Laptop recommendations

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bingefellerbingefeller Frets: 5723
edited November 2018 in Off Topic

With Apple's laptops now getting ridiculously expensive for the specs I am going to be jumping ship in the new year to a non-Apple laptop.  I have no idea about what's good as there are so many companies out there and so I am seeking recommendations. 

I need a 15" screen at least and SSD with at least 500 gig of space. 

What are Chillblast's laptops like?  They seem to get good reviews and the customer service is apparently good.  It's nice that you can customize them before you buy.


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  • dbphotodbphoto Frets: 716
    edited November 2018
    I spent an age deciding which new laptop to buy for when I work from home recently and ended up rather confused.

    So I decided to hell with it and went to Argos and bought one of these:

    https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7606823

    It’s really good, ok, only 256gb on this model, but they might do the same with a bigger SSD
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  • Dell XPS get good reviews from my software developer buddies.
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  • FX_MunkeeFX_Munkee Frets: 2477
    Dell XPS get good reviews from my software developer buddies.
    Yep I have a work supplied one. It's very nice, seriously powerful and the screen is fantastic. Although at the price mine lists for, you're already into Apple territory.
    Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame, you give love a bad name. Not to mention archery tuition.
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  • dbphoto said:
    I spent an age deciding which new laptop to buy for when I work from home recently and ended up rather confused.

    So I decided to hell with it and went to Argos and bought one of these:

    https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7606823

    It’s really good, ok, only 256gb on this model, but they might do the same with a bigger SSD
    What is the screen and sound quality like?  I assume its very fast to boot up and load programmes? 

    I didn't know about the Dell XPS models so will have Look. 

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  • dbphotodbphoto Frets: 716
    edited November 2018
    The screen is great (I work with images for a living) and yes, it’s super quick booting up and launching programmes.

    I can’t comment on the sound quality though as have not played any music or videos on it yet!

    I almost spent around twice as much when I was looking so really happy with it.
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  • dbphoto said:
    The screen is great (I work with images for a living) and yes, it’s super quick booting up and launching programmes.

    I can’t comment on the sound quality though ad have never played any music or videos on it yet!

    I almost spent around twice as much when I was looking so really happy with it.
    Thanks  this is going on my possibe list.   Its getting good reviews on the Argos site too  
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  • fandangofandango Frets: 2204

    With Apple's laptops now getting ridiculously expensive for the specs I am going to be jumping ship in the new year to a non-Apple laptop.  I have no idea about what's good as there are so many companies out there and so I am seeking recommendations. 

    I need a 15" screen at least and SSD with at least 500 gig of space. 

    What are Chillblast's laptops like?  They seem to get good reviews and the customer service is apparently good.  It's nice that you can customize them before you buy.


    What about used? Happy to accept an offer for mine that I have for sale in the classifieds.
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  • JAYJOJAYJO Frets: 1526
    I got the Acer Aspire e1572 about 4 years ago. 500g for about £429. I dont want to put the mockers on it but its been faultless up to now. Sound is fine. I run Sonos system and use steinberg ur22 interface through event speakers. good enough for me.Battery is not as good as was and it gets a bit hot these days. I mostly use plugged in .
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  • mgawmgaw Frets: 5239
    I have just bought a Dell Inspiron 5000 2in1 (mainly for the touch screen)  seems pretty good to me for my modest needs
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  • JAYJOJAYJO Frets: 1526
    There is a acer aspire E1 572 on ebay touch screen refurbished for £349.
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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    You've got a choice of Apple with their squonky keyboard of all the other brands running Windozezzzzzzzzzzzzz. None of them are as well made as an Apple and if you want the screen quality and quality of finish you'll spend nearly as much on a high-end brand as you would on the Mac and still not quite be there.
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  • JAYJO said:
    I got the Acer Aspire e1572 about 4 years ago. 500g for about £429. I dont want to put the mockers on it but its been faultless up to now. Sound is fine. I run Sonos system and use steinberg ur22 interface through event speakers. good enough for me.Battery is not as good as was and it gets a bit hot these days. I mostly use plugged in .
    Would you get another Acer laptop?  Acer seem to be another major laptop maker alongside Dell.  

    mgaw said:
    I have just bought a Dell Inspiron 5000 2in1 (mainly for the touch screen)  seems pretty good to me for my modest needs
    Looks good, but I'd need to get one with a 15.6" screen because my eyesight is getting worse.  I see that Dell are giving money off selected models until the 11th, that's quite tempting but I"m still going to wait until after Christmas.

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  • SporkySporky Frets: 27585
    prowla said:
    None of them are as well made as an Apple 
    That is simply not true. 
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    Sporky said:
    prowla said:
    None of them are as well made as an Apple 
    That is simply not true. 
    OK - which are then?
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  • What do you guys think of this Chillblast?  I would get 16GB of memory added and 500GB Samsung SSD.  Sounds like good value for £883.71.  
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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11811

    What do you guys think of this Chillblast?  I would get 16GB of memory added and 500GB Samsung SSD.  Sounds like good value for £883.71.  
    It looks okay, but without and reviews on build quality, quality screen, how the keyboard feels, heat, battery life etc, it seems overly generic for £900 of a laptop with built in Intel Graphic.

    What are you using it for?  I can't help but think may be something like a Dell XPS is better value.
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  • The Chillblast stuff is overpriced is my opinion. The Clevo chassis they utilise are used by many companies. Scan PC use them as do PC Specialist. The latter offer the most comprehensive options for customising a laptop to your needs. 

    The Chillblast 15" you flagged up has an an i3 8130U processor with 16GB and a 500GB SSD for £833.71: that's with  so not exactly a well-stocked processor. 

    The PC Specialist 15.6" Ultranote V uses exactly the same chassis as the Chillblast. With 2x 8GB RAM, i3 8130U processor, and 500GB Samsung SSD with Windows 10, you're talking £717.00

    For £797, you could swap the SSD for 500GB Samsung NVMe and upgrade to the i5 8250u. 

    https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/ultraNoteV-15/

    Regarding Acer: I've found them to be very reliable. My mum's been running one for years that gets treated like absolute shit, dragged from lounge floor to sitting in barns on the farm, and it keeps on going. My own experience with the Chromebook 14 has been excellent. Reliable, works very well, and has been the most useful piece of mobile computing I've ever bought. You wouldn't be disappointed with a suitable Acer but you would pay more as prices for higher GB SSD models jump up quite a bit. 

    The Acer DBPhoto recommend is a very decent laptop. 

    https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7606823







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  • ShrewsShrews Frets: 2959
    Always bought new until about 3 years ago, where an Acer died on me and didn't really have the funds to buy a new one at that time. Bought a refurbished Toshiba for £150 and (touch wood) never had a problem since, in fact it's the best computer I've ever bought. They even sorted my old Dell desktop (running on XP) for me, for nothing.  Battery had died and it contained all my music files, so I was dead chuffed to get that back up and running too.

    I'll never buy new again.
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357

    I've said this so many times over the years on here that your probably bored of hearing it. Recommending a brand such as Acer or Dell is pointless ... Almost all laptops are built by third parties such as Quanta, Compaq, Foxcon etc then branded HP, Toshiba ect. When you work on them as I do you see the real part numbers internally . Now Compal build some fantastic machines for some companies like Dell and HP and some utter piles of shit which are also branded Dell, HP etc. In short when you recommend you have to be model specific ... like Lenovo ThinkPad T420 etc

    Most of today's laptops on sale are pretty bad ... being built to a low standard and price. There are some which are better, some high end Lenovo's, Dell Precisions, HP Probooks ..... but these machines are twice the price of a high street laptop

    The Macbooks are built to an extremely high standard but when you mill out aluminium like they do in the construction of the palmrest and keyboard system it becomes very expensive.

    Personally I always buy ex corporate machines like the one I'm typing on, Dell Latitude E6410. It cost about £110 and I put another stick of ram and an SSD in it so now it boots in seconds and has no problem running 32 track Protools sessions. Because it is an ex corp machine parts are easy to obtain, replacement motherboard is £25, LCD is £35 .... so very cheap to maintain over the years


    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • HeartfeltdawnHeartfeltdawn Frets: 22096
    edited November 2018
    @Danny1969 Any recommendations for a ex-corporate machine with a 1920x1080 screen? 




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