Right, so I'm after a relatively cheap windows laptop. It'll be mainly used for education purposes - primarily statistical data analysis, web browsing and watching Netflix etc. Gaming isn't really a priority but nice if possible.

It must have an SSD, an optical drive is optional, both 13 and 15-inch models would be appreciated, as unsure which I'm after yet. Pretty sure 8gb ram is needed. Build quality - something that will last is the most important thing, though.

The problem is I have no knowledge of windows laptops, so I have no idea what brands I should be looking at. What brands or laptop lineups are generally considered reliable?

Cheers.

 

The Lenova Yoga brand seem to be well built machines. They have these fantastic high quality hinges, which solves one of the most common places for a laptop to fail on.

I checked the dell outlets site for your country but unfortunately it seems to be out of stock.

Business class laptops are usually made to a higher standard, although the price reflects that.

People shit all over Alienware for the price but their laptops are built very well, the new generation have desktop grade GPUS also(within 1-5% of the desktop performance).

If you are looking to save money and happen to know somebody in the states, get them to buy you the laptop(or order it to be shipped there). They can take it out of the box and bring it back as their own laptop to avoid paying tax.

 

Cheers, I'm thinking around $700USD price point, $1000ish NZD.

I'll have a look at those two.