A sub 200€ laptop in the eu market? Used is fine

[idkidk]

All I can see it's ewaste
Intel celerons which are unusable (first hand experience an hour to load windows, and an hour to open Firefox)

Random ebay advertising it's all about old intel cpus of about 2c/4t which I dunno if they are usable to begin with

Any suggestions?
I just need to do basic stuff browsing, rdp and some terminal apps

 

[Yukikaze]

For that usage, a 3rd gen i3 is sufficient (I use a Lenovo x131e as my "network maintenance" laptop at home. Essentially a terminal station from which I SSH into the various systems scattered about). It was about $70 a few years ago. It deals with Youtube and browsing just fine as well. It has a i3-3227U (1.9Ghz, dual core, hyperthreading, no boost clocks at all), 8GB of RAM, SATA SSD for a boot drive, Ubuntu Mate as the OS.

So, you should have a lot of options on ebay, really.

Something like this, perhaps?

 

[joemama]

Why are you talking like 200€ can get you a brand new laptop

 

[Bill_Bright]

Why are you talking like 200€ can get you a brand new laptop

Ummm, maybe because you can. The below are in US$, but with careful research, similar Euro€ or UK£ pricing can be found. I personally would not own one because I have been thoroughly spoiled by much higher performing computers. But for those on a very tight budget, or perhaps for young kids and their first computer, it might be worth it.

The best laptops under $200 | TechRadar

Windows Laptops – Best Buy New, under $200.

Either way, there are some, through no fault of their own, who are on really tight budgets who actually require a computer to conduct personal tasks for work, school, job hunting, paying bills, personal banking, etc.

Now if someone is looking for a $€£200 laptop for gaming, then their expectations are no where near reality.

I just need to do basic stuff browsing, rdp and some terminal apps

Browsing? Yes. Terminal apps? Maybe (depends on the app and the server). RDP? I doubt it.

Most super-budget notebooks come with only 4GB of RAM and many (to keep costs down even more) are NOT upgradeable because (1) they only have one RAM slot and (2) the existing 4GB of RAM is surface mounted (soldered) in that one slot. And typically, from what I am seeing, the minimum recommended for RDP is 8GB.

Edit comment: Fixed a couple minor typos.

 

[idkidk]

It

Ummm, maybe because you can. The below are in US$, but with careful research, similar Euro€ or UK£ pricing can be found. I personally would not own one because I have been thoroughly spoiled by much higher performing computers. But for those on a very tight budget, or perhaps for young kids and their first computer, it might be worth it.

The best laptops under $200 | TechRadar

Windows Laptops – Best Buy New, under $200.

Either way, there are some, though no fault of their own, who are on really tight budgets who actually require a computer to conduct personal tasks for work, school, job hunting, paying bills, personal banking, etc.

Now if someone is looking for $€£200 laptop for gaming, then their expectations are no where near reality.


Browsing? Yes. Terminal apps? Maybe (depends on the app and the server). RDP? I doubt it.

Most super-budget notebooks come with only 4GB of RAM and many (to keep costs down even more) are NOT upgradeable because (1) they only have one RAM slot and (2) the existing 4GB of RAM is surface mounted (soldered in) that one slot. And typically, from what I am seeing, the minimum recommended for RDP is 8GB.

Indeed its all celerons, crappy memory and overall newly packed ewaste

 

[P4-630]

So..... Looks like you need to up your budget?..

 

[iameatingjam]

I think in this case, used would be the way to go. Even a good cpu 10 years ago is still better than the bottom of the barrel type of cpu that would be in a new 'laptop' for that price.

 

[Frick]

I like the Dell Latitudes of the olden days. Something like a E6440 should be pretty cheap, the one in my signature was like €80 (HDD bay missing, but I had one I laying around).

 

[ShiBDiB]

Indeed its all celerons, crappy memory and overall newly packed ewaste

I'm confused.. you seem (to think) you know better than everyone here and also seem to think your budget is too low. Why did you make this thread?

 

[Wirko]

The absolutely lowest I'd look for in 2024 is something with an Intel i5-8250U. Those were the earliest affordable quad-core processors (characteristics: 4C/8T, 1.6GHz with 3.4 GHz turbo, 15W, introduced in Q3 2017). I checked the largest flea market site here in Slovenia to see some examples. Found two at 200 €, both with 15.6" FHD screen, 8 GB of RAM (not sure if upgradable) and a 256 GB SSD. One is an Ideapad 520, the other is a Dell Vostro 3578.

If you're hoping to get good performance, do take a good look at what the author of Throttlestop has to say about certain brands/product lines/products. Dell, for example.

 

[Frick]

The absolutely lowest I'd look for in 2024 is something with an Intel i5-8250U. Those were the earliest affordable quad-core processors (characteristics: 4C/8T, 1.6GHz with 3.4 GHz turbo, 15W, introduced in Q3 2017). I checked the largest flea market site here in Slovenia to see some examples. Found two at 200 €, both with 15.6" FHD screen, 8 GB of RAM (not sure if upgradable) and a 256 GB SSD. One is an Ideapad 520, the other is a Dell Vostro 3578.

If you're hoping to get good performance, do take a good look at what the author of Throttlestop has to say about certain brands/product lines/products. Dell, for example.

So you recommend 8th gen Intel Core CPU's and then you link to a post explaining how a major brand screwed up from that point onwards, meaning finding decent models of that era is so much more difficult. Add to this argument the major slide in build quality between that era and say the Haswell era.

Seriously, for the intended use* Sandy Bridge and onwards is fine (depending on model!). Haswell would be preferable. The laptop in my signature** is more than adequate for general, basic use. Browsing, some light games, Word and Excel, and some general document handling. At work I use a desktop from the same era and that too is more than adequate for similar stuff (excluding light games). And based on experience if I knew I wouldn't do more than the OP has stated I would much rather buy something like a HP Elitebook or Dell Latitude or Thinkpad from around 2013 than a similary priced Ideapad or Vostro from 2017.

*"I just need to do basic stuff browsing, rdp and some terminal apps"

**Dell e6430 1600x900 | i7 3740QM | 8GB DDR3 | Nvidia NVS5200M | Kingston A400 480GB

 

[remixedcat]

I got this for 112 on ebay auction format listing including getting another 8GB stick of ram for it
Dell Latitude 5400 : Intel i5-8365U @ 1.6Ghz (4c8t) // 16GB RAM // 256GB NVME SSD

but I run Linux on it and it has better thermals and I can change my CPU scaling governor to performance too

but you can easily get a buy it now one for 150-200USD and they are even good for music production on bitwig studio! So more than capable for your use case!

But I wouldn't get a consumer laptop with intel on it... either consumer w ryzen is ok or business w intel is ok... Just wish dell had latitudes w ryzen cpus!

*"I just need to do basic stuff browsing, rdp and some terminal apps"

**Dell e6430 1600x900 | i7 3740QM | 8GB DDR3 | Nvidia NVS5200M | Kingston A400 480GB

hubby uses that one for game dev and it's doing quite well! cept it's an i5

 

[JIWIL]

Bought a Thinkpad/T480 from a large EBAY refurbished lot about a year ago, plenty happy with it as a backup computer and just general purpose stuff. Set me back just under 200USD:
i5-8350 (4c/8t)
16GB/256GB
~14" 1080p Touchscreen (annoyingly with one dead pixel)
Great keypad

I was going to replace the 256GB SSD with a 1TB SATA that's unused atm, but it turns out some of the models have an NVME drive in the 2.5" bay; so I'd have to swap the ribbon cable and haven't gotten around to it (and don't really need the space yet).

 

[Wirko]

But I wouldn't get a consumer laptop with intel on it... either consumer w ryzen is ok or business w intel is ok... Just wish dell had latitudes w ryzen cpus!

Does this apply to the 200 € range? Well maybe it does, I think the era of AMD's competitiveness on the lower end (and good availability!) begins with the Zen 2-based Ryzen 3 4300U (Q1 2020), which can also be found now in a laptop at that price. Did you have anything older than that in mind?

 

[remixedcat]

Does this apply to the 200 € range? Well maybe it does, I think the era of AMD's competitiveness on the lower end (and good availability!) begins with the Zen 2-based Ryzen 3 4300U (Q1 2020), which can also be found now in a laptop at that price. Did you have anything older than that in mind?

Look for a used latitude w an i5 4c8t or ryzen inspiron

 

[dragosxlk]

i found these 2 on ebay https://www.ebay.de/itm/156050041057 from uk refurbisher that also has other models aswell (i suggest business line like this hp since better build quality ) and this lenovo x1 carbon as a private sale from italy https://www.ebay.de/itm/355490088720, i suggest you stick with ryzen laptops like the hp i mentioned is, as they are more power efficient than intel and also have better igpu in them in case you want to play a game

 

[Wirko]

So you recommend 8th gen Intel Core CPU's and then you link to a post explaining how a major brand screwed up from that point onwards, meaning finding decent models of that era is so much more difficult. Add to this argument the major slide in build quality between that era and say the Haswell era.

Seriously, for the intended use* Sandy Bridge and onwards is fine (depending on model!). Haswell would be preferable. The laptop in my signature** is more than adequate for general, basic use. Browsing, some light games, Word and Excel, and some general document handling. At work I use a desktop from the same era and that too is more than adequate for similar stuff (excluding light games). And based on experience if I knew I wouldn't do more than the OP has stated I would much rather buy something like a HP Elitebook or Dell Latitude or Thinkpad from around 2013 than a similary priced Ideapad or Vostro from 2017.

*"I just need to do basic stuff browsing, rdp and some terminal apps"

**Dell e6430 1600x900 | i7 3740QM | 8GB DDR3 | Nvidia NVS5200M | Kingston A400 480GB

As an owner and occasional user of a 2008 HP Compaq (the series that became Elitebook the next year), I can't totally disagree. Ah, that precious metal colour of the magnesium lid. But...

Your business class Ivy Bridge laptop works well, that's great, but would you buy a 11-year-old laptop now if you needed something cheap? I'd advise anyone against buying very old desktop PC stuff, and 11 years is very old. (This doesn't apply to people who build era-specific rigs on purpose.) And even more so for a laptop. Motherboards die, batteries die, CCFL backlights die. A 7-year-old motherboard has less chance of dying in the next couple years, and a 7-year-old battery may still be somewhat usable for the next couple years. With that said, even 7 years is quite old.

Regarding that major slide in build quality - yes, there has been some. Magnesium became too expensive for Elitebook case parts even before 2013, for example. Flat-top keyboards are unbearable to me. But I have another point of view. Thin and light models proliferated, U processors became powerful enough to be a good choice for the money, IPS displays became more common, battery life was improving constantly, so incredibly many people bought such laptops for home and school use. Simply put, they were good enough. But build quality and cooling remained as poor as ever before (and after), and upgradability went ... I needn't say where. So, logically, the average build quality of a laptop went down considerably.

So that's why I recommend 8th gen i5 or i7 at least. Probably good enough, but cautions apply, as you and I have described above. The i7-8xxxU, despite the name, hardly had more performance than the i5, and can be found at similar prices. I agree that an Ideapad or a Vostro is a poor choice. (Looking again at classifieds here, there's a Latitude 5490 for 220 €, has a touchscreen for those who want to take advantage of Win11's low information density.) In the end, much depends on the state of used market in OP's country.

 

[remixedcat]

As an owner and occasional user of a 2008 HP Compaq (the series that became Elitebook the next year), I can't totally disagree. Ah, that precious metal colour of the magnesium lid. But...

Your business class Ivy Bridge laptop works well, that's great, but would you buy a 11-year-old laptop now if you needed something cheap? I'd advise anyone against buying very old desktop PC stuff, and 11 years is very old. (This doesn't apply to people who build era-specific rigs on purpose.) And even more so for a laptop. Motherboards die, batteries die, CCFL backlights die. A 7-year-old motherboard has less chance of dying in the next couple years, and a 7-year-old battery may still be somewhat usable for the next couple years. With that said, even 7 years is quite old.

Regarding that major slide in build quality - yes, there has been some. Magnesium became too expensive for Elitebook case parts even before 2013, for example. Flat-top keyboards are unbearable to me. But I have another point of view. Thin and light models proliferated, U processors became powerful enough to be a good choice for the money, IPS displays became more common, battery life was improving constantly, so incredibly many people bought such laptops for home and school use. Simply put, they were good enough. But build quality and cooling remained as poor as ever before (and after), and upgradability went ... I needn't say where. So, logically, the average build quality of a laptop went down considerably.

So that's why I recommend 8th gen i5 or i7 at least. Probably good enough, but cautions apply, as you and I have described above. The i7-8xxxU, despite the name, hardly had more performance than the i5, and can be found at similar prices. I agree that an Ideapad or a Vostro is a poor choice. (Looking again at classifieds here, there's a Latitude 5490 for 220 €, has a touchscreen for those who want to take advantage of Win11's low information density.) In the end, much depends on the state of used market in OP's country.

nowadays i5 and i7 aren't much different... just around 300-400mhz speed difference if that. and buying new you're paying at least 500USD more for a marginal speed increase. if you go to any laptop mfr's site you'll see a sharp price increase from an i5 to an i7 and not much an upgrade.And you're better off finding a system without soldered RAM, SSD, WLAN, etc... Then just going w the lower amount and then buying your own upgrade for cheaper and installing more RAM yourself. That's what I did for my Latitude 5400...

 

[mtosev]

Check out used laptops here. Last year I bought an Lenovo X280. i5 8350U, 16gb of ram... Etc for 299€.

BF Laptops Notebooks

Computergeschäft in Wien

www.bf-laptops-notebooks.com

Dell Latitude 7290 |i7 | BF Laptops Notebooks

Intel Core i7-8650U | Intel UHD Graphics 620 | 8GB RAM | 256GB SSD

www.bf-laptops-notebooks.com

Look at this one.

 

[P4-630]

w an i5 4c8t

An older i5 had only 4 cores without hyper-threading.

 

[Wirko]

An older i5 had only 4 cores without hyper-threading.

As long as we're discussing just the 15-watt U series, that's not true. 7th gen didn't yet have a 4-core part. The 45-watt HK/HQ series did, and i7 parts had HT too.

 

[remixedcat]

An older i5 had only 4 cores without hyper-threading.

mine is 8th gen and 4c8t but still 4c4t is better than 2c4t

 

[idkidk]

Thanks to yall

Getting up to 300, I was looking on Ryzen 3 7320U based laptops, on paper they do not look half bad. But upgradability options seems to suck in all laptops?
8gb ram, soldered, no expansion ports. A single m2 port reserved for the ssd

But maybe on the Ryzen 3 7320U I am wrong... I meant some time ago I got some celerons thinking that they couldn't be so bad as advertised, but they were

Lenovo V15 G4 AMN - 15,6" FHD, Ryzen 3 7320U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, ohne Windows

Lenovo V15-AMN 15.6" Ryzen3 7320U/8GB/256GBSSD/FHD FreeDos - 8 GB - 15,6"

www.easynotebooks.de

 

[Vayra86]

For used hardware I put the limit at 7 years and then ONLY if the unit or part in question is in tip top (visual) condition, eg. well taken care of or used very little and stored OK.

If it lacks those qualities, years are deducted from my acceptable limit. Thing is you want some usage out of it yourself as well, likely longer than 12 months. And 7 years really is the moment of degradation of most things surrounding chips. The chips themselves can probably last 10+, heck, they simply do, I'm watching them myself at home. But the rest?

^I see the budget is upped. Good choice. Going too cheap in the end means paying more, entry level laptops are certainly in a better place at 300,- versus something aged >6-7 years.

 

[SL2]

Thanks to yall

Getting up to 300, I was looking on Ryzen 3 7320U based laptops, on paper they do not look half bad. But upgradability options seems to suck in all laptops?
8gb ram, soldered, no expansion ports. A single m2 port reserved for the ssd

But maybe on the Ryzen 3 7320U I am wrong... I meant some time ago I got some celerons thinking that they couldn't be so bad as advertised, but they were

Lenovo V15 G4 AMN - 15,6" FHD, Ryzen 3 7320U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, ohne Windows

Lenovo V15-AMN 15.6" Ryzen3 7320U/8GB/256GBSSD/FHD FreeDos - 8 GB - 15,6"

www.easynotebooks.de

The CPU is the least of the problem for this budget laptop. Soldered RAM, and a TN DISPLAY in 2024?

Try this site, I think you can find something better.

Notebooks Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

Preisvergleich für Notebooks ✓ Bewertungen ✓ Produktinfos ⇒ Auswahl und Filtern der Produkte nach den besten Eigenschaften und dem billigsten Preis

geizhals.eu

Here are a few AMD models, they happened to be all of the same brand, but that's just because I avoided TN. Budget IPS is usually alright.

Produktvergleich HP 255 G8 Asteroid Silver, Ryzen 5 5500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, DE (7J034AA#ABD), HP 255 G10 schwarz, Ryzen 5 7530U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, DE (853S9ES#ABD), HP 255 G9 silber, Ryzen 3 5425U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, DE (7N069ES#ABD) Geizhals

Produktvergleich für HP 255 G8 Asteroid Silver, Ryzen 5 5500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, DE (7J034AA#ABD), HP 255 G10 schwarz, Ryzen 5 7530U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, DE (853S9ES#ABD), HP 255 G9 silber, Ryzen 3 5425U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, DE (7N069ES#ABD)

geizhals.eu

Also, try to find a review before buying, you'd be surprised how bad some budget laptops can be. Even if you can't find the exact same model, you might find info about display quality or keyboard, or if the touchpad is worthless, or a noisy fan.

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