc.  I don't really understand it but if you do a search on what's in the machine it comes up with a score, the higher the better I guess.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Sambostar

To be honest the older generation I7 2600 (2nd generation) 3.4GHz Dell 790 I got recently for a couple of hundred quid still blows any PCWorld £600 or £700 laptop out of the water.  Suppose the only thing is you have a limited choice if you wanted to upgrade the graphics card, without adding an external PSU , so it'll never be a gaming machine, but who needs a gaming machine.

I got a big old 24" IIyama LED 1080p E2483HS as well for another £60 and the whole lot is great, especially for £260.

roundthebend

I'm looking for a similar spec but lower budget.
Saw this today: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-500s-14isk-core-i5-6200u-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-inch-windows-10-laptop-80q3008kuk/version.asp

d8m

Yeh I've been using a similar site to compare CPUs and the 7500u seems on par with what i have now in terms of clock speed but it's not quad core.

These dont look to bad but without seeing them in person it's hard to assess build quality

d8m

roundthebend said:

I'm looking for a similar spec but lower budget.
Saw this today: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-500s-14isk-core-i5-6200u-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-inch-windows-10-laptop-80q3008kuk/version.asp

Never heard of laptops direct so I'll have a look

bazxkr

roundthebend said:

I'm looking for a similar spec but lower budget.
Saw this today: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-500s-14isk-core-i5-6200u-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-inch-windows-10-laptop-80q3008kuk/version.asp

Got my son a similar spec Lenovo for his birthday last July and he is delighted with it.. streams sky sports my Sky Go LOL) on to his telly to it too and it behaves great and his doesn't have the SSD just a 1Tb normal HD...I would think if you hunt around you could get that pec of machine for around £400 or so.....they are falling over themselves to shift i3 & i5 laptops. Unless you play high level games any i processor should accommodate you fine with decent ram (8). Make sure has HDMI socket then you can patch it into larger monitor/TV

spark240

What you doing on it?

Danny1969

To be honest there's not many laptops that have decent build quality these days, some HP Touchsmarts and , some Dell Latitudes and Precision's, a few Lenovo's, Most high street laptops are shocking badly built. 

If your gonna spend a lot of money try and get a 3 year warranty

Sporky

I have one of these:

http://www3.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/yoga/900-series/Lenovo-YOGA-900-13ISK2/p/88YG9000750

Marvellous thing. Very light, very powerful, 3200x1800 screen and the multi-mode doodad is lovely.

fendergibson

bazxkr said:

roundthebend said:

I'm looking for a similar spec but lower budget.
Saw this today: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-500s-14isk-core-i5-6200u-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-inch-windows-10-laptop-80q3008kuk/version.asp

Got my son a similar spec Lenovo for his birthday last July and he is delighted with it.. streams sky sports my Sky Go LOL) on to his telly to it too and it behaves great and his doesn't have the SSD just a 1Tb normal HD...I would think if you hunt around you could get that pec of machine for around £400 or so.....they are falling over themselves to shift i3 & i5 laptops. Unless you play high level games any i processor should accommodate you fine with decent ram (8). Make sure has HDMI socket then you can patch it into larger monitor/TV

Agreed

Kalimna

I'm about to buy a new laptop, and whilst I haven't received it yet, these guys seem pretty knowledgable and have a good warranty : 

www.utopiacomputers.co.uk

Their base 15" model would probably suit nicely. 
Cheers,
Adam

Skipped

Have seen many good deals on here.
http://www.hotukdeals.com/computers/all/hot

There is an Acer on page 2 which is not quite the spec that d8m wants.....but it is £299....and it has a 1080p screen.
I would always go for the deal......not for a particular brand. Have bought Lenovos for family and friends and they were cheap and impressive....after removing all Bloatware with a fresh install.

d8m

still trying really hard not to like the new macs.

digitalscream

I'd say Lenovo Yoga 900 if you can get one under a grand (I don't think you can). The alternative is this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Envy-13-d004na-Core-i7-6500U-2-5GHz/dp/B01CO1JP7G/ref=sr_1_10?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1485990275&sr=1-10&keywords=qhd+laptop

Core i7 CPU, 512GB SSD, SD reader, and the kicker - a QHD screen. I honestly can't say enough about how great it is having a stupidly-high-res screen - For example, I run my Yoga 2 Pro at 2048x1152 even though the native resolution is 3200x1800, and you can't see any pixellation but it's so clear you'd swear the image was painted on the screen.

d8m

digitalscream said:

I'd say Lenovo Yoga 900 if you can get one under a grand (I don't think you can). The alternative is this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Envy-13-d004na-Core-i7-6500U-2-5GHz/dp/B01CO1JP7G/ref=sr_1_10?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1485990275&sr=1-10&keywords=qhd+laptop

Core i7 CPU, 512GB SSD, SD reader, and the kicker - a QHD screen. I honestly can't say enough about how great it is having a stupidly-high-res screen - For example, I run my Yoga 2 Pro at 2048x1152 even though the native resolution is 3200x1800, and you can't see any pixellation but it's so clear you'd swear the image was painted on the screen.

Yoga looks pretty good, I can have it for 1099 from John Lewis then bump the garauntee up to 5 years for another 75. Not to bad

I'd never though about touchscreen laptops before as I never thought it would be something I'd need and it's always another thing that can go wrong.

wish I could see one in the flesh though, so hard to judge using pictures and videos.

digitalscream

d8m said:

digitalscream said:

I'd say Lenovo Yoga 900 if you can get one under a grand (I don't think you can). The alternative is this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Envy-13-d004na-Core-i7-6500U-2-5GHz/dp/B01CO1JP7G/ref=sr_1_10?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1485990275&sr=1-10&keywords=qhd+laptop

Core i7 CPU, 512GB SSD, SD reader, and the kicker - a QHD screen. I honestly can't say enough about how great it is having a stupidly-high-res screen - For example, I run my Yoga 2 Pro at 2048x1152 even though the native resolution is 3200x1800, and you can't see any pixellation but it's so clear you'd swear the image was painted on the screen.

Yoga looks pretty good, I can have it for 1099 from John Lewis then bump the garauntee up to 5 years for another 75. Not to bad

I'd never though about touchscreen laptops before as I never thought it would be something I'd need and it's always another thing that can go wrong.

wish I could see one in the flesh though, so hard to judge using pictures and videos.

The annoying part is that the Yoga 900 (and that Envy) isn't all that much better than the Yoga 2 Pro, which can be had for about £400 second hand. Sure, it's got more USB 3.0 ports and it's probably about 10% quicker in a benchmark, but still...

Then again, it's the price of progress. A thin/light laptop is worth a bit of speed stagnation in my view (and it's not like these laptops could ever be described as "slow" - mine's like shit off a shovel).

ToneControl

My PC was a Dell  T7400 with 2 x 4 core Xeons
did the same thing as you are thinking:
got a Dell Laptop workstation precision i7 with 32GB, etc

both times bought them 6 months old with 3 year warranties
have a look on ebay at the top top end Dell workstation laptops

Sporky

digitalscream said:

I'd say Lenovo Yoga 900 if you can get one under a grand (I don't think you can). The alternative is this:

You can, but the £1099 one is a much better spec.

d8m said:

I'd never though about touchscreen laptops before as I never thought it would be something I'd need and it's always another thing that can go wrong.

wish I could see one in the flesh though, so hard to judge using pictures and videos.

The Pro 2 (DS has my old one) was really nicely made; the 900 is just as solid but a bit flasher - the watchband hinge is just lovely.  I didn't buy it for the touchscreen, but I actually really like it. A bit heavy vs a tablet, but the ability to use it as one from time to time is ace.

digitalscream said:

The annoying part is that the Yoga 900 (and that Envy) isn't all that much better than the Yoga 2 Pro, which can be had for about £400 second hand. Sure, it's got more USB 3.0 ports and it's probably about 10% quicker in a benchmark, but still...

3D performance is a useful chunk better, but you're right; the Pro 2 was/is very capable.

As an alternative view, work got me a Dell Precision 5510 (I made a light, powerful laptop a condition of coming back) and that's pretty darned good. No touchscreen, no folding backwards, just solid, light and fast. Decent full HD screen, USB-C for 4k60 Displayport plus a 4K30 HDMI output...