Buying a Laptop: The current Generation

mondeo · 13-05-2021 11:29am

glasso wrote: »

in my experience it's quick once the "in stock" and "ships in 1 to 2 business days" is on the item but I'm not privy as to how it might vary for an exact item

I've had delivery in under 2 days (from Holland)

they use UPS couriers

Bought the i5 11th generation lenovo with the 10% discount.... Came to 520 with free delivery. Great deal for sure !

1tsThatGuy · 13-05-2021 6:59pm

glasso wrote: »

if you have a monitor already and it's not going to be leaving your desk then why not consider a small form factor (7 litres) desktop

amd and 8gb ram for 332 euro

else the 11th gen i5 version here for 580 is good

far bottom left sign up in stay connected box to get a 10% off new user code
emailed (arrives in a while)

discount may or may not stack / combine with others

Glasso, thanks for suggesting a small form factor, after doing a bit of thinking this is actually the perfect solution. So I did some research and have found two machines, I would have linked but can't as I'm a new user, they're more tower units than small form though. The Acer Aspire XC Desktop | XC-895 | Black (Ref.DT.BEWEK.00E) works out at €636 with a student discount and the Lenovo V V50t-13IMB (Part Number: 11ED0010UK) is €559.99 but €489 with a discount.

I veered away from the amd 8gb Glasso recommended as it didn't have a disk drive. I know this is antiquated but I like a disc drive in my computer. In fairness I didn't state that as a requirement but on reflection I want one.

Has anyone here any experience of these machines, are they any good?

Also, the Lenovo doesn't have wireless internet, does anyone know the best way around this?

How do you know if things like if RAM can be upgraded to 2 channels or is it just 1?

Thanks.

LillyIsland · 13-05-2021 7:17pm

Was just looking at that Acer Swift 3 laptop that has been recommended.

You can get it on the offical Irish Acer website for €699 here and if you are go to Unidays and are able to get a student discount you can get 15% off, bringing the laptop down €104.85 to €594.15 v €697 on Amazon with Revolut.

13-05-2021 7:28pm

They are not the same at all

The one on amazon has a 4-core i5 cpu with XE graphics (which is a big improvement this gen) vs a 2-core i3 with no XE graphics on the acer website

The ssd drive is also half the size of the amazon one.

easily worth the extra 100 euro

the same model is 800 on the acer website

https://store.acer.com/en-ie/acer-swift-3-ultra-thin-laptop-sf314-59-silver-nx-a0mek-001

LillyIsland · 13-05-2021 7:47pm

glasso wrote: »

They are not the same at all

The one on amazon has a 4-core i5 cpu with XE graphics (which is a big improvement this gen) vs a 2-core i3 with no XE graphics on the acer website

The ssd drive is also half the size of the amazon one.

easily worth the extra 100 euro

the same model is 800 on the acer website

https://store.acer.com/en-ie/acer-swift-3-ultra-thin-laptop-sf314-59-silver-nx-a0mek-001

Oh woops didn't look carefully enough!

Still though with the 15% discount you can get it for €679.15 so a small saving... would save more if you weren't using Revolut to buy on Amazon.

13-05-2021 8:17pm

Im looking for a laptop to use to do standard online stuff (browse, watch youtube, etc.), Would also like the ability to maybe do some video editing and gaming if at all possible in this price range.

Budget is €800. Would I be better buying new or used from a year or two ago?

Thanks!

13-05-2021 9:36pm

11521323 wrote: »

Im looking for a laptop to use to do standard online stuff (browse, watch youtube, etc.), Would also like the ability to maybe do some video editing and gaming if at all possible in this price range.

Budget is €800. Would I be better buying new or used from a year or two ago?

Thanks!

https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/ideapad/300-series/IdeaPad-Gaming-3i-15%E2%80%9D/p/88IPG301387

get 10% off code (far bottom left "stay connected") emailed to you

discount may or may not stack with ones on items on site

decent laptop that allows for gaming and some video editing

if you want a slim laptop go for the acer swift 3 i5 11th gen on amazon or acer if you have a student discount but the gaming will be basic on it as no discrete graphics card

Mwengwe · 15-05-2021 6:23pm

I know Amazon has a very good return policy, but how does it work with the import fees deposit? If you have to return to the UK does that mean you might have to pay the fee a second time (going the other way, an 'export fee' I guess)

15-05-2021 10:57pm

there are no import fees

they call it that but it's just Irish VAT - 23%

they take off English VAT (20%) from the price and put Irish VAT as import fees

work it out if you like

amazon would refund all no issue if warranted within that period

16-05-2021 12:21pm

so it's effectively the same as the last 10 years or more where Irish Vat was being paid on Amazon UK items delivered to Ireland.

just now it's called "import fees deposit" due to Brexit

Monokne · 22-05-2021 9:29pm

glasso wrote: »

sign up to the newsletter (far bottom left of page and wait for 10% off code by email)

then use it to take 10% off this - ends up about €560

https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/ideapad/s-series/IdeaPad-5i-14IIL05/p/82FE00A2UK

11th gen intel i5 cpus have a good graphics boost (iris Xe) for running roblox, minecraft well

8gb ram, fast ssd hard drive. bright screen, reasonable battery life

should last a good number of years

Glasso my man do you know much about Lenovos? I picked up this bad boy, charged it to full, used it for half hour then it shut down and gave me the below message - is it a lemon that needs to be sent back or is this something minor? :eek:

E2BNs2QXMAAfkZi?format=jpg&name=small

CoBo55 · 22-05-2021 11:05pm

Monokne wrote: »

Glasso my man do you know much about Lenovos? I picked up this bad boy, charged it to full, used it for half hour then it shut down and gave me the below message - is it a lemon that needs to be sent back or is this something minor? :eek:

Is the battery removable? If it is try removing it and holding the power button down for 30 seconds, then connect it to the mains with the battery still removed and try powering it up.

22-05-2021 11:20pm

seems like the battery is not charging?

Monokne · 22-05-2021 11:27pm

CoBo55 wrote: »

Is the battery removable? If it is try removing it and holding the power button down for 30 seconds, then connect it to the mains with the battery still removed and try powering it up.

Unfortunately it is not removable!

Monokne · 22-05-2021 11:28pm

glasso wrote: »

seems like the battery is not charging?

I charged it up again and opened it up. After 15 minutes of use, the battery is down to 80%

22-05-2021 11:43pm

Monokne wrote: »

I charged it up again and opened it up. After 15 minutes of use, the battery is down to 80%

well the battery should certainly last longer than 2 hours when new so it sounds like a defective battery.

unless you were playing some 3d game maxing out the laptop at 100% cpu and gpu

Monokne · 22-05-2021 11:47pm

glasso wrote: »

well the battery should certainly last longer than 2 hours when new so it sounds like a defective battery.

unless you were playing some 3d game maxing out the laptop at 100% cpu and gpu

Is there a good way to test a battery on a windows machine? Like an app or anything?

23-05-2021 12:08am

there is this that will tell you battery capacity etc, charging rate, discharging rate, wear, full runtime etc

https://batterybar.en.softonic.com/

Monokne · 23-05-2021 1:14am

glasso wrote: »

there is this that will tell you battery capacity etc, charging rate, discharging rate, wear, full runtime etc

https://batterybar.en.softonic.com/

thanks I will give it a go!

23-05-2021 2:27pm

Monokne wrote: »

thanks I will give it a go!

what's that telling you?

Cherry Blossom · 31-05-2021 10:49pm

glasso wrote: »

there are no import fees

they call it that but it's just Irish VAT - 23%

they take off English VAT (20%) from the price and put Irish VAT as import fees

work it out if you like

amazon would refund all no issue if warranted within that period

I just priced a laptop on Amazon that Curry’s don’t have in stock. Customs fees are €480 and the € price of the laptop is €500 more than Curry’s so if seems they are not taking off the uk vat.

31-05-2021 11:14pm

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

I just priced a laptop on Amazon that Curry’s don’t have in stock. Customs fees are €480 and the € price of the laptop is €500 more than Curry’s so if seems they are not taking off the uk vat.

should remove UK VAT from the price on the inital page and then add Irish vat as "import fees" at checkout page

it does not show the calc of removing UK Vat explicitly

31-05-2021 11:18pm

e.g. initial price and checkout example

may not function correctly where amazon is not doing the fulfilment process

Headshot · 07-06-2021 11:25am

Hi All.

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction

Looking for a light weight laptop 15" screen or higher with a budget under €1k

Wont be used for gaming

Will be used for the following
Browsing the internet
Loads of VMs
Basically a really good business laptop
Has to be quite fast as well

07-06-2021 11:37am

would 14 do you?

15 inch laptops less common and not really light weight

what weight is light-weight in kg to you?

this is metal build and light

16gb ram

good cpu and screen

https://store.acer.com/en-ie/acer-swift-3-ultra-thin-laptop-sf314-59-silver-nx-a0mek-005

use studentbeans to get 15% off to bring it down to 850

Headshot · 07-06-2021 11:51am

My current Macbook is 1.83kg so something lighter or around this at least

15" or higher screen size

Unfortunately that link appears to be longer valid

07-06-2021 11:57am

Headshot wrote: »

My current Macbook is 1.83kg so something lighter or around this at least

15" or higher screen size

Unfortunately that link appears to be longer valid

fixed link above

1.2 kg

it's this model in review but with bigger ssd (1tb)

https://www.ultrabookreview.com/42008-acer-swift-3-14-sf314-59-review/

as said few light 15 size laptops - most near 2kg or over

it's not a common size in business-class laptops anymore - 14 is the standard

see if you can find an honor magicbook pro 16 inch screen down - it's 1.7/ 1.8 kg I think

Headshot · 07-06-2021 12:00pm

Thanks Glasso but looking for a bigger screen. I know it will cause extra weight but there's some room to play with since I want something under 1.83KG

07-06-2021 12:32pm

Headshot wrote: »

Thanks Glasso but looking for a bigger screen. I know it will cause extra weight but there's some room to play with since I want something under 1.83KG

honor magicbook pro as said then

with Brexit can't order from hihonor site tho

https://www.hihonor.com/unitedkingdom/product/honor-magicbook-pro/

maybe contact them and ask can you get UK keyboard through euro site

Mwengwe · 11-06-2021 10:58am

Having an absolute nightmare trying to order a Matebook from Amazon. Long story short, they won't send it and keep pushing back the delivery date.

Is it worth risking something like Harvey Norman or Littlewoods?

Buying a Laptop: The current Generation

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