Laptops

[mikeydoughnut]

Cheers @MrDo He’s changed his mind now. Fucking typical. 

[MrDo]

Has he :-) Your welcome mate

[mikeydoughnut]

Now he’s changed it back again  Little bugger. 
what about this spec? It’s shit not knowing about expensive tackle  

Hp EliteBook x360 1030 G2 13.3-inch (2017) - Core i5-7300U - 16GB - SSD 256 GB QWERTY - English (UK

that’s just over £400 refurbed. @j.o.i.n.t@J.C sorry to myther yers like

Edited April 20, 2022 by mikeydoughnut

[j.o.i.n.t]

Morning @mikeydoughnut 

HP-

It's more than specs when buying for kids, I'd say, so if he loves it and will use it...well, it's more value than one he'll think is fugly and reject, eh.

 

Technical downsides are upgrading memory not possible, its soldered on... 4 gig, these days, is starting to feel a bit low (depending on what he does with it) and only 2 cores... so it's not that powerful.  You can put bigger hard drives in, though, and 1080p screen at that size should be fine (for young eyes )

 

I'd say that aimed at folk who want a light thing in their bag, for basic stuff like web browsing, and perhaps some word processing etc.

 

ETA

I had an early teeny-tiny HP (went in too early!). I used that thing to death, and it came quite quickly as the hinges broke. That aspect may have improved, but I don't know.

Edited April 21, 2022 by j.o.i.n.t

[mikeydoughnut]

Cheers @j.o.i.n.t  It’s a reyt bugger this innit. I’ll keep looking. I guess the main thing I remember from owning a PC was that I could buy stuff from bowlers computer fair go home and just swap it over dead easy. That’s the main thing that it’s upgradable so we can try n keep it up to date if required like. Is there a way of finding out in the spec if this is possible? 

[j.o.i.n.t]

@mikeydoughnut Re specs: All I do is copy and paste what they call it into a search engine. Usually the product spec document is near the top. Also, doing same with processor type, and perhaps '[name of laptop] user upgrade options' or something

 

The direction of the market in these terms isn't good.

 

....If you keep digging in this user upgradable direction, swear man, it's Thinkpads.

 

BOWLERS! Small world...We may have rubbed shoulders at them fairs, going back I'd go occasionally. Been to raves there too!

[mikeydoughnut]

Perhaps I’m not being thorough enough @j.o.i.n.t I’m doing what I did to avoid using coco. I see numbers. My eyes roll about in their sockets a bit. Then I get a headache  numbers scare me. It’s like a secret language. 
 

I’ll check out some thinkpads n see if I can work it out. 
 

 aye maybe so! It was a reyt spot for gubbins. Everything there under one roof. Wish I was born a bit earlier. Missed all that rave shit. Tons of it on me doorstep too. I’ll have been a snotty teenager when I’d go down there.

[j.o.i.n.t]

@mikeydoughnut I've done varying things geek over the years, and when dealing with anything that has a user - a human... my advice make the focus that, not the numbers. Get a real handle on what he's interested in.

 

A skinny low powered thing may be enough.... The problem is if he starts to dig in, he'll hit a wall sooner in terms of it bogging down and feeling slow.

 

What I'd tended to do was introduce the kids to it dead basic before commiting to spending.... Take an intro to web design, from zero, for example...

Got a windows machine handy?.... open notepad with him (NOT a word processor), and just get him to type - Mikey Jnr Was ERE!!!! (that's it nothing else). Then save it as index.html somewhere you can find...Open the file browser and double click it, and it should open up in your browser.

 

If there's no fire in the eyes when seeing it open up? No questions? No 'wow, this is cool!''.... then perhaps something else.

 

That's where more grunt is useful. Stuff like 3D/Animation, for example, really does need more grunt and quickly, too, once you get past the basics. In software development, compiling can take a *while*,  and the tooling itself - more grunt better.

 

But, if he's not arsed, and just going to use web and simple games... not important

Edited April 21, 2022 by j.o.i.n.t

[J.C]

@mikeydoughnut - Upgradable is getting harder, seems everyone is taking a leaf out of Apple's book and soldering componants onto the motherboard which is a bit crap.

 

I know from experiance that models like the Dell XPS, Latitude you can upgrade the RAM and SSD. Some of the HP EliteBooks have soldered RAM but upgradable SSD. Same with some of the Lenovo, my X1 Carbon has soldered RAM but can upgrade the SSD.

 

Sorry there is no easy answer, it's a bit of a minefield out there these days.

[mikeydoughnut]

Cheers @j.o.i.n.t and @J.C  I’ll have a sit down with him and we’ll have a good natter about what he wants to do. I know at that age if their mate has one then so do they, it might just be that. It’s more so me protecting my money and trying to cover as many bases as possible. I’ll have another look on me dinner break. Thanks again chaps  

[Diddy]

Im actually in the market at the moment and tbh im only looking at spending £250 ish max. But if I were going mad and spending more  I would look at something like this

 

Decent graphics, Decent screen as in hd, 16 GB min ram, SSD drive. <£500 tick tick tick.....Kid proof ? Pass the cool test ? Soz cant help there

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by lildaveham
Removed flea bay links

[J.C]

@Diddy - I'd remove the eBay links as they are not allowed. However, the Latitude 7490 is a good machine at a good price, we sell a lot of the Latitiude 7000 series laptops and seem to not have a lot of problems with them. The 7420's come with carbon too so extra cool points.

[Mugwuffin]

Have a look at the Asus website, think they have a sale on at the moment. They are my favorite brand for gaming, and have great build quality, still using this one after 10 years, and the battery still lasts over 5 hours. Built a gaming desktop for a friend a few months ago, was supprised how far tech has moved on in 10 years, the 12th gen intel chips are awesome, and the m.2 nvme ssd's are crazy fast.

[Military Grade]

Does it have to be portable? Laptops really are a poor experience ergonomically and for gaming, and very over priced for what you get even when second hand.

[Themadhippy]

Quote

That’s the main thing that it’s upgradable so we can try n keep it up to date if required

Then forget a laptop,unlike a desktop  were things just plug in  laptops tend to solder everything in,yea the hard drive maybe upgradeable,as long as they aint used a proprietary connector and you might be able to chuck some more  ram in if its in a slot and not already maxed out. But processor and graphics cards,forget it.