What to look for in a laptop?

[Gostevie]

Dear Fools,

I am looking to buy myself a laptop for home use. I have been looking at the Currys PC World website and am a bit overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of different models available and don't really know where to start. My requirements are:

* Must be Windows based
* Will be used primarily for office type stuff (Word, Excel, Email, Internet etc.)
* Must have Wi-Fi
* Must be able to connect it to a printer
* Not interested in gaming

I'm not particularly price sensitive but don't want to pay for a load of features and performance that I don't need.

Could any kind Fools who know about this sort of thing give me some advice on what I should be looking for in terms of RAM, storage, processor etc., and also if there is anything I should be avoiding?

Many thanks,

Gostevie

[kiloran]

Nowt to do with performance, but a few other things you might consider:

Screen. Is it matt or reflective (hate the latter!). IPS is normally far better than simple(?) LCD

Keyboard. I bought an HP laptop about 18 months ago. Very nice, but the keys are marked with fairly thin black text on a silver background. Not so good in low light. The comma key is next to the full-stop key and it can be hard to tell the difference (I'm the opposite of a touch-typist)

Power connector. The HP has a connector with a right-angle bend a bit like this https://img.dxcdn.com/newprdimgs/202002 ... 967412.jpg. When it's on my lap, my knee keeps hitting the connector, putting a strain on it and sometimes disconnecting power. Much prefer a straight connector

Fan noise. Hard to quantify but can be irritating

--kiloran

[scrumpyjack]

I have just bought a new laptop. I had 2 other criteria - had to have a touchscreen and screen not less than 15"

In the end went for the Asus Zenbook Flip 15"

Very happy with it

https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-zenbook- ... y/p4855911

[Mike4]

I have just bought a new laptop. I had 2 other criteria - had to have a touchscreen and screen not less than 15"

In the end went for the Asus Zenbook Flip 15"

Very happy with it

https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-zenbook- ... y/p4855911

May I swerve off topic and ask the point of a touch screen when you have a keyboard? I have never felt the need for one and wondering if I'm missing out on something important. Also, I can see nothing on a TLF screen that needs to be touched. Or is it things like the "Submit" button one normally clicks with a mouse?

Thanks!

[bungeejumper]

Keyboard feel matters more than you might suppose with a laptop. And one of the things I really like about my old Acer is that the screen has a particularly wide optimal viewing angle. (I'm thinking of the way that the view often fades to grey as you move to one side of the centre. As you might, for example, if there were two of you wanting to look at the screen simultaneously.)

All screens are not equal in this respect - or they certainly didn't used to be. Samsungs were pretty good too.

I can't get on with touchpads, personally. I prefer a miniature corded mouse with a handy retractable cable (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-Travel ... 01MSJPX06/), although I suppose a cordless mouse would obviate the problem altogether?

BJ

[scrumpyjack]

I have just bought a new laptop. I had 2 other criteria - had to have a touchscreen and screen not less than 15"

In the end went for the Asus Zenbook Flip 15"

Very happy with it

https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-zenbook- ... y/p4855911

May I swerve off topic and ask the point of a touch screen when you have a keyboard? I have never felt the need for one and wondering if I'm missing out on something important. Also, I can see nothing on a TLF screen that needs to be touched. Or is it things like the "Submit" button one normally clicks with a mouse?

Thanks!

I find it very useful simply to be able to touch things on the screen rather than use a mouse. Gives a lot more flexibility
Anything you could point a mouse at and click, just tap with a finger, plus all the other things you can do with touch - moving, resizing etc, just a much better user experience I find

[Lootman]

Keyboard feel matters more than you might suppose with a laptop. And one of the things I really like about my old Acer is that the screen has a particularly wide optimal viewing angle. (I'm thinking of the way that the view often fades to grey as you move to one side of the centre. As you might, for example, if there were two of you wanting to look at the screen simultaneously.)

All screens are not equal in this respect - or they certainly didn't used to be. Samsungs were pretty good too.

I can't get on with touchpads, personally. I prefer a miniature corded mouse with a handy retractable cable (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-Travel ... 01MSJPX06/), although I suppose a cordless mouse would obviate the problem altogether?

I had a cordless mouse (and also keyboard) a few years ago. Hated them. The mouse needed a replacement battery every few weeks, and the keyboard got through a couple as well. Nothing is more annoying than being in the middle of something and the mouse freezes because the battery went flat.

Agree on the lack of need for a touchscreen. They make sense on phones and very small devices. But I'd always rather have a real keyboard.

I'm sure the OP has his reasons but I wondered why, since this is only for home office use, he wants a laptop at all? A desktop machine has the advantage that you can customise the keyboard and screen. And unlike with a laptop, if the screen fails or the keyboard breaks or gets worn (*) you don't have to throw the whole kit out like you do with a laptop.

(*) I stopped using one laptop because the letters on the keys all wore down. The rest of the machine still worked fine, but it made it unusable to me.

[swill453]

I had a cordless mouse (and also keyboard) a few years ago. Hated them. The mouse needed a replacement battery every few weeks

My cordless mouse, which is a few years old now, goes through a set of batteries in about a year, and flashes a red LED for at least a couple of weeks while still working perfectly before they need replaced.

Scott.

[Urbandreamer]

Have you thought about connectors?

Do you want USB-A sockets (the original sort) or USB-C (tiny new sort).

Are you likely to use the laptop with an additional (or more) screen? If so then you might have an opinion about that connector.

Keyboard. As has been pointed out, it can be very important when writing. Not so much if simply web surfing.

Excel, do you need a numeric keypad?
The keyboard on my X230 is great, but I've had to get a WiFi numeric keyboard for spreadsheet work. The dongle is USB-A.

Internet, just websites or do you want to watch video? In which case the size of the screen may matter, as may the speakers.

Zoom / Skype, how good is the camera and what of a headset and mic connectors?

Touchpad, I have known people get very upset if this is not in the centre. What of click-keys. I have seen attempts to combine them with the touchpad and it doesn't work well. Some people are even still dedicated to the Thinkpad nipple.

Battery duration / life. Do you intend using it plugged in all the time or do you need hours of battery life? How easy or possible is it to replace the battery?

Environment. Do you need a laptop that will survive coffee, wine or even dropping in a bath? What of dropping a metre or two onto a solid floor? Does the screen need to be visible in the garden on a sunny day?

Maintenance. Are you happy paying the manufacturer to change the fan, if they even will. Or do you want a laptop that you can maintain yourself?

Storage. How big a hard drive do you need? What of optical disks (most don't offer internal options now).

Things to avoid:
Chromebooks, good or not they are not windows.
Student/basic/entry level. They are likely minimum spec and can't be upgraded.

[Breelander]

May I swerve off topic and ask the point of a touch screen when you have a keyboard? .... I can see nothing on a TLF screen that needs to be touched. Or is it things like the "Submit" button one normally clicks with a mouse?

Well, anything you could click with a mouse can equally well be touched: all links, the Quote or Thanks buttons, etc. But perhaps the most used function would be to touch and swipe to scroll through a long page, or use two fingers to pinch-zoom.

One of my laptops has a touch screen, you'd be surprised how much you'd end up using it if you had one. But no, it's not an essential unless you want a convertible you can use like a tablet.

[Gostevie]

Hi Lootman,

I'm sure the OP has his reasons but I wondered why, since this is only for home office use, he wants a laptop at all

Sorry, my post was a bit shabby. It would be mostly for home use but I might want to take it to an office or a pub occasionally.

Any thoughts on my original question would be much appreciated. I'm rather a novice at IT.

Gostevie

[Urbandreamer]

Sorry, my post was a bit shabby. It would be mostly for home use but I might want to take it to an office or a pub occasionally.

Any thoughts on my original question would be much appreciated. I'm rather a novice at IT.

Pub requirements are VERY different from home or office. For pub work, not only would a small laptop be better but it needs to survive beer and being dropped. Home office, a large screen and numeric keypad are very much an advantage.

In fact I regard the two requirements to be far enough apart that you really need two machines.

That said, my wife uses a Thinkpad Yoga for work. In the office she uses external screen, keyboard, mouse and numeric keypad. It is small enough and tough enough to take to a pub. This video includes an example drop test and how it deals with car parks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUkt5KL7lb0
I'd avoid the cellery processor though and pick one with at least an I5.

You can pick up second hand machines fairly cheaply and they are designed to last.

They are not waterproof, but survive serious fluid spills. Here is a film of an older model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U5n2WaMMHo&t=23s

Other manufacturers do make some laptops to similar specs or better. It's just good enough for my family.

[Redmires]

Have a look at refurbished laptops. You can get a decent i5 for around £250 with Windows 10 Pro. The Dell E5440 is a favourite with me, we have four of them now. A no nonsense, no frills business laptop that does everything I need and has never let me down. Add a docking station and you have all the expansion you need. I use Valu Computers but many other companies to choose from. And if it gets nicked or lost, you don't lose a thousand pound item.

[swill453]

To quickly answer your other questions - 8GB RAM minimum and probably not worth getting more for your needs, and a 256GB or 512GB SSD.

Scott.

[Gostevie]

To quickly answer your other questions - 8GB RAM minimum and probably not worth getting more for your needs, and a 256GB or 512GB SSD.

Scott.

Thanks Scott. That's just the sort of practical advice I was looking for.

Gostevie

[staffordian]

I'd definitely be looking at an SSD rather than an HDD.

I swapped the old HDD in my Acer laptop recently for a similar sized (1TB) SSD and it has turbocharged it's performance, especially the boot time and time to load programs.

[gryffron]

Go into a shop and play with some. Try to select some text. Right button click. Drag and drop.

Look and feel is surprisingly important with laptops. And much harder to change afterwards than a desktop. Screen? Keyboard layout and size? What sort of built in mouse does it have? Even if you prefer a separate device, having a usable built-in mouse device is useful sometimes. Trains etc. I hate mouse pads too.

Even if you don't ultimately buy it from the shop, it will give you a much better idea of what features you like.

I'll give you one more thing to think about. Bluetooth. Lots of Bluetooth devices abut these days. Built in means not having a dongle hanging out of the USB port that gets bent/bashed/dislodged.

Technical specs - much less important than they used to be. Just don't buy the very cheapest model. It's full of obsolete parts.

Gryff

[servodude]

I'll throw in a tuppence worth related to a couple of previous points:

Pub requirements are VERY different from home or office. For pub work, not only would a small laptop be better but it needs to survive beer and being dropped. Home office, a large screen and numeric keypad are very much an advantage.

this matches my experience, and I'll add decent battery life to the list of requirements for an on the go machine

I've a couple of whizzbang overpowered laptops that only get a couple of hours on the battery
- i leave them at home and drive them from a surface book I carry with me

One of my laptops has a touch screen, you'd be surprised how much you'd end up using it if you had one.

I'll agree with this also... doubly so if you think you might ever use a stylus for drawing, annotating or note taking; it became one of those "I miss it when it's gone" things for me

The points raised before about ports/connectivity are very good; at home I "dock" my laptop to a real (i.e heavy clacky) keyboard and extra monitor
- if you think you might do that make sure you've got the access you need

I reckon that resolution is more important that screen "size" for me
- a good 13 or 14" laptop being a sweet spot between portability and screen real-estate

The Thinkpad Yoga mentioned before is a very good suggestion if you're going be taking it out of the house
My daughter has been using one of the i7 ones at school for years 10 & 11 (and recently a shed load of zoom etc); I'm very impressed with it

- sd

[Bminusrob]

I'd agree that an SSD (solid state disk) does wonders for the performance of a laptop. It then begs the question of how much storage space you require. I have a 1TB disk in my laptop, 65% full because I take an awful lot of photos, and have 20+ years worth on my laptop as well as my while CD collection. I think 1TB is more than enough for most people, and 500Gb is probably sufficient.

The other question I would ask is "Why is Windows" your first requirement? Having just restored a notebook PC which was too gutless to run windows, by installing Ubuntu, I find that the Libre Offie suite of programs is brilliant. It has equivalents of all the Micosoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Powepoint), and you even get a Visio equivalent included (all free), whereas you have to pay extra for Microsoft Visio. For a non-techie, I wouldn't necessarily advocate doing your own Ubuntu, but it may be worth looking at a Chromebook, as I don't see anything in your requirements which would make Windows better than a Chromebook. Chromebooks also tend to have much longer battery lives than Windows (that is, you can run for up to 12 hours without mains support, compared with 6 or 7 hours for Windows).

[Gostevie]

The other question I would ask is "Why is Windows" your first requirement? Having just restored a notebook PC which was too gutless to run windows, by installing Ubuntu, I find that the Libre Offie suite of programs is brilliant.

Simply because the companies that I will be doing consultancy work for will probably be using Windows and I want compatibility. Also, I am no techie (far from it!) and Windows is what I am used to.

Gostevie