New laptop/tablet recommendations? Chromebook v MS
Discussion
I need to get a cheap laptop as I’m going to be working away from home for a few months and my main laptop is 10 years old, still running Windows 7 and ideal for what I need, which is just running MS office stuff, namely Word and sometimes Excel.
as i use it for writing I am looking for a cheap, no more than 300 quid option to stick in a bag and carry round. I do most of my other work on an IPad with keyboard but really don’t get on with Pages and Word on an IPad is not great. Lost a lot of docs recently as it failed to save to the cloud as well, so prefer on-board storage or via a USB stick.
Can’t afford to replace the big home laptop yet and its too old/heavyto lug around.
Chap in Currys PCworld suggested Chromebbooks would be a good cheap option as I could get a midsize one cheaply and it runs Word. I don’t know anything about them though and thought it was all cloud storage - any advice please?
Other option is to buy a cheap windows laptop for the same money but keep hearing horror stories about how slow WIn 10 is and how much it east so the budget spec in Curry’s could be rubbish after a couple of updates.
Don’t have a lot to spend and happy to consider something used, but better spec.
as i use it for writing I am looking for a cheap, no more than 300 quid option to stick in a bag and carry round. I do most of my other work on an IPad with keyboard but really don’t get on with Pages and Word on an IPad is not great. Lost a lot of docs recently as it failed to save to the cloud as well, so prefer on-board storage or via a USB stick.
Can’t afford to replace the big home laptop yet and its too old/heavyto lug around.
Chap in Currys PCworld suggested Chromebbooks would be a good cheap option as I could get a midsize one cheaply and it runs Word. I don’t know anything about them though and thought it was all cloud storage - any advice please?
Other option is to buy a cheap windows laptop for the same money but keep hearing horror stories about how slow WIn 10 is and how much it east so the budget spec in Curry’s could be rubbish after a couple of updates.
Don’t have a lot to spend and happy to consider something used, but better spec.
Don't get a Chromebook if you use MS Office apps as you'll be in for a world of pain and frustration. I think there was a lengthy thread about this exact issue just a few months ago from someone if you do a search.
Based on my own experiences I'd never buy a second hand laptop again. The 'refurb' process seems to be nothing more than a fresh install, wipe over of the screen and keyboard and shake out any loose crud from under the keyboard, but they never bother taking them apart to clear out the 3 years of fluff and crud stuck in the fans which causes them to overheat after 10 minutes (and probably the reason why the previous owner got shut of it).
Based on my own experiences I'd never buy a second hand laptop again. The 'refurb' process seems to be nothing more than a fresh install, wipe over of the screen and keyboard and shake out any loose crud from under the keyboard, but they never bother taking them apart to clear out the 3 years of fluff and crud stuck in the fans which causes them to overheat after 10 minutes (and probably the reason why the previous owner got shut of it).
Work supplied me with a spare Fuitsu U904 laptop off-grid recently, it's an i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD etc, very small form factor, decent size monitor. They were expensive new, like pushing £2k I think. Anyway, you can probably get one within your budget and it'll be better than anything else at that price in my view, depending on how much you want a proper computer and how much you can cope with a tablet.
Not saying the U904 is the best option, but it's certainly worth looking at older kit I'd say.
Not saying the U904 is the best option, but it's certainly worth looking at older kit I'd say.
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