Anyone got any recommendations for laptops in the £500-600 region? My current Dell Latitude E7440 is ancient now so I want something that'll last me a good few years and not struggle to run. Basically use it for browsing and playing FM but could get into more PC (light) PC games as I have a decent office set-up at home so have 2 screens. Seems to be loads out there but no idea what is decent anymore
First be warned that supply chains for computers are still fucked so at the moment everything is more expensive than it should be.
In that price range though you should be able to get an 11th Gen Intel i5, 10th Gen i7 or an AMD Ryzen 5 (4500 or 5500). The Ryzens tend to be quicker overall at multithread/multitasking and in in synthethic benchmarks while the i5 and i7s can be quicker on single threaded tasks.
If your Dell has a 4th Gen i5, the Ryzen 5 5500U is about 5 times quicker in CPU Passmark (
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i5-4310U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-5500U/2207vs4141)
Most laptops still have 8 GB of DDR4 RAM so anything else is a bonus and as programs and media files are not getting smaller I tend to prefer a larger SSD (not less than 512 GB) - if you use cloud-based or external storage this might be less of an issue for you. Cheaper models will almost always mean older CPU and/or smaller SSD.
You may prefer the keyboards/trackpads of one manufacturer over another so it is always good to go into a store to give them a bit of a rattle. Many models are available with both 14" and 15.6" screens and you might want to check the ports on individual laptops to be sure you can plug in the peripherals you need (although ports and adapters are available for most things).
Currys can be a bit shite but this looks like a reasonable deal for the latest Ryzen 5 (5500U) and a 1 TB SSD:
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-swift-3-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-1-tb-ssd-silver-10225782-pdt.htmlHaven't used an Acer for years but they used to have a reputation for being feature rich for the money even if the build quality might not have been as good as some other brands.