Best Laptop For Under £300?

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blue_Fire

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Mar 13, 2016
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Hey guys im looking to get a new laptop so i can code on the go. I'm looking for something that has a lot of ram (preferably 16gb) and a new processor that is fast. I'd quite like it to look nice as well. Storage doesn't matter to me because im going to be putting a SSD in it. I've tried to have a look but there's so many options out there and i wanted to come to a reliable community,
 
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GreyCatz
At under £300, finding a device with 8GBs is going to be a stretch, and finding one with 16GBs an actual miracle. In fact, in this price range you'll be lucky to get 16GBs of storage.

And did you say "a new processor that is fast"? For coding I'd say at least a dual-core Broadwell i3 CPU. The most prevalent unit in this segment is Intel's slow-poke Celeron N3050. And I'll graciously ignore your request that "it look nice as well".

Joking aside, at £300 it's going to be 4GBs of RAM and a Rockchip CPU/Intel Atom chip. Or this Lenovo:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-g50-15-6-laptop-silver-10150313-pdt.html

At £270, it meets the minimum requirements for getting actual work done (2GHz Broadwell i3) and...
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At under £300, finding a device with 8GBs is going to be a stretch, and finding one with 16GBs an actual miracle. In fact, in this price range you'll be lucky to get 16GBs of storage.

And did you say "a new processor that is fast"? For coding I'd say at least a dual-core Broadwell i3 CPU. The most prevalent unit in this segment is Intel's slow-poke Celeron N3050. And I'll graciously ignore your request that "it look nice as well".

Joking aside, at £300 it's going to be 4GBs of RAM and a Rockchip CPU/Intel Atom chip. Or this Lenovo:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-g50-15-6-laptop-silver-10150313-pdt.html

At £270, it meets the minimum requirements for getting actual work done (2GHz Broadwell i3) and offers tons of storage (I know that's less important to you). Only 4GBs of RAM, but if you can refrain from running several browser tabs in the background while working, it might just be enough.

John Lewis has this £300 ASUS:
http://www.johnlewis.com/asus-x540sa-laptop-intel-pentium-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-/p2915745?colour=Silver
This one has 8GBs of RAM but uses a 1.6GHz Pentium N3700 CPU. At least it's not an N3050. Lots of storage...

If you can find an extra £50, consider this MSI from Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GE60-2QD-15-6-Inch-Notebook-i7-4720HQ/dp/B00WU9RV8S/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1479754788&sr=1-3
With a quad-core i7 (an ageing Haswell, I know), 8GBs of RAM and a 2GB GTX 950M card, most of your demands are more than met. I have been going over the MSI with a fine comb, but it is actually new. As far as I can see, a real bargain.

In the beauty contest, the Lenovo takes the lead, but the MSI isn't too shabby-looking, either.

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.
 
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Solution


Thanks for the suggestions, that MSI laptop looks nice. I was also looking and i found this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyberpower-Fangbook-i5-6600K-GeForce-UPGRADE/dp/B01FI3E2S4/ref=sr_1_13?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1479926611&sr=1-13&th=1
And these specs cant be legit can they?!?! If so im willing to spend that extra money for it. Any information you have on it would be nice thanks.
 
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You know, I've seen that Fangbook a couple of times, too, and I thought the same thing. After doing some digging, it does seem to be perfectly 'legit'.

But, if you click the 'Available from these sellers' link, you'll find there's only 1 seller (newly started), AND there is a comment to the effect that you should contact the seller before placing the order. It could be a simple question of procedure, but you probably should.

This is the web site of CyberPowerPC in USA: https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

Since the seller, PrimeStore LtD, is 'newly started' there's no customer feedback to go on. Of course, all Amazon.co.uk rules and policies obtain.

I think this is a rare confluence of (a) global Black Friday fever, (b) a US PC company hell-bent on under-cutting the competition and (c) a UK seller eager to gain a foothold on Amazon. But contact the UK seller all the same.

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.
 
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And now the item has been removed...Brilliant
 
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Next time i see a good offer im just gonna buy it
 
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Can't argue with that...
 
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I've found two laptops that i like
The cyberpower: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Specialist-Optimus-VT17-960-Notebook-Black/dp/B01DJGUR4A/ref=sr_1_11?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1480018641&sr=1-11&keywords=laptop
PC Specialist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Specialist-Optimus-VT17-960-Notebook-Black/dp/B01DJGUR4A/ref=sr_1_11?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1480018641&sr=1-11&keywords=laptop
The price doesn't really matter but i'm still questioning the legitimacy of the Cyberpower laptop, as they don't really mention the battery at all and in the title it says '6600k' but just below '6600HQ'. So if you have any advice it would be much appreciated.
 
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The plot thickens...

1. The 2 links you provided are duplicates (shows the same £350 PC Specialist laptop). Same UK seller as the CyberPower laptop, PrimeLtd.

2. Now the Fangbook is back up on Amazon UK, still at £420.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyberpower-Fangbook-i5-6600K-GeForce-UPGRADE/dp/B01FI3E2S4/ref=sr_1_13?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1479926611&sr=1-13&th=1

I still don't know what to make of it, but don't let me stand in your way of a potential bargain.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.


Edit: Oh, that's the other link, sorry.
 
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The "ageing Haswell" performs almost the same as the i7-6700hq they're putting in most gaming laptops these days, and makes those other suggestions look like doorstops in comparison. Are you sure you weren't seeing things when you saw the MSI @ 350? 😉

 
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Be very, very, very careful about extra cheap stuff like this.
A laptop that should be 1,000, selling for 350 from a brand new 'reseller' (with no history), is a HUGE red flag.

Either they are a scammer, or their account has been hacked/scammed.
"Contact seller before purchasing" is another red flag.

Just the other day, there was some part (GPU?) that was really cheap. Like 1/4 the price it should be.
The seller required that you purchase an Amazon gift card in the amount of $xxx, and then transfer that gift card to them.

"Steal of the century" often leads to SCAMSCAMSCAM
 
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I agree about the 'doorstops' comment (and calling a quad-core Haswell i7 'ageing' was perhaps a bit dismissive), but then the MSI was somewhat of an oddity - possibly in more ways than I intended.

The MSI is relisted on and off, variously priced at £1,024 and £350. It seems that USAFret may be right about the hacking option. Either that or the UK seller, PrimeLtd, is not only 'new to Amazon' but also new to the concept of online trading.

GreyCatz.
 
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I'm really glad to hear that - for a moment you seemed to be headed for a "bad neighbourhood" with all those crazy Amazon listings. Now you've got what you wanted, and that extra money was quite the 'miracle' I mentioned earlier.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.
 
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