Yet another "new laptop, what to buy" thread

andysdad

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In my defence, PCs do change rapidly :D

Looking for a 15" Windows laptop for browsing, home use. No gaming or anything like that.

I want this to last a few years so looking at I5 or I7 8th Gen onwards. I have a 2.5" 1TB SSD to fit, so small HDD not a problem as I can upgrade that myself. Prefer 8GB+ RAM. No DVD needed.

Looking at this Lenovo at £399 in Currys ATM. I5 8th Gen, 8GB, decent battery.

No "get a Mac, don't look back" comments please.

Budget up to £500; would consider manufacturer refurb'ed.

Please let me know about your bargain buys!

Cheers,

A
 
My lad has an Lenovo ideapad i3 since 2015 and is convinced its slowing down, so am thinking: do nothing, upgrade it, or get another laptop. I looked at the model you suggested in latest WhichMag review (but poss an i3??) and was surprised at (1) low cost stated as £299 (2) it only scored 44% Don't buy, poor batt life, screen, speakers, poorly made.

Your msg suggests he could just upgrade / speed-up his laptop by removing the existing HDD and subs a 2.5" 1TB SSD, is that easy / cheap?
Looking at the back of his laptop there are loadsa screws so presumably Lenovo ideapads are workonable.
 
Yes, the I3 version is £100 cheaper.

Usually you can change the HDD to SSD - looking at Crucial's website they list SSD upgrades for the LENOVO IdeaPad S145-15IWL so it is possible.

An SSD makes boot-up faster and speeds up things generally; but it may be RAM that is the limit. Look at Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del and select Task Manager) when the PC is working to see if RAM and or HDD are the limiting factor on performance (running at 100%)

Then run CCleaner and Malwarebytes to see if something simple is slowing it down. Remove any unused software/bloatware (check Task Manager for software that you don't need that is using lots of CPU or HDD).

Lastly you could wipe the existing system (make a disk-image backup first, just in case!) and reinstall everything (download a new Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft - usually the laptop remembers the Windows Key and allows reinstallation of a clean copy).

Looking at the reviews my Lenovo may not be the deal I thought. Lenovo was formerly the IBM Laptop division, clearly they have lost the edge that Big Blue gave them if they are getting such poor reviews now.

The search continues - ANYONE ELSE got any laptop suggestions?

HTH

A
 
My lad has an Lenovo ideapad i3 since 2015 and is convinced its slowing down, so am thinking: do nothing, upgrade it, or get another laptop. I looked at the model you suggested in latest WhichMag review (but poss an i3??) and was surprised at (1) low cost stated as £299 (2) it only scored 44% Don't buy, poor batt life, screen, speakers, poorly made.

Your msg suggests he could just upgrade / speed-up his laptop by removing the existing HDD and subs a 2.5" 1TB SSD, is that easy / cheap?
Looking at the back of his laptop there are loadsa screws so presumably Lenovo ideapads are workonable.

I think my son has the same Laptop which we bought him for Xmas that year. he complained after a while that it was 'slow' and stuff kept freezing. The Laptop came with just 4GB RAM so 2 weeks ago I ordered another 8GB RAM costing me 70 Euro and it is now working a treat.
 
I think that all laptops at that end - are built to a price.

That said - I’ve always had IBM/Lenovo and wouldn’t go for anything else.

Lenovo also provide a guide as to which screws have to be removed for each access you require internally. Sockets are numbered.

Not sure if simply installing an SSD - stops any auto-defrag function, but would suggest checking that it is disabled.
 
Bought my wife a Lenovo Ideapad 530s, its been very good apart from windows 10 crap. But I am a mac user :)
 
Another plug for Utopia computers in Kilmarnock -- they build some top end gaming systems (circa 1500 for a racing laptop) - but also supply ex-office refurberd kit. We've got a t440 lenovo thinkpad that we bought through them - - their warranties are really good -- the T series thinkpads are pretty bullet proof, had them for years on jobs and never broke one yet.
 
Another plug for Utopia computers in Kilmarnock -- they build some top end gaming systems (circa 1500 for a racing laptop) - but also supply ex-office refurberd kit. We've got a t440 lenovo thinkpad that we bought through them - - their warranties are really good -- the T series thinkpads are pretty bullet proof, had them for years on jobs and never broke one yet.

If you can find a local place that sells refurbed Thinkpads - you are on to a winner, I think. One of the beauties of Lenovo - is the modular build. Keyboards are great, and are replaceable for not a lot if you damage it.

I’d seriously consider that approach.
 
Should be some good Black Friday deals on laptops at curry’s
 
Only you can decide if a spec suits your needs. As a brand, I am very happy with Lenovo. I have had a Lenovo Moto G5 phone for over 2 years and last year I bought a £300 Lenovo Ideapad 330 laptop in the Argos sale. It has worked exactly as expected. AMD A9 processor with 1TB spinning rust disk and 8GB of RAM. It does what I want which is mostly web surfacing, streaming spotify or R4 to a bluetooth speaker, streaming video to a chromecast and running a torrent client. It's not as quick as my work laptop, a Dell i5 with SSD but nothing I do is time critical on the personal laptop. Hopefully I will get another 2 years from it before the HDD goes the way of all HDD and then it will have been decent value for money.
 
Thanks all for the comments so far.

Keeping 'em peeled for Black Friday deals....

A
 
Looked at laptops in the middle ground ie c.£550 and they've all got various drawbacks eg: fast but touchpad irratic or rich vibrant colours but screen has annoying refections etc. Am not keen to raise the bar to £800 stuff because am still bitter about an expensive sony laptop which died on me very prematurely (ie based on my ltd experience ££ buys features not necessarily longevity in laptops). So am tempted to go for the Curry's Lenovo ideapad i5, 8Gb, 256SSD at £399 esp as its modular construction means it can be repaired when necessary BUT what are the ports USB2.0 or USB3.0 or microUSB and WTF is Windows 10 S all about (Sport mode :D ) ?? There is a 'similar' at ao.com the Lenovo ideapad S145-14IWL 14" Laptop £425 i5, 8Gb, 512SSD with good selection of ports etc (apparently a Blk Friday reduction of £170).
 
Another :thumb for Lenovo.

My wife is really smart and always researches stuff properly. Her Lenovo is about 5 years old and looks pristine and works faultlessly. Wish I had done the same.
 
There is a 'similar' at ao.com the Lenovo ideapad S145-14IWL 14" Laptop £425 i5, 8Gb, 512SSD with good selection of ports etc (apparently a Blk Friday reduction of £170).

Interesting - same part number but AO says 14". Curry's says 15.6" and different HDDs. AO has the I3 version at only £269 with 1TB rust disk.

Still researching!

A
 
S mode: you can disable it as it sounds dreadful https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4020089/windows-10-in-s-mode-faq

Buy from Ao.com, Curry's is a brand to avoid IMV - for me, having bought a 15.6" laptop, I wish I had gone for a 14" version. I treat my 15" like a desktop and use a tablet elsewhere. My former laptop, a 14" Samsung was much more portable when it wasn't eating batteries. 14" is 250g lighter and obviously, smaller dimensions. Otherwise, the spec of the 2 laptops seems very similar.
 
Good find Blackal. There’s a full HD i5 in there with larger ssd than the Curry's one for the same money.

Thanks everyone again.

A
 
OK, I give up. Pls what is the model name / number / spec for the laptop on the Lenovo site with HD i5 and larger ssd than the Curry's one for the same money? There seems to be a baffling array of laptops on the Lenovo website and for some strange reason my desktop is failing to display laptops on the RHS of my screen (bizarrely only on the Lenovo website) Doh! Thanks!:blast
 
Scroll right (or click the blue "Next" box), the first one at £399.

ideapad S145 15 - Grey
Part Number: 81MV00ABUK

Scroll down for the spec. It is full Windows 10 as well, not S.

HTH
 


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