Advice in laptop up 500 euro price range

maddog1983

Hi

If anybody could help and point me in right direction of a laptop. willing to spend up to 500max new or refurbished.

Something for everyday, play football manger, use office, fast boot and program loading. will last me a few years.

Any advice and links I would really appreciate.

TitianGerm

maddog1983 wrote: »

Hi

If anybody could help and point me in right direction of a laptop. willing to spend up to 500max new or refurbished.

Something for everyday, play football manger, use office, fast boot and program loading. will last me a few years.

Any advice and links I would really appreciate.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-5-ryzen-5-4500u-6-cores16gb256gbfree-dosips-screenbacklit-keyboard-at-lenovo-rewards-with-newsletter-3447308

Have a look at this. You can spec it how you want but based on the new Ryzen mobile CPU.

Zardoz

TitianGerm wrote: »

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-5-ryzen-5-4500u-6-cores16gb256gbfree-dosips-screenbacklit-keyboard-at-lenovo-rewards-with-newsletter-3447308

Have a look at this. You can spec it how you want but based on the new Ryzen mobile CPU.

Yes,that is a great deal .
Lenovo are really cranking out some superb offers at the moment .

Only negative points is that the Ram is soldered to the motherboard,possibly only one slot of Ram and the housing is mostly plastic.
Lenovo laptops seem to have an issue with throttling too .

TitianGerm

Zardoz wrote: »

Yes,that is a great deal .
Lenovo are really cranking out some superb offers at the moment .

Herself needs a new one so going to order one tonight myself for her. Had a quick look and by dropping the OS I can get an IPS panel, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for a very reasonable price.

Zardoz

TitianGerm wrote: »

Herself needs a new one so going to order one tonight myself for her. Had a quick look and by dropping the OS I can get an IPS panel, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for a very reasonable price.

Yeah,I've been looking out for a decent specced laptop for months and this ticks nearly all the boxes.

I will get 2 ,one for my brother and one for myself.

An aluminium body would be nice and Lenovo only just started the 4000 series yesterday so there might be good offers on Thinkpads down the line ,the better build quality would be nice .

The other manufacturers seem to be sleeping ,their laptops are grossly overpriced in comparison.

maddog1983

TitianGerm wrote: »

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-5-ryzen-5-4500u-6-cores16gb256gbfree-dosips-screenbacklit-keyboard-at-lenovo-rewards-with-newsletter-3447308

Have a look at this. You can spec it how you want but based on the new Ryzen mobile CPU.

Thanks for this I will order later more than what I need and in budget appreciate it ðŸ‘

Naos

Just ordered one - 630e all in for:

Processor - AMD Ryzen 7 4800U Processor (1.80GHz, Max Boost up to 4.20GHz, 8 Cores, 8MB Cache)
Operating System - Free-DOS
Operating System Language - Free-DOS
Memory - 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Onboard
Second Hard Drive - 512GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC
Display - 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), IPS, Anti-glare, 2.6mm Thickness, 300nits, Narrow bezel
Graphic Card - Integrated Graphics
Color - Graphite Grey
Keyboard - Keyboard Backlit Iron Grey English (UK)
Camera - 720p HD Camera with Array Microphone
Surface Treatment - Anodizing
Fingerprint Reader - Fingerprint Reader
Palmrest - PC/ABS
Battery - 4 Cell Li-Polymer Internal Battery, 70Wh
Power Cord - 95W AC Adapter (3pin)-UK (USB Type C)
Wireless - Wi-Fi 6 2x2 AX, Bluetooth Version 5.0 or above
Language Pack - Publication-English
Warranty - 1 Year Courier or Carry-in

maddog1983

Naos wrote: »

Just ordered one - 630e all in for:

Processor - AMD Ryzen 7 4800U Processor (1.80GHz, Max Boost up to 4.20GHz, 8 Cores, 8MB Cache)
Operating System - Free-DOS
Operating System Language - Free-DOS
Memory - 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Onboard
Second Hard Drive - 512GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC
Display - 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), IPS, Anti-glare, 2.6mm Thickness, 300nits, Narrow bezel
Graphic Card - Integrated Graphics
Color - Graphite Grey
Keyboard - Keyboard Backlit Iron Grey English (UK)
Camera - 720p HD Camera with Array Microphone
Surface Treatment - Anodizing
Fingerprint Reader - Fingerprint Reader
Palmrest - PC/ABS
Battery - 4 Cell Li-Polymer Internal Battery, 70Wh
Power Cord - 95W AC Adapter (3pin)-UK (USB Type C)
Wireless - Wi-Fi 6 2x2 AX, Bluetooth Version 5.0 or above
Language Pack - Publication-English
Warranty - 1 Year Courier or Carry-in

Did you send to Irish or addresspal or parcel wizard etc going to order now

Good deal and hopefully more will be coming out as this chipset is more prevalent.

metal-chassis for durability and build quality for me though so will wait.

snoopboggybog

Naos wrote: »

Just ordered one - 630e all in for:

Processor - AMD Ryzen 7 4800U Processor (1.80GHz, Max Boost up to 4.20GHz, 8 Cores, 8MB Cache)
Operating System - Free-DOS
Operating System Language - Free-DOS
Memory - 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Onboard
Second Hard Drive - 512GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC
Display - 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), IPS, Anti-glare, 2.6mm Thickness, 300nits, Narrow bezel
Graphic Card - Integrated Graphics
Color - Graphite Grey
Keyboard - Keyboard Backlit Iron Grey English (UK)
Camera - 720p HD Camera with Array Microphone
Surface Treatment - Anodizing
Fingerprint Reader - Fingerprint Reader
Palmrest - PC/ABS
Battery - 4 Cell Li-Polymer Internal Battery, 70Wh
Power Cord - 95W AC Adapter (3pin)-UK (USB Type C)
Wireless - Wi-Fi 6 2x2 AX, Bluetooth Version 5.0 or above
Language Pack - Publication-English
Warranty - 1 Year Courier or Carry-in

That new 4800U chip is fantastic!
Some laptop for that price!

Naos

maddog1983 wrote: »

Did you send to Irish or addresspal or parcel wizard etc going to order now

Parcelmotel (UK), wouldn't let me ship to Irish address.

Edit: Just note - I choose without Windows and will just install it myself, they're charging 100e plus for windows 10.

Naos

snoopboggybog wrote: »

That new 4800U chip is fantastic!
Some laptop for that price!

Yeah it appears to be great alright, seems to be a lot faster than what I was looking at.

glasso wrote: »

Good deal and hopefully more will be coming out as this chipset is more prevalent.

metal-chassis for durability and build quality for me though so will wait.

Something I did consider, but it's going to me my home laptop anyway so won't be moving it around too much. But noted for the next laptop I buy and thanks again for your help Glasso - tried to PM you a thanks but your inbox was full.

maddog1983

Naos wrote: »

Parcelmotel (UK), wouldn't let me ship to Irish address.

Edit: Just note - I choose without Windows and will just install it myself, they're charging 100e plus for windows 10.

Ya i do same and install myself.. I'm still waiting in my 10%code to my email tho?

buy win 10 pro key on ebay for cheap is a good option.

is the ram dual-channel?

Naos

snoopboggybog wrote: »

That new 4800U chip is fantastic!
Some laptop for that price!

glasso wrote: »

Good deal and hopefully more will be coming out as this chipset is more prevalent.

metal-chassis for durability and build quality for me though so will wait.

glasso wrote: »

is the ram dual-channel?

From a comment on the deal:

"This is some info I have directly copied from the German deal ,its exactly the same machine .

Is the RAM single or dual channel?

According to the data sheet single, according to the test report dual channel.
We wont know for sure until the first people receive their machines.
My guess would be that at least the 16 GB config is dual channel."

Zardoz

snoopboggybog wrote: »

That new 4800U chip is fantastic!
Some laptop for that price!

The 4000 series looks like it will blow Intel out of the water .

certainly makes for a great video editing laptop with the 4800u and 16gb of ram and the better screen option.

Aodhan5000

Just tried to enter the passcode now and got this "Sorry! It's not you... it's us. Please email websupport@lenovo.com for assistance." Anyone else got this?

TitianGerm

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

Just tried to enter the passcode now and got this "Sorry! It's not you... it's us. Please email websupport@lenovo.com for assistance." Anyone else got this?

Looks like Lenovo have changed the access code.

Aodhan5000

I seem to be able to go onto their site and customize a laptop for what seems to be the same price anyway so all good

With Apple moving some of it's laptops to its own in-house arm cpus Intel are really getting it up the hole

serves them right for years and years of tiny incremental innovation when they had the dominant position.

probably not a good thing for the facilities in Ireland though.

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/23/why-apple-macs-getting-12-core-arm-chips-in-2021-would-be-huge/

Ryath

Very close to ordering this looks to be great deal. Is it worth upgrading from the 4500U? Wondering is screen worth doing to? Is the multitouch or 2.6 thinner screen going to be much of an upgrade. Not too pushed about the touchscreen and it would stop the kids the pawing it if it wasn't. Would go for it if the image quality was better. Hard to know I suppose as it's so new with no reviews and detailed specs.

8gb RAM is enough for me but probably should go 16gb for future proofing. I'll add the backlit keyboard and wifi 6 anyways.

would go for 4600u at least for multi-threading

better integrated graphics on the 4700u and 4800u as well as more cores.

4800u has about the same gpu power as an mx250 card.

but unless you plan on playing games (graphics) or video editing (more cores) probably not a big deal....

at least go for a 300 nit screen.

Ryath

Yea was probably going to upgrade to the 4600 but the 4700 is starting to push the price up. Extra grunt is good though I do do some photo editing and a lot of the reason for the purchase is as my wifes laptop has been taken over by my 12 year old playing Sims4 I know thats not too demanding but she's probably going to want to play more pc games. I wouldn't mind doing some light gaming but I've always been more into console gaming the last few years.

Screens are all 300nits IPS
Basic is 3.2mm thick
Multitouch is an extra €20
and 2.6mm thick one is an extra €30 no other specs mentioned assuming it only makes the laptop 0.6mm thinner? Maybe it is a better panel though?

As this is will be used a lot by my daughter it will be confined to a desk in the living room I was originally looking at getting a desktop but I'm finding it hard to get anything as well specced for the price. I'd pay the same as this for a desktop with similar spec and still have to get a monitor and keyboard.

Coming in at €498
Processor : AMD Ryzen 5 4600U Processor (2.10GHz, Max Boost up to 4.00GHz, 6 Cores, 8MB Cache)
Operating System : Free-DOS
Operating System Language : Free-DOS
Memory : 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Onboard
Second Hard Drive : 256GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2242, PCIe-NVMe, TLC
Display : 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), IPS, Anti-glare, 3.2mm Thickness, 300nits, Narrow bezel
Graphic Card : Integrated Graphics
Color : Graphite Grey
Keyboard : Keyboard Backlit Iron Grey English (UK)
Camera : 720p HD Camera with Array Microphone
Surface Treatment : Anodizing
Fingerprint Reader : Fingerprint Reader
Palmrest : PC/ABS
Battery : 4 Cell Li-Polymer Internal Battery, 70Wh
Power Cord : 95W AC Adapter (3pin)-UK (USB Type C)
Wireless : Wi-Fi 6 2x2 AX, Bluetooth Version 5.0 or above
Language Pack : Publication-English
Warranty : 1 Year Courier or Carry-in

Ryath

Found a better breakdown of specs. One screen has better colour range but doesn't say which one. Is it safe to assume the thinner model is the better one.

https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/0/b/4/a/acea1a60ef1ee309a43c407092fc09ac66c6.pdf

Zardoz

Ryath wrote: »

Screens are all 300nits IPS
Basic is 3.2mm thick
Multitouch is an extra €20
and 2.6mm thick one is an extra €30 no other specs mentioned assuming it only makes the laptop 0.6mm thinner? Maybe it is a better panel though?

The most expensive screen is 100% sRGB ,the others are 62% .
The most expensive screen also has an aluminium lid whereas the others are most likely plastic.

Ryath

It's not that clear on the Irish site if that is the case with the screen.

According to spec in pdf the top of the display case is aluminium and the bottom is too if you get a model with usb c charging. If you don't the bottom case is plastic. Apparently it's often hard to know what you get with lenovo as they may use different manufactures for the same particular part on the same model. Still temped though even in base spec it's a great deal . Though I better decide am I better of just holding out for a deal on a desktop before lenovo change the code again!

Zardoz

Ryath wrote: »

It's not that clear on the Irish site if that is the case with the screen.

According to spec in pdf the top of the display case is aluminium and the bottom is too if you get a model with usb c charging. If you don't the bottom case is plastic. Apparently it's often hard to know what you get with lenovo as they may use different manufactures for the same particular part on the same model. Still temped though even in base spec it's a great deal . Though I better decide am I better of just holding out for a deal on a desktop before lenovo change the code again!

The German website mydealz.de has over 2550 posts on this laptop , thats where I got the info.

Found a better breakdown of specs. One screen has better colour range but doesn't say which one. Is it safe to assume the thinner model is the better one.

https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/0/b/4/a/acea1a60ef1ee309a43c407092fc09ac66c6.pdf

Thats the 14 inch version btw

As its a new model the exact spec is a bit unknown and it could vary by region .
Its a bit of an unknown .
It looks like the memory is single channel too and soldered on which is a huge drawback.
An all metal body would be great but its most likely part plastic .

has the touch screen a bad sRGB coverage also?

Zardoz

glasso wrote: »

has the touch screen a bad sRGB coverage also?

Yes

and all ram combos are single channel?

e.g. both 8gb and 16gb.

Ryath

glasso wrote: »

and all ram combos are single channel?

e.g. both 8gb and 16gb.

Looks like it.
https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/IdeaPad/IdeaPad_5_15ARE05
The spec mention an aluminium base on some models but any model no's I've checked list an abs base.

It's a great deal at €500 but in my use case I reckon it's money that may be better put towards a desktop it's better value in the long-run. I mostly use a chromebook which is fairly high spec by chromebook standards and and my wife has a decent ryzen 5 3500 laptop when I need use of a Windows machine. Kids getting older and home schooling is putting demand on devices though. And I am losing knowledge and out of practise by not using a windows machine regularly and would like the use of good desktop again. (And nobody can run off to work or school with it on me!)

Zardoz

You can choose a Metal palm rest now on the second configuration option .

Zardoz

Ryath wrote: »

It's a great deal at €500 but in my use case I reckon it's money that may be better put towards a desktop it's better value in the long-run.

The 4000 Ryzen series is a huge step up though .
The 4800 has 8 cores,16 threads and would give very good performance ,similar to a powerful desktop Ryzen CPU.

Someone on the German site said that the Thinkpads with the 4000 series will be launched next week ,I'm deliberating whether to hold off for them as the build quality will be better .

Naos

Zardoz wrote: »

You can choose a Metal palm rest now on the second configuration option .

That's a pain in the arse, wasn't there when I ordered...

opus

Had a message from a friend this morning looking for la laptop in this exact price range, gutted they didn't contact me sooner as could have sent them in the direction of the Lenovo deal but looks like it's expired now.

Any other suggestions out there?

Thanks!

mrsWhippy

Also in the market for a laptop in that price range. I want something quite high performing and nippy, willing to pay 600 ish for the right spec. I've had a Dell Inspiron for the past 6 years but the only one that meets the min spec I want (min 8GB ram, 512 SSD) is 650 and I really don't think it's worth it at that price given how basic the rest of it is ....

CiboC

I'm looking at one of these for my son, how are you deselecting windows as the OS on the configuration? It don't see any option to omit windows as a choice?

Ryath

It was removed as an option last week. They'v changed a few other options too. No option to deselect the 1st hard drive to increase the battery size.

deal is effectively gone

eh i dunno

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-s340-14-laptop-intel-pentium-128-gb-ssd-blue-10193166-pdt.html?awc=5297_1588677548_4c705abc6e48b664435045e16df444a5&utm_source=Future+Publishing.&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Affiliate

Would this be the best laptop i can get for less than €500? I'll only be using it for light work duties,online browsing and the kids might watch netflix on it.

Zardoz

eh i dunno wrote: »

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-s340-14-laptop-intel-pentium-128-gb-ssd-blue-10193166-pdt.html?awc=5297_1588677548_4c705abc6e48b664435045e16df444a5&utm_source=Future+Publishing.&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Affiliate

Would this be the best laptop i can get for less than €500? I'll only be using it for light work duties,online browsing and the kids might watch netflix on it.

That laptop is rubbish .
The processor is dreadful and it only has 4Gb of Ram ,you need 8GB minimum.

that is fine for your uses described and prob as good as you will do for the money in Ireland right now.

might be worth upgrading ram maybe yourself.

cheap €20 upgrade

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT4G4SFS824A-PC4-19200-Single-260-Pin/dp/B019FRDKWI/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1USSJQD3CT1C1&dchild=1&keywords=4gb+ddr4+sodimm&qid=1588679859&sprefix=4gb+ddr%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-2

you have 1 slot free as the 4gb that it comes with is soldered onto the circuit board.

Zardoz

Zardoz wrote: »

That laptop is rubbish .
The processor is dreadful and it only has 4Gb of Ram ,you need 8GB minimum.

the processor is grand for his uses. his uses are light and will not tax it.

cheap upgrade for the ram

eh i dunno

Thanks for the advice. I'm open to other suggestions around 500/600 that can be bought in curry's, did, Harvey norman etc

eh i dunno

eh i dunno wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I'm open to other suggestions around 500/600 that can be bought in curry's, did, Harvey norman etc

this is from the UK but is a far far superior laptop in all respects...

cpu & graphics unit
screen
build quality -> all-metal
battery life
ram
ssd

use addresspal, parcel motel etc.

https://www.box.co.uk/products/keywords/honor+magicbook+14/ex/true

someone ordered last week and got it quickly to Ireland.

well worth the extra over the s340

Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD4b0mxue0E