New laptop - budget £500 max

Jason56d

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Friend of mine is after a new laptop before he leaves the country for good in about 6-8 weeks.

Will be using it for Skype, web browsing and a few other non graphics intensive programmes, so onboard graphics are fine. But he will be watching TV & films on it.

His requirements are (partly due to one of the programmes he will be using regularly):

Intel i3 or i5
Min 4GB ram
500GB min SSHD
Built in webcam

I have had a look and its a minefield now. Wish he could settle for a desktop, sooooo much easier!
 
Does it need to be a standard power i3/i5 or is he just after the features and the more common low power variant will suffice? If it's the features then it's worth pointing out that some of them may be available on Pentium/Celeron models too, such as quicksync being on certain models.

The UK laptop market is somewhat stuck in the past, so if he doesn't mind a bit of work it's likely to be easier to buy a £350 machine and a £150 500GB SSD separately than it will be to find a sub-£500 machine with a 500GB SSD.
 
For £500 you could probably get an i7

What size Screen ?

We have a few ex demos with full warranty
 
EG

Lenovo G710 - I7-4700MQ 8GB RAM 1TB HDD 17" BLACK Win8.1 £539
Grade D: Product shows signs of use. Possible cosmetic marking which in no way affects function. Possible severe box damage or not in original box. May be missing non-essential items as specified

BLACK - Lenovo Z510 Intel Core i5 8GB 1000GB Wifi 15.6in Laptop Black W8.1 £510
Grade D: Product shows signs of use. Possible cosmetic marking which in no way affects function. Possible severe box damage or not in original box. May be missing non-essential items as specified

Asus X550LD Intel Core i5 8GB 1000GB Wifi 15.6in Laptop Black £479
Grade D: Product shows signs of use. Possible cosmetic marking which in no way affects function. Possible severe box damage or not in original box. May be missing non-essential items as specified
 
Does it need to be a standard power i3/i5 or is he just after the features and the more common low power variant will suffice? If it's the features then it's worth pointing out that some of them may be available on Pentium/Celeron models too, such as quicksync being on certain models.

The UK laptop market is somewhat stuck in the past, so if he doesn't mind a bit of work it's likely to be easier to buy a £350 machine and a £150 500GB SSD separately than it will be to find a sub-£500 machine with a 500GB SSD.

That's what I have been looking at doing for him. Getting a decentish laptop for £350-400 and fitting a SSD.

The specific program (developed and issued by a community friend ;)) he will be using works best with an i5, but with his requirements and budget, was asking a bit much. So asked the developer about an i3, and he thinks the difference to run a task, with be about 10-15% slower, not a major issue.

But the option of laptop then add a SSD seems best now. So I will be looking at that. Any decent deals around?
 
EG

Lenovo G710 - I7-4700MQ 8GB RAM 1TB HDD 17" BLACK Win8.1 £539
Grade D: Product shows signs of use. Possible cosmetic marking which in no way affects function. Possible severe box damage or not in original box. May be missing non-essential items as specified

BLACK - Lenovo Z510 Intel Core i5 8GB 1000GB Wifi 15.6in Laptop Black W8.1 £510
Grade D: Product shows signs of use. Possible cosmetic marking which in no way affects function. Possible severe box damage or not in original box. May be missing non-essential items as specified

Asus X550LD Intel Core i5 8GB 1000GB Wifi 15.6in Laptop Black £479
Grade D: Product shows signs of use. Possible cosmetic marking which in no way affects function. Possible severe box damage or not in original box. May be missing non-essential items as specified

Thanks for the offer and list, but he wants a brand new one with an EU wide warranty (if possible) as he is moving to Bulgaria at end of March.
 

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