New light, portable laptop?

VisibleGorilla

Hi, looking for a new laptop and cannot make the choice at all. I used to keep up with technology but don't have a clue anymore.

I've a budget of around €650, can go a bit more if warranted.

Main things I'm looking for;

• Used for web, 1080 video without stutter.
• No bigger than 15inch, preferably 13inch.
• As light as possible.
• 8gb+ RAM.
• SSD if possible.

Seems the Asus Zenbook 305 fits the bill, should I just go with that?

Thanks for any pointers!

Alanstrainor

Any laptop will handle 1080p playback from youtube or similar these days. All CPU's have been capable of this for a number of years now. No need to worry there.

I think the Zenbook 305 is a good machine. It should be more than adequate for your usage, and it should be quite fast. The main drawback is that it has a slow but power efficient processor. However since it has an SSD, it should seem very snappy with day to day tasks. However light gaming, video decoding, heavy photo editing etc would likely be too much for it.

extra-ordinary_

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/grade-a3-refurbished-hp-envy-13-d053na-intel-core-i7-6500u-8gb-ram-a3-n9q80ea/version.asp

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/grade-a1-as-new-but-box-opened-refurbished-grade-a1-lenovo-yoga-3-14-in-77257135-1-a1-80jh002juk/version.asp


...better CPUs...and screen on the envy

VisibleGorilla

Do you have experience with refurbished laptops? They are 2nd hand?

Wheety

I was going to go with laptopsdirect.ie but read a few bad reviews about them. Apart from that, 3200 x 1800 can make some applications text very small. I don't see the need of that resolution on a 13" laptop.

I searched around for a laptop and settled on this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HIWOTGS/ref=pe_385721_51767431_TE_dp_1

I know it is an i3, 4GB of RAM and only 128GB but the RAM is upgradable and I also bought a 128GB micro flash drive to leave plugged in as extra storage.

Nice and thin. Was also within my budget. Was quite a jump to i5 and 8GB. Maybe next time

Alanstrainor

Wheety wrote: »

I was going to go with laptopsdirect.ie but read a few bad reviews about them. Apart from that, 3200 x 1800 can make some applications text very small. I don't see the need of that resolution on a 13" laptop.

I searched around for a laptop and settled on this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HIWOTGS/ref=pe_385721_51767431_TE_dp_1

I know it is an i3, 4GB of RAM and only 128GB but the RAM is upgradable and I also bought a 128GB micro flash drive to leave plugged in as extra storage.

Nice and thin. Was also within my budget. Was quite a jump to i5 and 8GB. Maybe next time

Windows 10 will scale text/window size no matter what the resolution. So I wouldn't worry about having too high a resolution on a smaller screen. If it were me I would be going with the highest resolution possible.

Just with regard to storage, I would be very wary about using a USB drive as primary storage. It's not meant for that, and random failure is to be anticipated. So I would also be looking for the most storage possible.

That being said, it looks like the laptop above has a free m.2 slot, for added SSD storage. So it is possible to upgrade.

ednwireland

My partner bought the Asus her main thing was weight. Got to say it runs everything so far perfectly. The screen is gorgeous. Bought from laptops direct.