ISSUE395|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2021 41
01
Abasiclaptopcostingaround£300
willruneverydayoffice,multimedia
andeducationsoftware,butitwon’tbe
suitable for3Dgaming or processor-intensive
tasks such as video editing. Many laptops at
this price have a15.6in screen and weigh over
2kg, so they’re best used around the house
and foroccasional journeys.
02
If you want to playmodern games,
you’ll need alaptop with adedicated
graphics chip such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX
1060M. Good gaming laptops tend to have
large15.6 or 17in screens and weigh around
3kg, so they’re best suited to useathome.
03
If you want alaptopthat you can
take everywhere,look foramodel
that weighs less than 2kg. Forthe best
Choosinga... Laptop
portability,buy one that has a13.3in or 14in
screen. In general, the smaller and lighter the
laptop,the moreexpensive it is, especially if
it has plenty of processing power.
04
Battery lifeisextremely important
foralaptop,particularly if you’ll be
carrying it around. We’d expect all but the
biggest and heaviest to last foratleast
five hours on asingle charge,but foran
ultraportable that you carry everywhere,
eight hours and above is more desirable.
05
Laptops use mobile versions of
processors to conserve power,
and these lag behind desktop chips
when it comes to performance.For a
budget Windows laptop,anIntel Core i3
processor will do the job,but if you
want better performance,you should
look foranIntel Core i5 or Core i7
model instead. We recommend a
minimum of 4GB of RAM, although 8GB
is better formultitasking.
06
Most budget and mid-range laptops
use amechanicalhard disk for
storage.You’llwant at least 500GB, but
1TB or more is better.Solid-statedrives
(SSDs) have faster performance,making
your computer quicker to boot and more
responsive.Theyhavelower capacities,
though. You’ll need at least128GB.
07
Convertibles and 2-in-1 laptops can
change from laptop mode to tablet
mode.We’ve listed our favouritemodels later
on in this guide in the Tablets section.
LAPTOPS
SAMSUNGGalaxy Book Ion
★★★★★
£1,249•www.johnlewis.com
If the Galaxy Book Ion
is any indication,
Samsung’s return to
the UK laptop market is acause
forcelebration. This is a
wonderfully light, long-
lasting Windows ultraportable
with great connectivity and respectable
performance from its Core i5 processor.
PROCESSORQuad-core 1.6GHz IntelCorei5-10210U•RAM8GB•DIMENSIONS306x200x12.9mm
- WEIGHT970g•SCREENSIZE13.3in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•GRAPHICS
ADAPTORIntelUHD Graphics620•TOTALSTORAGE512GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Windows 10 Home•PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.samsung.
com•PARTCODEGalaxy Book Ion•FULLREVIEWOct2020
Thisbudget
ultraportableis
atremendous
bargain.It’sasfastasmany
£1,000-pluslaptops,andhas
similarlyhighbuildqualitytoo,
completewithagood-looking
metal chassis, backlit keyboard and wide range of ports. The display
isn’t pro-quality but is still big and sharp enough to get work done.
PROCESSORQuad-core2.1GHzAMD Ryzen53500U•RAM9GB•DIMENSIONS323x215x15.9mm
- WEIGHT1.38kg•SCREENSIZE14in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•TOTALSTORAGE
256GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTY
Oneyear RTB•DETAILSwww.hihonor.com•PARTCODENobelK-WAQ9AHNR•FULLREVIEW
Aug2020
DELLLatitude3300
★★★★★
£689•www.dell.com
Dell’s
affordable
andwell-built
Latitude 3300 is made for
students, but the fact that it
has strong specs forthe price
can be appreciated by anyone
looking forageneral-purpose laptop.The quad-core CPU keeps
performance up,and this particular model has asuperior 256GB SSD
to the even cheaper versions’ eMMC drives.
PROCESSORQuad-core 1.6GHz IntelCorei5-8250U•RAM8GB•DIMENSIONS330x231x22.9mm
- WEIGHT1.56kg•SCREENSIZE13.3in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•GRAPHICS
ADAPTORIntelUHD Graphics620•TOTALSTORAGE256GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Windows10Pro•PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.dell.com•
PARTCODEn013l330013emea•FULLREVIEWJan2020
GOOGLE
PixelbookGo
★★★★★
£829•store.google.com
The creator
of Chrome
OS has
once again produced one
of the best laptops forthe operating system. The Pixelbook Go
isn’t perfect –screen brightness could be higher,for instance –
but it’s very powerful foraChromebook, and manages some
fantastic battery life. Theykeyboard is also apleasure to type on,
with comfortable,solid-feeling yet agile keys.
PROCESSORDual-core1.3GHzIntel Core i5-8200Y•RAM8GB•DIMENSIONS311x206x13.4mm•
WEIGHT1.06kg•SCREENSIZE13.3in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•GRAPHICS
ADAPTORIntel UHD Graphics615•TOTALSTORAGE128GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMChrome
OS•PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSstore.google.com•
PARTCODEGA00526-UK•FULLREVIEWMay2020
HONOR MagicBook 14
★★★★★
£549•www.argos.co.uk
3300
lt
e
e
elaptop.The quad-core CPU keeps
ticular model has asuperior 256GB SSD
r
operating system. The Pixelbook Go
ness could be higher,for instance –
Chromebookandmanagessome
m
yBookIon
ation,
return to
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