Laptops

joosie

joosie

lifelong sufferer of restless brain syndrome
Oct 28, 2004
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New Zealand
I need a new laptop and don't know where to start so looking for recommendations. Main requirement is a nice fast processor and lots of storage as I need something that can handle large volumes of photos and photo editing. Not so fussed about a large screen or anything fancy looking! I don't really want to spend more than about £300.
 
In that case you could be looking for the impossible. My Lenovo Yoga 3 lap top that I take to work cost more than that two years ago (John Lewis) and its processor is not fast enough to run photoshop elements. I didnt realise that when I bought it. But it was all I could afford. What is fast now is not the same as what was considered fast 8 years ago.
My sixth former grandchildren have an HP each but also basic. The only high spec lap top is used by other grandchildren as their only family computer. It is a Dell or Toshiba I think and has a lot of room and good speed because it was bought at a time when one child was gaming. However, you might be better off storing your photos on an external hard drive or even a stick. That's what I have told my photographer grand daughter to do - after installing the photo editing software for her. So the disk, memory and processor are free for editing.
If you shop around you can always find older models cut price - but you need to read the small print carefully and read the on line reviews as well. Also note what software or operating system is included. I was tempted when I bought mine. But anything that was marked down in the cut price retailers up Tottenham Court Road seemed to have disadvantages.
If you want a fast processor you need to decide what speed and see whether you can get that from a reliable brand for your money. There are quite a few at £300 and under but PC world describe them as basic.
 
Thanks Skib that's helpful.
I have always backed up all my photos on external hard drives and USB sticks, but these can fail (and mine have, in the past) so I always feel safer with them stored on a computer as well.
I just need something that won't crash when I try to bulk edit in Lightroom!
 
Agree with Skib. Unfortunately £300 is a very small budget.
We went to PC World ( great service btw) looking for a basic laptop, just to do emails, word, excel type stuff on. Bought one at £300 and endied up swapping it for a dearer one, because the memory on it was shocking.
Recommend going to PC world to discuss what you need it for and then shopping around for the cheapest place to buy it from. (If you buy from the above I recommend paying the monthly fee for the help line too, got us out of serious trouble twice one!)
 
Maybe worth buying a trial subscription to Which so you can look at their excellent online reviews? I've done it in the past and found cancelling at the end of the trial no problem. (I did suggest they did a 'pay per search' option rather than having to pay for a full subscription when I sent back my comments at the end of the trial, but they don't seem to have taken me up on that one yet :p )
 
At PC world they have "basic" models for different purposes but they are all from £300 rather than £300 and under.

TBH I would save up a bit and try to find another couple of hundred. Or buy a reconditioned one from a reputable supplier, you can get good deals that way, but you need a good machine to have a good processor.
 
Joosie -
About backing up. We havent had any failures with external hard drives. But we have four, bought from Maplin over the years. I currently keep one for photos. But we back up alternately to 2 hard drives. My early days as a writer using an Amstrad word processor made me religious about backing up and tho I have lost data is has been through software and file format changes - Microsoft and aol e-mail back ups became obsolete.
Since you as a serious photographer pay a subscription to lightroom (I assume editing on line) then you need to find out what speed one needs to use that. And doesnt Lightroom include cloud storage?
I buy our phones from Carphone Warehouse part of the PC World Group but havent used them for computers and dont need their Geek Squad support. John Lewis have better support possibly. But you need to keep your wits about you even there.
I was sold the Lenovo and told them I didnt need them to set it up (fee of £30). But the salesman didnt bother to inform me that the lap top I was buying was known to come ready loaded with malware which needed to be removed before the computer could be set up and used. John Lewis didnt inform their tech help team either. Wasted a whole day of my life installing all my software which then had to be uninstalled and done all over again.
As well as looking at John Lewis and PC World, you could look at the on line retailer ebuyer.com from whom one of my daughters buys her stuff. Many of my friends get computers via their universities or work (tho in some case the College is tied to bulk buy from one brand, hence the HP lap tops!) but I always look at web sites of suppliers in Oxford or Cambridge to see what they are currently offering new students.
When I said that I couldnt afford a better lap top, I should have explained that we have an excellent upmarket tho desktop computer which is still going well. I wanted a lap top light enough to carry with me round London and for small databases and word processing. The lighter the lap top the more it seems to cost! There will always be a computer faster and more desirable than the one you are buying and you may be pointed n that direction. OH and I bought a very expensive TV from PC World much much bigger than OH thought possible. But it is a great joy. Just that if the salesman shows you something brilliant, there is the temptation to agree with him and buy it.
I observe in academic libraries that most young people have Apple - for which one pays a premium. I got the impression that Apple is better for images and graphics so you may prefer that. But I had a lesson on editing digital photographs recently and the teacher had a Windows lap top with ?Lightroom and Adobe Raw. But my own lap top wasnt powerful enough to take to the lesson.
 
Ok thanks guys. I guess I will have to part with more money then! Actually I CAN spend more, I just didn't WANT to :rolleyes: I'm about to start learning to drive, which doesn't come cheap! But I suppose it would be false economy to buy a cheaper laptop and then need to replace it in a year.
I do have a local PC World I could go to.
What are the good models these days? Both my last ones were Acer but they seem to have gone out of fashion now.
 
My husband says an Apple Mac is worth investing in, especially if you want to store and edit photos. He also says you will get much more for your money with a desktop computer.
 
Yup... I can't lug a desktop around with me on trains, planes and ferries though. Until I actually settle somewhere and have a "home" I need something that can travel with me.
 
I have to tell you @joosie I bought a new laptop for our business today from our local computer shop. It was a factory second because of a tiny ding on the case, quite unnoticeable. It's a red Dell, masses of storage though not the fastest (suits us). It was £360 and I paid an extra £40 for the shop guy to transfer all my data and bum our Office package onto the new machine. Bargain! So don't turn up your nose at "refurbished" machines.
 
Thanks Jane that sounds good. I'm not against that at all, it's just that my last laptop was a refurb and it turned out to be a bit rubbish & cost me more to fix than it was actually worth, so I'm a little wary!
 
I currently have an Acer, previously an Asus which I prefered both arounf £300 but I am a very undemanding user but acknowledge its limitations. I suspect that budget gets you a machine for browsing,and doing basic office functions plus simple games. Daughter spent £500 on hers whcih is multitaking speed machine, nor sure of make but not Mac price!! I have previousy had a refurbished Dell direct from them and found iit like new.
 
There is a shop near us (Stourbridge) and they are also on ebay, called Compuclear. They sell second-hand, reconditioned PC's, laptops and tablets and Dom and I have had various things from them over the years, that have all been brilliant. They have a big workshop where they strip things down and can build to your own spec, so faster RAM and bigger storage. You'll have change £300 for a top-rate laptop. Can't recommend them highly enough.
 
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