Best laptop/ultrabook for 500 UK.

[andrewmchugh]

Looking for a windows laptop for my sister but for 500 quid most of the laptops out there are quite shocking. So I am trying to push to the 800-1000 mark but apparently that's too much.

Its for uni so it needs to be fairly portable.

Have a good warranty, or a fairly cheap plan (not essential).

Looking for an i5 2nd or 3rd gen. Integrated graphics is fine.



She is saying she needs a DVD drive for movies but im going to say that thats not essential.


Sony Vaio T1311W1ES Ultrabook
Looks nice, ticks all the boxes apart from cost!

Lenovo Ideapad U310 Ultrabook Laptop
Price is ok, looks awfuly pasticly. Ive never used a 1.3 i3 before but it looks like it will be a slug. Then I noticed the u400 with 2.3 i3. and also a few more U310s of different configs.

What do you guys think? If it ticks all the boxes maybe 700 tops?

 

[andrewmchugh]

About to pull the trigger on the following.

Samsung 530U3B Ultrabook

Intel Core i5-2467M Processor 1.60 GHz
1x4GB DDR3 RAM

Samsung 256GB 830

1 x (4GB DDR3 PC3-12800)

£800 with £100 cashback

 

[robbiess]

a relative of mine got the Samsung as above but with new i5 3rd gen with hd 4000 6gb ram and 500gb hdd + 24gb ssd cache and i was playing with it since i was board boots in about 30s-40s and i did some light gaming (COD if you can call it gaming) and it £560 from insight (a buisness focused brand which is relay cheap)

 

[ruairi.C]

what is she doing at uni? Anything that involves any horsepower at all? Anything that requires a hi res screen or something other specific? If so please state, but if it needs nothing specific what about this?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-a53e-sx1339s-15-6-laptop-red-11884685-pdt.html
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-a53e-sx1339s-15-6-laptop-red-11884685-pdt.html

only thing bad i can see is the quite low res screen but hey, better for battery I guess

 

[robbiess]

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-series-5-np530u3c-13-3-ultrabook-silver-15119704-pdt.html
have a link

 

[andrewmchugh]

a relative of mine got the Samsung as above but with new i5 3rd gen with hd 4000 6gb ram and 500gb hdd + 24gb ssd cache and i was playing with it since i was board boots in about 30s-40s and i did some light gaming (COD if you can call it gaming) and it £560 from insight (a buisness focused brand which is relay cheap)

Yeh, I think I'm going to get the 2nd gen i5, its only £499 in store and that's not including the £100 rebate. I will be ripping the 500GB hybrid drive out and putting in the samsung 830.

I had a look at it in store today and it seems quite impressive. For the extra £150 and what she is doing its not worth it. She will be using office/films/browsing thats about it. I might grab a 22" screen and a keyboard/mouse if needs be.


On a side note is there any addition warranty I can take out with samsung.? Pcworlds is an extortion its like 50% of the price of the laptop on top!

 

[robbiess]

yeah you've got a problem their dissembling ultra books is a tricky issue! you void you warranty in most cases and to note the 24 gb chache ssd is built into the motherboard and good choice! I didn't think it would be that cheap!

 

[andrewmchugh]

The hdd / ram is user serviceable I think. They wouldn't put that sticker on the memory if it wasn't.

I don't think that the SSD/flash memory is onboard, I would think its part of the HDD like those hybrid drives were.

 

[robbiess]

well i just checked i've got the thing right next to me their is no sticker or anywhing but i don't know for shure but you should be fine; turns out you r right

 

[andrewmchugh]

well i just checked i've got the thing right next to me their is no sticker or anywhing but i don't know for shure but you should be fine; turns out you r right

ive got the machine now. just done the 830 SSD and 8GB of ram. Turns out that 24GB SSD is on board somewhere. I didnt see it when I opened it up.

It is listed in the install drives.. odd.

I also phoned samsung and they said that I can replace the HDD and Ram without affecting the warranty.