best cheap laptop?

[kipakolonyasi]

i really need to buy a laptop i'm even browsing gtaf on my mobile right now. but i need it to be one of the cheap ones. what do you recommend? celeron or pentium? or intel or amd? does ram make a difference? 2-3-4? i'm not going to play any games on it or edit videos etc. the most heavy thing can possibly be a couple of tabs open at the same time on chrome. but i want it to last me a while. at least 3 years. what would you reccomend? also which brand i'm thinking samsung? thanks in advance.

Edited January 19, 2014 by kipakolonyasi

[sivispacem]

For just everyday browsing you won't beat the AMD stuff. £250 gets you a decent screen, 8 hours battery life and enough power to watch films, browse the internet and generally just enjoy yourself. As long as you don't try gaming, anyway.

[doofter]

I just bought one of these and I'm really loving it.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cuol-Netbook-ROFL-Version-/111052139553

 

Not expensive either!

[Ivars]

Personally I prefer Samusung laptops because they last very long, but are more expensive.

2-3 GB of RAM should be enough for web. Pentiums are more powerful than Celeron processors.

[Stinky12]

Samsung is popular just because of their Galaxy phone, when when it comes to laptops, IMO they're about average. Not the worst nor the best.

Picking one depends on your budget and the screen size. Larger screen uses more battery life and it's heavier than small screen models.

Do not get netbooks no matter how good the price is because those CPUs are too weak to even do anything.

For AMD running them APU (AMD don't use CPUs for their laptop), grab the highest model you can afford, the highest is a A10 or A8.

Intel grab at least a Core i3 or up, or go down to a Pentium depending on your budget. Only grab a celeron when your budget is extremely tight

The AMD will have a better graphics compared to Intel's offering, but some Intel Core i7 will have their Iris Pro 5200 graphics, which is Intel's top of the line IGP.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested

And with the amount your spending, get one with the most features like touch screen and if possible with discrete graphics because unlike desktop where parts can be easily upgraded, laptops can't so

what you get is permanent.

Choose wisely

[SilverRST]

Samsung is popular just because of their Galaxy phone, when when it comes to laptops, IMO they're about average. Not the worst nor the best.

Picking one depends on your budget and the screen size. Larger screen uses more battery life and it's heavier than small screen models.

Do not get netbooks no matter how good the price is because those CPUs are too weak to even do anything.

For AMD running them APU (AMD don't use CPUs for their laptop), grab the highest model you can afford, the highest is a A10 or A8.

Intel grab at least a Core i3 or up, or go down to a Pentium depending on your budget. Only grab a celeron when your budget is extremely tight

The AMD will have a better graphics compared to Intel's offering, but some Intel Core i7 will have their Iris Pro 5200 graphics, which is Intel's top of the line IGP.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested

And with the amount your spending, get one with the most features like touch screen and if possible with discrete graphics because unlike desktop where parts can be easily upgraded, laptops can't so

what you get is permanent.

Choose wisely

He wants a cheap laptop, not one which costs more than a grand. And he won't be using it for gaming so why an iGP or APU?

And why even an i7?

 

@ TC, it's a good idea to tell us your budget otherwise you'll get people thinking an i7 is cheap.

You really won't need an i7 for those simple things.

[Stinky12]

 

Samsung is popular just because of their Galaxy phone, when when it comes to laptops, IMO they're about average. Not the worst nor the best.

Picking one depends on your budget and the screen size. Larger screen uses more battery life and it's heavier than small screen models.

Do not get netbooks no matter how good the price is because those CPUs are too weak to even do anything.

For AMD running them APU (AMD don't use CPUs for their laptop), grab the highest model you can afford, the highest is a A10 or A8.

Intel grab at least a Core i3 or up, or go down to a Pentium depending on your budget. Only grab a celeron when your budget is extremely tight

The AMD will have a better graphics compared to Intel's offering, but some Intel Core i7 will have their Iris Pro 5200 graphics, which is Intel's top of the line IGP.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested

And with the amount your spending, get one with the most features like touch screen and if possible with discrete graphics because unlike desktop where parts can be easily upgraded, laptops can't so

what you get is permanent.

Choose wisely

He wants a cheap laptop, not one which costs more than a grand. And he won't be using it for gaming so why an iGP or APU?

And why even an i7?

 

@ TC, it's a good idea to tell us your budget otherwise you'll get people thinking an i7 is cheap.

You really won't need an i7 for those simple things.

 

Everyone wants a cheap laptop, but just don't go cheap ot a point you're basically throwing money away to get a laptop that us unusable.

IGP stands for integrated graphics all current mobile Intel CPUs uses IGP built right into the CPU itself.

AMD don't call their mobile processor CPUs anymore it's call APU which stants for Accelerated Processing Unit. What is has, is better graphics than Intel's IGP solution.

I mentioned the Core i7 because so far it's one of the models I know that has the best IGP yet from Intel called the Iris Pro.

This doesn't mean for OP has to buy a Core i7 with Iris Pro. For a tight budget AMD APUs will be the better choice for its reasonable price and better graphics.

Also dedicated graphics isn't just for games as some will think that's what they're associated with.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Stinky12

[kipakolonyasi]

thanks for all the advices people i ended up buying a lenovo g580 (pentium 2020m). but i have a new question now, should i charge the battery for a long time before first use? i remember people recommending something like that with mobile phones and laptops so the battery lives longer. how it's done exactly?

[Ryan]

Read the manual that came with the laptop. It'll tell you what the manufacturer recommends.

[Gdog]

thanks for all the advices people i ended up buying a lenovo g580 (pentium 2020m). but i have a new question now, should i charge the battery for a long time before first use? i remember people recommending something like that with mobile phones and laptops so the battery lives longer. how it's done exactly?

 

Charge it up full. once it says it's at 100% then left it plugged in (you can still use it) for another hour. You now need to drain the battery completely. Don't turn it off. Keep using it until the laptop turns off itself then leave it alone for another hour. This will make sure that the battery is completely drained of charge.

 

Still not done here. Plug the laptop back in and charge it right up to 100% and leave it in for an hour again. After that just use it as normal.

 

1. Charge to 100%

2. Use until laptop turns off.

3. Charge to 100%

 

do that ONCE a month.

[Torcidas]

For others thinking about getting a cheap laptop for themselves now that the OP has already got one, old Thinkpads such at T61, T400, X200 can be found on sites like Ebay for cheaper than 200$. I use my X200 as my main development machine when I'm not home, and it only cost me 100 bucks. I run Crunchbang Linux on it, but those computers still handle Windows 7 really well. Throw an SSD in it and you wouldn't even think its a 6 year old laptop.