I need a new laptop for work. I've been advised that a new version of windows is coming out and it might be worth hanging on? I really have no clue what to go for. All I need it for is: Office - Word, Excel and Powerpoint mainly. Needs to hook up to a projector via HDMI or VGA Access the Internet It would be handy if it didn't weigh a ton like the one I have, and it comes on within a few seconds (unlike the one I have). I don't know what the budget is because work hasn't approved this yet. They might when this one goes through the window. I have put £400 into a funding bid to cover laptop costs so by rights I should be able to spend at least that. Any advice?
Most new PCs currently on sale come with a free upgrade to Windows 11 so you needn't worry about that. I'd get 8GB of RAM if you can, but something like this would be fine. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...tel-core-i3-256-gb-ssd-grey-10227361-pdt.html I'm sure you'll get a better deal than from Currys too if you shop around, but I used to work there and it's my go to site.
With the very basic requirements you need then you can basically get anything, just check the weight of it, battery life and make sure it has a decent amount of RAM. You’d be extremely hard pressed to find a new laptop that couldn’t cope with what you need it for that can run Windows. You probably want an i5 processor, you don’t need higher than that and could probably get away with an i3 if you really do only need it for work. A lot of laptops are now geared up for gaming but they’ll have much better specs than you need. Basically, you’d struggle to find one that’s not suitable for you so the trap you need to watch out for is not being upsold something you don’t need. Although, saying that, it’s work’s money so you may as well get the best they’ll let you get away with. As for where to buy it from, I suggest CCL for best value for money from a place you can trust.
As lots of storage is cloud based these days I'd also add that the need for a massive 2Tb hard disk is diminished. A 250 Gb SSD would work fine. Use extra spend for more RAM
Decent advice as well as get an SSD and 8gb minimum of ram. Dont buy any of these Pentium gold type of laptops as often they tend to be a bit under powered. Go i3 or i5 for Intel ones. Lost track of the equivalent AMD Ryzen... Dell Outlet often has some good deals for laptops.
I don’t know why they charge so much more for a bigger SSD. A laptop with a 1Tb SSD would go up 100s in price, yet you can buy one and put it in yourself for £80
We were given external hard drive storage when we all had to work from home - so I have all my office docs on that. I use it all the time. Probably a bit risky if I lose the hard drive mind you!
Backup, backup, backup. If only office docs, you should be able to put them in the free storage with Google Drive (15Gb free), OneDrive or equivalent (DropBox, etc).
Microsoft has a free version of Microsoft Office 365 for Non-profits that includes OneDrive and Sharepoint Online that could be used to backup / collaborate on documents. Just in case you weren't already using it.
Get the most powerful one that you can get away with. That should future proof you for a few years. I got my daughter a Ryzen powered Acer with 8gb of ram, a 256gb SSD, good screen and a graphics card in the black Friday sale. It's a nice fast pc and you can upgrade the ram at a later date if you want.
I asked for similar advice about a year ago on here, and was advised to go for one with an AMD Ryzen processor. What I could get within my budget was an ASUS VivoBook, with AMD Ryzen 5. Best laptop I've ever had.
