New laptop... PC Specialist?

[kiloran]

My back-up laptop is a Dell 1525, around 12 years old and it's on its last legs. Battery has had it, and the screen is dim and colours are more and more dubious (white is more of a shade of pink), so time to replace it, I think. It originally came with Vista, but some years ago I dual-booted it with Linux Mint and it's been used permanently on Linux for 5 years or so.

Although it's a back-up, it's used every day. Mainly web browsing and a bit of LibreOffice. I want something reasonably worthwhile, reliable and upgradeable, but I don't feel I can justify more than £300. I do feel I want an IPS screen rather than a TN, due to wider viewing angle and generally better brightness. That really does limit my choice at the price I'm willing to pay.

My thoughts are for a PC Specialist Ultranote with 14in screen. This is IPS, and I can get it without an OS installed for £306. 120GB SSD, 4GB Ram. Pentium N5000
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebook ... NoteIV-14/

Anyone got any experience of these? Or any other suggestions?

--kiloran

[GeoffF100]

It looks good. Have you checked for Linux compatibility? How about a Chromebook? This one has an FHD IPS screen:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-NX-GC2EK- ... B01J3UVWKO

The Passmark score for the processor is 1702, which is not bad. Google has a project to make Linux apps run on Chromebooks.

[kiloran]

It looks good. Have you checked for Linux compatibility? How about a Chromebook? This one has an FHD IPS screen:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-NX-GC2EK- ... B01J3UVWKO

The Passmark score for the processor is 1702, which is not bad. Google has a project to make Linux apps run on Chromebooks.

Thanks Geoff. I've pondered a chromebook from time to time but I really want something that can run LibreOffice so they fail on that. The PC Specialist Ultranote can handle that, and I could also install Windows at some point if I needed it. According to the PC Specialist forum, the Ultranote is quite happy with various flavours of Linux.

I might suggest a Chromebook for my technophobe wife sometime. Software updates happen without any user knowledge, and files are on Google Drive so won't need backup. Printing to a printer which is not Google Cloud Print used to be a problem but I believe this has been fixed. I used to have Chrome OS on Virtualbox to test, but this is not possible with the current version.

--kiloran

[GeoffF100]

Here is an article on Crostini:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/07/chr ... deo-review

The video shows Crostini running LibreOffice. It is still in beta, but Google seems to be putting a lot of effort into it. It is certainly interesting.

[GeoffF100]

I looked at this review of the PC Specialist laptop:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/s ... ntu-review

It says that F1 to disable the touch pad does not work. You could disable it via the command line when using a mouse, but this looks like a better solution:

https://itsfoss.com/disable-touchpad-when-mouse-used/

[Infrasonic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsE9ZoZ_KN8&t=522s

ChromeOS is getting official Linux support! If you have a compatible device you can install it right now with just a few clicks. In this video I demonstrate how to set it up and how it works. See more ChromeOS: http://lon.tv/chromeos and subscribe! http://lon.tv/s

[GeoffF100]

It is also worth considering something like this:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 3-pdt.html

You should be able to boot Linux from a flash drive, check that everything is OK, and return it within 14 days if there is a problem. That looks like a low risk option.

[kiloran]

It is also worth considering something like this:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 3-pdt.html

You should be able to boot Linux from a flash drive, check that everything is OK, and return it within 14 days if there is a problem. That looks like a low risk option.

Good try, but I'd be paying for Windows 10 and a touchscreen which I don't need. And even more for better level of storage.

The PCS Ultranote still appears to be nearer to my needs at a sensible price.

--kiloran

[GeoffF100]

The PCS has a better spec, but you will have to pay carriage if you return it. The touchscreen version of the Currys laptop has been reduced to the same price as the one without a touch screen, but there may be a reason for that. The version without a touch screen might be a safer buy. For the PCS laptop, I did not like the comment that you had to press the space bar in the middle to make it work. That would not be acceptable to me.

[GeoffF100]

Here is another supplier:

https://www.novatech.co.uk/laptop/everydayuse/

The entry level machine runs Ubuntu, according to the review. The more expensive laptops probably do so too. Novatech is an excellent company. Customer satisfaction second only to Apple. I bought one of their desktops after having problems with a PC Specialist order. I was not impressed with them. The downside of Novatech is that their machines are usually expensive.

[GeoffF100]

There is also Dell for home:

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/scc/sc/ ... ments=9964

and Dell for work:

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/scc/sc/ ... ments=9964

Ubuntu 14.04 is out of support. An Ubuntu laptop for £146.99 is interesting, but the spec is not up to much. The high spec machines are eye wateringly expensive.

[GeoffF100]

This laptop looks like it is a good deal:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 9-pdt.html

[kiloran]

Here is another supplier:

https://www.novatech.co.uk/laptop/everydayuse/

The entry level machine runs Ubuntu, according to the review. The more expensive laptops probably do so too. Novatech is an excellent company. Customer satisfaction second only to Apple. I bought one of their desktops after having problems with a PC Specialist order. I was not impressed with them. The downside of Novatech is that their machines are usually expensive.

Thanks Geoff, interesting feedback on PCS.
The Novatech does look expensive and no choice of CPU, though I suspect that the Novatech Celeron is comparable to the PCS Pentium for my undemanding purposes. Not sure about the Novatech screen either. Maybe I have a fixation about IPS, but I feel that the screen is the main user interface and poor viewing angles and low brightness can be wearing over time.

--kiloran

[kiloran]

This laptop looks like it is a good deal:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 9-pdt.html

Interesting, but reviews give a poor rating for the screen. Maybe I need to resolve my obsession with this by popping along to Currys and looking at some of the screens in real life. Maybe modern ones aren't as bad as I fear. I do think I'm perhaps being too demanding for the price I'm willing to pay, but I'm in no desperate rush so I can take my time and keep an eye open for a good deal.

Many thanks for all your efforts, Geoff, I feel quite guilty about knocking all your ideas back

--kiloran

[Breelander]

... I suspect that the Novatech Celeron is comparable to the PCS Pentium for my undemanding purposes...

Almost identical benchmarks, but the Currys one beats both of them hollow.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/In ... 3270vs2879

[kiloran]

... I suspect that the Novatech Celeron is comparable to the PCS Pentium for my undemanding purposes...

Almost identical benchmarks, but the Currys one beats both of them hollow.

Ah, but look at the power consumption..... $2.74 per year to run the i3, over twice that of the Celeron and Pentium

--kiloran

[Infrasonic]

You should be able to get an i3/1080P IPS for £300(ish) if you shop around.
Won't be the latest quad core spec obviously.
Might not get an SSD with it for that either, but as long as it has an M.2 slot or swappable HDD SATA bay you could put one in addition to, or replace the HDD (and then just USB caddy it.)

Enough horsepower for some VM experimentation too...

[schober]

You seem keen on a good display but seem to like a widescreen 16:9 display. If you dont watch films on a laptop then surely a 4:3 screen is better (especially if you view text - the higher the screen is, the more content you see)? However I'm not sure there are any <£300

[kiloran]

You seem keen on a good display but seem to like a widescreen 16:9 display. If you dont watch films on a laptop then surely a 4:3 screen is better (especially if you view text - the higher the screen is, the more content you see)?

No, not fussed about the aspect ratio.

However I'm not sure there are any <£300

Indeed. That's the problem. Maybe get more luck on Black Friday, back-to-school/uni offers, etc. I'll be keeping my eyes open.

--kiloran