Question Advice on buying an ASUS laptop ?

[Caretaker54]

Hi Guys,
I am new to the forum and want to say hi as a newcomer.

I had a Sony vaio laptop computer 14inch screen and it was outdated and uneconomical to repair and they don’t make Sony vaio laptop anymore.

So I am thinking of buying this ASUS laptop for Emails, word document, excel document, picture alteration may be paint and internet by opening few tabs at one go, so would this computer good enough for my everyday use or do I need a 8GB ram and 512 Gb storage.

I save lot of pictures and my personal stuff which may be around 50gb or would i be better off storing it on USB stick by buying 1tb from ebay which are less then £20

Asus Laptop E510MA-EJ592WS this is the option which has 4Gb ram and 128Gb and 15.6 inch screen
Asus Laptop X705MA-BX269W this is the 2nd option but I have to pay another £195 8GB ram and 256Gb and 17.3 inch screen

Your advice really appreciated .

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Asus Laptop X705MA-BX269W this is the 2nd option but I have to pay another £195 8GB ram and 256Gb and 17.3 inch screen
Is what I'd get in 2024, 4GB's is impossible to run no matter what other people say.

 

[dos_box]

Don't buy either of them. Aside from the RAM they both have pretty bad CPU. And I also would advice against the (imo) too cheap USB-Stick, I just can't imagine it to be any good at that price. USB Sticks are also not a very good option to store things safely. From all the options available (hard-drive, ssd, burned disc, cloud storage, usb) USB Sticks are the most likely to fail. Many of my USB-Sticks stopped working at some point. Some even very early and just after few months of usage. If you need external storage, go for something proper. Cheapest way without looking into it would propably be 256-512GB SATA-SSD with USB Adapter. But that would need some research to be sure.

If you wanna stay with Asus, which is a good brand usually, I would recommend this one which is on limited sale right now:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Vivobook-M1605YA-R5-5625U-Processor/dp/B0CCYVHHWB

otherwise or if the sale is finished maybe this might be an option as well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Vivobook-X515JA-Laptop-Windows/dp/B0B5H6NFZJ

Two other options from other brands:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Inspiron-Graphics-English-UK-Keyboard/dp/B0CHKPPQ22

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Laptop-i3-N305-Windows/dp/B0CHFBT24D

 

[Caretaker54]

Hi Guys
Thank you for your reply.

I had Gadget insurance with D&G and my laptop from the corner broke and the screen would not come , if I hold it then it would work, however I gave it for repair through insurance and they could not repair it and they are replacing it.

this one I don’t need to pay enhanced fee Asus Laptop E510MA-EJ592WS this is the option which has 4Gb ram and 128Gb and 15.6 inch screen.

This one I need to pay £195 upgrade fee if I want this model Asus Laptop X705MA-BX269W this is the 2nd option but I have to pay another £195 8GB ram and 256Gb and 17.3 inch screen.

There are other models , but the price varies depending on Brand, Model and spec. I don’t know how to upload the pictures to show you the models Listed by D&G.

I only need it for General use , web browsing, emails, internet, excel sheet and word document.

Noted about the USB stick, need to buy a external storage like Seagate or western brand.

 

[dos_box]

As baboma writes. Both pretty useless. The first one comes with eMMC as a disk, which is pretty much the worst you can find. Combined with a crap CPU, I can assure you you wont have much fun with it. Friend of mine bought one of them once with a similar disk and it was way too slow. Everything took like forever. Never would i buy one with eMMC-disk.
And the 2nd one wouldn't be worth paying ~200pounds. I would just add 100 pounds more to get a halfway decent one. If there is no other option just sell the replacement on ebay, maybe you can get a few bucks...

 

[Caretaker54]

Hi Guys
Thank you for your comments read all and really good advice from the expert Before buying, as I don’t know much about computers.

They only have the below in stock and need to pay £245.00 enhanced fee and I told them on Amazon it is £299 and can they not reduced the Enhanced fee.

This is what they said the upgrade fees can not be adjusted, they are based on our buying cost for our suppliers

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Vivobook-M1605YA-R5-5625U-Processor/dp/B0CCYVHHWB

 

[dos_box]

Since no other option I would probably take it. Even if you could take one of the other options to sell it on ebay, it's just a lot of effort to put into the whole selling process, to maybe if lucky save another 50 GBP. But that's for you to decide.

The Asus-Vivobook M1605YA-R5-5625U is a decent entry-level laptop. Sure at the price it comes with a few trade-offs, but unless you wanna spend 500 bucks plus, I think this is a great deal, and for what you plan doing with it, it should just be perfect

 

[Caretaker54]

Thanks dos_box, I will see the option you mentioned as i can get free one paying £0.00 enhanced fee which is this model Asus Laptop E510MA-EJ592WS and try and sell it , as currently they are on market about £209.00 at Ao.com and Argos and may not get £200 if I sell it as I may get between £100-£150 ; so even then if I buy from Amazon for £299 I may save another £50 like you said, but that’s no Guarantee.

I think over it by this week and I will be using the laptop may be once a week for an hour or even fortnightly, like I said I only need it use It to save my excel spreadsheet budget planner , my mums word document sheets for carers time keeping and pictures of family and DIY , also using internet to sell on website like tools and clothing I dont need and emails Now and again, as I have my mobile to do emails .

 

[Caretaker54]

Hi Guys,
I need your help choosing from the below laptop been offered today, as the one they had is not available now and the below is the model they have where i don't have to pay upgrade fee.

In the below models the screen sizes varies form 14.0inch to 17.3inch.

Your HELP in this will be really appreciated, so i can order it tomorrow.

This is not available from their supplier. The below link
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Vivobook-M1605YA-R5-5625U-Processor/dp/B0CCYVHHWB

Acer Laptop NX.KENEK.005​

Acer Laptop NX.KM6EK.004​

Asus Laptop X515MA-EJ869W​

Asus Laptop X705MA-BX269W - PART NUMBER X705MA-BX245W​

HP Laptop 894M3EA#ABU​

Asus Laptop X1502ZA-EJ465W​

Asus Laptop X1704ZA-AU037W - PART NUMBER X1702ZA-AU119W​

Asus Laptop CX3402CBA-PQ0202​

Asus Laptop E1504FA-NJ649W​

HP Laptop 8B4U3EA#ABU​

Lenovo Laptop 82VG00FAUK​

 

[dos_box]

Pick one from the following:

Asus Laptop E1504FA-NJ649W​

Lenovo Laptop 82VG00FAUK​

Acer Laptop NX.KM6EK.004​

They have decent specs. Be aware all 3 models seem to save on the screen quality. Best screen will probaby be the 14' Laptop from Acer, which offers at least an IPS-screen. But it's also the smallest screen and comes with the least amount of storage. If you don't mind the screensize and prefer IPS over the other models TN then this would be decent enough. Storage-wise you can still add an external drive. If you are fine with a TN-Panel then choose freely. The Lenovo and Asus both have slightly better CPU. But I don't think you will notice it much with only office and browser tasks.
Anyways from your list of choices, those are probably the ones that you will have the most enjoyable experience with.. .

Edit: Just seeing there is different models available for the Acer Laptop. Either 4GB or 8GB RAM. So you might want to try get the 8GB version. I am not entirely sure how good 4GB (of fast DDR5-RAM) will be on Windows 11.. .

So yeah your choice will be basically come down to portability with small form factor and halfway decent screen vs. higher CPU-Power and more storage, larger-screen, heavier, less portable but also worse screen.

 

[Caretaker54]

Thank you dos_bos for your reply and taking your time to look at the models for me. Really appreciated.

I will go with this model due to bigger Hard drives storage and 15.6inch screen and it has 8GB DDR5L.

It has Microsoft windows 11 and wasn’t sure about Google Android Chrome OS . There are other operating systems makes it more confusing. Like Linux and Apple macOS will be out of my budget.

Asus Laptop E1504FA-NJ649W​

 

[USAFRet]

I save lot of pictures and my personal stuff which may be around 50gb or would i be better off storing it on USB stick by buying 1tb from ebay which are less then £20

No.
You cannot buy a real 1TB flash drive for £20.
From anywhere.

 

[Caretaker54]

Thanks about the 1TB Information, I will buy the seagate or western from approved supplied like Curry’s or Argos.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks about the 1TB Information, I will buy the seagate or western from approved supplied like Curry’s or Argos.

And using a flash drive for actual storage is contraindicated.

They should only be used for ephemeral data...moving between 2 systems via sneakernet, for instance.
Not perm storage.

 

[dos_box]

Be aware that most cheap laptops come with a Windows 11 S-Mode preinstalled. Therefore here something to read for you once the laptop arrives:

https://www.lifewire.com/windows-11-s-mode-7151681

 

[USAFRet]

Be aware that most cheap laptops come with a Windows 11 S-Mode preinstalled. Therefore here something to read for you once the laptop arrives:

https://www.lifewire.com/windows-11-s-mode-7151681

Yes.
Win 11 S can be promoted to WIN 11 Home for free, but it IS a function you have to invoke manually.

Also, S mode is BitLocker enabled. As you promote it to Home, that bitlocker remains. Even though it is not available in regular Win 11 Home.

 

[Caretaker54]

Thanks read about the Window 11 Home S and if you remove the S then can download Apps from Third party and once you remove S then you can’t go back on it. Unless Factory reset .

 

[Caretaker54]

One more question is it better to keep the battery connected to laptop or take the battery off and just use the mains , as my laptop will be near the main plug. The reason I am asking is to preserve the battery health and life of the battery, as my laptop will be in one location all the time, it won’t be take out of the house it will be in one room.

 

[USAFRet]

One more question is it better to keep the battery connected to laptop or take the battery off and just use the mains , as my laptop will be near the main plug. The reason I am asking is to preserve the battery health and life of the battery, as my laptop will be in one location all the time, it won’t be take out of the house it will be in one room.

Some laptops do not run if the battery is removed. Plugged in or not.

 

[dos_box]

There is supposed to be a battery setting to keep it at around 50-60% of full charge at all times. This option would be the best to preserve battery life as best as possible. And is the advised setting if you keep it plugged in most of the times.

 

[Caretaker54]

Hi Guys
I went for this model

Asus Laptop X1704ZA-AU037W​

https://esupply.co.uk/asus-vivobook...fRNlJTQ3KNvMBB1YirXyITjoDyh-18-8aAqz2EALw_wcB