Budget Windows Laptop

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Dean

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Evening folks,

Looking for some help since I'm a bit out of touch with this range of products.

What's the best available entry-est level budget machine that runs Windows?
It could be a tablet+keyboard combo, or pretty much anything similar. The user has a budget of up to R3000, and would like to use it for watching media, browsing the web/mail, etc.. the basics.

Would a Chromebook be a better option?

Thanks in advance
 
HavocXphere said:
The user will need a new budget.

Even the crappiest ones start at 4k & those are outdated and underpowered.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the feedback.

Any idea of what a reasonable budget would be?
This is someone who has never owned anything bigger than a smartphone, and would like a bigger screen and keyboard.
 
Dean said:
Appreciate the feedback.

Any idea of what a reasonable budget would be?
This is someone who has never owned anything bigger than a smartphone, and would like a bigger screen and keyboard.
Click to expand...
Well 4k will get you a basic new laptop but that will be jump off a bridge level slowness.

So it really depends on how close you want to cut it & how much pain the user is willing to endure. e.g. My mom bought a bottom end laptop (against my advice) and quote "I switch it on and go to make tea".

5-6k would be reasonable I'd say.

I'd try 2nd hand.
 
If its just the basics like you said.. a 10.1" 2-in-1 atom x5 device will be more than enough..

..and faster than the el cheapo Celeron crap that usually ships with 2gb ram/500gb 5400 rpm drives. The Apollo lake Celerons are a different story though, but that would be well out of budget
 
Zenthrax said:
If its just the basics like you said.. a 10.1" 2-in-1 atom x5 device will be more than enough..

..and faster than the el cheapo Celeron crap that usually ships with 2gb ram/500gb 5400 rpm drives. The Apollo lake Celerons are a different story though, but that would be well out of budget
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detail
 
Your standard Celeron laptop would be good enough. Just try to get more than 2gb RAM and put in a cheap SSD. Makes a huge difference.
 
Zenthrax said:
If its just the basics like you said.. a 10.1" 2-in-1 atom x5 device will be more than enough..

..and faster than the el cheapo Celeron crap that usually ships with 2gb ram/500gb 5400 rpm drives. The Apollo lake Celerons are a different story though, but that would be well out of budget
Click to expand...
Not so sure about that. I did buy a x5 device. Wrote a review here:
https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/858656-Asus-Transformer-Review

They're interesting but at that price point I'd no recommend it as a laptop replacement.

A 4k celeron laptop + 1k SSD will go much further.
 
HavocXphere said:
Not so sure about that. I did buy a x5 device. Wrote a review here:
https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/858656-Asus-Transformer-Review

They're interesting but at that price point I'd no recommend it as a laptop replacement.

A 4k celeron laptop + 1k SSD will go much further.
Click to expand...

Yea he asked for a basic usage device and that even a tablet would do. An atom can replace the older Celerons, but not an i3 etc for obvious reasons.

And whats the point of comparing a much more expensive upgraded Celeron laptop to a stock standard x5 atom with emmc storage. The ssd will make it faster purely cause its faster read/write than emmc. That's spending R3.5-R4.5k on a celeron laptop and then R5k on a 1TB SSD.. at that point just get an i3 with a smaller ssd or sshd drive... unless I misread that and you meant R1000 ssd, which still would put it far over the budget

Performance wise you get a quad core atom vs a dual core Celeron with a slightly better gfx chip. Remember the older Celerons are pretty much either rebranded atom cores with a slightly better gfx chip, or nerfed atom cores with the better gfx. The main factor in making older Celerons utterly useless is being dual core with no HT and pairing with a normal mechanical drive on the budget laptop end.

And then there's the MAIN REASON everyone hates a Celeron or Atom device that only has 2gb ram.. they install Chrome and expect it to work flawlessly. Chrome is a moerse leech on system resources. Even on 4gb machines it can eat through the available ram very fast.
 
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Zenthrax said:
Yea he asked for a basic usage device and that even a tablet would do. An atom can replace the older Celerons, but not an i3 etc for obvious reasons.

And whats the point of comparing a much more expensive upgraded Celeron laptop to a stock standard x5 atom with emmc storage. The ssd will make it faster purely cause its faster read/write than emmc. That's spending R3.5-R4.5k on a celeron laptop and then R5k on a 1TB SSD.. at that point just get an i3 with a smaller ssd or sshd drive... unless I misread that and you meant R1000 ssd, which still would put it far over the budget

Performance wise you get a quad core atom vs a dual core Celeron with a slightly better gfx chip. Remember the older Celerons are pretty much either rebranded atom cores with a slightly better gfx chip, or nerfed atom cores with the better gfx. The main factor in making older Celerons utterly useless is being dual core with no HT and pairing with a normal mechanical drive on the budget laptop end.

And then there's the MAIN REASON everyone hates a Celeron or Atom device that only has 2gb ram.. they install Chrome and expect it to work flawlessly. Chrome is a moerse leech on system resources. Even on 4gb machines it can eat through the available ram very fast.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the detailed advice.
 
Zenthrax said:
Yea he asked for a basic usage device and that even a tablet would do.
Click to expand...
I get that. He is asking for a laptop though - and from experience I know that the cheap 2-in-1s fall short of that.

I know I'd jump off a bridge if I had to use my travel 2-in-1 daily...

Zenthrax said:
which still would put it far over the budget
Click to expand...
Yeah sure. Link to your 2-in-1 x5 that runs windows and has >2gb RAM and fits within the budget? I know it's unlikely because I was looking for exactly that myself...and I've got access to wider range & cheaper pricing than is available in SA. Closest you get is that linx brand and even there they end up being 2gb ones.
 
Dean said:
What's the best available entry-est level budget machine that runs Windows?
It could be a tablet+keyboard combo, or pretty much anything similar. The user has a budget of up to R3000, and would like to use it for watching media, browsing the web/mail, etc.. the basics.
Click to expand...

If the user wants something light and portable, and not bulky:

LENOVO 100S 11.6-inch (Intel Atom quad-core, 2GB DDR3, 64GB eMMC) @ R3499

That's pretty much the only decent netbook out there. You can restrict the installation of applications to come from the Windows Store only, which is helpful in these situations.

If you need big and bulky, but still cheap:

ASUS Vivobook F541SA-XO211T 15.6-inch (Intel Atom dual-core, 2GB RAM user serviceable, 500GB HDD) @ R3678

It's decent hardware, but the display is below average for a TN panel. ****ty in most respects, but it is under R4000.
 
HavocXphere said:
I get that. He is asking for a laptop though - and from experience I know that the cheap 2-in-1s fall short of that.

I know I'd jump off a bridge if I had to use my travel 2-in-1 daily...


Yeah sure. Link to your 2-in-1 x5 that runs windows and has >2gb RAM and fits within the budget? I know it's unlikely because I was looking for exactly that myself...and I've got access to wider range & cheaper pricing than is available in SA. Closest you get is that linx brand and even there they end up being 2gb ones.
Click to expand...

Don't think I mentioned a 4gb 2-in-1 ? ..or even the storage space on the 2-in-1

2gb/32gb emmc atom x5's can be had from lenovo/asus/mecer/sinotec or the Lenovo laptop form factor with atom x5's go on special often for R2999 .. just have to shop around for specials, or go second hand for even cheaper
 
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