Looking for suggestions for a laptop for MS Office, browsing and Netflix/Youtube

orm0nd

glasso wrote: »

do come back with a report.

the first guy who bought it never did.

Will do. Most likely be a few weeks before I make any real use of it though.

Lyle Lanley

glasso wrote: »

do come back with a report.

the first guy who bought it never did.

I've also bought it but won't be home to collect for about a month now.

tmh106

I'm the OH and my Vorke did arrive. Sorry I have not followed up here but I was literally starting some extended travel away from home the day it arrived so I only had a chance to unpack it and power it on to make sure it is OK. I'm still away from home, back on 16th so will have a chance to play with it then.

What I can say is the delivery process was very smooth and on time, it arrived well packaged. Physically it looks good (IMO) and very brief first impression is it feels solid while being pretty light for a laptop of its size.

degzs

tmh106 wrote: »

I'm the OH and my Vorke did arrive. Sorry I have not followed up here but I was literally starting some extended travel away from home the day it arrived so I only had a chance to unpack it and power it on to make sure it is OK. I'm still away from home, back on 16th so will have a chance to play with it then.

What I can say is the delivery process was very smooth and on time, it arrived well packaged. Physically it looks good (IMO) and very brief first impression is it feels solid while being pretty light for a laptop of its size.

Did you it get it delivered from China?

I am worried about getting caught by customs

degzs

degzs wrote: »

Did you it get it delivered from China?

I am worried about getting caught by customs

buy it through the european warehouse options when in stock.

that's where the people have bought from .

tmh106

degzs wrote: »

Did you it get it delivered from China?

I am worried about getting caught by customs

No, I bought it though European option.

walshb

Hi,

Looking for info/criteria for laptop purchase.

Not wanting to spend a bomb, but looking for a good quality laptop

Any ideas on what to go for

Chip type? OS type, etc etc....

Dell Inspiron is catching my eye...

DELL Inspiron 15 5593 15.6" Laptop - Intel® Core™ i5, 512 GB SSD, Silver

walshb

walshb wrote: »

Hi,

Looking for info/criteria for laptop purchase.

Not wanting to spend a bomb, but looking for a good quality laptop

Any ideas on what to go for

Chip type? OS type, etc etc....

Dell Inspiron is catching my eye...

DELL Inspiron 15 5593 15.6" Laptop - Intel® Core™ i5, 512 GB SSD, Silver

buy the vorke in this thread with the 8250u cpu from a European warehouse.

else if you want to buy in a shop get the asus vivobook 15 with the 3500u cpu in Argos.

Spudman_20000

glasso wrote: »

just spotted this the other day

15 inch,
all-metal build
IPS screen
4-core i5
8gb ram

delivered just over €460 through Europe

https://www.geekbuying.com/item/VORKE-Notebook-15-Laptop--8GB-RAM-256GB-ROM-Silver-421138.html

1 year warranty. trustworthy site

won't get anything near the specs for the money in pc world etc

extensive review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR7HL_y8uYE

Bought this, arrived yesterday, all good so far.

The hard disk size is a bit on the stingy side. What would be the best/easiest option to upgrade the HD space?

Spudman_20000

Spudman_20000 wrote: »

Bought this, arrived yesterday, all good so far.

The hard disk size is a bit on the stingy side. What would be the best/easiest option to upgrade the HD space?

the answer is in the video near the start

orm0nd

arrived yesterday

small compact lightweight machine ,

nice quality finish, keyboard , screen/display good.

loading on some software and it's handling it well.

processor is speedy & and instant response to commands

running large ex. monitor and about 8 or 9 usb devices through a hub with no issues.

it appears to be well isolated and not giving or receiving interference from nearby rf equipment


need to update some more drivers,

probably about at it's value from geek.

now a few nigglers, but at the price don't suppose it's fair to complain

no invoice from seller
came with eu plug on charger, output lead from charger isn't the nicest quality cable,
would like a cd/dvd drive, no Ethernet port meaning using an adapter through usb

wifi connection isn't on par with my other machines and seems sluggish, I use wired connection here but just tried for comparison (haven't checked since I update drivers though)

overall so far I'm pleased with the short trial I've had of it

orm0nd

orm0nd wrote: »

no invoice from seller
came with eu plug on charger, output lead from charger isn't the nicest quality cable,
would like a cd/dvd drive, no Ethernet port meaning using an adapter through usb

wifi connection isn't on par with my other machines and seems sluggish, I use wired connection here but just tried for comparison (haven't checked since I update drivers though)

overall so far I'm pleased with the short trial I've had of it

in fairness it was sold from an eu location. not a uk one and didn't offer a uk plug.

pretty much zero laptops come with cd/dvd drives anymore. usb one from ebay for 15 euro.

likewise unless it's a business laptop. no ethernet port. usb to ethernet adaptor is about 5 euro.

if the wifi card isn't great it's a 10 euro upgrade.

how is the build quality and the screen?

orm0nd

glasso wrote: »

in fairness it was sold from an eu location. not a uk one and didn't offer a uk plug.

pretty much zero laptops come with cd/dvd drives anymore. usb one from ebay for 15 euro.

likewise unless it's a business laptop. no ethernet port. usb to ethernet adaptor is about 5 euro.

if the wifi card isn't great it's a 10 euro upgrade.

how is the build quality and the screen?

As I said build quality good, screen good, I wouldn't class the screen excellent, but I only use it as a extend, some issues getting the it to detect the second monitor but that's quite common with windows 10 and can be annoying, as most of the online solutions won't work.

Don't think you will get a quality high speed adapter for a fiver, fair play if you do, have a couple here and found the cheaper ones caused more issues than they were worth when high speed data decoding online.

Most companies I deal with offer UK plugs when shipping to uk/irl. Have ready made leads so its not an issue for me

Battery is good but slow charging which is probably a good thing for extending its life span.

Time will tell if this machine is value for money or not.

Atm it's performance is excellent

Ten euro from Amazon with prime delivery for gigabit Ethernet with over 4000 reviews

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rankie-Network-Adapter-Gigabit-Black/dp/B010SEARPU/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?keywords=usb+ethernet+adapter+3.0&qid=1583664454&sprefix=usb+et&sr=8-6

If it's ten euro with prime delivery it means that you could find the same one for five euro from say AliExpress

tmh106

Finally ready to start using my new laptop properly.

However before I start installing Office apps on it I had a couple of questions that I hope someone might advise on:

1. The hard drive came partitioned into a C and D partitions: I presume one for Windows OS and one for applications. But I am thinking of deleting D partition, installing everything in C. For backups I usually just backup what is in my Documents folder. Is there any reason why deleting D partition would be a bad idea?
2. The laptop came with no physical media. If I wanted to do a complete reinstall of Windows at some stage in the future how do I do that. Is there a way I cam make a Windows disk/image from the existing installation on the laptop?
3. Are there any other housekeeping/setup tasks I should do before I start installing applications on the laptop?

Thanks.

tmh106

tmh106 wrote: »

Finally ready to start using my new laptop properly.

However before I start installing Office apps on it I had a couple of questions that I hope someone might advise on:

1. The hard drive came partitioned into a C and D partitions: I presume one for Windows OS and one for applications. But I am thinking of deleting D partition, installing everything in C. For backups I usually just backup what is in my Documents folder. Is there any reason why deleting D partition would be a bad idea?
   no.
2. The laptop came with no physical media. If I wanted to do a complete reinstall of Windows at some stage in the future how do I do that. Is there a way I cam make a Windows disk/image from the existing installation on the laptop?
   just download win 10 from microsoft for free when required. no need to make an image. any drivers will just update automatically
3. Are there any other housekeeping/setup tasks I should do before I start installing applications on the laptop?
   not really. doesn't seem to come with a lot of bloatware on it from the video

Thanks.

see above

tmh106

After playing with the machine for a few days I'm pleased with the purchase. I don't have the technical nous to provide the level of detail that glasso or orm0nd. However FWIW here are my impressions:

• Performance seems impressive. Boots up in under 10 seconds.
• Display is crisp and sharp - for what I want it for (office apps, occassional you tube) it will be perfectly fine.
• Keyboard has a nice chunky fell to it, easy to type on. Placement of some of the numeric pad keys a bit different to what I'm used to on previous laptop, but I'll get used to that.
• Overall pleased with my purchase - thanks to glasso for the recommendation.

A few very minor niggles:

• Would be nice to have an indicator light indicating when caps lock is on
• Mousepad tracker seems a bit over sensitive but I think the problem is probably me rather than the mousepad - I'm used to using an external mouse and will probably revert to doing so.

One question: I'm using the anti virus software that comes with Windows. Is that sufficient or should I be looking at installing something else? Thanks.

Also, I saw in orm0nd's review he mentioned that wifi card might not be great. How would I test the performance of that? In my internet browsing (wifi) it seems perfectly fine - sites I prose to come up as quickly as I expect/need; viewing short you tube videos has not had resulted in any pauses.

thanks for the update.

windows defender is fine and actually preferable to most other anti-virus

if the laptop is picking up your wifi for you and the speed is ok then it's fine.

what you could do is go to fast.com on both the laptop and on another device (e.g. phone) that are both connected to the same wifi and compare speed achieved.

you could also try changing the mousepad sensitivity - could help. but no mousepad will be as good as a decent mouse
https://www.top-password.com/blog/change-touchpad-sensitivity-in-windows-10/

Spudman_20000

tmh106 wrote: »

A few very minor niggles:

• Mousepad tracker seems a bit over sensitive but I think the problem is probably me rather than the mousepad - I'm used to using an external mouse and will probably revert to doing so.

Make sure you've removed the layer of plastic off the mouse track pad. I didn't even notice it for a while and the mouse tracking improved a lot when I removed it.

bigtimecharlie

Just placed my order.

Wife working from home so demands on old W7 laptop too much.

tmh106

Spudman_20000 wrote: »

Make sure you've removed the layer of plastic off the mouse track pad. I didn't even notice it for a while and the mouse tracking improved a lot when I removed it.

Doh! Thanks Spudman, plastic now removed. That is one very invisible piece of plastic - be good if they put some marker on it to make it obvious that it is there.

bigtimecharlie

Package dropped to my door yesterday morning.

8 days from order to delivery.

Nice and funky. Like the webcam on the bottom of screen.

All setup and running....

Except that with a battery level at 70%, the laptop switched itself off. I had fully charged the laptop earlier ( after cutting the 2 pin plug off the charger cable and fitting 3 pin plug) .

Some investigating tomorrow to find out why.

Otherwise, happy with the speed and especially the startup time.

orm0nd

bigtimecharlie wrote: »

Package dropped to my door yesterday morning.

8 days from order to delivery.

Nice and funky. Like the webcam on the bottom of screen.

All setup and running....

Except that with a battery level at 70%, the laptop switched itself off. I had fully charged the laptop earlier ( after cutting the 2 pin plug off the charger cable and fitting 3 pin plug) .

Some investigating tomorrow to find out why.

Otherwise, happy with the speed and especially the startup time.

Mine switched off as well but was on much lower battery level. Happened a couple of times.

Also yesterday it wouldn't boot up from start. Eventually it did after using the power button numerous times. Was just about to fetch another machine to look for a solution.

Battery life is not as good as I thought earlier on as well when working under heavy load, hardly lasts longer than 1.5 hours.

bigtimecharlie

With an SSD instead of a spinning hard drive, I expected battery life to be greater.

Perhaps a few long charge/discharge cyles might improve things.

orm0nd

orm0nd wrote: »

Mine switched off as well but was on much lower battery level. Happened a couple of times.

Also yesterday it wouldn't boot up from start. Eventually it did after using the power button numerous times. Was just about to fetch another machine to look for a solution.

Battery life is not as good as I thought earlier on as well when working under heavy load, hardly lasts longer than 1.5 hours.

shouldn't be near that short unless gaming.

1.5 hours is very short but that's also about the average battery life of a gaming laptop under gaming load.

(even tho a gaming laptop is also running a full graphics card also they will also mostly have a larger battery than a non-gaming laptop also)

you'd see the same effect on your phone for example.

but the laptop should not be cutting out at 70% battery.

laptops will shut down at 10% or even 15%, depending on the laptop.

windows battery indicator % is also not the most accurate.

something like batterybar is better.

orm0nd

glasso wrote: »

shouldn't be near that short unless gaming.

1.5 hours is very short but that's also about the average battery life of a gaming laptop under gaming load.

(even tho a gaming laptop is also running a full graphics card also they will also mostly have a larger battery than a non-gaming laptop also)

you'd see the same effect on your phone for example.

but the laptop should not be cutting out at 70% battery.

laptops will shut down at 10% or even 15%, depending on the laptop.

windows battery indicator % is also not the most accurate.

something like batterybar is better.

not gaming but decoding data which is probably similar,

I changed software lately and I know the latest is a heavy drain on the cpu

I'm also using an external soundcard and interface, both of which are powered via usb port but the current drain by those would be minute.

does batterybar show where the battery drain actually goes? (too lazy to look it up just now)

bigtimecharlie

Much better for me this evening. Had about 50% starting off and seen the level drop gradually. Then got an alert at 20% with options to restrict performance.

Switching off at 75% was probably due to incomplete charge.

orm0nd

orm0nd wrote: »

not gaming but decoding data which is probably similar,

I changed software lately and I know the latest is a heavy drain on the cpu

I'm also using an external soundcard and interface, both of which are powered via usb port but the current drain by those would be minute.

does batterybar show where the battery drain actually goes? (too lazy to look it up just now)

no, it's not like android or ios wrt apps etc if that's what you're thinking.

it just provides more info about battery capacity and is more accurate.

free to download and use and has a handy quick info icon / section at the bottom left of the screen in windows.

give it a go.

when you say "decoding data" what does that mean (if not too specific a question)?

is the cpu and gpu performance consistently up at a high level in task manager with it?

tmh106

Now that I've been using the laptop a few weeks one thing I notice is that when playing videos or looking at pictures they seem much darker than on my previous laptop. I also did a side by side comparison with my wife's work Dell laptop and the picture when viewed on my wife's laptop seems brighter with more background detail visible. I turned up brightness fully and I also tried changing brightness and contrast using the Intel Graphics Settings, but it doesn't seem to make very much difference.

Has anyone who got one of these noticed the same?

tmh106

tmh106 wrote: »

Now that I've been using the laptop a few weeks one thing I notice is that when playing videos or looking at pictures they seem much darker than on my previous laptop. I also did a side by side comparison with my wife's work Dell laptop and the picture when viewed on my wife's laptop seems brighter with more background detail visible. I turned up brightness fully and I also tried changing brightness and contrast using the Intel Graphics Settings, but it doesn't seem to make very much difference.

Has anyone who got one of these noticed the same?

afaik it's a matte ips display. the other type of ips display is a glossy ips display

there are pros and cons to each

https://www.howtogeek.com/181727/glossy-vs.-matte-lcds-which-should-you-choose-when-buying-a-display/