Mid-spec laptop; Any recommendations?

[(steven)]

The wife’s laptop is on it’s last legs, after being dropped just one too many times.

It’s currently a 7 years old HP - i3, which I swapped to SSD a few years ago.

Looking for SSD (512GB preferably, 256 is going to get filled), 8GB of ram and an i3/i5 or AMD equivalent. Just going to be used for a bit of photo management, online shopping, form filling, MS office, letter writing etc. A bit more than the average tablet can cope with, but nothing too hardcore.

I had a quick look at refurb laptops but £400 for a 2013/4 era laptop felt like poor value given £600 goes quite far new.

I looked at the basic dell series, which seemed to have average reviews. I had a look at ASUS, expecting them to be cheap, but they didn’t seem cheaper than the usual suspects.

Any recommendations for a mid-spec laptop? Historically we have spent about the £400 mark, but it looks like £600 might be required this time.

[Condi]

£400 ish will get you and i3 or maybe even an i5 with 8gb of RAM or with a 512GB HD, but you'll need to spend more than that to get both.

HP's range is pretty decent at that price range.

Check out Dell Outlet for any bargins.