Is this a good deal (laptop)?

[paulb203]

 

[Drakkith]

What do you want to do with your laptop? You could probably spend 1/3 that amount and get a laptop that will do everything you want it to do, especially since this laptop doesn't appear to be a gaming laptop with a high-end graphics card.

 

[paulb203]

Thanks.

Streaming, general surfing, studying (maths and physics), storing photos and videos, MS Word, some other Office apps occasionally. No gaming. No video editing etc. I was thinking 8GB, but I often have scores of tabs open and was told that 16GB, for not much extra cost, might be better because of that. I like the idea of the 3 year support too. And I like the peace of mind of buying direct from Dell.

I am also considering a 17" screen, as I watch a lot of stuff on my laptop, and I don't need it to be portable.

 

[sandy stone]

Just a comment - I bought my last desktop computer from Dell, and I have never seen such a collection of irksome, intrusive bloatware. I am specifically referring to Dell's proprietary software, which uses up system resources doing who knows what, whenever it feels like it. I wouldn't buy another Dell computer, but YMMV.

 

[DaveC426913]

Sidebar: you can learn a lot about someone by what tabs they happen to leave open in their browser.

 

[paulb203]

Just a comment - I bought my last desktop computer from Dell, and I have never seen such a collection of irksome, intrusive bloatware. I am specifically referring to Dell's proprietary software, which uses up system resources doing who knows what, whenever it feels like it. I wouldn't buy another Dell computer, but YMMV.

Thanks.
I ran this past chatGPT. It said it was common. But added this;

"Dell’s business-class laptops (like the Latitude or XPS series) are usually cleaner and more performance-focused, with less bloat."

And this;

"Will It Have Bloatware?​

• Less than typical Dell consumer laptops.
• You'll likely still see:
  
  • Dell SupportAssist
  • Dell Update
  • Possibly McAfee or a security suite trial (easy to uninstall)

These tools are more useful on business machines — e.g., BIOS/firmware updates, remote IT help — but you can disable or uninstall most of them if you don't want them."

Any thoughts? (I'm a tech know-nothing)

 

[PeroK]

£900 + VAT seems a lot for a laptop, unless you need something special. The Dell Inspiron starts at £240 + VAT:

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dea...tesqAwAAqdyix7E_AzeoBmo7Ay40ic4QaAh1YEALw_wcB

At that sort of price, you're not taking much of a risk.

 

[DaveC426913]

Any thoughts? (I'm a tech know-nothing)

My thoughts are: I wouldn't trust a chatbot to provide a trustworthy answer - especially involving nuanced opinion or advice.

 

[paulb203]

Hearing bloatware is often an issue has made me think a business model would be better (I hear they are better generally too). And although I don’t need anything fantastic, I’m inclined to go for 16” screen, 16GB RAM, mabye 512GB storage.
I do hear you can ‘de-bloat’ yourself, but it sounds like a bit of a carry on, especially for me, being borderline tech-illiterate.

 

[paulb203]

My thoughts are: I wouldn't trust a chatbot to provide a trustworthy answer - especially involving nuanced opinion or advice.

Definitely. I do find it helpful as a starting point though, with a lot of things. Have a good back and forth with it, then check out the conclusion with other websites and real people. I like that you can bombard it with endless (sometimes inane) questions, and it never tires of it :)

 

[Borek]

storing photos and videos

On a 512GB SSD? That's not much.

At the same time 512GB is a reasonable minimum these days, at least IMHO.

For storage I would go for an external USB connected HDD, YMMV.

 

[Rive]

Hearing bloatware is often an issue

On (low-end or old) phones and tablets, yes. On any (modern-ish) PC (laptop) with proper OS (windows or Linux) it's far less of an issue.

 

[DaveC426913]

On a 512GB SSD? That's not much.

At the same time 512GB is a reasonable minimum these days, at least IMHO.

For storage I would go for an external USB connected HDD, YMMV.

That's usually where they cut corners. That and system memory / graphics memory.

Check that they're not being miserly with RAM.