Lenovo 5i or alternatives?

[bristolbaron]

I’m looking to replace my old Fujitsu laptop, it’s served well but is running slowly.

It’s business use only - emails/web and Microsoft office.

I get very quickly drawn to exciting and expensive things, but this really just needs to open and respond to emails quickly and write a few paragraphs in word without freezing.

I’ve found the following Lenovo:
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/ideapad/500-s...

Which looks up to the task with an i5 processor, but if the cheaper i3 option would tick my boxes I don’t need to spend the extra!

I’d considered refurbished, but couldn’t tell if I’m looking at an open boxes basically new unit or something 5 years old, so will probably buy new.

It does get carried around and used on my literal lap so something not too big and not roasting hot is preferred. (I had an older HP 15.something inch that’d get hot hot!)

If there’s an alternative I’m missing I’d really appreciate the advice before the Black Friday sales!

Many thanks!

[xeny]

If you go i3, consider a 1125G4, but not an 1115G4 (that's where they drop from 4 to two cores).

Easy way to work out rough model year of computers with Intel CPUs, add 2010 to the first two digits of the CPU model number - so in this case 2010+11 is 2021, so those are current generation CPUs..

[bristolbaron]

xeny said:

If you go i3, consider a 1125G4, but not an 1115G4 (that's where they drop from 4 to two cores).

Easy way to work out rough model year of computers with Intel CPUs, add 2010 to the first two digits of the CPU model number - so in this case 2010+11 is 2021, so those are current generation CPUs..

That’s great, thank you. I’ll keep a look out.
I’ve also spotted an Asus, but have no idea how this fares by comparison. Much lighter though which is a bonus:

https://www.costco.co.uk/Computers/Laptops-MacBook...

[xeny]

Very physically elegant/slim, nice amount of SSD, decent CPU.

Two thunderbolt ports is a nice feature if you want fast connectivity/multiple external screens.

My main concern would be if the 8 GB of RAM isn't upgradeable, as that may be a bit limiting depending on what you use it for.

[bristolbaron]

xeny said:

Very physically elegant/slim, nice amount of SSD, decent CPU.

Two thunderbolt ports is a nice feature if you want fast connectivity/multiple external screens.

My main concern would be if the 8 GB of RAM isn't upgradeable, as that may be a bit limiting depending on what you use it for.

Cheers, it looks like the RAM is soldered so not upgradable, but it’ll only be used for basic office functions, at any one time I have 3-4 websites open, and 3-4 word and/or excel sheets going. I’m really looking for a decent response time from pulling the laptop out of the drawer to opening a word doc. I can wait a couple of minutes or more at the moment with mine, which then means I pick up my phone and get distracted!

[xeny]

You should get fast startup in spades, and that workload isn't too memory intensive, so it looks like a pretty reasonable fit.

[bristolbaron]

Another option has now become available, I think I’m looking between the asus and HP, I’d had very good service from a previous HP but will I notice the 1.4kg over 1.1 in a rucksack?

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...