£200 Laptop... how bad can it be?
Discussion
That is basically my question: £200 Laptop... how bad can they be?
Background: Windows 10 will go unsupported later this year and my laptop (early i5) is too old to upgrade (it copes with everything I throw at it which gives you an idea that this is not intense work
, I have my work laptop for more intensive stuff 
).
Windows 11 has been out for 5 years so not feeling any desire to spend a lot as it will be replaced soon and I am not seeing any gain, other than it is getting security updates, and if Win 12 is subscription I go to something else anyway.
So £200 Laptops, I am seeing Pentium chips, well nearly bought one in 2000, but bought an AMD Athlon instead as it was better, cheaper etc, but what are the multi core versions like?
Seeing a few Intel N100s, any good? (again, I am not doing any 3D design CAD on this thing)
Maybe complete change (again if Windows want me to subscribe, I suspect a lot will walk).
Debating about Chrome OS?
The windows 10 laptop will become my first venture in to Linux (system developer pals have finally convinced me). probably ubuntu, but I want something for general use until I am happy in Linux world.
Not interested in second hand, don't try to convince me, not interested.
Background: Windows 10 will go unsupported later this year and my laptop (early i5) is too old to upgrade (it copes with everything I throw at it which gives you an idea that this is not intense work
, I have my work laptop for more intensive stuff ).Windows 11 has been out for 5 years so not feeling any desire to spend a lot as it will be replaced soon and I am not seeing any gain, other than it is getting security updates, and if Win 12 is subscription I go to something else anyway.
So £200 Laptops, I am seeing Pentium chips, well nearly bought one in 2000, but bought an AMD Athlon instead as it was better, cheaper etc, but what are the multi core versions like?
Seeing a few Intel N100s, any good? (again, I am not doing any 3D design CAD on this thing)
Maybe complete change (again if Windows want me to subscribe, I suspect a lot will walk).
Debating about Chrome OS?
The windows 10 laptop will become my first venture in to Linux (system developer pals have finally convinced me). probably ubuntu, but I want something for general use until I am happy in Linux world.
Not interested in second hand, don't try to convince me, not interested.
essayer said:
Chromebook? What do you actually need to run on it?
It will need word, excel, internet and probably a few other applications and equivalent, it must have a 15.6" screen. I have a work laptop for AutoCAD, Power BI, KNIME etcThis is what I mean, how bad is one of these cheap laptops? if you aren't doing anything to intense.
Does one of these £200 laptops tick al the boxes for a light user?
One user doesn't like the idea if anything being saved on-line, but it will only be a few documents so a pen drive will probably be sufficient for that.
I would imagine it would run like an absolute dog.
We have some old rugged tablets that have Win 10, 7th gen i5s and 4GB of RAM and they are pretty leisurely.
A pentium or some other rubbish running Windows 11 will be infuriating.
To run Windows 11 nicely you need at least a decent i3 or equivalent processor and 8GB of memory.
Anything new with this spec will be more than 200 quid.
We have some old rugged tablets that have Win 10, 7th gen i5s and 4GB of RAM and they are pretty leisurely.
A pentium or some other rubbish running Windows 11 will be infuriating.
To run Windows 11 nicely you need at least a decent i3 or equivalent processor and 8GB of memory.
Anything new with this spec will be more than 200 quid.
Master Bean said:
I bought one. It's soooo slow. Basically a waste of money.
Oh well, never mind! Thanks for the reply . When is it at its worst, what sort of software?
That is kind of why I am asking, you never get to try them in a real world setting, in a shop you are really testing the screen and the way it feels; not when you are doing some something that you actually need to do.
PiesAreGreat said:
Oh well, never mind! Thanks for the reply .
When is it at its worst, what sort of software?
That is kind of why I am asking, you never get to try them in a real world setting, in a shop you are really testing the screen and the way it feels; not when you are doing some something that you actually need to do.
Word and Excel will be rubbish on it. . When is it at its worst, what sort of software?
That is kind of why I am asking, you never get to try them in a real world setting, in a shop you are really testing the screen and the way it feels; not when you are doing some something that you actually need to do.
You could use the online versions if you have access to them
I think what you could do is buy one from Amazon and if you don't like it you can likely return it. Given you sensibly are doing this in advance you can just run them both in parallel and see if it works for you but I think you should up your budget if possible but with the Amazon route I think you will be able to find out if it works for you.
My girlfriend has some kind of small cheap laptop I can't remember the spec of it but it's probably in the ballpark you're talking about and probably for the basics it's okay but I mean if you have any number of tabs open in a browser it starts to work hard and I think you are at risk of using up all the RAM. Even internet browsing and opening Word documents and Excel in Edge for example is quite a lot for a basic machine.
I guess you can also get down curries or wherever and try and simulate what you are doing for work and see if it grinds to a halt or becomes unusable!
Have you looked at how much memory your machine has and how much you are consuming? I would think that will be one of the main weak points but also obviously you will need to look at all the other usual stuff.
I think your Linux project is a really good idea but I tried using Linux for my daily driver and I couldn't get on with it. But it's a good thing to learn if you have an interest in computers anyway.
My girlfriend has some kind of small cheap laptop I can't remember the spec of it but it's probably in the ballpark you're talking about and probably for the basics it's okay but I mean if you have any number of tabs open in a browser it starts to work hard and I think you are at risk of using up all the RAM. Even internet browsing and opening Word documents and Excel in Edge for example is quite a lot for a basic machine.
I guess you can also get down curries or wherever and try and simulate what you are doing for work and see if it grinds to a halt or becomes unusable!
Have you looked at how much memory your machine has and how much you are consuming? I would think that will be one of the main weak points but also obviously you will need to look at all the other usual stuff.
I think your Linux project is a really good idea but I tried using Linux for my daily driver and I couldn't get on with it. But it's a good thing to learn if you have an interest in computers anyway.
White-Noise said:
I think what you could do is buy one from Amazon and if you don't like it you can likely return it. Given you sensibly are doing this in advance you can just run them both in parallel and see if it works for you but I think you should up your budget if possible but with the Amazon route I think you will be able to find out if it works for you.
My girlfriend has some kind of small cheap laptop I can't remember the spec of it but it's probably in the ballpark you're talking about and probably for the basics it's okay but I mean if you have any number of tabs open in a browser it starts to work hard and I think you are at risk of using up all the RAM. Even internet browsing and opening Word documents and Excel in Edge for example is quite a lot for a basic machine.
I guess you can also get down curries or wherever and try and simulate what you are doing for work and see if it grinds to a halt or becomes unusable!
Have you looked at how much memory your machine has and how much you are consuming? I would think that will be one of the main weak points but also obviously you will need to look at all the other usual stuff.
I think your Linux project is a really good idea but I tried using Linux for my daily driver and I couldn't get on with it. But it's a good thing to learn if you have an interest in computers anyway.
Thanks, to be honest, the origin of all this is I just don't want to pay for Windows 11, as it will probably be replaced soon, so I will get the security updates taken away far too quickly.My girlfriend has some kind of small cheap laptop I can't remember the spec of it but it's probably in the ballpark you're talking about and probably for the basics it's okay but I mean if you have any number of tabs open in a browser it starts to work hard and I think you are at risk of using up all the RAM. Even internet browsing and opening Word documents and Excel in Edge for example is quite a lot for a basic machine.
I guess you can also get down curries or wherever and try and simulate what you are doing for work and see if it grinds to a halt or becomes unusable!
Have you looked at how much memory your machine has and how much you are consuming? I would think that will be one of the main weak points but also obviously you will need to look at all the other usual stuff.
I think your Linux project is a really good idea but I tried using Linux for my daily driver and I couldn't get on with it. But it's a good thing to learn if you have an interest in computers anyway.
My current Laptops was a very early Windows 10, so I don't want a last of the batch Win11, only to find something silly like it wont run Win 12 (or windows subscription), as it doesn't have the equivalent of TPM 2.0.
The Linux idea was basically to give it a go, as the laptop is nearly 10 years old so has no value, so why not give it a go, at least it can be used for something.
I like the idea of monitoring memory usage, my plan was a lot of these £200 laptops appear to be using a similar case to the others (maybe) so there will be the usual memory slot in the base to add more, it worked great when I had a desktop.
For want of sounding like a geek. Just put Linux on your current laptop. For basic use Linux Mint is easy to get up and running. Not sure how you cope with MS offfice stuff but Libreoffice will do it all. Unless you are using it all the time or are a power user you won't notice the difference too much.
Just try Linux mint on a live usb disk and see if it works for you. It will be slower running from USB so remember that when testing it.
Just try Linux mint on a live usb disk and see if it works for you. It will be slower running from USB so remember that when testing it.
Master Bean said:
I bought one. It's soooo slow. Basically a waste of money.
This. Years ago I stupidly bought a £250 Acer laptop (band new) when I saw it on offer. Thought it might be useful for my wife to use for browsing and her emails.
It was, as Master Bean says, an absolute waste of £250. Might as well have just thrown £250 into the bin. It was too slow to even run Windows properly. Everything crawled along at a snails pace. Applications would take forever to open. Stuff would hang and freeze.
Utterly unusable.
Binned it. Bought my wife a base model iPad instead, and it's provided years of flawless service and is still extremely brisk to use, despite being several generations old now.
Mont Blanc said:
Master Bean said:
I bought one. It's soooo slow. Basically a waste of money.
This. Years ago I stupidly bought a £250 Acer laptop (band new) when I saw it on offer. Thought it might be useful for my wife to use for browsing and her emails.
It was, as Master Bean says, an absolute waste of £250. Might as well have just thrown £250 into the bin. It was too slow to even run Windows properly. Everything crawled along at a snails pace. Applications would take forever to open. Stuff would hang and freeze.
Utterly unusable.
Binned it. Bought my wife a base model iPad instead, and it's provided years of flawless service and is still extremely brisk to use, despite being several generations old now.
JQ said:
Mont Blanc said:
Master Bean said:
I bought one. It's soooo slow. Basically a waste of money.
This. Years ago I stupidly bought a £250 Acer laptop (band new) when I saw it on offer. Thought it might be useful for my wife to use for browsing and her emails.
It was, as Master Bean says, an absolute waste of £250. Might as well have just thrown £250 into the bin. It was too slow to even run Windows properly. Everything crawled along at a snails pace. Applications would take forever to open. Stuff would hang and freeze.
Utterly unusable.
Binned it. Bought my wife a base model iPad instead, and it's provided years of flawless service and is still extremely brisk to use, despite being several generations old now.
The processor for the normal tasks of browsing etc, is pretty easy.
FWIW, 8GB seems to be the minimum for Win11 to work happily.
4GB is not enough.
I picked up an i5 HP laptop, 8GB for £300 late last year, from John Lewis.
Some people might want a bigger hard drive.
I feel there is a bit of value in having a laptop from a 'name' like HP. Dell etc, because a few years down the line you can get spares or even get some money back for a dead one!
I struggled to find any true second-user bargains, I get the feeling corporate users are not changing kit so often these days unless it breaks?
2 year warranty from JL, vs 3 months for a used thing with a tired battery seemed OK to me.
You pays yer money...
4GB is not enough.
I picked up an i5 HP laptop, 8GB for £300 late last year, from John Lewis.
Some people might want a bigger hard drive.
I feel there is a bit of value in having a laptop from a 'name' like HP. Dell etc, because a few years down the line you can get spares or even get some money back for a dead one!
I struggled to find any true second-user bargains, I get the feeling corporate users are not changing kit so often these days unless it breaks?
2 year warranty from JL, vs 3 months for a used thing with a tired battery seemed OK to me.
You pays yer money...
In my experience anything that is not a minimum of Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen3 is a complete waste of money.
As others have said, 8GB is a minimum.
Reality is the absolute minimum you need to spend is nearer £300, something like this for example
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs...
As others have said, 8GB is a minimum.
Reality is the absolute minimum you need to spend is nearer £300, something like this for example
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs...
ARHarh said:
For want of sounding like a geek. Just put Linux on your current laptop. For basic use Linux Mint is easy to get up and running. Not sure how you cope with MS offfice stuff but Libreoffice will do it all. Unless you are using it all the time or are a power user you won't notice the difference too much.
Just try Linux mint on a live usb disk and see if it works for you. It will be slower running from USB so remember that when testing it.
Got to agree with this. OP, if you were going to get rid of your current laptop anyway, this is worth trying. Just try Linux mint on a live usb disk and see if it works for you. It will be slower running from USB so remember that when testing it.
It's not going to cost you anything, and you'll probably find that your laptop runs much quicker under Mint versus W10.
There are plenty of video guides on YouTube, for example this one:
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