Which of these is the better laptop for working


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Having looked at the mainstream websites (currys, john lewis, argos etc) I've not found something I'm happy with. This Laptop is for my mum, she won't buy major electrical devices from an online retailer like amazon so don't offer anything from there. The two I've found are (exactly default, nothing customized or changed):

 

Latitude 3330 - ?349.00 (offer):

  • 3rd gen i3-3217U 1.80, 3MB Dual Core
  • 500GB Solid State Hybrid Drive with 8GB Flash
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • 4GB Ram

 

ThinkPad Edge E545 - ?329.99:

http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/edge-series/e545/

  • AMD A8-5550M Accelerated Processor (2.1Ghz to 3.1GHz, 4MB Cache, 1600MHz with Raedon HD 8550G Graphics)
  • 500GB Hard Disk Drive
  • 4GB RAM

 

 

What she needs is something well built, something with solid performance, decent battery life and iPlayer/ Skype use. Her max budget is ?350. If you find anything anywhere else, let me know :D

 

I'm gearing towards the dell one but I am worried about the build quality which is something I'd prefer over having something slightly better which she may not need. 

 

Also, what is a hybrid drive? 

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A hybrid drive is an HDD with a small amount of SSD storage used for caching often used data.  It is better than an HDD, but not suitable as an SSD competitor.

 

 

Neither of those are going to be solid performers I'm afraid and build quality is always an issue with low-end machines.

 

That said, if I had a choice, I'd take the Latitude.

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I doubt you'll find anything well built with decent battery life at that price point.

Expect creaky plastic that may crack and break over time, keyboard keys with letters faded sooner than you'd hoped and batteries that don't last as long (as in lifespan) as their more expensive counterparts.

A hybrid drive is a HDD with a SSD cache. The idea is that you get performance similar to a solid state hard drive, but the space of a standard platter based drive. In my experience, a lot of them are never as fast as a fully fledged SSD but they are faster than a standard HDD.

Hope that helps.

You're better off with a hybrid drive than a HDD in my opinion.

Edit - yea, go for the latitude

Hybrid drive - win

Battery life (at this price) - win

The junk in the trunk - Fail (Personal preference, I don't like the way there's stuff behind the screen's hinge)

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Okay, I'll consider the latitude. If I was able to persuade my mum to increase her budget, what laptops would have a good build quality? (Maybe up to ?450 at a real stretch). 

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the Lenovo has a better CPU, both in single threaded and multithreaded applications, and a much much better GPU. The only thing is, it most likely has worse battery life than the dell because the APU is 35W, compared to the 17W intel chip in the dell.

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I would go with the Thinkpad and buy a solid state drive for it later....then again I spent about 700 dollars on my current laptop so I wouldn't have picked either one of those.

 

Then again I don't know how hot the amd would get...maybe go with the intel then.

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Why not go with something slightly used ?

With your budget you are stuck with the junk - (just because it says ThinkPad doesnt mean its reliable.)

Those Edge are their cheapest model -

What I have done several times for people is if they only have a $400 budget - I'll get a used ThinkPad T-series, do a clean install of the OS - and they are the proud owner of a ThinkPad T-series.

For $400 they got a great laptop that was $1500 when it was new.

 

If you want reliability &  quality that might be your best bet.

(convert this to GBP)
Spend $300 on a T410 - spend $100 on a 120GB SSD - and it will be a great laptop for years to come.

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Why not go with something slightly used ?

With your budget you are stuck with the junk - (just because it says ThinkPad doesnt mean its reliable.)

Those Edge are their cheapest model -

What I have done several times for people is if they only have a $400 budget - I'll get a used ThinkPad T-series, do a clean install of the OS - and they are the proud owner of a ThinkPad T-series.

For $400 they got a great laptop that was $1500 when it was new.

 

If you want reliability &  quality that might be your best bet.

(convert this to GBP)

Spend $300 on a T410 - spend $100 on a 120GB SSD - and it will be a great laptop for years to come.

Considering the op's Mum only trusts high street retailers, not even reputable sites like Amazon or eBuyer, I very much doubt she would be open to the idea of used laptops. Just a thought.

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Considering the op's Mum only trusts high street retailers, not even reputable sites like Amazon or eBuyer, I very much doubt she would be open to the idea of used laptops. Just a thought.

You're exactly right.  I guess I was hoping someone would help and/or educate them.

I was assuming way too much

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You're exactly right. I guess I was hoping someone would help and/or educate them.

I was assuming way too much

Well, it's just one of those things. We could link to better deals from online sites and stuff but ultimately, if the op is unable to convince his Mum that it's worth doing to save the money/get a better deal then there isn't much point. Considering the op made a point of this as an issue off the bat says to me that she won't budge on the idea.

My parents used to be the same, it was only when they saw me buying so much stuff online that they changed their minds, I imagine not everyone is so easily convinced though.

If you think about it, there are some real advantages to buying on the street too, like being able to potentially get a replacement the same day if needed.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd just like to give an update on the situation. I've managed to convince my Mum to buy another desktop computer which obviously represents better value for money. I'll then buy her a tablet for ?100 or something. Although she'll be spending a bit more, the desktop PC would at least have more processing power and capabilities and be sufficient for her for far longer than a laptop.

 

Thanks all. 

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From what year are you ? It's the opposite now.

 

For business class, not so much. But from the home customer class, they suck.

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From what year are you ? It's the opposite now.

Um what?  Dell has always been known for making junk laptops. They're cheap for a reason.

 

http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-worst-notebook-brands-2013/3

http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-worst-laptop-brands-2014/3

 

They improved a little bit this year, but Lenovo certainly remains much better.

 

I've had nothing but nightmares with their junk.  My work laptop is a decked out i7 Latitude E6530 and the specs of it sound great, but it loves to crash.  It screws up when I connect it to the dual monitors wired to the docking station.  When I fire up CAD or SolidWorks and it switches over to the discrete graphics card, it likes to crash.  And of course it's lovely cheap crap plastic.  I guarantee the battery will be useless within a year.  Dell sacrifices quality for cost and it's been that way forever.

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From what year are you ? It's the opposite now.

What year are you from, no its not the opposite - and anyone who actually knows about this kind of stuff will tell you Lenovo , ASUS, Apple are the most reliable manufacturers across the spectrum.

Dell has a couple good models, but most of the stuff is the crap models.

Both brands have good & bad - the Lenovo Essentials suck - and they have to @ that price range.  The IdeaPad has some nice things, and the ThinkPad T-series are nothing short of legendary.

Dell - Inspiron= bad, Latitude = good.

Dont base your comments on owning 1 or 2 then saying "hey I have one and its great !"  Base it on working/using/ admin a couple hundred - you see patterns emerge.

Futhermore, you look @ % of warranty repairs - you will see a great difference between Lenovo & Dell - and its based on percentage of models in the market, not "well Lenovo has more computers, so naturally they have more repairs"

Maybe there will be changes now that Michael Dell has a new interest in the desktop/end user market - but that remains to be seen.

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