Best Budget Laptop for Word Processing and Basic Tasks - Any Ideas?
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My very old Dell desktop laptop given to me by my dad is quite large and quite old now. I have an Android tablet for internet browsing and shopping but if I need to redo my CV for example, I need a keyboard to type it up. I also only have Word 6 which is way out of date. So looking for a cheap but good quality laptop. Don’t mind what size it is but would need to be able to have or come with up to date Microsoft office windows. Not too expensive though. Any recommendations please? Thank you.
Leannexxx Seems a nice enough laptop but I wouldn't pay 200 pounds for it as its quite low spec and only has 4GB memory which is quite restrictive. I use a 4GB laptop without problems I just feel the price is too high for such limited memory. I have to debloat the operating system and set up virtual memory using the fast SSD to compensate for lack of physical memory.
At 200 pounds I would look to get at least 8GB of memory. The laptop I am currently using was 47 pounds from Amazon Warehouse and has 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. However the trackpad and keyboard are not as good quality as a HP laptop I also have.
Pro AV and IT do some good quality refurbished laptops for auction which are worth considering. You can often get a decent recent Celeron laptop there at auction for 30-50 pounds depending on what the end price is. I personally would avoid the more powerful older laptops as they tend to age faster with active cooling systems and higher discharge rates of the battery due to their higher power performance. The Celeron based laptops are typically fanless and give the battery pack a far easier time so even refurbished you get longer battery life. Something like this is worth bidding on but there are lots of models worth considering.
For the best experience debloat Windows and carefully choose the right settings to maximise the speed. Even basic Celeron laptops are quite fast it's just Windows is full of bloatware and spyware nowadays that you don't need and slows PCs down. These Pro AV IT laptops often come with a basic installation of Windows without so much bloatware added so they start from a good place anyway. I'd recommend Glary's utilities for an ideal app for speeding up laptops but to debloat Windows properly you need something like but it can be quite complicated to use.
BonzoBanana I don't know anything about laptops just said what we use and it's fine for us
Why not consider a stand alone keyboard that will pair up with your tablet. Hubby has just bought a 10 inch tablet with additional keyboard. Have a look on Amazon
Just buy yourself a Bluetooth Keyboard & save the hassle of buying a Laptop. You can even get a foldable one nowadays.
Emerge11 Microsoft 365 for the web is free but the full blown version is 60 pounds a year for the subscription.
jam45 Yes It Is. I use outlook.com/ or back In the day It was called hotmail.com/. Through that there Is Office, Excel, One Note & PowerPoint. Totally FREE. I use office on there myself.
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