Best laptop to buy

aspiring · Saturday at 20:26

Had a HP laptop for last few years but not happy especially with battery performance.

Main use for laptop is to essentially browse and watch videos and stream on netflix etc.

Need a 17 inch screen and preferably one with an ethernet port.

Any suggestions and also where to buy from?

Disco_P · Saturday at 21:59

Unless you have mega bucks, eBay for a 2nd hand corporate laptop. Build quality will leave consumer machines in the dust.

With the caveat that you might find a new machine with a 17" OLED that will look a lot better than any LCD.

Scrutinize · Saturday at 23:04

aspiring said:
Had a HP laptop for last few years but not happy especially with battery performance.

Main use for laptop is to essentially browse and watch videos and stream on netflix etc.

Need a 17 inch screen and preferably one with an ethernet port.

Any suggestions and also where to buy from?

What's your budget?

17 inch and long battery life is a big ask.

aspiring · Sunday at 13:11

Scrutinize said:
What's your budget?

17 inch and long battery life is a big ask.

Funny you should say that as my 17 inch hp battery has died and I am struggling to find replacement battery hence I am looking at new one.

Budget £500

Jupiter · Sunday at 16:12

I'd consider a secondhand MacBook. At your price point you can get an older (relatively) model which still outperforms some of the newer budget friendly Windows laptops.

Scrutinize · Sunday at 16:19

aspiring said:
Funny you should say that as my 17 inch hp battery has died and I am struggling to find replacement battery hence I am looking at new one.

Budget £500

At that budget with your requirements then no worthwhile options to match expectations imo. Too many compromises.

Decent circa 8 hour plus battery life in real world use then you want an ultra portable 14 / 15 / poss 16 inch with something like an ultra 5/7 processor. Full HD screen is better when bigger as 3k screens do eat battery more.

There are Ryzen 3 poss Ryzen 5, Intel i3, i5, core 5 within £500 or under budget with 16/17 inch screens but they are all pretty compromised.

It's well worth geting 16gb memory when looking as a lot of memory is soldered/integrated these days so spec up from the start.

Going slightly over budget and you have some Asus Vivobooks and Lenovo IdeaPads with reasonable i5/i7/Ryzen 7 specs.

Battery life is really dependent on use and screen brightness though so even the claimed 10-12 hour battery life on the above can vary heavily.