Best value laptops
If you’ve got around £550 to spend on a laptop, Jim Martin and Andrew Williams have four of the best Windows machines you can buy right now
There are so many mid-range laptops that it can be hard to know where to start looking. Do you go for a 2-in-1 that’s basically a tablet with a keyboard, or do you get a ‘proper’ laptop? If you fall into the latter camp, there are some great deals at the moment, and we’ve cherry-picked four of the very best this month. We recommend them all: there’s no dud here that’s not worth your time.
But we understand that your budget might be different, so if you see a slightly different model, here’s what to look for before you buy it, and how to choose the right laptop for your needs.
Screen
Starting with the screen, you firstly need to decide on a size. Most laptops will be 12- to 15in, which will be a happy medium for most, but you can also go smaller or larger if you want something even more portable or if it rarely needs to move at 11- or 17in. Remember that the size of the screen will have an impact on elements such as the weight of the laptop and other areas, including the keyboard and even how many ports can be fitted.
It’s typical to find a budget laptop with an unexciting resolution of 1366x768, but if you can find higher you’ll be much better off (all four here have full-HD screens). A matt finish is preferable to glossy which reflects lights all too easily, and even yourself when you’re trying to work or watch a film.
Processor
As you know, the processor is the beating heart of the computer and which chip sits at the core of a laptop is going to have a large impact on how smoothly it runs. You might well find many with an Intel Celeron or similar and these are to be avoided unless your workload is going to be very light. Think email, word processing and web browsing.
You’re better off looking for either an AMD A-series or Intel Core i3 processor if you can – and some of the laptops at this price even offer a Core i5. The most powerful and efficient chips are currently Intel ‘Skylake’ which are the sixth-generation Core processors.
We recommend that you go for the best you can find within your budget, especially if you’re aiming to do demanding tasks such as editing video. Don’t worry too much about clock speed, although higher is better for getting things done quickly. Often manufacturers and retailers will advertise the Turbo speed rather than the regular.
We run various benchmarks on every laptop, so make sure you read the full review to get the results and what they mean for daily usage. The processor will also have an impact on battery life, something else that we test, and you can find results and analysis in the individual reviews.
Storage and memory
Don’t get confused between storage and memory. The latter is simply space to store programs and files, while the latter is
temporarily storing information while you’re doing things. In both cases it’s better to have as much as possible. A lot of cheaper laptops will come with a decent 1TB of traditional storage via a hard drive but come with only 4GB or even 2GB of RAM (memory).
At around £550 you are likely to find an SSD (solid-state drive) and 8GB of RAM.
Other specifications
When buying a laptop make sure it’s got exactly what you need (as well as the best specs possible as outlined here).
Depending on what you need it for, you might want an optical drive for playing or burning CDs/DVDs. Also make sure it’s got the right ports such as HDMI, Ethernet and USB – don’t just assume it has them all. Ethernet seems to becoming rarer on smaller laptops now.
Try and get the best wireless tech, too, with the latest being 11ac. Better Wi-Fi (assuming your home router is relatively up to date) will help for streaming content such as music and video over the internet. If you want to watch or listen, also make sure the speakers are decent unless you’re happy to use headphones.
Software
All current laptops now come with Windows 10 Home. If you’re tempted by a cheap Chromebook, remember that they are designed for online use.
I can’t find this laptop
At the time of writing every one of the laptops listed here is available to buy in the UK. However, the laptop market is extremely volatile, and retailers tend to have limited stock of any particular model, so there’s a chance it can go out of stock or end of life between the point that we write the review and you hold the magazine in your hands. We were, however, told by each manufacturer that the laptops here will be available to buy for a good while yet.
Also remember that laptop makers will make many slight variations/models of the same laptop, with subtly different product codes. These are called SKUs and although the laptop looks the same, the specs are different so one might have a better processor or hard drive. We can’t choose what model we’re sent so when you’re browsing retailers, it might vary. If you want the exact model we tested, we’ve quoted the part number on the table on page 74.
Starting with the screen, you firstly need to decide on a size. Most laptops will be 12- to 15in, which will be a happy medium for most, but you can also go smaller or larger if you want