So my parents finally managed to kill their old Laptop...well, actually just the screen died, but the crate is so old i want to replace it. They'll use it for as long as possible, yet want to spend as little money as possible. (yes, 100€ more or less matters to them) Main usage is web Browsing, email(!), and the occasional game of solitaire. So principally, I'd get away with buying simply the cheapest laptop I can find. But as I found out taking care of their old one, futureproofing it will make MY life easier. I haven't been following processor development lately, especially not Laptop specific ones so this is where you come in. Their request is: ~15" ~Win10 My requests are: ~SSD not eMMC, rather 256GB ~Processor fast enough to run Windowsupdates for the next decade ~enough Memory to run Windowsupdates for the next decade (8 GB?) I found the following "classes" to compare. LENOVO V110-15IAP 80TG00W7GE ~333€ Pentium® N4200 4x 1.10GHz (2,5Ghz), Intel HD Graphics 505 (IGP), 8GB RAM DDR3-1600 (1 stick), 128GB SSD, 15,6" 1366 x 768 We use these at work as basic office machines, they're not very fast, and the SSD is too small for my liking, but they are cheap and reliable. LENOVO V130-15IGM 81HL002SGE ~360€ Pentium Silver N5000 4x 1.10GHz (2,7Ghz), Intel UHD Graphics 605 (IGP), 8GB RAM DDR4-2400 (1 stick) , 256GB SSD, 15,6", 1920x1080 Much better, the higher ram speed should help with the internal GPU, but single channel, and the 1920x1080 will probably make the text too small for my parents. LENOVO V130-15IKB 81HN00JAGE ~420€ Intel Core i5-7200U 2x 2.50GHz (3.1Ghz), Intel HD Graphics 620 (IGP), 8GB RAM DDR4-2400 (2 Modules), 256GB SSD, 15,6" 1366 x 768 Starting to get nice, but probably "Overkill" for the Purpose and too expensive? Perfect for me would be the second one, with a lower resolution screen, 1366 x 768 will suffice. Any idea?
We have them in the company...slow as hell even with i5's because the used ones usually have little memory and a HDD, no SDD. By the time I bought one, and upgraded it it springs the budget. Alas. for instance: Thinkpad X220 i5 2x2,5Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 320GB HDD is about 190€ but it has 2x2 GB memory, so I have to throw that out and replace it with 2x4, and it has a 320GB HDD, which I'd have to replace with a 256GB SSD. That's an extra 120-140€, and I've lost the warranty. (they are tough though) ;-)
Try a 3rd party refurbed ex-business thinkpad or latitude. They usually up the memory and put a 128/256GB ssd and install windows 10 to make them more appealing while not really increasing the price that much (since they probably bought 100 at a time from HSBC or something for £50 each).
Just a finishing touch, it's become the LENOVO V130-15IGM 81HL002SGE Pentium Silver N5000 4x 1.10GHz (2,7Ghz), Intel UHD Graphics 605 (IGP), 8GB RAM DDR4-2400 (1 stick) , 256GB SSD, 15,6", 1920x1080 It was a steal at 290€ I've added a used Windows 10 and Office 2013 (sorry, only legal in Germany AFAIK) and it's looking good so far.
