who to buy from - #2

[didds]

following on from the recent thread ...

Wow - just had a bit of a shock!

My mum enquired about a new laptop.

So I looked on ebuyer - basic search for win 10, 8Gb min RAM, and the cheapest they have is £530 - and that with "only" a 128Gb SSD HD storage.
https://www.ebuyer.com/982228-microsoft ... -1gf-00002

Out on interest I then had a quick look on Amazon - same very basic spec (not even bothering with CPU speed here as yet) - I get £236 ! Half the price in effect for an entry level system.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultra-Thin-Pro ... 08HMZT7NV/

have ebuyer become really expensive recently? is this a Jeff Bezos bargain basement pile-em-high-flog-em-cheap deal?

Note Im not bothered about build quality or whistles and bells - this is for an 83 year old that doesn't undersdtand as much as she tells everybody she does!

didds

[bungeejumper]

As previously - it's been a record year for laptop sales, and stocks are low. All that WFH, all those schoolkids needing computers, all those first-time Zoomers wanting to see their grandchildren. I looked at LaptopsDirect, which is usually pretty good for new Acers, and it had nothing less than £500 apart from a few chromebooks. (LD also do refurbs, but they're really not my thing.)

We're still running a five year old Acer Aspire laptop with a Celeron processor, 16 inches and 4gb/500gb. Copes with everything we need to throw at it, and it cost us £199. With a proper DVD drive, too!

BJ

[bungeejumper]

Prolly the Acer at Argos (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire- ... 2693811838?) would be the more trouble-free option. No SDD but a 1tb drive. I do like the wide viewing angles on Acers (same as Samsungs, I think.) Oh, and it's red so she'd be able to find it.

Which gets me thinking about a ram upgrade for our old thing. Hmmmm....

BJ

[AF62]

Out on interest I then had a quick look on Amazon - same very basic spec (not even bothering with CPU speed here as yet) - I get £236 ! Half the price in effect for an entry level system.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultra-Thin-Pro ... 08HMZT7NV/

have ebuyer become really expensive recently? is this a Jeff Bezos bargain basement pile-em-high-flog-em-cheap deal?

You do realise that one isn't being sold by Amazon but by ShenZhenShiChuMengKeJiYouXianGongSi (and no I haven't been randomly hitting the keyboard) in Shenzhen, and the chance of the VAT you are being charged actually reaching HMRC is about zero.

[Lootman]

As previously - it's been a record year for laptop sales, and stocks are low. All that WFH, all those schoolkids needing computers, all those first-time Zoomers wanting to see their grandchildren. I looked at LaptopsDirect, which is usually pretty good for new Acers, and it had nothing less than £500 apart from a few chromebooks. (LD also do refurbs, but they're really not my thing.)

We're still running a five year old Acer Aspire laptop with a Celeron processor, 16 inches and 4gb/500gb. Copes with everything we need to throw at it, and it cost us £199. With a proper DVD drive, too!

Yep, paid £200 for mine too, except that it is a Dell. Works fine but then I am not a sophisticated user so that is all I am willing to pay.

Same insane price thing is going on with phones as well. I am looking out for a new one for my youngest son. I don't want to spend a lot because he keeps on losing or breaking them. But I can't find anything new and decent for under £400.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

following on from the recent thread ...

Wow - just had a bit of a shock!

My mum enquired about a new laptop.

So I looked on ebuyer - basic search for win 10, 8Gb min RAM, and the cheapest they have is £530 - and that with "only" a 128Gb SSD HD storage.
https://www.ebuyer.com/982228-microsoft ... -1gf-00002

Out on interest I then had a quick look on Amazon - same very basic spec (not even bothering with CPU speed here as yet) - I get £236 ! Half the price in effect for an entry level system.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultra-Thin-Pro ... 08HMZT7NV/

have ebuyer become really expensive recently? is this a Jeff Bezos bargain basement pile-em-high-flog-em-cheap deal?

Note Im not bothered about build quality or whistles and bells - this is for an 83 year old that doesn't undersdtand as much as she tells everybody she does!

didds

The reality is the specifications can be very different even for two laptops that look the same. The latest Intel i7 chip is 11th generation. However, most laptops offer cheaper versions of the i7 chip such as 9th or 10th generation. And that's true about most parts of the laptop. Ram, memory and all the other parts come in varying specs too. You can have 8GB of RAM but it could be DDR3 or DDR4. And there's a cost difference. So 8GB of Ram can vary costwise dependent upon what sort of Ram it is.

AiY

[AF62]

Same insane price thing is going on with phones as well. I am looking out for a new one for my youngest son. I don't want to spend a lot because he keeps on losing or breaking them. But I can't find anything new and decent for under £400.

Nothing decent for under £400?

Who is being fussy, you or your son! If it is your son then surely his past behaviour means he has no say and should be grateful to receive anything.

[bungeejumper]

Same insane price thing is going on with phones as well. I am looking out for a new one for my youngest son. I don't want to spend a lot because he keeps on losing or breaking them. But I can't find anything new and decent for under £400.

Off topic, but look at a One Plus Nord, a very, very nice phone. About 380 quid.

https://www.oneplus.com/uk/nord

I have a real mental block when it comes to spending vast amounts on a mobile phone. Then again, maybe it's because I don't use it more than twice a week, and I don't want to get sucked into 24/7 phone-dependence in the same way as some people I know? My £100-odd LG K8 (Android Snapdragon) does everything I want.

Whereas my daughters think nothing of blowing £800 on an iPhone, and they can both attest that they crack and break just as easily as any other phone.

BJ

[bungeejumper]

Stone me, as Hancock would have said, I've just had a shock to rival Didds's opening post. Did I just say that my mobile phone (LG K8) was around a hundred quid? Well, it was £99 when I bought it new in August 2018. And now it's £180, and that's from an Amazon seller with only an 82% rating.

The times they are truly a'changin'!

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

Stone me, as Hancock would have said, I've just had a shock to rival Didds's opening post. Did I just say that my mobile phone (LG K8) was around a hundred quid? Well, it was £99 when I bought it new in August 2018. And now it's £180, and that's from an Amazon seller with only an 82% rating.

The times they are truly a'changin'!

BJ

Whereas a quick look at the Argos website shows Android phones starting at £50, and full-size (14-16 inch) laptops starting at £220. So they are available without breaking the bank if you're not too snooty about your label.

[bungeejumper]

Whereas a quick look at the Argos website shows Android phones starting at £50, and full-size (14-16 inch) laptops starting at £220. So they are available without breaking the bank if you're not too snooty about your label.

Indeed, I bought a £50 Alcatel C1 for my better half the other week, and it's adequate, although somewhat quirky. And shock horror, it has only a five inch screen. Whatever is the world coming to?

BJ

[SalvorHardin]

As others have said, beyond a certain point the law of diminishing marginal returns kicks in. The improvement from £400 to £1,000 is trivial, unless you’re really into photography using your phone (e.g. people who love to put photoshopped selfies on social media websites).

Beyond a certain point people are paying for the perceived status (conspicuous consumption) effect to impress their peers. Maybe the person who must have the latest / most expensive phone, loves to boast about it and has to borrow money at the end of the month. I saw someone doing just this in my local pub back in 2014, using their new iPhone to borrow £100 from Wonga.

My phone is a Samsung A70, which when I got it a year ago for £370 was Samsung’s top line phone before you start getting into the “really expensive” range. It's more than adequate, to put it mildly.

Don’t think of them as “phones”. Think of them as a portable computer which has its own internet connection. Which also happens to have apps for speaking to people and sending text messages.

I mostly use mine for placing bets, checking share prices and news, buying from Amazon (and eBay, and Sainsbury's), emailing, watching TV, listening to the radio, finding places on Google Maps, Google Fit to track how far I walk and as a torch. Occasionally it even gets used for phone calls and text messages!

[Mike4]

As others have said, beyond a certain point the law of diminishing marginal returns kicks in. The improvement from £400 to £1,000 is trivial, unless you’re really into photography using your phone (e.g. people who love to put photoshopped selfies on social media websites).

Whereas for other people (e.g. me), the mobile phone aka computer in one's pocket is a foundation on which our business is partly (or wholly) built, without which our incomes might fall by perhaps 50% or more.

For me, £800 every year or two on a trouble-free phone that 'just works' and syncs with my laptop and office computers is a trivial sum for such massive and valuable functionality and benefit.

[Lootman]

My phone is a Samsung A70, which when I got it a year ago for £370 was Samsung’s top line phone before you start getting into the “really expensive” range. It's more than adequate, to put it mildly.

Same here! I got my A70 18 months ago, for about the same price. It is smarter than I am, so any more would be a waste.

Don’t think of them as “phones”. Think of them as a portable computer which has its own internet connection. Which also happens to have apps for speaking to people and sending text messages.

Yes, to the point that I do not actually use my A70 as a phone much at all. My old flip phone worked better purely as a phone.

[tikunetih]

Same insane price thing is going on with phones as well. I am looking out for a new one for my youngest son. I don't want to spend a lot because he keeps on losing or breaking them. But I can't find anything new and decent for under £400.

Android? These two are very good phones...

Pixel 3a (being last year's model) at £239:
https://store.google.com/gb/product/pixel_3a

Or Pixel 4a at £319:
https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a

Both have Google's Night Sight camera processing which is super useful, and being Google phones are "stock" Android free of cruft.

[Lootman]

Same insane price thing is going on with phones as well. I am looking out for a new one for my youngest son. I don't want to spend a lot because he keeps on losing or breaking them. But I can't find anything new and decent for under £400.

Android? These two are very good phones...

Pixel 3a (being last year's model) at £239:
https://store.google.com/gb/product/pixel_3a

Or Pixel 4a at £319:
https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a

Both have Google's Night Sight camera processing which is super useful, and being Google phones are "stock" Android free of cruft.

Actually I had been looking at the Pixel range. There is a Pixel 5 phone out since last month, but pricier because it is 5G compliant so I won't be getting him that.

[Infrasonic]

There is a Pixel 5 phone out since last month, but pricier because it is 5G compliant so I won't be getting him that.

Pixel 4a comes in two flavours, the cheaper 4G (currently on BF offer in the Google store) and the pricier 5G.
It's got the same processor as the Pixel 5 (5G), so performance wise there's not much in it.

I got a Pixel 3a for £315 a year ago and it's been excellent, updated and running latest Android 11.

[tikunetih]

Same insane price thing is going on with phones as well. I am looking out for a new one for my youngest son. I don't want to spend a lot because he keeps on losing or breaking them. But I can't find anything new and decent for under £400.

Android? These two are very good phones...

Pixel 3a (being last year's model) at £239:
https://store.google.com/gb/product/pixel_3a

Or Pixel 4a at £319:
https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a

Both have Google's Night Sight camera processing which is super useful, and being Google phones are "stock" Android free of cruft.

Actually I had been looking at the Pixel range. There is a Pixel 5 phone out since last month, but pricier because it is 5G compliant so I won't be getting him that.

They're quality phones, give you the Android UI as it was designed to be (without any other layers on top of it) and crucially you get prompt OS/security updates from Google for a few years post-purchase, something most Android phone manufacturers are historically terrible at. NB iPhones much better in the respect.

Oops, I got the price wrong on that 3a (they're £289 in clearance - I have one bought last year and it's excellent). The "sweetspot" now is probably the non-5G Pixel 4a at £319, and that's what I'd buy today if in the market for a phone to last me ~3 years or so.

[Lootman]

The "sweetspot" now is probably the non-5G Pixel 4a at £319, and that's what I'd buy today if in the market for a phone to last me ~3 years or so.

Thanks for that, and to infrasonic as well. I think I will do that. Sorry for going off topic here.