WFH laptop - budget £775

[IT Geek]

I got a refurbished Surface Pro 4 from EBay, i5, 8Gb ram, 256 ssd, turned up the next day and it’s like brand new.

Also had an EBay credit applied for some reason so actually paid £359 for it.

From switching on to desktop in 5 seconds.

Bargain -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft-Surface-Pro-4...

[ATG]

sparkyhx said:

klan8456 said:

VDI. It’s completely standard across the industry. No one gets work laptops anymore.

er............... no it isnt. It might be utilised and becoming more common, but it is far far from standard. Even amongst traditional early adopters IT consultancies with hundreds of thousand of employees

If you have a large number of staff the only way to effectively scale the provision of basic equipment is to adopt VDI. Firms are crazy not to do this. If you are doling out physical hardware to your staff, then your support scales more or less linearly. If you're using VDI then the number of users you can support rapidly becomes a matter of configuration, not your IT dept's headcount.

[klan8456]

I wasn’t intending for this to be a VDI argument thread…

Also just found out friend needs to pay benefit in kind tax on the amount they spend and are reimbursed. Lovely.

[Countdown]

klan8456 said:

Also just found out friend needs to pay benefit in kind tax on the amount they spend and are reimbursed. Lovely.

That shouldn't happen if it's only for business use.

[klan8456]

Countdown said:

That shouldn't happen if it's only for business use.

Not sure how they can monitor that though, so they’re erring on the side of caution and taxing it. Can’t prove one way or another that employees are or are not using the device for personal use, so they’re withholding at source.

I thought it was a bit strange too, but I’m not too familiar with UK taxation.

[Countdown]

klan8456 said:

Countdown said:

That shouldn't happen if it's only for business use.

Not sure how they can monitor that though, so they’re erring on the side of caution and taxing it. Can’t prove one way or another that employees are or are not using the device for personal use, so they’re withholding at source.

I thought it was a bit strange too, but I’m not too familiar with UK taxation.

They can monitor it by installing software on there that tracks which websites the Employee visits. However I've never had a HMRC Inspector ask me why we don't account for BIK on work provided laptops so it's very surprising that your friend's organisation is bothering.

[Countdown]

IT Geek said:

I got a refurbished Surface Pro 4 from EBay, i5, 8Gb ram, 256 ssd, turned up the next day and it’s like brand new.

Also had an EBay credit applied for some reason so actually paid £359 for it.

From switching on to desktop in 5 seconds.

Bargain -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft-Surface-Pro-4...

We've got Surface 7 (I think) but the standard keyboards annoy the pants off me. They remind me a little of ZX Specturms. Fortunately work supplies us with docking stations.

[klan8456]

Surface is explicitly amend apparently, I did suggest that but the company seems to think it’s more tablet than laptop?

[IT Geek]

Countdown said:

We've got Surface 7 (I think) but the standard keyboards annoy the pants off me. They remind me a little of ZX Specturms. Fortunately work supplies us with docking stations.

I’ve had one before (Pro 4) in an old job and the keyboard didn’t really bother me, I type out more things using an iPad so kind of appreciate the Surface keyboard after a day on the iPad.

[IT Geek]

klan8456 said:

Surface is explicitly amend apparently, I did suggest that but the company seems to think it’s more tablet than laptop?

IMO it’s definitely more of a laptop than a tablet because keyboard, trackpad, Windows 10 Pro etc.

Also because Win 10 is horrible in tablet mode I don’t really consider it as a tablet, but you can if you want to.

Downside is only 1x usb3 port and 1x DisplayPort, but for browsing, office apps, music, films it’s very good and lightning fast with an average 4 hour battery life.

[Mr Pointy]

klan8456 said:

Surface is explicitly amend apparently, I did suggest that but the company seems to think it’s more tablet than laptop?

Do you mean banned?

[klan8456]

Mr Pointy said:

o you mean banned?

Yes banned

[Countdown]

klan8456 said:

Mr Pointy said:

o you mean banned?

Yes banned

Why would they ban it just because they think it's too much like a tablet? As long as your freind can get his work done then surely it's none of their business....?

It would make sense if they just said you can buy ANY device as long as it's one of those on our approved list

[klan8456]

Countdown said:

Why would they ban it just because they think it's too much like a tablet? As long as your freind can get his work done then surely it's none of their business....?

It would make sense if they just said you can buy ANY device as long as it's one of those on our approved list

yes but then you have to come up with an approved list which caters to what is available in 100 countries. I imagine that would be a challenge?

[Countdown]

klan8456 said:

yes but then you have to come up with an approved list which caters to what is available in 100 countries. I imagine that would be a challenge?

Do Amazon not deliver to 100 countries?

[Mr Pointy]

Ok, so reverting to the Dell Outlet site, Home, not Business (those are too expensive), filtered for an i5 processor & touch screen 2 in 1 format:

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearc...

That should be in acscending price order - the main differences are screen size (13"/14") SSD size (256/5212GB) & Windows Home/Pro. There is one HDMI output but it looks like you can get another video output using a USB C adapter.

I do think she should try & play with a 2in1 before buying though (unless she has already used one) - to me they are a poor compromise ending up with a small, limited laptop & a very heavy tablet. This is the same list filtered for non-touch devices & gives a much wider choice:

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearc...

[eeLee]

It's a real shame that the Surface Pro is not an option because I use one on a daily basis with my VDI on an external monitor connected USB-C to HDMI (27" HP QHD screen). It's brilliant. I've added a BT keyboard and mouse and it's extremely flexible.

If you want to drive multi-screen for the VDI, you want two identical (looks nicer) screens running the same resolution. For example it no worky on the surface and external screen.

[theboss]

eeLee said:

It's a real shame that the Surface Pro is not an option because I use one on a daily basis with my VDI on an external monitor connected USB-C to HDMI (27" HP QHD screen). It's brilliant. I've added a BT keyboard and mouse and it's extremely flexible.

If you want to drive multi-screen for the VDI, you want two identical (looks nicer) screens running the same resolution. For example it no worky on the surface and external screen.

Good point. You want the same DPI scaling factor on all screens.

[ATG]

theboss said:

Good point. You want the same DPI scaling factor on all screens.

Strictly you need all the screens to be running at the same resolution. That doesn't mean the maximum resolution of each screen has to be the same, and the dpi (i.e. the physical resolution) doesn't need to be the same. In reality this means configuring all your screens to run at the lowest of their collective max resolutions. So long as your hi res screens look fine when running at a lower resolution, you're in business.

[eeLee]

I'd also consider a MacBook Air, refurbs will get into budget: https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/mac

Drives two monitors via Thunderbolt. Of course you're maybe going to need a Thunderbolt/USB-C hub.