Laptop recommendation please

cian8

Hi, I am trying to source the best laptop for my parents. They were going back and forth between a laptop and tablet but have decided on laptop. Their primary use is for web browsing - booking flights, hotels etc. They also have a lot of digital photos but don’t do any real editing of these. I am convinced that SSD is the way to go, so they are better off keeping their photos in the cloud / external HD. I also tend towards Intel i processors. If budget wasn’t an issue for them then I think Apple would be way to go, but, they only want to spend circa €400 (max €500) so not sure what is good at this level.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated?

What about:

https://www.buyitdirect.ie/p/lenovo-v110-core-i3-6006u-4gb-128gb-ssd-dvd-rw-15.6-win-10-laptop-80tl00abuk

Or

Lenovo ThinkPad T430 i5-3320M 2.6GHz 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD DVDRW 14.1 WXGA++ 1600x900 Webcam Windows 10 Pro 64 bit WiFi Grade A (Certified Refurbished) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01C6WNEL6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_P8ppCbY8525QG

Ivefoundgod

Out of those two i'd be leaning heavily towards the t430. Its a business class laptop and built for upgrades and a long service life. Thats a decent spec'd machine but the price is way off.

Have a look at itzoo.co.uk, tier1online, OCMStore to name a few refurb sellers, theres also plenty of guys selling refurbs on adverts. Not sure how techy you are but a good example of what you can get is this;

https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/cheap-laptops-tablets/products/cheap-lenovo-thinkpad-t440-laptop-i5-1-9ghz-4gb-500gb-win-10

Thats a t440, newer model than the t430 and a lot cheaper. You could get an SSD for €35-40 and another 4GB of RAM for €40-50 which would turn this into a really good machine, plus if you wanted to future proof yourself you could put 8GB in and bring it up to 12GB though that's probably overkill for what your parents would be doing.

If you're going down the refurb line i'd make sure its a business class machine you buy. Have a look at 3-5 year old high end notebooks like the Thinkpads and Dell latitudes. Some of these would have cost 1-2k when new and are built to last.

I'd definitely be going with an SSD, spinning drives really have no place in a modern laptop apart from as secondary storage. A 1TB external hard drive or cloud based solution would be much better.

Xterminator

there would be a huge gulf in performance of the 2 laptops linked. there really isnt a choice to be made between the 2.

the amazon refurb would IMO be much better to use it has twice the ram, and an SSD drive. this means it would completly out perform the i3 with the mechanical hard drive.

looking closer at the amazon one, it has decent speakers, a small display, and its big weakness would be its onvoard intel 4000 graphics. but for your parents this shouldn't really be an issue, unless htey plan to do graphics intensive tasks. its ideal for watching a movie on (small screen) or browsing the internet. has a decent battery (when new) and is nice and portable.

cian8

Thanks for the replies back in January. My parents are back at me to sort this out for them. My head is fried looking at laptops!

Would anyone be so kind as to let me know if any of these stand out? in terms of reliability and likelihood to last for a couple of years:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Latitude-Professional-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B0774SNQK2/ref=sr_1_15?fst=as%3Aoff&qid=1565720520&refinements=p_n_style_browse-bin%3A182752031%2Cp_n_feature_fifteen_browse-bin%3A8322530031%7C8322531031%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A1481781031%2Cp_n_feature_eleven_browse-bin%3A7472680031&rnid=7472677031&s=computers&sr=1-15

https://www.tier1online.com/292-latitude-e7240-i7/refurbished-dell-latitude-e7240-i7-4600u-12-5-hdmi

https://www.tier1online.com/292-latitude-e7240/dell-latitude-e7240-i5-4200u-12-5-grade-a-webcam-hdmi

https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/cheap-laptops-tablets/products/refurbished-dell-latitude-3590-laptop-i5-7200u-256gb-ssd-windows-10

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-dell-latitude-e72410-core-i5-4300u-4gb-256gb-12.5-inch-windows-a1-dle7240i54300425612/version.asp

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/grade-a2-refurbished-lenovo-yoga-520-core-i5-8250u-8gb-128gb-14-inch-wind-77635020-1-a2-81c80093uk/version.asp

Thank you so much!

Johnboy1951

I would be inclined towards
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/grade-a2-refurbished-lenovo-yoga-520-core-i5-8250u-8gb-128gb-14-inch-wind-77635020-1-a2-81c80093uk/version.asp#/specs

but looking hard at
https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/cheap-laptops-tablets/products/refurbished-dell-latitude-3590-laptop-i5-7200u-256gb-ssd-windows-10