non-techie people expecting a "good" computer/laptop for £100-200

[Psycho Sonny]

Yeah Apple stuff "should" cost about 50% less than they want, and it's worth is about 30-40% of what they ask tbh. I thought everyone knew that half of the purchase price is just buzzwords and air, nothing of actual electronic substance.

Don't apple charge you £300 just to walk into a store?

 

[adolf hamster]

Any know why? Laziness? A conspiracy? I hate having to recommend/buy a laptop for someone with such a shoddy resolution.

it's because manufacturers are still trying to convince people that 720p is "hd"

 

[doodah]

'HD Ready' yo .

 

[sovietspybob]

Are these people at work actually coming in asking you to fix personal laptops for free?

They wouldn't dream of asking the office cleaner to have a quick hoover of their car....

To be fair no most of them do come to me knowing i do jobs on the side and will want payment, BUT is has happened before where i fixed someones daughters laptop he said 'cash or cheque' in a joking way so i said 'urr cash please' and he just laughed and walked out cheeky begger! He's been blacklisted IT support wise ever since. I now make sure i say up front my estimated cost before going near the job now

 

[Dugganator]

To be fair no most of them do come to me knowing i do jobs on the side and will want payment, BUT is has happened before where i fixed someones daughters laptop he said 'cash or cheque' in a joking way so i said 'urr cash please' and he just laughed and walked out cheeky begger! He's been blacklisted IT support wise ever since. I now make sure i say up front my estimated cost before going near the job now

When I was young and stupid I used to get used for everything related to any PC related crap, would do large jobs for a couple of beers.... Now i'm the same when someone says they have a laptop/PC issue I quote saying oh I should be able to fix for x. It removes the freebie hunting bums from the people that want help. The worst person I ever had was someone asking me to collect a PC from the other side of the city without thinking it was an issue and do the job instantly for free and it was one of those jobs that would take some time fresh install, data recovery and replace all the random software they had missing. I refused saying basically I could do it for x but wouldn't be able to do it for a while as i was busy. They ended up taking it to the purple shirts paying about 3 times the price and then made out like it was my fault because i didn't help them exactly when they needed it because they only fixed the issue did give them all the software and data back. I understand its upsetting when something goes wrong but you have a major problem with a car its not done there and then in an hour it takes time and when they can fit you in plus order parts. I was totally gobsmacked like honestly hate how stupid people can be, ill hold down my normal job, family life and social life and the second you get a problem ill drop everything and come straight to you for nothing no problem and these are normally the people you never hear from unless there is problem.

 

[PardonTheWait]

I find when I use other people's computers they're often so slow as to be painful and the person who owns it doesn't see what I'm getting frustrated about.

So these people that want a £200 Macbook, and end up with a 2008 Mac for that money that is, to anyone like us, horribly outdated and slow, are actually perfectly happy with it, because they've only ever had ****.

I'm a Mac user, have been for years and years, and I'm willing to spend the extra money for them because I'm a big fan of the OS and I know it way way better than I know Windows. But if I found myself in a position where I had anything less than about £1200, and I needed a new computer, I'd build or buy a Windows machine because IMO any Mac old enough to be cheap is way too old to be nice to use.

My laptop at work is a reasonably good Dell but I still don't really like it, just because of software preferences. I haaaaate using it as a laptop, it's fine docked, but I do think Mac laptops are much nicer in terms of physical usability than Windows machines. However I have never really used a properly flash Windows laptop with a very nice, large, modern trackpad etc.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

non-techie people expecting a "good" computer/laptop for £100-200

People who don’t really know about these things, don’t differentiate MacBooks from laptops, they’re all one and the same to them and they probably want one because it looks cool and they’ve played on one in an Apple store or something, so they think they can get them for second hand laptop money.

It seems that the OP also can't differentiate between a computer and a computer either, as after all, a laptop is still a computer.

 

[robfosters]

It seems that the OP also can't differentiate between a computer and a computer either, as after all, a laptop is still a computer.

True. At a base level, everything is a computer. Remote controls, calculators, microwaves, games consoles, mobile phones etc, most things electrical, fall within the definition of a ‘computer’.

 

[Feek]

A few years ago, I got fed up with people asking me in the kitchen at work "What laptop should I buy?" and I started answering with just "MacBook". After a while, they stopped asking me.
Except those who actually bought a MacBook (or MacBook Pro), they eventually thanked me for the advice.

I don't care what the cheapskates bought.

 

[terley]

It seems that the OP also can't differentiate between a computer and a computer either, as after all, a laptop is still a computer.

Throwing shade over a turn of phrase.. what are you; 12?

 

[Amp34]

People who don’t really know about these things, don’t differentiate MacBooks from laptops, they’re all one and the same to them and they probably want one because it looks cool and they’ve played on one in an Apple store or something, so they think they can get them for second hand laptop money.

My cousins daughter recently showed that. She wanted a laptop and liked the look of the MacBook. So when Christmas came round she asked for a MacBook pro like it was something you could pick up from Currys for £3-400. Her mum phoned me asking for advice on what one to get and was shocked when I told her how much they was. She actually said “ why are they so much, it’s just a laptop. Mine was £500 from PC World”. Funny thing was, is that I couldn’t really explain why they were so much more expensive. “Coz it’s Apple innit” was about the strength of my reply lol.

The girl lucked out though as that summer she had done her gcse’s and got straight A’s. Her parents were so proud they got her one anyway as a special present for doing so well.

Because there’s a massive difference between them and the £500 job from Curry’s etc. Something a lot of techies don’t get either. It’s not even as if Apple are unique in this. Dell, Lenovo and Microsoft themselves all sell laptops in similar price ranges.

Sure the CPU is broadly the same, they have similar amounts of RAM and they both hangs “250GB SSD” but the overall device is a completely different device - battery life is usually much longer, significantly better screens, chassis is built to take a pounding and overall finish is much higher. They’re also usually much smaller and lighter than the equivalent cheap one. From a raw “power” point of view there may not be much in it, but from a user perspective it’s very different.

That’s not to say the exact price charged for high end laptops is justified, but there’s definitely justification for a massive difference in price between those and the massive, creaky plastic things you can buy for a few hundred.

 

[Amp34]

my laptop is from 2013 and having a 1366*768 screen depresses me....

My 2011 Macbook Air is 1400x800 and oddly, as much as there shouldn’t be a difference there really is. Those 32 extra lines (especially with an auto hiding program bar) make a massive difference in usability.

But cheap, buy twice. I’m currently considering whether to get a new laptop or just get a replacement battery (it’s only got a 2 hour battery life left and a service warning for the battery), because honestly other than the battery life it’ll probably still be fine for another few years for web browsing and light work. Would the £500 laptop from 2011 still be in the same condition? Unlikely!

Any know why? Laziness? A conspiracy? I hate having to recommend/buy a laptop for someone with such a shoddy resolution.

One word. CHEAP.

@PardonTheWait Looked at the Surface Laptop 2? If I was in the market that would probably be the one I’d buy.

 

[HangTime]

I don't see the problem, I would expect that £100-200 for a good secondhand laptop is achievable. Technology hasn't moved on much the past few years, it's not like a few years ago where a budget of £200 would prevent you getting a SSD.
You contrast with phones but that's the same, you can spend £800-1200 on a new laptop or phone, you can also spend £100-200 on a secondhand laptop or phone.

 

[Panos]

I dont know if its just me, but i always get the "Hey pete u know lots about PCs, what laptop would you reccomend? i've got £300.. i want to be able to play world of warcraft and overwatch.."

Dont start me. My ex wife has a huge immediate family.
You cannot imagine some requests and provided budgets. From £300 budget PC with elgato, for xbox recording to £250 PC (with monitor) and must play 1080p PUBG at high fps....
Or the best back early summer this year. "we have problem with one PC, we upgraded to windows 10 but LOTRO is crashing with Nvidia error", "what sort of card you are using?", "we just bought a brand new GT710 few months back, but it was working on windows 7 fine". <shrug>

 

[dowie]

A few years ago, I got fed up with people asking me in the kitchen at work "What laptop should I buy?" and I started answering with just "MacBook". After a while, they stopped asking me.
Except those who actually bought a MacBook (or MacBook Pro), they eventually thanked me for the advice.

I don't care what the cheapskates bought.

I certainly used to recommend my female flatmates get one, I told my sister to get one too and she's very happy with it. The funny thing with Macs is that people seem to want to portray the users as a bit clueless and while they're probably ideal for people who want minimal fuss and simply want a device that works they're also valued by quite a few hardcore techie types.

The cost one is a funny one, IBM found out that Macs are actually cheaper/better value in business usage when you take into account the additional software costs and the fact the users have far fewer issues with them requiring the time/resources of support bods. They also generated much higher satisfaction ratings from employees.

I think the evidence supports your position that the answer to what laptop to buy, for the majority of people, is simply to buy a Mac.

 

[asim18]

Sure the CPU is broadly the same, they have similar amounts of RAM and they both hangs “250GB SSD” but the overall device is a completely different device - battery life is usually much longer, significantly better screens, chassis is built to take a pounding and overall finish is much higher. They’re also usually much smaller and lighter than the equivalent cheap one. From a raw “power” point of view there may not be much in it, but from a user perspective it’s very different.

CPUs aren't "broadly the same", they're the exact same chips aren't they? Apple doesn't get bespoke Intel chips do they? But you can prove me wrong I don't really like researching Apple specifications because all the buzzwords/neurolinguistic mind control on their website just depresses me.


I mean the bespoke/proprietary hardware in a Mac is going to be outdated very quickly anyway. Anyone buying a new macbook 12 months after release is getting old tech.


If you have systems from several manufacturers, all with the same level of hardware, the Apple system is going to be more expensive by at least £400-£5000 (especially if you have extra options like ssds). If you think that level of premium is worth an extra 45 minutes of battery life and a cheap mass produced metal chassis, as well as having to put up with old hardware like outdated SSDs, then I just strongly disagree.

 

[asim18]

I think some people might grossly overestimate the value of a mass production process for a chassis.

It's about £2.50 worth of metal and maybe £1 because the machining bits will eventually wear out.

 

[JBuk]

I think some people might grossly overestimate the value of a mass production process for a chassis.

It's about £2.50 worth of metal and maybe £1 because the machining bits will eventually wear out.

And then all the over heads, Labour, machinery , r&d, vehicles, tools, printers, phones, premises, electricity, heating , waste removal and so on

 

[asim18]

And then all the over heads, Labour, machinery , r&d, vehicles, tools, printers, phones, premises, electricity, heating , waste removal and so on

That's not exclusive to Apple is it. All manufacturers do those things and pay for electricity and whatnot.

 

[asim18]

Once you have a production process in place it's in place. Doesn't cost much more to design a metal chassis as opposed to a plastic one. Not to establish a production process for a metal chassis opposed to a plastic one.