You asked for a Laptop costing under £300.
Although you asked for a laptop under £300, at that price I think you’ll probably not get the performance you need. A small step up from there – to about £360 or £370 – would make a big difference. While it may be the case that there are laptops available for less than the ones below, I didn’t think recommending them to you was a good idea – they were very much underpowered for your needs and may have resulted in frustration at a slow-performing computer that you might have needed to replace within a short time.
You told me that you needed a family laptop. You also added the following additional information: My daughter wants to play SIMS 4 on a laptop- I wasn’t sure if I should be choosing ‘gaming’ so just went for family/home which is probably not right. We have had SIMS 4 on laptops before and the graphics have been glitchy. I’ve put £300 as a start but realise it’ll be more than this! HELP!!
Don’t worry about choosing the right category – I can see exactly what you are saying and these are the best value laptops I can find that I think would work for you. The Sims 4 isn’t a particularly demanding game compared to other more graphically intensive games, so the choices below should all run it pretty well. Read the notes with each one carefully so that you know what the difference between each one is.
I do not work for or on behalf of any of the retailers listed below.
Prices correct as of 25th Sep 2022
1. Best overall performance: Lenovo V14 Gen 2 Ryzen 5-5500U 16GB 256GB SSD 14 Inch Win…
£419.97
Key features:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: Radeon Graphics
This choice represents the best overall performance I could get from your budget. It has a very decent CPU (processor) with on-board graphics that should cope with The Sims 4 fine. This laptop has 16GB of RAM which will be good for years to come. However, there is a cheaper version of the same laptop (£365) which (like the laptops below) only has 8GB of RAM. Put simply, 8GB of RAM is absolutely fine for now but 16GB will keep the laptop feeling fast, snappy and responsive for longer.
2. Cheapest option: Lenovo ideaPad 5i Intel Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB SSD 14″ IPS…
£379.97
Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i5-1135G7 Quad-Core Processor
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: Integrated Intel Xe Graphics
This choice represents the cheapest device I could find that still meets your needs. This one is similar to the above but with a slightly different processor. It will run The Sims OK but in my opinion, the 8GB version of choice 1 is probably stronger for games.
3. Third option: Lenovo ideaPad Gaming 3 Intel Core i5 8GB RAM 512GB SSD N…
£579.97
Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i5-11300H Quad Core Processor
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 512GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB Graphics
This choice represents the third option – wildcard! OK, bear with me here! I know this is way over budget but if you click through to take a look at this laptop, you’ll see a little semi-hidden option just below the “Add to basket” button that says “BUY REFURBISHED FROM £520.49”. If you click this, you will find that they are offering an “Open Box” version of this laptop for £60 off. Open box just means that the box is not sealed but it hasn’t been used.
This is specifically a “gaming” laptop. Unlike the others on this list, it contains a dedicated graphics processor. This means it will be much better for gaming, but for other tasks, it will perform about the same as the other laptops on this list.
Why did I choose these for you?
I chose laptops that were in your price range that I thought could do the job. If you think your daughter may want to play games other than The Sims 4 in the future, choice 3 might be the best option even though it is expensive (although it is very reasonable for a gaming laptop, which do tend to be much more expensive). If you don’t think she will, I’d recommend choice 1. I think it has the specifications to be a strong laptop for years to come while still being very reasonably priced.
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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