Recommend me a laptop

[crazy about cars]

Struggling to find anything decent so hopefully someone can recommend some options.
Budget is up to £500.
Usage is mostly web browsing, forums and occasional RDP into work.

Must haves:

• SSD
• Not larger than 13"
• Non-glare/reflective screen (matt screen?current screen is rubbish if it's really bright behind me)
• Fingerprint scanner or Windows Hello capable camera
• Fast Wi-Fi capable of making full use of 70mbps internet connection(current Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter struggle to go above 30mbps for some reason)
• Windows 10 O/S
• Long-ish battery life (be nice not have to charge up daily when only browsing web and viewing videos)

Nice-to haves:

• 1080p res
• Touchscreen/option to detach to use as tablet
• Windows 10 Pro O/S
• High screen to body ratio/thin bezel

Any suggestions greatly welcomed!

Edited by crazy about cars on Tuesday 26th September 20:54

[Simon.]

Double your budget, seriously.

Its going to be the network connectivity that's going to be your biggest issue, I mean I got a Lenovo Flex 10 for my son a few years ago, upgraded it to Windows 10 and it was better than when it was running Windows 8 but still dog slow, the SSD wasn't 'true' SSD from memory it was a botch of it.

The other options may be to see about buying a second hand Surface Pro (which are awesome bits of hardware btw, I personally own the Surface Pro 2 and work provided me with a SP 4). Absolute beasts.

[GrumpyTwig]

crazy about cars said:

Usage is mostly web browsing, forums and occasional RDP into work.

You could do that all on a half decent android tablet, even RDP. You sure you need a laptop?

[hyphen]

Used Lenovo x250/x260 or equivalent HP Elitebook/Del XPS. Get a second drive (m2/msata as fits) and use that to load the OS and main applications, then use normal harddrive for rest.

Lots on eBay with balance of manufacturers warranty.

Edited by hyphen on Tuesday 26th September 23:01

[Bikerjon]

That's quite a specific list for £500! You may be able to find one of the last generation HP probooks for that or a smidge over. Not a super sleek machine, but solid and has most of those features. Otherwise maybe have a look at Chromebooks?

[sgrimshaw]

Ex-display Surface Pro 4 or Samsung Tab Pro S maybe?

https://www.svp.co.uk/microsoft-surface-pro-4-128-...

https://www.svp.co.uk/samsung-galaxy-tabpro-s-12in...

[XMT]

Have to say unless you buy a used one you are really going to struggle; even used you will struggle.
I found that if I could find all the other spec it was married to a crap screen which I cannot tolerate

I tried that budget for months and just something always had to give.

I gave up and went and bought an HP envy 13 2017 model which is just out. but its 1k

good luck!!

Edited by XMT on Wednesday 27th September 12:39

[chris285]

Good luck but unlikely on your budget, SSD's are usually starting in 5-600quid laptops alone

[snuffy]

I'd not bother with a touch screen on a laptop. I'm talking from my experience; I bought a dell touchscreen laptop a few years ago and it's a waste of time. Why ? Because you have a keyboard - so your (or mine at least) preference is to use that; why would I touch the screen ?

[Jinx]

Dell outlet - Inspiron 13 here ?

[crazy about cars]

Thanks for the input all!

General consencus seems to suggest I should increase the budget
I will definitely consider stretching budget if I can find something ideal.
I did consider a tablet but sometimes I need to use it to RDP into work so would think traditional keyboard and touch pad layout works best here.
I suppose I can get a keyboard kit for the tablet and some kind of stand to mimic a laptop if can find tablet beefy enough?

[crazy about cars]

Simon. said:

Double your budget, seriously.

Its going to be the network connectivity that's going to be your biggest issue, I mean I got a Lenovo Flex 10 for my son a few years ago, upgraded it to Windows 10 and it was better than when it was running Windows 8 but still dog slow, the SSD wasn't 'true' SSD from memory it was a botch of it.

The other options may be to see about buying a second hand Surface Pro (which are awesome bits of hardware btw, I personally own the Surface Pro 2 and work provided me with a SP 4). Absolute beasts.

I have the original Surface running on atom. Really regret buying it and have now gifted it to my kids.
I did look at the newer Surface and they are bit pricey for me plus I don't think I need something that beefy.
Someone suggested Samsung Tab Pro which is tempting which the attached keyboard and looks like it also comes with biometric login capability too!

edit:looks like a samsung phone is required to unlock tab pro with fingerprint ;(

Edited by crazy about cars on Wednesday 27th September 19:47

[crazy about cars]

sgrimshaw said:

Ex-display Surface Pro 4 or Samsung Tab Pro S maybe?

https://www.svp.co.uk/microsoft-surface-pro-4-128-...

https://www.svp.co.uk/samsung-galaxy-tabpro-s-12in...

Not too sure about the Surface Pro as would've loved the keyboard at that price but the Samsung looks very promising! Just what I need.
Ex display so better than pre-owned I supposed. Cheers for that will do more research on this.

I'm replacing my again and dying Asus U36J which is decent machine (I've upgraded drive to SSD) but it's falling apart now and will be missed.

[crazy about cars]

Spent Saturday in the shops looking around and honestly can't believe how much decent laptop costs now.
Granted I've upgraded my ASUS U36 to SSD but it still came with i5 and NVIDIA GPU for below 500 quid 5 years ago...

I guess I need to seriously consider upping my budget. Surface Pro laptop seems to be the best candidate for now, doesn't have fingerprint scanner but everything else ticks the boxes.

[anonymous-user]

Most decent internal fitted wifi cards will be able to achieve a 150mbps speed
Better ones will reach 300
Better ones still etc etc
I just checked mine its getting 433 and if I swapped out the card for a better one I think I hit 866 or thereabouts

[zippy3x]

crazy about cars said:

Surface Pro laptop seems to be the best candidate for now, doesn't have fingerprint scanner but everything else ticks the boxes.

They do have Windows Hello. It's facial recognition or retinal scan (can't remember which), but it's very good.

If you have it on you lap, or on a desk, as you open the laptop it does the scan. By the time you get you hands down to type, you're logged in and ready to go.

Having tried facial/retinal scanning on a phone, this is actually a lot more impressive than I thought it would be.

[sgrimshaw]

zippy3x said:

They do have Windows Hello. It's facial recognition or retinal scan (can't remember which), but it's very good.

For info .... it's facial recognition on the Surface devices

[hyphen]

Somone said:

Double your budget, seriously.

I think you are all crazy £1000 to do a bit of web browsing and occasional RDP.

Last laptop I bought was for the OH, a 12.5" sub £500 brand new unopened business spec laptop, 2016 so 'last years model' but still had 3 years next day onsite warranty. So if she spills her coffee on it, there will be a man fixing it on my kitchen table (as happened to the last one!)

OP, you can get fingerprint recognition or Hello, but are these features worth £500 to you? How much of a difference will silly speed Wifi make to you, considering you are not gaming and netflix 4k works at 25mbps... Also factor in Surface has a standard 1 year return to base warranty, and the screen is below the 4k res of 3840 pixels × 2160.

Either go all out and get something lovely, or get something sensible. Not much point doing intermediate

That's my 2p worth over with

Edited by hyphen on Tuesday 3rd October 09:08