new laptop advice

[amyjhill]

Hi,

I am getting a bit lost with all the possibilities - ram, processor, hard drive, ssd, models etc of laptops!

I have a budget of £500 - £600 to spend on a laptop to use for day to day browsing, tv/film streaming, photo editing.

My old and nearly kaput laptop was a Toshiba Satelite L670-12J...Any help and advice would be appreciated so I have a bit of an idea what to go for

 

[GreyCatz]

Hello, Amy:

I'd say you're looking at a light notebook with decent specs and a nice display - it should be a definite improvement compared to your Toshiba. Here's an example:

From John Lewis, at £580:
https/www.johnlewis.com/hp-pavilion-14-al106na-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-14-natural-silver/p3136749

It comes with the latest generation (7th) dual-core Intel i5 CPU and 8GBs of RAM. Storage is a bit low at 128GBs but it's SSD which means the laptop will boot up quickly and applications will load faster too. The 14" display is smaller than the one on your 17.3" Toshiba, but it's 2K and IPS which means you can use it as an actual portable device (superior viewing angles).

The built-in graphics processor (Intel HD 620) is a significant improvement on the GMA unit in the Satellite. At 1.5 kg the HP is markedly lighter, too, which makes it easier to carry around.

Again, storage is the weak point, but documents can be stored in the cloud (OneDrive, DropBox or Google Cloud) and for £48 you can get an external 1TB HDD for editing projects and video downloads:
https/www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Canvio-Basics-Portable-External/dp/B00KWHJY7Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1488307364&sr=1-4&keywords=external+hard+drive+1tb

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[starscream27]

this has some really great specs for the price
https/www.amazon.co.uk/Aorus-X7-V5-CF1-17-3-Inch-GeForce/dp/B01C7JLLZY/ref=sr_1_8?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1488453239&sr=1-8
17.3-Inch
Intel Core i7 6820HK, 16 GB RAM
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M graphics with 12GB total (6GBx2) GDDR5 in NVIDIA SLI
HDMI 2.0: True 4K at 60Hz
1 TB HDD Plus 512 GB SSD
USB 3.1 Type-C: 10Gbps / 5V 3A
£521.00

 

[GreyCatz]

I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but it's also way too good to be true.

Aorus is a line of high-end gaming rigs that are even more expensive than their XMG siblings (it's the same company), and a similar rig was tested July last year priced at £2,100:
http/www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/1404929/aorus-x7-pro-v5-review-a-4k-gaming-monster

Even allowing for all manner of Brexit-related price fluctuations, £521 is a huge red flag.

 

[starscream27]

you're probably right. but i did check the seller rep before recommending and it had 91% approval rating (78 reviews).

so here's a seemingly safer choice
https/www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LG7N43K/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

 

[GreyCatz]

That's seems a much more realistic option. However:

In favour of the HP:
Battery life: ASUS 6 hours v. HP 10 hours
Network standard: ASUS bgn v. HP ac
Display: ASUS TN v. HP IPS
Weight: ASUS 2.3 kg v. HP 1.5 kg

In favour of the ASUS:
GPU: ASUS 2GB 940M v. HP HD 620 IGP
Price: ASUS £525 v. HP £580
Screen: ASUS 15.6" v. HP 14"

I'd still recommend the HP.