Has the time come?

[dudwell]

My Samsung RC520 15.6 inch laptop is now 7 years old. Sometimes it seems that my whole life revolves around it (sad I know!) and I have come to depend on it for all the usual things (entertainment, information, shopping, banking, emails, a bit of photo editing....) but I don't do gaming.

It still works perfectly except that two of the USB sockets (the spec says it has three but mine came with four!) seem to have died. It cost £566 at the time and I would be content to spend something of the same order again. Perhaps it might be wise to replace it soon... but with what?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome as always.

[Simon]

I think spending £500-600 on a new laptop would get you something decent.  There's a selection of what could be available in that price bracket here:

https://www.cclonline.com/category/101/Laptops/Laptops-from-500-649/

Bear in mind, most laptops don't come with a CD/DVD drive any more, so if that's an issue, your options may be more limited.

[Glenn]

Plenty here to chose from too. https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ct/laptops-and-netbooks/laptops both new and refurbs. I bought an HP Envy 15 refurb from them 2 years ago, it looked like new when I received it.

[nowster]

If you're looking for refurbs, I can recommend https://www.tier1online.com/

[dudwell]

Thanks everyone. Those are excellent lists of what is available and helpful filters narrow the choice but I find I'm a bit underwhelmed. There doesn't seem to have been any great change in laptops in recent years. SSDs are in, CD/DVD drives are out (I generalise), maybe they are thinner and have more memory and then there's Windows 10.... Frames around screens are tending to disappear from TVs and phones yet laptops still have them so they all look much alike ....and that's about it unless I'm missing something.

I was rather hoping someone would know of an exciting development just around the corner which might be worth waiting for. Or perhaps someone has useful recent experience, good or bad, with a new laptop (I'm not really into refurbs)?

As things stand I'm inclining towards masterly inactivity – I'm good at that – and if this laptop expires I can manage to get a new one quickly using my smartphone.

[Simon]

What's your budget?  There are what you might call frameless ones available, but obviously they come at a higher cost:

https://m.cclonline.com/product/gigabyte-aero-15x-v8-laptop-15-6-inch-1920-x-1080-intel-core-i7-8750h-16gb-512gb-ssd-geforce-gtx-1070-bluetooth-microsoft-windows-10-home-aero15xv8-cf2/

There are also cheaper ones available which are virtually frameless, and of course there's also touch screen to consider if you wanted to go down that road.

[dudwell]

Yes Simon that's a nice one and if I desperately needed it I could afford to go there but £2099 strikes me as way over the top for a simple soul like me. I don't exactly have a budget, it just seems to feel right to stay around £500-600 and at this level, though I'm sure there are a number of perfectly capable options, I haven't seen anything that excites me. I don't like touch screens - all those finger prints! So I expect I'll simply soldier on with the old faithful Samsung for now.

[john]

.... I have come to depend on it for all the usual things (entertainment, information, shopping, banking, emails, a bit of photo editing....) but I don't do gaming.

Given the tasks you state that you are using it for, with the possible exception of photo editing, do you really need a Windows laptop, have you considered a Chromebook?

Since getting one myself a couple of years ago I rarely use my old laptop as the Chromebook does everything I need such as browsing the net, shoppping, emails, documents, printing etc

Document editing has most of the basic features although printing options are more limited. I find that on the odd occasion that I do boot up my Windows laptop it takes minutes to do so and more often than not spends a further 20 minutes updating. My Chromebook boots up in seconds and although there are updates they happen without me knowing. They're also virtually immune to viruses too and probably more secure when used for banking. There's no CD/DVD drive and it has a solid state drive. They tend to be much less expensive than Windows machines too.

Whilst they're not for everyone I think they fulfill the needs of most people who are not doing intensive processing for things such as gaming, video editing etc.

Some buying advice here: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebook-buying-advice

There are some here to give you an idea of what's available with reviews: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chromebook&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Achromebook

[steve195527]

you'd prob get better longevity/performance and value by buying a 2nd hand MacBook pro,after the way my grandsons android pad tried to go through files on my pc after I connected it via a usb port just to charge it up I wouldn't trust anything related to google not to use personal details of their user base for any reason they wanted to,only found out what had been happening when I got a warning of an attempt to access one of my email accounts with failed password,wonder what would have happened if like lots of folk I had left it logged in?

[dudwell]

Thanks again to everyone for sensible advice but meanwhile, prompted by unexpected good financial news, I've taken the plunge and after hours of research ordered this:-

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en//laptops/ideapad/500-series/Ideapad-530S-15-Intel/p/81EV006WUK

Probably a bit OTT but I like the slim bezel screen (silly I know) and the 512 GB SSD.

[Simon]

That looks nice, Dud.

[Technical Ben]

Good choice... I'm hoping to upgrade to the Ideapad 630 as I want a nice dedicated Graphics card. Just need to find someone throwing out an old laptop, so I can take up PCWorlds £200 trade in offer.

[john]

Just need to find someone throwing out an old laptop, so I can take up PCWorlds £200 trade in offer.

If you really need an old laptop to trade in have you got a local freecycle group near you?

[Technical Ben]

If you really need an old laptop to trade in have you got a local freecycle group near you?

I've never been able to find anything on it. Like Craiglist... seems massive in some places, and non-existent here.

I should be able to wrangle a spare off family I think (I have a laptop to trade in, but it's too nice to give to PC world, so I'll look for an older/beaten up one to give them, and give this one to the family as a swap .