Laptop for student

[zed43]

Hi guys, I’m looking to buy a laptop for my daughter. After the summer, she’s going to high school, and we’re looking for something that will serve her well for the first few years.Budget is around £500.


It’ll mainly be for normal student use — homework, browsing, Office, etc., nothing CAD-heavy.


I found the Acer Aspire Go 15 15.6" Laptop – Intel Core i5, 512 GB SSD for 450£. Do you think this would be a good choice?


Thank you!

 

[Scrutinize]

The i5-13420H in that is quite an old chipset but perfectly functional. Ok spec overall though. If you can, pick a laptop with the Core i5 Ultra or Core i7 Ultra. Ideally a Core Ultra (eg 225/226/256/258 or 3xx series etc) not just Core or Core i.

The £400-£550 price range is pretty rough this year given memory prices though.

At £599 this is great as very portable and decent spec/battery.

LENOVO Yoga Slim 7 Aura Edition 14" Laptop, Copilot+ PC - Intel® Core™ Ultra 5, 512 GB SSD, Grey​

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[tom_nieto]

I might be way out of touch here, but would something like a refurbished MacBook Air fit the bill? The Apple silicon machines are really excellent and perfect for carting around. Plenty of choice in 13” M2 machines it would seem but might need to stretch the budget if 15” screen is required.

 

[zed43]

thank you guys,for the help..i will definitely look at the Lenovo coz she got tablet from them and she's very happy with that..
the Apple is nope because the whole school using windows platforms etc..

 

[dave28]

Lenovo always gets my vote for home user budget / student class.

Then for business class Dell / HP / Lenovo are all quite good usually.

 

[Temi_D]

Laptops aren't what they used to be, I would have recommended a Dell Inspiron 16 5645 as I got one for ~£500 last year but that’s almost doubled now

 

[Avalon]

The issue you have is £500 is the rough end of the market for a new machine with pricing the way it is, lots of plastic, average screens, dubious build quality. I would consider a used Surface Pro personally, they're significantly better built than anything sub £500 (MS wanted to compete with the MacBook), easily capable of running the average teenagers office requirements and generally go for under 25% of your budget with a warranty/decent battery health, at least worth considering.

thank you guys,for the help..i will definitely look at the Lenovo coz she got tablet from them and she's very happy with that..
the Apple is nope because the whole school using windows platforms etc..

Office is available on Mac, and has been for a very long time.