Ask Adrian: My laptop has bitten the dust after nine years — what would be a good replacement?

Our technology editor answers your trickiest tech questions

The Asus Vivobook is a reliable choice

Adrian Weckler

Question: My old laptop, which has lasted nine years, has finally given up as I am told it would cost more to repair the screen than it’s worth. I’m looking for a new model but don’t want to spend the earth as I mainly use it for email, the internet and social media. I would be grateful if you could give a recommendation. — Mark O’Sullivan

Answer

For what you’re describing, you could get a serviceable, adequately-powered basic model for around €600. If that’s what you want — something basic — try Acer’s 14-inch Swift 3 (€599) or Dell’s Inspiron 14 (€629).

Obviously, there are some other considerations I’d mention here, to give you the full picture. If you want something with a slightly larger screen (for example, if it’s always going to be in the same desktop spot) you should go for a 15-inch or 16-inch model (most regular laptops come with a 13-inch or 14-inch display). They cost a little more but in the basic category, you’ll still get one for around €700; try the Asus Vivobook 15 (€719).

You also didn’t say what brand your laptop was. This might be important as, if it was an Apple MacBook, you’ll pay more for a new model; the cheapest new MacBook costs €1,249 (although there is still some stock left in shops of the last-generation M1 MacBook Air, which costs around €999). If you’ve been using a MacBook for all this time, you’re not really going to want to switch to a Dell, HP or Lenovo Windows PC. If this is you, I’d recommend the entry-level (256GB storage, 8GB Ram) version of the MacBook Air M2, which costs €1,249. Macs tend to last a long time too.

Know that you can also be lured into paying more for some laptops for features you won’t get the benefit from. For example, brightness and higher resolution on a screen is often a differentiating factor in price and can make a difference if you ever use it outside or beside a sunny window. But in normal indoor lighting conditions, they’re somewhat wasted, unless you’re gaming or are really into photo-editing and the like.

You might be wondering about what ‘specs’ you should be looking for. If it’s a regular Windows laptop, you should be looking for at least 16GB of ‘Ram’ and an Intel i5 or Ryzen 5 chip. As for storage, try to get at least 512GB.

The budget models I mentioned at the top are a good example. Acer’s Swift 3 comes with 16GB of Ram, 512GB of storage and a Ryzen 5 chip; Dell’s Inspiron 14 comes with 16GB of Ram, 1,000GB of storage and an Intel i5 chip; Asus’s Vivobook 15 has 16GB.

It’s different for MacBooks, as the chips are a lot more powerful, 8GB of ‘Ram’ is fine.​

Recommendation: Asus Vivobook 15 (€719, Currys)

Email your questions to ­aweckler@independent.ie

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