Everyday use 400-500

actuar90

Looking for an everyday laptop, web browsing, Netflix and other streaming services mostly. Some light word, spreadsheet work but have a work laptop that I can bring home for anything major.

Based on budget it looks like I could get a current gen i3 or a last gen i5. Was in Curry's today and they recommended going for an 7th gen i5 as they're generally a bit better than the i3 models which are bottom of the range.

What I'm currently looking at is below, any experience of any of these or other suggestions?

HP G6 on laptops direct with an i5 and ssd for £400:
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hp-240-g6-core-i5-7200u-8gb-256gb-14-inch-windows-10-laptop-5jk05es/version.asp

Current gen i3 Lenovo with ssd £380:
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-330s-14-intel-core-i3-laptop-128-gb-ssd-blue-10180760-pdt.html

Current gen i3 hp pavilion with ssd £450:
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavillion-14-ce1507sa-14-intel-core-i3-laptop-128-gb-ssd-silver-10188781-pdt.html

the one here for 489 euro has an ssd, 8gb ram, good i3 cpu and full hd display. 14 inch.

as another poster has alluded to only 8th gen i5's brought in 4 cores so latest gen i3's are actually as / more powerful than 7th gen i5's. check passmark or geekbench scores on the processor model

battery life is not the greatest at 6 hours or so but still ok.

https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops.../p/88IP30S0987

for most 128gb is enough space these days once you're not storing lots of large media files on your HD.

With most people using streaming for both it should be sufficient.

as it's not a gaming machine you won't be installing lots of large games either.

you'll probably have 80gb free after windows and want to leave at least 10gb free for smooth windows operation so 70gb to work with.

but if you do plan on storing lots of stuff locally go for a bigger size. you can buy a 240gb ssd for 30 euros these days so could add that in later yourself.

actuar90

sugarman wrote: »

Thats not true, not in this case anyway. Both 8th gen i3's you have linked there beat the 7th gen i5. Theyre about 5-10% faster.

Sorry, I think he was saying that the i5 models are generally built a bit better to last as the models with the i3s are generally entry level models. Any truth to that?

They were also advocating HP as being better build quality than say Lenovo or Asus?

i5 etc can mean better built but not necessarily.

it's more about product line e.g. Lenovo 530 (metal build) > lenovo 330 (non metal build) but both will have i3 models.