Find the Laptop That Is Right For You!

Here at Global Academy, while we have a range of IT equipment and services that allow our students to develop skills using industry software, we often get parents and young people asking for a laptop/computer buying advice.

When there are many laptops that look the same, deals everywhere and tech words flying across the shelves to get your attention, it can all be too daunting!

Fret not, here’s Eric’s handy guide to help you find the right one to fit your budget!

Rule Of Thumb

Ideally, we recommend computers to have at least 8GB of RAM and a dedicated graphics card to ensure a smooth workflow experience across media tasks using Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Pro, etc).

Less than £500

Most computers and laptops in this range will be able to do the basic tasks of making word and presentation documents and simple graphics editing. However, more complex media tasks such as video editing and motion graphics can easily slow down the performance of the computer.

While offers for Chromebooks have attractive prices in this category, unfortunately, they won’t be able to run Adobe software.

You may find excellent value and performance from renewed (second-hand) laptops in this price range.

• Honor Magic 14
• 14 Inch Laptop w/ FullView 1080P Screen, All-Day Battery, 65 W Fast Charger, Fingerprint Login & Recessed Camera (AMD Ryzen 5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Windows 10 Home) Mystic Silver
• Lenovo Thinkpad £379 – £400 Renewed
• Lenovo ThinkPad T450 14.1″ i5-5300U 8GB 256GB SSD WebCam WiFi Bluetooth USB 3.0 Windows 10 Professional 64-bit PC Laptop
• Dell Latitude E5470  Renewed
• Dell Latitude E5470 14″ Laptop – Intel Core i5-6200U 8GB DDR4 256GB SSD HDMI WebCam WiFi BT Fingerprint Backlit Windows 10 Pro

£500 – £800

• ASUS ZenBook £799
• ASUS ZenBook UM431DA 14 Inch IPS Full HD Thin Laptop (AMD Ryzen 7 3700U, 16GB RAM, 512 GB PCI-e SSD, NumberPad, Backlit Keyboard, Windows 10)
• HP Pavilion ££799
• HP Pavilion 15-dk1007na 15.6 Inch Full HD Gaming Laptop – (Shadow Black) (Intel Core i5-10300H, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (4 GB Dedicated) Graphics, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Windows 10 Home)
• HUAWEI MateBook 13 2020 £649
• 13 Inch Laptop with 2K FullView Screen Ultrabook PC (AMD Ryzen 5, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Windows 10 Home, Multi-screen Collaboration, Fingerprint Reader), Grey
• Lenovo IdeaPad L340 £700
• Lenovo IdeaPad L340 15.6 Inch FHD Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Windows 10 Home) – Granite Black

£800 Upwards

Laptops in this category would be able to handle most of the media tasks very well, including long video edits and complex graphics creation. Generally, gaming laptops appear in this price range and they are perfect for rich media creation.

• ASUS ROG Zephyrus G GA502IU £1,299.99
• 15.6 Inch Full HD 144 Hz Gaming Laptop (AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660Ti 6 GB Max-Q Graphics, 1 TB PCI-e SSD, 16 GB RAM, Windows 10)
• ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425JA £1,199.99
• 14″ Full HD Professional Laptop (Intel Core i7-1065G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD, NumberPad, WiFi 6, Windows 10 Professional)
• Laptop Acer Nitro AN515-54-76WR £1,215.99
• 15.6” FHD IPS (1920 x 1080) Intel Core i7-9750H NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB DDR6 – MaxP 16GB DDR4 1024GB PCIe NVMe SSD (Intel 600P

To Apple or not to Apple?

Many professionals use Apple computers as their main portable work machine… at a much higher cost. They look good and they get the work done. However, because of the price premium, I wouldn’t recommend the MacBook Air line because you can get more computer power if you buy a non-Apple alternative.

If you really want a MacBook and you don’t mind stretching the budget a little further, get a MacBook Pro with at least 16GB RAM.

13in Macbook Pro Base Model + 16GB RAM upgrade £1,499.00

Note that the 16GB RAM is a £200 upgrade which brings the total to £1499