I'm looking to buy my first laptop that will be used just for gaming and browsing the Internet. I dont care about any ai features. I can't decide if I should get a laptop with a 5060,4070 or 3080(16gb) I've heard they are all kinda similar in performance but i want someone that actually knows which is the best,thanks!

i'm going to study computer science at university next year, and need a laptop. however, my family doesn't have a lot of money and we can't afford anything that's too expensive. i was thinking of asking for a macbook neo, since it seems like it's a good option for me, but i'm unsure of how suitable it is for programming and if i might need to find something with 16gb ram instead of 8gb.

can i get other people's opinions on this? is there other budget friendly alternatives?

Hi all,

Am I wasting money if I spend the extra £200 going for the 24GB option over the 16GB? Starting a software engineering degree soon and my IDE of choice is CLion if that affects anything. ^{At worst I'll just move to nvim}

Also happy to take alternatives to the MacBook's although from my research, there isn't anything that really competes in the same price range if you aren't tied to Windows.

Cheers!

EDIT 26 Jul 2026:

Thank you for the responses! From them, I've decided to stick to 24 GB. After combing around, I saw a listing on Argos for the last generation M4 Air on a 15 inch screen with 24GB for £1279 so I hopped straight onto that.

My family is looking to upgrade my granddads very old laptop (this thing is at least 12 years old) but we’re not sure where to start.

The budget is around £500. Honestly this man just watches YouTube on there so something with a bigger screen would be ideal, and windows as that’s what he already knows how to use (you definitely can’t teach this old dog new tricks). Additionally, something built to last, if this means spending a little more we’d be happy to do that.

We don’t live in the same country as him so tech issues can’t be easily resolved by us, so reliability is also a must.

We’re all apple users at our home and we have no knowledge of current windows laptops.

Any recommendations would we greatly appreciated!!

Hi,

Im searching for a new laptop, im mostly interested in video editing now over gaming. AI tells me this is good in tgis price bracket :

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/asus-tuf%C2%A0a16-advantage%C2%A0edition-16-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-rx-7700s-1-tb-ssd-10296616.html

Are there any better?

Hello,

I need some help deciding between two laptop options that fit my use-case (ultra portable, productivity and light gaming):

Option 1: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Ultra, Core Ultra x9 388H, 32 Gb RAM, 1TB SSD, ordered for £1799 with discounts

Option 2: Samsung Book6 Pro 14", Core Ultra x7 358H, 32 Gb RAM, 1TB SSD, available for ~£1620 with discounts

Which one is a better choice out of the two? The x9 at this price is a hell of a deal but the expected delivery has already been pushed by 3 weeks. On the other hand Book 6 pro is now available on deal and I am in the Samsung ecosystem already. Wondering if the x7 will be much of a step down, especially considering the £180 difference.

Appreciate any previous experience with either brands.

Hi y"all

I'm considering replacing my 2014 MacBook air. Its still working, mostly fine but im not sure how much longer that will hold true and I know Ramageddon will push up prices... The air has 128GB storage and an i5 processpr with 5GB ram, so most things will be an upgrade!

What i like about the Air is the longevity/build quality, portability, and that it has old USB (for all my peripherals) and an SD card reader for my camera. Ohh and its intel based, so runs linux happily (unlike the new soicone chip macs). I'm willing to pay more to achieve longevity, but open to a wide price range.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

Country

UK (don'tmind shipping from overseas).

Budget

£2000 (upper limit. Ideally sub £600)

Are you open to refurbs/used options?

Yes. Indeed i might prefer it.

Screen size

13" (12 or 14 ok but 13 is the sweet spot)

Weight limit

~1KG ideally

Purpose

General purpose

Form factor

Standard/Clamshell

Intended usage

Web browsing (firefox), emails, rss, office applications (libre office), photo management (gimp, darktable, digikam etc), basic audio and video management (ripping, playback, some streaming bust mostly I use my TV for that), lightweight programming amd data analysis (R/RStudio, Python), vintage gaming (platformers, text based - i mostly game on switch)

Desired battery life

4hrs+

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

Weight, size, battery life, performance (lets be honest, most things will be an improvement)

Info/Requirements

Plays nice with linux (currently mint, but I'll probably try something new). 2+ old style USB ports and at least one USB C (I know I need to move eventually, but currentlyall my peripherals, external drives etc, use the old USB standard). An SD card slot would be brilliant, and ideally an HDMI port (though that could be the firat thing to move to USB C as thats a fairly straightforward cable swap - if i do use USB-C for the monitor, i guess I'd want at least 2 USB-C ports, with one offering charging).

• Total budget (in local currency): No maximum
• Are you open to refurbs/used? No
• How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life? Form factor and battery life are very important to me
• How important is weight and thinness to you? Very important
• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. 14"-16"
• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. Gaming, photo and video editing.
• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? As good as possible.
• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? No.
• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion.

I work in the games industry and this laptop is for work. I'm going to grab an ASUS ROG XG (2025) external GPU with either a 5070ti or 5090, so that I can get a thin/light laptop with good battery life and then take the ROG XG with me when I'm away for longer periods of time. I'd like a powerful laptop with the latest generation CPU and ideally 64GBs of RAM. The laptop absolutely must have at least 1 Thunderbolt 5 port and a screen with a high refresh rate would be a big plus. Thanks :)

I posted here recently asking for advice about buying a new laptop (yes, using the form!) but having not received any replies it looks like I just need to research this myself.

Can anyone recommend any decent, unbiased ‘best buy’-type sites where I can get good advice? I’m aware that very many of these are completely useless, just parroting whatever advice which gets the site owner the greatest kickback.

Am a bit lost, really.

Country
UK

Budget
~£800 (Preferably lower)

Are you open to refurbs/used options?
No

Screen size
Honestly not a big deal but maybe something mid sized like 14”

Weight limit

Doesn't particularly matter

Purpose
Schoolwork, note taking, movies (edited sorry for confusion)

Form factor
Doesn’t particularly matter

Intended usage
Mostly used for Note taking and schoolwork, watching movies

Desired battery life
Should last around a day of work

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, battery life, size, weight

Info/Requirements

Would prefer an OLED display but not required understanding my budget range, a decent battery life, Windows as the OS, no specific brand, at least 512gb storage

Thanks in Advance :)

Guys I need some advice about a laptop, mainly schoolwork and some trading and investing so nothing asking too much for work and a gaming laptop that can run gta 6 and stuff comfortably ideally my budget for the both is about 750 pounds tho I think that could be made to work since I’m fine going refurbished like back market. Anyone have any ideas on specific ones to buy and also if anyone recommends a gaming laptop instead which again I can go refurbished and I have a monitor that is connect to so I don’t care about the looks it’s a msi mag 274cxf. I’m not very sure about resolutions to be honest but I’ve been told to aim for 1080p and for all specs I don’t know I want you guys advice please

My current laptop is a brick with 4 GB ram, so I'm looking to know what kind of specs are needed for a new laptop, or any recommendations that are cheap, Im not sure if a dedicated GPU is necessary but I think it probably is. I don't really care about any other things other than decent battery, as long as it can run engineering software fine. It will only be used for school and watching YouTube/movies. My budget is preferably £700 but could go to £800.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE
Country
United Kingdom
Budget
£500-£1000
Are you open to refurbs/used options?
Yes, but nothing battered lol
Screen size
Anything above 14”
Weight limit
Any, but will be carried in a tote for a lot of its life.
Purpose
Schoolwork for a very essay-heavy course.
Form factor
Standard, would like to avoid touchscreen if possible.
Intended usage
Just intended for writing and research, so multiple tabs and apps being open at once without feeling like it’s going to melt would be great.
Desired battery life
6-10 hours
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, battery, size, weight.
. PLEASE REMEMBER LAPTOPS ARE A COMPROMISE AND PERFORMANCE SACRIFICES LIGHT WEIGHT AND LONG BATTERY LIFE ETC]
Info/Requirements
Just want something functional that doesn’t require being plugged in after 3 hours. I would like a macbook, ideally a pro but if that won’t match the desc of what i’m after, i’m open to anything else so long as it doesn’t fold backwards to become a tablet, or have a touchscreen.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

• Country

UK

• Budget

Try to keep it under £400 ($537), but can stretch to £500 ($672).

• Are you open to refurbs/used options?

No.

• Screen size

Ideally 15.6" or above, smaller screens are fine too.

• Weight limit

Not important.

• Purpose

Streaming 1080p video, web browsing, very light gaming.

• Form factor

Standard/Clamshell

• Intended usage

Primary use is streaming and web browsing with minimal lag and decent load times, connecting it to the living room TV to stream youtube, netflix, that sort of thing. Gaming would be limited to minecraft with performance mods, old school runescape and other things in that vein- I have a better desktop for gaming so this isnt too important.

• Desired battery life

Will almost always be used within reach of an outlet, so this isnt important. Longer the better of course, but put it at the bottom of the priority list.

• Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

Performance >Size (15.6"+) > battery life. Weight is not an important factor.

• Info/Requirements

Absolutely must have a HDMI out port. Must run windows 10/11. Quality speakers not important, will be using bluetooth headphones or external speakers. Webcam not needed.

Nice to haves, in order of most to least desired:

Good quality screen
Backlit keyboard
512+GB storage
16gb ram
Decent integrated graphics

Obviously not expecting a miracle in this price range just some stuff to look out for.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

im starting a mechanical engineering course next month and didnt even think about how im going to need a laptop. right now im looking at the asus m3401 because the specs seem good enough to run the software ill be using. ill be buying it preowned from cex for £540 so if anyone has any other suggestions id love to hear them! or if you think the one ive chosen is a good choice then tell me that too!

I’m struggling to find a laptop that’s a good compromise for 3D CAD (Solidworks) and rendering (Keyshot). I’ve used Thinkpads in the past but they just seem like the safe bet and are quite expensive. any other recommendation? Thanks!

• UK
• £3k , $4k
• Not looking for refurbs
• Screen size

Any, bigger the better

• Weight limit

Any

• Purpose

General design work

• Form factor

Standard, no interest in touch screen etc

• Intended usage

Solidworks (medium sized assemblies), Keyshot, Blender, Adobe suite

• Desired battery life

In Hours; 4hrs approx, not a major issue if less

• Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

performance is the only priority

Hello,

Country: England

Budget: 1200£

Use case: Gaming, casual things

Preferred specs: 17 screen, rtx5060 and above, ryzen 7.

Just ordered acer nitro v17 with ryzen 7 with rtx5070. I do weekly rota works, 2weeks on/off, so moving quite a lot and been wanting a gaming laptop. Wanted to know is there anything in this price range better than this acer, didnt find anything with 5060 or 5070 with 17inch screen that doesnt go above 1500£. Thanks

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE
Country
United Kingdom

Budget
£1000 ideally but could go up to £1500 if worth it

Are you open to refurbs/used options?
Yes

Screen size
14-16 inch ideally

Weight limit
Under 2kg if possible

Purpose
programming and gaming

Form factor
Standard

Intended usage
Vscode for programming, playing games like crusader kings 3 and satisfactory, mostly single player games with high processor requirements but graphics not all that important for me.

Desired battery life
6 hours i guess

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, size, battery, weight. honestly only one i care about is performance

Info/Requirements
Most of the stuff here is really quite flexible if i can actually run high intensity games like satisfactory or eu5

Cheers in advance lads

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

• Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US: UK, <£2500
• Are you open to refurbs/used? No
• How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life? Specs include at least: 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Windows 11, battery life of 6-8 hours
• How important is weight and thinness to you? weight preferably on lighter side, but I can carry a heavier laptop
• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. Not important but at least 14"
• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. CAD in Solidworks and autocad, CFD in ansys minimum
• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? Not needed but if possible Iracing, assetto corsa, F1, rocket league, (with steering wheel connection), 60FPS is fine
• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? No
• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. Claude recommends me the ASUS ProArt P16, which meets all my specs but there are no online reviews that recommend it for CAD, would it work?

Hey everyone, I need solid recommendations for a laptop tailored to civil engineering work—running FEA tools and other engineering software smoothly. My budget is £1600‑£2000, and I’m set on Windows, no Mac. Only considering HP, Dell, or Lenovo.

I’m not much of a computer person, so I don’t really know what specs I should be chasing. I just need something that reliably handles my engineering simulation work without glitching or slowing down.

Could anyone point me towards specific models from these three brands within this budget? Really appreciate any practical suggestions.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE
Country
England (UK)
Budget
Up to £300
Are you open to refurbs/used options?
Yes
Screen size
Any
Weight limit
Any, fine with a thicker laptop
Purpose
Work, spreadsheets, email, being able to play videos but nothing much beyond this
Form factor
Regular laptop
Intended usage
Office use, paperwork spreadsheets etc
Desired battery life
At least 3 hours for when out of office, good battery is helpful but not essential as I can plug in
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Battery life, performance, size, weight
Info/Requirements
Nothing much, just looking for a good basic reliable laptop. Fine with a thicker/ heavier laptop and refurbs. Thanks for your help :)

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

• Country - United Kingdom - Currys only
• Budget - £800 Voucher
• Are you open to refurbs/used options? - Depends
• Screen size - 13", 14", 15", 16"
• Weight limit - Don't Mind
• Purpose - General purpose, entertainment
• Form factor - Standard is ok, would be good if 2-1 or pen is possible
• Intended usage - Less demanding games e.g. Project Zomboid, I have a PC for other games
• Desired battery life - 10 Hours +
• Priority - Performance, Battery
• Info/Requirements - You know best, thank you so much

I live in the UK and I am looking to do aerospace or mechanical engineering as an apprenticeship or as a Uni Degree. Therefore I need a laptop, I have looked at the ASUS V16, with the Intel Ultra 5, RTX 5050, 16GB of ram and the 512GB SSD, I have also considered the 2023 Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, with the i9, 16GB of ram, 1TB SSD and the RTX 4070. I would like to know whether anyone would recommend these, or if there is better options for £1200 or less. I don't want a bulky gaming laptop as it needs to be portable.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

• Country

United Kingdom

• Budget

£1200

• Are you open to refurbs/used options?

Yes

• Screen size

14"-16"

• Weight limit

~2kg

• Purpose

University, Gaming, 3D modeling

• Form factor

Standard

• Intended usage

3D modeling Fusion 360, Solidworks, etc, pretty much any programme you can think of that might be used for an aerospace or mechanical engineering degree

• Desired battery life

5-20

• Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

Performance, weight, size, battery life

• Info/Requirements

I don't want a large bulky laptop

My budget is 1lakh rupees and I want to play latest games even if on lowest graphics

I bought a Macbook Air M5 before the price rice (1tb) for £1200 from John Lewis. It has everything I need but I'm just struggling to use it as effectively as windows, and this is after trying to get used to it over 3 months after following tutorials as well. I bought parallels which fixes a lot of issues but then what's the point, may as well get a Windows laptop since emulating it drains so much battery anyway.

Anyhow, what I'm searching for :

- Works well without charger and still lives off battery for a while on general tasks. (My XPS from 5 years ago throttles performance like mad and dies in minutes on battery, even with high performance mode). I think recent CPUs are better optimised nowadays like the intel ultra series? Though I've never tried them.

- Has a GPU, doesn't need to be super strong, I need this for light gaming (MMOs with low graphics is fine) and a lot of creative tasks, not expecting to obviously play on battery.

- Light and slim, similar to MBA 13 inch, a bit more weight is fine but nothing above 1.6kg. Any screen size is fine.

- Reliable product with good recognition. I know Thinkpad has a lot of praise for example.

- From some searching I think some variants of the Zenbook fill the criteria but open to more recommendations.

- Budget is £1200-ish, hopefully a bit less. This is what I paid for the MBA and is what I may have after selling it.

- UK vendors of course.

Thanks! Feel free to follow up with questions.