revtothelimit - motorbike forum

My wife's sister is in the UK for a business studies course, and she needs a laptop for her studies. It has to be cheap (sub £300, preferably less) and able to deal with your average spreadsheet, powerpoint and document usage. AMD processors preferred, as they tend to give better bang per buck.

Laptops direct do some decent quality refurbs, i5, 16gb, 256gb w11p will do the job fine for that money.

Get a reconditioned Lenovo Thinkpad. Loads out there under that budget.

There's an article in the current Which? on the best suppliers of refurbed tech stuff. I'll check it out and post up some info later.

Sounds like a lot of single core utilizing software usage, an Intel CPU would probably provide better bang for buck in productivity style tasks, the battery would also last longer, if that's important.

The last Ryzen 5 equiped laptop I bought sounded like it was about to take off if you had more than two browser tab open.

Which? Recommended s/h tech retailers (not just laptops - I've left out the phone only ones).

Samsung certified renewed
The iOutlet
Dell

Others that scored well -
Amazon Renewed
MusicMagpie
Apple Refurbished
Laptops Direct
eBay Certified Refurbished
Laptops Outlet
Amazon Renewed

Sometimes there are some very good deals on the Dell Outlet, but they're getting rare, usually it's quite a minor saving over the shiny new price especially when they've got a sale on the new stuff

KungFooBob wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 8:45 am Sometimes there are some very good deals on the Dell Outlet, but they're getting rare, usually it's quite a minor saving over the shiny new price especially when they've got a sale on the new stuff

I think that Which? weight after-sales support quite highly so their 'Recommended' are, quite often, more expensive than other options. Haven't used Dell for some years but they were in almost every respect. I'd guess Samsung and Dell are among the highest prices and Samsung may well be skewed by their phones volume.

I've used Laptops Direct for Thinkpads on a number of occasions. Had one turn up with the wrong power supply which they sent a replacement for out overnight at no charge.

Count Steer wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 8:41 am Which? Recommended s/h tech retailers (not just laptops - I've left out the phone only ones).

Samsung certified renewed
The iOutlet
Dell

Others that scored well -
Amazon Renewed
MusicMagpie
Apple Refurbished
Laptops Direct
eBay Certified Refurbished
Laptops Outlet
Amazon Renewed

Was "Amazon Renewed" so bad/good they reviewed it twice?? Or is it that Amazon changed the name of some other sub-service half-way through the review?

Rockburner wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 11:04 am

Count Steer wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 8:41 am Which? Recommended s/h tech retailers (not just laptops - I've left out the phone only ones).

Samsung certified renewed
The iOutlet
Dell

Others that scored well -
Amazon Renewed
MusicMagpie
Apple Refurbished
Laptops Direct
eBay Certified Refurbished
Laptops Outlet
Amazon Renewed

Was "Amazon Renewed" so bad/good they reviewed it twice?? Or is it that Amazon changed the name of some other sub-service half-way through the review?

My keyboard has a stammer.

In the end went with a Lenovo Thinkpad T495s for £190 shipped from PC Renewed. Thanks for all the suggestions.

mangocrazy wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 1:07 pm In the end went with a Lenovo Thinkpad T495s for £190 shipped from PC Renewed. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I hope you don't regret that!
I have a lenovo TP, spends a good 5 minutes booting up, loading bloatware etc. I usually fire it up then go and make a brew.
Horrible, horrible thing......and then there's the bloody W10 updates, which although turned off, still get installed, usually when you are in a rush or need some info urgently

..... wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 3:55 pm

mangocrazy wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 1:07 pm In the end went with a Lenovo Thinkpad T495s for £190 shipped from PC Renewed. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I hope you don't regret that!
I have a lenovo TP, spends a good 5 minutes booting up, loading bloatware etc. I usually fire it up then go and make a brew.
Horrible, horrible thing......and then there's the bloody W10 updates, which although turned off, still get installed, usually when you are in a rush or need some info urgently

I'll be going through it and rigourously de-bloating W11, and probably sacking off the updates. We used Lenovo TPs at the last place I worked, and they took a fair amount of abuse and misuse, so hopefully it'll be OK in the hands of a mature student. I prefer Lenovo over HP, Dell or any 'no-name' brand. We'll see whether my instincts are accurate or not in due course...

https://amzn.eu/d/j7ytsuu

Powerful, enough storage, modern enough Win11 Pro. Importantly, light enough to carry about.

the_priest wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 6:55 pm https://amzn.eu/d/j7ytsuu

Powerful, enough storage, modern enough Win11 Pro. Importantly, light enough to carry about.

7th GEN CPU, that's got to be at least 8 years old!

mangocrazy wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 10:55 pm My wife's sister is in the UK for a business studies course, and she needs a laptop for her studies. It has to be cheap (sub £300, preferably less) and able to deal with your average spreadsheet, powerpoint and document usage. AMD processors preferred, as they tend to give better bang per buck.

Look for a refurbished business laptop. A Ryzen 5 ThinkPad or HP ProBook with 16 GB RAM and an SSD fits under £300 and handles Office easily. Avoid new budget models with 4 GB RAM. Refurbs give better keyboards, screens, and durability for the money.

If you buy an HP don't expect any support if it goes wrong. Less than 12 months old my screen failed. They took an age, told me that they had found water damage, then changed their mind and said it was impact damage. Either way they refused to repair unless I agreed to pay £400.

I got a new screen locally for just under £100 andf vowed I will not buy anmother HP machine.

In the end I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad with a Ryzen 5 processor, downloaded Libre Office instead of paying the MS tax and she's delighted with it. Now my wife wants one...

I bought a Lenovo a couple of years ago and buggered it up by tripping over the power lead a few times, I sent it back after 11 months and they replaced the power supply and motherboard without question, top service.