Ask HN: Best Budget Windows Laptop?

7 points·_bxg1··6 comments

My dad needs a new laptop:

- He has Windows-only software he wants to run, so no chromebooks

- In general he prefers a bigger screen if possible

- He doesn't need very powerful specs

- He doesn't care for a touch screen or anything

- Beyond the above, low price, high durability, and maybe battery life would be the priorities

Any recommendations?

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The HP 250 G7 is the best one. You can buy it for 400€ and it supports up to 32 GB RAM (warning: you need to pick up the Ryzen variant)

I would say basically any cheap laptop where the hard drive is user replaceable so you can replace the spinning disk with a SSD. Doing that a cheap windows laptop becomes almost as fast as higher-end models. That 5400 rpm hard drive they put in cheap laptops are really the thing that makes them super slow.

Make sure to consider the screen resolution. Most cheap laptops comes with a 1366x768 display resolution, which can severely limit the usable workspace.

A refurb Thinkpad T5xx or E5xx from the Lenovo outlet should fit the bill.

does it need to be brand new? if not consider a refurbished thinkpad, a T4xx or T5xx should do nicely depending on which screen size you want

I would agree with this. Get the latest model T series you can with your budget.

I would avoid the E, X, L series as they are either too cheap(in quality) or either too expensive (X series) due to thinness. The T series strikes the perfect middle ground and it well known for available replacement parts and upgradability.

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