You asked for a Laptop costing under £400.
You told me that you needed an all round laptop for all round performance. You also added the following additional information: Want to be able to take it on holidays, would like to play DVDs on holiday
There are almost no laptops sold with built in DVD drives these days – they make the laptop larger, thicker and heavier and people don’t use them anywhere near as much as they used to. My recommendation is always to buy the best laptop you can for your budget and then add an external DVD drive that you just plug into a USB port – this one is just £24. You will get far more for your money that way.
However, if you do want a laptop with a built in DVD drive, option 3 is there for you. It is more expensive and less powerful than the other two options, but it does have the built in DVD. It was one of two laptops I could find that contained a built-in DVD drive, the other being over £500 from the same shop.
I searched a range of different shops for something that would suit your needs. I have chosen the three options below as the best ones to suit your requirements. However, we all have our own tastes (and of course, prices can change), so I have also included search links for each shop at the bottom of this page in case you’d like to browse further.
I always choose three options. These are usually (1) the best performing option within your budget (i.e. best suited to meet your needs for the longest possible time), (2) the cheapest option that still meets your needs effectively and (3) usually a wildcard option or a compromise between the two. If you are able to, I would usually recommend the first option as it is likely to be powerful enough to meet your needs for the longest before it needs replacing. However, I specify three choices so that you can pick the one that best suits your circumstances.
I do not work for or on behalf of any of the retailers listed below.
Prices correct as of 4th May 2022
1. Best overall performance: ASUS VivoBook 15 X515EA 15.6″ Full HD Laptop (Intel i3-11…
£399.99
Key features:
CPU: i3-1115G4
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: Intel UHD
This choice represents the best overall performance I could get from your budget. I chose it primarily based on its all round performance. It does not include a DVD drive though. I recommend buying this laptop and then buying a USB DVD drive like this one separately, although this will put you slightly over budget.
2. Cheapest option: Dynabook Satellite Pro C40-G-11E Intel Core i3 8GB RAM 25…
£349.99
Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i3-10110U Dual Core Processor
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
This choice represents the cheapest device I could find that still meets your needs. I chose it primarily based on its all round performance. It is not as powerful as option 1 but is slightly cheaper and with a smaller 14″ screen size, is the most portable of the three. It does not include a DVD drive though. If you prefer this latop, I recommend buying a USB DVD drive like this one separately, which will cost about £375 in total.
3. Third option: Fujitsu Lifebook A3510 Core i3 8GB 26GB SSD 15.6″ FHD Win…
£476.88
Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i3 1005G1 1.2GHz
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: DVD Super Multi / Intel UHD Graphics
This choice represents the third option – the only one that actually contains a DVD drive. It is considerably slower than option 1 and more expensive than either of the two above options. However, if you definitely want a laptop with the DVD drive built in, it is one of the few options available to you.
Why did I choose these for you?
It is important that you understand what the components of a laptop do so that you can make an informed choice. Here is my very basic explanation for each:
- CPU: The brain of your laptop. A better one makes your laptop faster.
- RAM: Your laptop’s short term memory – more of this means it can cope well with doing more things at once.
- Storage: How much space your laptop has to store files, photos, apps etc. More storage means you can store more stuff.
- Graphics: Your laptop has a graphics processor (GPU) responsible for how things appear on the screen. A better GPU will mean your device will cope better with more complicated graphics, such as in 3D games.
If you would like to browse the shops I searched for yourself, here are some links that will take you directly to the search results you require:
Some of the links on this page are affiliate links – that means if you go on to buy after clicking one of them, I may receive a small payment. This is how I am able to provide this service for free. It does not affect the price you pay, nor does it affect the recommendations I make – I will always recommend the best I can find to fit your usage, regardless of what shop it is from or any affiliation.
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