Budget friendly small notebook

[_Dogbert]

Hi folks,

I've been computer shopping for a while, and I eventually ended up buying myself a proper gaming PC for home. However, I'm still looking for a laptop to use on-the-go - mainly for presentations, documents, and occasionally a bit of development (home PC will be primary system for that though).

My personal preference is something small, around 11" - 13", with 4GB of RAM. I like the MacBook Air, but I find it difficult to justify the price. I've looked at the Lenovo 120s machines as well - they're cheap and small, but I don't know how the modern Celeron CPU's perform. I don't really want to spend more than about R5k.

Anything else that I should consider?

 

[|tera|]

I'm not a Lenovo fan to be honest. The newest editions fail to impress me. I've had my Dell Inspiron since 2013 and a few upgrades like adding an SSD and more RAM has made it a complete new system. It's an i5 though.

I wouldn't suggest going the Celeron route, especially since you want to develop on it.
Rather spend a bit more for a better CPU and better system overall is my suggestion.

 

[_Dogbert]

I'm not a Lenovo fan to be honest. The newest editions fail to impress me. I've had my Dell Inspiron since 2013 and a few upgrades like adding an SSD and more RAM has made it a complete new system. It's an i5 though.

I wouldn't suggest going the Celeron route, especially since you want to develop on it.
Rather spend a bit more for a better CPU and better system overall is my suggestion.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[sajunky]

Ilife Zed Air 2 Notebook
14" is little bit to large, but it is the only one in this price range that will play all modern movie formats, including H.265 (HEVC-10bit) and VP9 (YouTube format).
There is empty SATA disk bay - add a hard drive or SSD when budget allows.
https://www.incredible.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook

 

[Park@82]

Ilife Zed Air 2 Notebook
14" is little bit to large, but it is the only one in this price range that will play all modern movie formats, including H.265 (HEVC-10bit) and VP9 (YouTube format).
There is empty SATA disk bay - add a hard drive or SSD when budget allows.
https://www.incredible.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook

Is the ram and emmc storage upgradable or onboard?

 

[sajunky]

Is the ram and emmc storage upgradable or onboard?

I don't know:

- I never seen upgradeable EMMC storage
- RAM? It is rare for devices equipped with EMMC.

 

[_Dogbert]

Ilife Zed Air 2 Notebook
14" is little bit to large, but it is the only one in this price range that will play all modern movie formats, including H.265 (HEVC-10bit) and VP9 (YouTube format).
There is empty SATA disk bay - add a hard drive or SSD when budget allows.
https://www.incredible.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook

This is what I was looking at: https://www.lenovo.com/za/en/laptop...eries/Lenovo-ideapad-S130-11IGM/p/88IP10S1075

 

[sajunky]

This is what I was looking at: https://www.lenovo.com/za/en/laptop...eries/Lenovo-ideapad-S130-11IGM/p/88IP10S1075

Nice find, Pentium Silver N5000 is updated CPU the same family. It looks like this laptop has build-in eMMC, plus SATA storage bay and PCIe SSD slot. You don't need eMMC having the last two, just check upgrade options for your model. All is better (i.e. you get HDMI 2.0), except screen resolution. Price?
Just get 4GB RAM, as Win10 sucks on 2GB.

 

[_Dogbert]

Nice find, Pentium Silver N5000 is updated CPU the same family. It looks like this laptop has build-in eMMC, plus SATA storage bay and PCIe SSD slot. You don't need eMMC having the last two, just check upgrade options for your model. All is better (i.e. you get HDMI 2.0), except screen resolution. Price?
Just get 4GB RAM, as Win10 sucks on 2GB.

Raru has them for under R5k, and I’ve seen cheaper prices come up on a few sites as well - not entirely sure how they were specced though.

https://raru.co.za/electronics/7021...4gb-ram-64gb-emmc-11-6-inch-hd-notebook-black

 

[sajunky]

In the 5K price range I would look for the latest i3 CPU, not a Goldmount or Goldmount Plus.

 

[oldhat]

Have you seen the Teclast F5? N4100 cpu, 8Gb ddr4 2400 ram, 120Gb M.2 sata ssd(upgradeable), 1920x1080 11.6" display with 360 degree hinge for tablet mode. Last I saw, local price was around R4300.

 

[_Dogbert]

In the 5K price range I would look for the latest i3 CPU, not a Goldmount or Goldmount Plus.

That would definitely be preferable. Are there any 13" or smaller notebooks with an i3 in that price range though? I couldn't find anything when I looked.