Best laptop/ultrabook for £1000
Discussion
ROB_GTR said:
7th or 8th gen i7? which processor is better? i7-7560U or i7-8550U
Definitely go for the i7 8550. That is a 4 core 8 thread processor whereas the 7560 is only a 2 core 4 thread processor! The 8550 will be much better for multitasking stuff. The downside of the 8550 though is a lower base frequency of 1.8GHz vs 2.4GHz on the 7560.
Edited by Andynbr on Thursday 21st September 11:59
What phone etc do you use? If you already use iCloud stuff the MacBooks integrate really well. If not they are probably overkill for what you want to do, beautify aluminium overkill though.
With regards to MacBook Air vs Retina MacBook, I went for the Retina MacBook in 2015 because I though the Air was outdated, two years on it is even more outdated.
With regards to MacBook Air vs Retina MacBook, I went for the Retina MacBook in 2015 because I though the Air was outdated, two years on it is even more outdated.
ZesPak said:
Dicky Knee said:
Costco currently have the MacBook Pro Retina i5 8GB Ram 128GB SSD for £1029.
If you can live with it, no problem, but 128GB is a very tight fit and a mistake I won't make again tbh.ROB_GTR said:
Thanks for that, pretty much what I thought, but which is the better processor on the same laptop?
I assume the i7-8550 being newer and higher number is the better option?
It's better than that - prior to the 8 series the i7 U variants were all 2-core 4-thread processors. The i7-8550 is a proper 4-core 8-thread CPU (so a proper i7 and not a glorified i3) .I assume the i7-8550 being newer and higher number is the better option?
ZesPak said:
If you can live with it, no problem, but 128GB is a very tight fit and a mistake I won't make again tbh.
Do they not come with an SD card slot or similar to be able to put on some extra storage? I have a 64GB SDc ard that lives in my laptop for media storage. You wouldn't want to run software off it but it's plenty fast enough for video or photos.ZesPak said:
If you can live with it, no problem, but 128GB is a very tight fit and a mistake I won't make again tbh.
I've got years of business and personal stuff on mine - I just looked and it's just about 100GB. I've got a TB of space available on OneDrive though.To think my first computer didn't have a HDD and I bought one off a mate in the business - 20MB and it was £200.
RizzoTheRat said:
Do they not come with an SD card slot or similar to be able to put on some extra storage? I have a 64GB SDc ard that lives in my laptop for media storage. You wouldn't want to run software off it but it's plenty fast enough for video or photos.
Might be, but I find it tedious to manage two drives.Mind you, I run a couple of demo databases and some software on my drive, which adds up pretty quick 128GB is peanuts these days.
On top of that, unless it's some serious stuff, why get a MBPR?
I'm not sure about the model you describe but if it's soldered in that means you're going to have to live with it.
I made the mistake twice (shame on me), but I could easily replace the drive on both occasions.
Dicky Knee said:
Same price for the Air with 256GB or Pro for £1379 which is drifting away from the £1000 price point.
Holy cow 
I imagine it's soldered in then?
I have gone for the i7-8550U variant of the Dell xps 13. Should be near enough £1500 bit got 29% discount.
Very long story really, bit had a Dell xps13 for 9 months now (well 2) and I bought the original from a Dell outlet reseller and it was a refurbished machine. Many emails, phone calls, engineer visits and remote help later they agreed to replace the laptop and I got a new (returned) one.
The newest one from day 1 wasn't right. Webcam wouldn't work and the led next to it was constantly on... a dead pixel etc. It was sent for repair which I though would be in the UK, bit no, it was sent to Germany then on to Poland!!! It was checked, LCD replaced, board replaced then tested.... it arrived back 2 weeks after sending.
Upon return it seemed ok. That lasted about 2 hours after installing 4gb of updates. Tested the Webcam, not working and the comedy continued.
They agreed to buy it back off me and give me 15% off a new (not outlet) system. There was already 14% being offered on the website and after a bit of arguing, they agreed to add the 15% on top.
My reason for asking about the processors was, the i7-7660U and the i7-8550U is my current 1 is the older one and I have ordered the newer i7-8550U which was overall a slightly cheaper package....
I also wanted to see what else was on offer in the laptop market.
I use android phone so no use in linking with Apple stuff. I do like macbook though.
Thanks for all replies
Very long story really, bit had a Dell xps13 for 9 months now (well 2) and I bought the original from a Dell outlet reseller and it was a refurbished machine. Many emails, phone calls, engineer visits and remote help later they agreed to replace the laptop and I got a new (returned) one.
The newest one from day 1 wasn't right. Webcam wouldn't work and the led next to it was constantly on... a dead pixel etc. It was sent for repair which I though would be in the UK, bit no, it was sent to Germany then on to Poland!!! It was checked, LCD replaced, board replaced then tested.... it arrived back 2 weeks after sending.
Upon return it seemed ok. That lasted about 2 hours after installing 4gb of updates. Tested the Webcam, not working and the comedy continued.
They agreed to buy it back off me and give me 15% off a new (not outlet) system. There was already 14% being offered on the website and after a bit of arguing, they agreed to add the 15% on top.
My reason for asking about the processors was, the i7-7660U and the i7-8550U is my current 1 is the older one and I have ordered the newer i7-8550U which was overall a slightly cheaper package....
I also wanted to see what else was on offer in the laptop market.
I use android phone so no use in linking with Apple stuff. I do like macbook though.
Thanks for all replies
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