Laptop under €500

Sue de Nimes

My brother has asked me to find him a laptop under €500. I am based in the UK at the moment and he is in Dublin so most of the retailers I would normally look at won't deliver to Ireland.

I've found a laptop with Dell that has a Ryzen 5 2500u processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256MB SSD for €499

I've also been looking at stuff on the Dell Outlet which I have a 10% discount code for. The stock they have had recently hasn't been great. I really don't want to get him a laptop with less than 8GB of RAM as he isn't tech savvy enough to upgrade the RAM himself.

All he uses the laptop for is general web use and playing football manager.

Am I going to do any better than that Dell Laptop?

it's not a bad option once you don't mind a bigger /heavier laptop and a plasticky one.

if you were willing to go an extra 100 you could get a much lighter and metal-chassis / much better built and nicely designed machine with a better screen (IPS) and better keyboard. over the long run that 100 would be easily earned back imo in pleasure of use and durability.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-MateBook-2020-Multi-screen-Collaboration/dp/B083WXVJ13/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=matebook+d15+2020&qid=1586118641&sr=8-2
i

amdaley28

glasso wrote: »

it's not a bad option once you don't mind a bigger /heavier laptop and a plasticky one.

if you were willing to go an extra 100 you could get a much lighter and metal-chassis / much better built and nicely designed machine with a better screen (IPS) and better keyboard. over the long run that 100 would be easily earned back imo in pleasure of use and durability.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-MateBook-2020-Multi-screen-Collaboration/dp/B083WXVJ13/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=matebook+d15+2020&qid=1586118641&sr=8-2
i

I've seen reviews which say the screen on the Huawei isn't great but what can you expect at this price I suppose ?
Also the Huawei doesn't have an RJ45 slot which may be important to some who have poor Wi-Fi.
For & against each machine probably ?

the majority of laptops don't come with a RJ45 port anymore really unless they are made for the corporate market.

I mean a gigabit adaptor to usb is only 10 euro so not a big deal

the matebook screen is IPS so has decent contrast and viewing angles but it's not the most colour accurate but as you say - you are not going to get that at that price point.

it's a not a big issue unless you are really into colour-accurate photo editing really.

you have to spend maybe 100 more to get a laptop with a good sRGB coverage.

Sue de Nimes

I think the extra €100 is over and above what he wants to spend, especially in the current economic climate.

kippy

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

My brother has asked me to find him a laptop under €500. I am based in the UK at the moment and he is in Dublin so most of the retailers I would normally look at won't deliver to Ireland.

I've found a laptop with Dell that has a Ryzen 5 2500u processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256MB SSD for €499

I've also been looking at stuff on the Dell Outlet which I have a 10% discount code for. The stock they have had recently hasn't been great. I really don't want to get him a laptop with less than 8GB of RAM as he isn't tech savvy enough to upgrade the RAM himself.

All he uses the laptop for is general web use and playing football manager.

Am I going to do any better than that Dell Laptop?

Not at that price point.

Sue de Nimes

Yeah, that is what I was thinking.

He had originally identified another laptop with an AMD A9 at the same price that he asked me if he should buy.

antix80

The reviews on the dell laptop aren't great - neither the customer reviews or reviews on other sites.
I got a nice Asus laptop on amazon a few months ago for about eur530. That model is not available anymore but when I was buying it there were a lot of nice, light laptops if you went a little over the 500 mark. Sure there were some compromises like I wanted a number pad and ended up with a small one rather than full-sized.
The laptop itself is very light with a small bezel ..

Cheaper dell laptops are just so clunky. You'd prob get an acer for cheaper than that dell.

antix80

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

Yeah, that is what I was thinking.

He had originally identified another laptop with an AMD A9 at the same price that he asked me if he should buy.

You can't go by spec alone.. The spec can look great and the laptop may be useless for a variety of reasons . Always Google the model number. And take into account when the review was written and double check the spec is the same as the laptop you're buying.

kippy

antix80 wrote: »

You can't go by spec alone.. The spec can look great and the laptop may be useless for a variety of reasons . Always Google the model number. And take into account when the review was written and double check the spec is the same as the laptop you're buying.

If you want to keep things simple you have to go on spec alone unless the person requesting it has some specific requirements.

antix80

kippy wrote: »

If you want to keep things simple you have to go on spec alone unless the person requesting it has some specific requirements.

I mean if you focus solely on 8gb ram, 256gb SSD and ryzen5 or core i5 without understanding that there's different types of ram and older generations of processor, you might end up with something that's been in a Harvey Norman storeroom for 4 years.

Much better off reading a review of a product. One laptop I was interested in didn't have adequate cooling, as a result it throttled the speed. So the more powerful the processor, the slower the laptop ran. One poor feature can make a laptop useless.. Like problems with WiFi. May not always be apparent in reviews but the comment sections on amazon listing are a good place to look.

kippy

antix80 wrote: »

I mean if you focus solely on 8gb ram, 256gb SSD and ryzen5 or core i5 without understanding that there's different types of ram and older generations of processor, you might end up with something that's been in a Harvey Norman storeroom for 4 years.

Much better off reading a review of a product. One laptop I was interested in didn't have adequate cooling, as a result it throttled the speed. So the more powerful the processor, the slower the laptop ran. One poor feature can make a laptop useless.. Like problems with WiFi. May not always be apparent in reviews but the comment sections on amazon listing are a good place to look.

Again, if you want to keep things simple, you go on spec alone.

antix80

kippy wrote: »

Again, if you want to keep things simple, you go on spec alone.

You're really doubling down on that bad advice.
But you're entitled to your opinion.

Sue de Nimes

antix80 wrote: »

I mean if you focus solely on 8gb ram, 256gb SSD and ryzen5 or core i5 without understanding that there's different types of ram and older generations of processor, you might end up with something that's been in a Harvey Norman storeroom for 4 years.

Much better off reading a review of a product. One laptop I was interested in didn't have adequate cooling, as a result it throttled the speed. So the more powerful the processor, the slower the laptop ran. One poor feature can make a laptop useless.. Like problems with WiFi. May not always be apparent in reviews but the comment sections on amazon listing are a good place to look.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the differences in the tech. The Ryzen 5 in the laptop I listed is the 2500u which is the previous generation of Ryzen. The Ryzen 5 3500u is current but while Dell sell it in the UK, they don't in Ireland for some reason.

At the price point my brother is looking at, many laptops on sale are going to come with Pentium Golds, Celerons or AMD A9s. A Ryzen 5 from either gen will be a big step up from that. I've seen gen 8 i5s on the Dell Outlet that I have considered for him as well.

I am aware that different laptops might be faster, but what I am looking for is the best I can find at the budget he has set. I've already moved him up from spending €400 so this is really the top end he wants to spend.

antix80 wrote: »

Cheaper dell laptops are just so clunky. You'd prob get an acer for cheaper than that dell.

If you can find me one available I'd be very interested. I did find an Acer with a Ryzen 5 3500u for €529 at Argos in Ireland but that is no longer in stock.

I've managed to find this with Komplett at €499 but no stock for two weeks.

antix80

I'll be honest.. I won't be looking. It was frustrating enough finding my own laptop with everything that ticked boxes and within my budget.. And in stock.
There'll always be a bit of buyer's remorse I suppose.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

I think the extra €100 is over and above what he wants to spend, especially in the current economic climate.

I get you but the build quality and design of the Huawei is far ahead of the clunky dell

the IPS screen is also better than what is in the dell in terms of viewing angles and contrast. may well be better on brightness too

also the Huawei due to internal thermal design can run the 3500u cpu at a better performance level than is possible in the dell.

so, even though of course times are tough the saving is not really a saving.

Sue de Nimes

I'm not doubting the build quality is better, but it is completely outside his budget.

His original budget was €400 and that is going to be 50% over what he wanted to spend. It isn't a runner unfortunately.

fair enough.

I've noticed that there are less decent budget laptop deals available recently - must have something to do with the work-from-home demand.

if the budget is really tight buy this for 340 euro and put in an extra 4gb ram and an ssd yourself - you said that he is not savvy but maybe you can get someone to do it for him or do it and post to him.

https://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/1165298/Trail/searchtext%3ERYZEN+3.htm

you'd be all in for just over 400 euro

or keep an eye on this laptop deal link and act when you see one come through

https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/laptop


think that you can have them send you alerts (there is an app also)

Sue de Nimes

I use hotukdeals normally. Problem is a lot of the laptops won't deliver to Ireland.

Adding an SSD and more RAM is a non runner as well. He isn't tech savvy or confident enough to do that and I am in the UK. With coronavirus as well it will be hard for him to get someone to do it for him.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

I use hotukdeals normally. Problem is a lot of the laptops won't deliver to Ireland.

Adding an SSD and more RAM is a non runner as well. He isn't tech savvy or confident enough to do that and I am in the UK. With coronavirus as well it will be hard for him to get someone to do it for him.

in most cases addresspal can get around this as it has a UK mainland address.

the other ones parcelwizard and parcel motel are NI addresses which may cause issues.

of course some places may pick up the address as a redirect service but it's worth trying to purchase if it's a good deal.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

I use hotukdeals normally. Problem is a lot of the laptops won't deliver to Ireland.

Adding an SSD and more RAM is a non runner as well. He isn't tech savvy or confident enough to do that and I am in the UK. With coronavirus as well it will be hard for him to get someone to do it for him.

well you could buy that in Argos stores in Sainsburys (still open), get the ram and ssd off amazon, do it and post it to your brother....

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2207894

Sue de Nimes

Thanks, I wasn't aware of those services.

That particular laptop isn't of interest as it is a Ryzen 3 which is only dual core. I will keep an eye out on some other UK deals though.

fair enough but football manager will run fine on that cpu.

as would general web use

Sue de Nimes

Football Manager is very CPU intensive and while it will run fine on a Ryzen 3 it will run much better on a Ryzen 5

There is no reason for him to get a Ryzen 3 laptop if he can get Ryzen 5 one in his price range

The Nal

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

My brother has asked me to find him a laptop under €500. I am based in the UK at the moment and he is in Dublin so most of the retailers I would normally look at won't deliver to Ireland.

I've found a laptop with Dell that has a Ryzen 5 2500u processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256MB SSD for €499

I've also been looking at stuff on the Dell Outlet which I have a 10% discount code for. The stock they have had recently hasn't been great. I really don't want to get him a laptop with less than 8GB of RAM as he isn't tech savvy enough to upgrade the RAM himself.

All he uses the laptop for is general web use and playing football manager.

Am I going to do any better than that Dell Laptop?

You won't do better in the current market. Those Inspirons last for years. Good graphics card too. He can install the extra 4GB RAM himself easily. Nothing technical about it.

Sue de Nimes

I know there is nothing difficult in installing extra RAM, unfortunately my brother wouldn't have the confidence to do so.

In the same way that I, despite going to university to study computers and being an enthusiast for nearly 40 years, couldn't stick a shelf up.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

Football Manager is very CPU intensive and while it will run fine on a Ryzen 3 it will run much better on a Ryzen 5

There is no reason for him to get a Ryzen 3 laptop if he can get Ryzen 5 one in his price range

it won't actually make much of a difference because football manager is very heavily weighted towards single-core performance

the 3200u and 2500u/3500u are very similar in that regard in terms of benchmark scores.

you should probably be more concerned with the laptop having dual-channel ram and good thermals (allowing the cpu to operate at full capacity without being throttled)

The Nal

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

I know there is nothing difficult in installing extra RAM, unfortunately my brother wouldn't have the confidence to do so.

In the same way that I, despite going to university to study computers and being an enthusiast for nearly 40 years, couldn't stick a shelf up.

Either can I, much more difficult. RAM is 4 screws, insert ram, 4 screws.

Sue de Nimes

glasso wrote: »

it won't actually make much of a difference because football manager is very heavily weighted towards single-core performance

the 3200u and 2500u/3500u are very similar in that regard in terms of benchmark scores.

you should probably be more concerned with the laptop having dual-channel ram and good thermals (allowing the cpu to operate at full capacity without being throttled)

Football Manager uses all available cores when processing match results.

Anyway, I don't actually need any advice on what to look for in a laptop. All I was looking for is suggestions of good bargains available in Ireland. Thanks for the advice guys. I can take it from here.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

Football Manager uses all available cores when processing match results.

Anyway, I don't actually need any advice on what to look for in a laptop. All I was looking for is suggestions of good bargains available in Ireland. Thanks for the advice guys. I can take it from here.

https://community.sigames.com/topic/469928-fm19-performance-benchmarking-thread/

- CPU. The faster it is, the faster the game will process through the days. The number of cores is relevant of course, but FM is also one of those games that favors the single core performance a lot more than the number of cores overall. This is where the clock speed becomes very important. The CPU is the most important piece of hardware when playing this particular game.

MisterAnarchy

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

My brother has asked me to find him a laptop under €500. I am based in the UK at the moment and he is in Dublin so most of the retailers I would normally look at won't deliver to Ireland.

I've found a laptop with Dell that has a Ryzen 5 2500u processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256MB SSD for €499

A TN screen on a laptop for 500 euro is bad value.
That Dell is not good value.

Sue de Nimes

glasso wrote: »

https://community.sigames.com/topic/469928-fm19-performance-benchmarking-thread/

Yes, it favours single core performance, but it still benefits for having multiple cores.

Anyway, this is completely off topic and not really relevant. Thanks for you help.

Sue de Nimes

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

A TN screen on a laptop for 500 euro is bad value.
That Dell is not good value.

Can you suggest a laptop at the same price point that is better value?

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

Yes, it favours single core performance, but it still benefits for having multiple cores.

Anyway, this is completely off topic and not really relevant. Thanks for you help.

it's not off-topic when you have specifically mentioned this software usage as one of only two usage scenarios in your requirements for a laptop.

the single-core geekbench scores are almost identical for the 3200u and the 3500u

Sue de Nimes

glasso wrote: »

it's not off-topic when you have specifically mentioned this software usage as one of only two usage scenarios in your requirements for a laptop.

Thank you for your help so far. I really don't need any more assistance from you. I've tried to be as polite as possible.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

Thank you for your help so far. I really don't need any more assistance from you. I've tried to be as polite as possible.

that's fine. I'm certainly not offering any more assistance. Trying to be as polite as possible here.

kippy

See what happens when things aren't kept simple?

antix80

antix80 wrote: »

I mean if you focus solely on 8gb ram, 256gb SSD and ryzen5 or core i5 without understanding that there's different types of ram and older generations of processor, you might end up with something that's been in a Harvey Norman storeroom for 4 years.

Much better off reading a review of a product. One laptop I was interested in didn't have adequate cooling, as a result it throttled the speed. So the more powerful the processor, the slower the laptop ran. One poor feature can make a laptop useless.. Like problems with WiFi. May not always be apparent in reviews but the comment sections on amazon listing are a good place to look.

this is correct.

you need to do your research on particular models, not just on headline specs, to avoid purchasing a lemon due to the multitude of possible design faullts or cheaping-out on non-headline components like screens, wifi cards, keyboards, trackpads etc.

saying "spec alone" is non-nonsensical.

Sue de Nimes

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

I think the extra €100 is over and above what he wants to spend, especially in the current economic climate.

Go second hand

kippy

glasso wrote: »

this is correct.

you need to do your research on particular models, not just on headline specs, to avoid purchasing a lemon due to the multitude of possible design faullts or cheaping-out on non-headline components like screens, wifi cards, keyboards, trackpads etc.

saying "spec alone" is non-nonsensical.

You do realise that the majority of what is built nowadays is perfectly adequate if minded properly and for the vast majority of consumers it does come down to headline spec and more importantly cost.

The first few posts the OP got back were basicilly saying spend more for a "better" product - where does that end?
The OP had a very specific budget, clarified again to say it had been pushed up from the initial budget.

Whether the processor is a few generations old doesn't really make that much difference to the user.

You can spend days researching, and you'll eventually find a bad review or something negative about almost any product, or you'll find some negative review based on something that the OP may not even find that important.

Get as decent a processor, with as much Ram as you can, preferebally with an SSD for your budget. It's as simple as that. If you've specific use cases that require something specific - fire ahead.

kippy

kippy wrote: »

You do realise that the majority of what is built nowadays is perfectly adequate if minded properly and for the vast majority of consumers it does come down to headline spec and more importantly cost.

The first few posts the OP got back were basicilly saying spend more for a "better" product - where does that end?
The OP had a very specific budget, clarified again to say it had been pushed up from the initial budget.

Whether the processor is a few generations old doesn't really make that much difference to the user.

You can spend days researching, and you'll eventually find a bad review or something negative about almost any product, or you'll find some negative review based on something that the OP may not even find that important.

Get as decent a processor, with as much Ram as you can, preferebally with an SSD for your budget. It's as simple as that. If you've specific use cases that require something specific - fire ahead.

I would disagree. in may cases for example, models that are being sold at a slightly cheaper price to others with the "same spec" on cpu, ssd size and ram are being sold slightly cheaper because they have a bad screen, a bad keyboard, a smaller battery with poorer battery life etc etc

if you want to be the person who buys the crappy product good for you - the manufacturers and shops are relying on you to shift them

likewise with old and out-of-date cpus. recent cpus for example from AMD have much more powerful integrated graphics so for a family laptop it could run games for kids so that, just being one example, is why you should not buy an old one...

it's quite simple to verify a model - check for reviews and pay attention to rational and balanced sites like notebookcheck.net. that does not take a lot of time.

in the case of the OP here it was a also a case of an old dog who didn't want to learn a new trick really as they thought they knew everything something about computers - but closed themselves off to advice that actually could be helpful in broadening their options. (e.g. presenting a cheaper option later that would do the job well)

kippy

glasso wrote: »

I would disagree. in may cases for example, models that are being sold at a slightly cheaper price to others with the "same spec" on cpu, ssd size and ram are being sold slightly cheaper because they have a bad screen, a bad keyboard, a smaller battery with poorer battery life etc etc

if you want to be the person who buys the crappy product good for you - the manufacturers and shops are relying on you to shift them

likewise with old and out-of-date cpus. recent cpus for example from AMD have much more powerful integrated graphics so for a family laptop it could run games for kids so that, just being one example, is why you should not buy an old one...

it's quite simple to verify a model - check for reviews and pay attention to rational and balanced sites like notebookcheck.net. that does not take a lot of time.

in the case of the OP here it was a also a case of an old dog who didn't want to learn a new trick really as they thought they knew everything something about computers - but closed themselves off to advice that actually could be helpful in broadening their options. (e.g. presenting a cheaper option later that would do the job well)

Fair enough,
But that's not keeping things simple or anything close to it.

takes all of 5 minutes to verify if a model has major issues or not.

that's after you have filtered down to the 2 or 3 models that you will be looking at.

kippy

glasso wrote: »

takes all of 5 minutes to verify if a model has major issues or not.

that's after you have filtered down to the 2 or 3 models that you will be looking at.

What if the model is:
1. Not a major model.
2. Too new to have any level of review.
3. Too well reviewed to have a portion of negative reviews by reviewers who are too picky or too unrealistic?
4. Reviewed at a price point that it is not currently at?

Etc etc

maybe I'm just better at efficiently googling and interpreting opinions...

kippy

glasso wrote: »

maybe I'm just better at efficiently googling and interpreting opinions...

You most likely are. But it's not a simple thing to do.
And again every piece of advise on a forum tends to be "for a few euros more......you could have x,y,z" or "thats a poor model laptop because I read one bad review of it on the internet somewhere from a person whose tollerance to things/expectations are far different to mine or yours"

sometimes it is worth to stretch an extra 15% if it makes a big difference and can be really worth it.

e..g crap screen - what are you going to be looking at all the time over a period of years?
plastic heavy lump with crap design vs a nice lighter all-metal solid build etc

we are talking about maybe an extra 100 euro here - it's not a bmw m3 vs a ford fiesta decision. if a 100 euro is really tight for the person then they shouldn't be stretching themselves to a new laptop in the first place and should maybe go 2nd-hand.

I never recommend way out of a budget.

kippy

glasso wrote: »

sometimes it is worth to stretch an extra 15% if it makes a big difference and can be really worth it.

e..g crap screen - what are you going to be looking at all the time over a period of years?
plastic heavy lump with crap design vs a nice lighter all-metal solid build etc

we are talking about maybe an extra 100 euro here - it's not a bmw m3 vs a ford fiesta decision.

I never recommend way out of a budget.

You've essentially proved my point about the majority of these types of posts.

look. leaving this here. we agree to disagree or whatever. it's a circular discussion at this point.

most people over-estimate what they can get for 400/500 euro in my experience. that is budget segment territory.

and right now the supply lines are constricted (less supply and choice) with cv19 effects and likewise with many people working from home in need of a new laptop, demand is up and so are prices.