Another “what laptop” post, advice please?

[steveatesh]

Son wants a new laptop for his business, neither he nor I know much about Windows gear so I’m looking for some pointers please?

Basically he wants a screen about 16” in size, as high resolution as possible.

After that it’s down to the internals.

He is not after some all singing all dancing machine, it’s for Microsoft Office, Teams, Internet and a database but would like it “snappy” so he’s not waiting around for it.

Absolutely bamboozled looking at the huge selection in currys or amazon etc.

So any pointers as to to a particular laptop or range of laptops to look at?
Is it possible to get one made cheaper than the high street when looking at the cheap to mid range (£400 to £650)

Thanks in advance.

[Whataguy]

For many years I used to buy HP probooks, their business range.

You can pick one up for the upper range of budget upwards.

The big advantage for business use is you can buy an extended warranty for not too much that includes next business day repairs onsite.

They have a variety of screen sizes, specs, etc to suit the available budget.

I’ve now moved completely over to Mac OS. I’m still using Microsoft office on the Mac as most of my many years of files were in windows format.

Edited by Whataguy on Thursday 21st November 20:10

[Griffith4ever]

I am still using an HP bought from Currys about 7 years ago - great value touchscreen, SSD. It's now become a secondary machine as I use a Surface Pro 9 when out and about.

For your son - his requirements have very littel to do with resolution - he's not a graphic designer. Saying that, most laptops are now hight res, and certianly support higher res external monitors.

Take a look at Currys online, or pop down the store. Their range is actually pretty damn good, expecially if you catch a laptop on a deal/sale, whcih I did.

Make sure its SSD, and it sounds like a modern i5 with 16Gb ram minimum will do him nicely.

[steveatesh]

Thanks guys, he will be using it a lot, usually late evening due to having an at home toddler too!

Spreadsheets a lot, hence I mentioned the screen. I’m used to an Apple 5k display so know the value of a good screen!

Local currys it is cheers

[Captain Raymond Holt]

Captain cynic provided some good input on the thread I made the other week, I went for one of his suggestions - all good so far!

[Griffith4ever]

wyson said:

Hi res screens are a boon if you look at a lot of spreadsheets.

IF you can see the smaller text. If you have to enlarge it you negate any etra resolution really.

TBH - any modern laptop is going to be good. My surface pro is 2880x1920 and you simply can't see a pixel. That's on a 13" screen.

At a glance Apple's 5K screens start at 27". We are talking laptops here. Anything much above 2k on a 15" screen is going to be completely wasted . Not bashing the beauty of ultra high res - that "paper" look, but, it doesn't add anything on a 15" display. It just shortens your battery life! :-)

[MrBen.911]

If he's mostly using it at home for spreadsheet work, an external monitor would seem a very wise addition. I don't find any laptop screen big enough for hours of spreadsheet bashing.