Just got my first ever Windows 10 Laptop

[shoaib shah]

Hi

As the title suggests I am new on board and this is my first experience of a Windows laptop. Have used Windows phone in the past so it looks similar.

Have brought the HP 15.6in Slim Pentium Gold 4GB 128GB FHD Laptop - Silver

Just wanted to know was it a good choice because I wanted something within 400 pounds budget but with decent specs and performance.

Let me know of any tips and tricks.

Also what is the current lifetime support cycle on my Windows laptop or is that tied in with the Windows 10 support cycle.

Thanks in advance and looking forward to enjoying myself back in the Microsoft world.

☺

 

[N_LaRUE]

This is an honest opinion post.

To begin with, when buying a laptop always think about what you plan to do with it.

The Pentium Gold processor only has two CPUs at fixed speeds and no turbo. It has integrated video which shares the RAM. The RAM is bare minimum for today's computing, 8GB would be better. Not sure about expand ability as it's become difficult for newer laptops.

Hard drive is average but 256GB would be minimum in my view. 128GB is decent but is a bit small.

As for laptops and Windows 10. Windows is pretty much on constant update and is supported far longer than a mobile phone OS. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. Your laptop will more likely stop being supported by HP before Windows 10 stops being supported.

So to put it simply you have a very basic but decent laptop with the latest 2019 processor. If all you plan to use it for is Office, email and web browsing or video streaming it should be fine. Storage is decent but any large files should be moved to USB/NAS drive or online storage.

This is no powerhouse but it should do the basics well enough.

 

[shoaib shah]

This is an honest opinion post.

To begin with, when buying a laptop always think about what you plan to do with it.

The Pentium Gold processor only has two CPUs at fixed speeds and no turbo. It has integrated video which shares the RAM. The RAM is bare minimum for today's computing, 8GB would be better. Not sure about expand ability as it's become difficult for newer laptops.

Hard drive is average but 256GB would be minimum in my view. 128GB is decent but is a bit small.

As for laptops and Windows 10. Windows is pretty much on constant update and is supported far longer than a mobile phone OS. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. Your laptop will more likely stop being supported by HP before Windows 10 stops being supported.

So to put it simply you have a very basic but decent laptop with the latest 2019 processor. If all you plan to use it for is Office, email and web browsing or video streaming it should be fine. Storage is decent but any large files should be moved to USB/NAS drive or online storage.

This is no powerhouse but it should do the basics well enough.

Ok thank you very much. I did take my time shop around but I was on a tight budget and most of friends were saying the best windows laptops to go for were ones made by Asus HP Lenovo or Dell.

I just went with the one that was good for it's price at around 320 pounds because it will be used mainly for writing up documents and casually browsing the web and watching videos. Definitely not for gaming as you mentioned.

Thanks again. Windows 10 still a learning curve for me but on getting used to it.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Ok thank you very much. I did take my time shop around but I was on a tight budget and most of friends were saying the best windows laptops to go for were ones made by Asus HP Lenovo or Dell.

I just went with the one that was good for it's price at around 320 pounds because it will be used mainly for writing up documents and casually browsing the web and watching videos. Definitely not for gaming as you mentioned.

Thanks again. Windows 10 still a learning curve for me but on getting used to it.

Nothing against HP or any of those companies you mentioned. I own two HPs myself.

I was just letting you know you've entered at the lower end of the laptop range from a specification point of view and to be aware of the limitations.

For the purposes you have stated you should be fine and I'm sure you'll enjoy W10.

 

[TechFreak1]

That's a decent purchase, I have to ask does it have Windows 10 pro or Windows 10 home?

The former gives you greater control over Windows 10 Updates, as out of that 128 Gigs, you probably will get about 80 to 90 Gigs of free space approximately as you don't get 128 gigs in reality (about 119 Gigs). As you need to factor in the Windows install, additional programs, the swap file, the hibernation file and page file which would be about 20 to 25 gigs (at minimum) and then you add your assorted bloatware on top.

You can of course can disable the swap file, hibernation file and page file but it's not recommended. You can get by with no page file or swap file but on a laptop you will need the hibernation file for to function properly as a laptop - no sleep or hibernation functions without it.

Given the specs, it's most likely running Windows 10 Home I would suggest keeping an eye on the updates. As some updates have been known to do some funky stuff lol.

Lastly, the pentium gold cpu... is not really a power house but for the basics it will be fine. Just don't go too crazy with the browser tabs :winktongue: - also install adblock (ublock orgin is a very light weight adblocker).

 

[shoaib shah]

That's a decent purchase, I have to ask does it have Windows 10 pro or Windows 10 home?

The former gives you greater control over Windows 10 Updates, as out of that 128 Gigs, you probably will get about 80 to 90 Gigs of free space approximately as you don't get 128 gigs in reality (about 119 Gigs). As you need to factor in the Windows install, additional programs, the swap file, the hibernation file and page file which would be about 20 to 25 gigs (at minimum) and then you add your assorted bloatware on top.

You can of course can disable the swap file, hibernation file and page file but it's not recommended. You can get by with no page file or swap file but on a laptop you will need the hibernation file for to function properly as a laptop - no sleep or hibernation functions without it.

Given the specs, it's most likely running Windows 10 Home I would suggest keeping an eye on the updates. As some updates have been known to do some funky stuff lol.

Lastly, the pentium gold cpu... is not really a power house but for the basics it will be fine. Just don't go too crazy with the browser tabs :winktongue: - also install adblock (ublock orgin is a very light weight adblocker).

Mine is with Windows 10 home edition. Thanks for the advice and will install adblock as soon as possible.



Yeh and talking about updates I am freak about that as I kinda love devices having lots of updates and always excited for new features and of course maintaining security.

I believe Windows 10 as I have been looking up has quite a long time to go in providing updates and have a great track record

 

[Jamie Brahm]

For what you are doing, the CPU is good. It's battery lite, so you'll get longer battery life from it.

From the space point of view, this is perhaps a genuine reason for consideration though. Some apps, like office apps insist on being installed on the system drive. And then there's windows, and the updates.

If you store media on your laptop, you'll run out of space eventually. Of course not everyone is a 'collector'. But you might take a lot of high res photos, or collect music, or want to install a number of apps - 128gb is enough, but it's not a wild amount of space.

You may NOT run out of space, but in case you do, down the line, it's better to sort of store some stuff in an alternate place, so that you don't have to uninstall or shift stuff around later.

Fortunately you have options here with this laptop. The laptop has an SD card slot. So you could put in a 64gb, or 128gb SD card, and store media, and some less intensive apps on that. You could also use one of the USB ports, and get a 'nub' style usb stick with 64gb or 128gb. Final option is to store media on a one drive account, with the 3 dollars per month 100gb subscription, and simply set it to 'download on request' so that those files are on the web, not on your hard drive.

You get 5gb free, but frankly that's too small. This is great for installing on your phone as well, so you can access photo's taken on your phone, on your laptop.

The SD is probably the best, because it doesn't protrude from the laptop, and you can leave it in all the time. Just get one with the highest speed possible, so if you install apps there, they don't run too slow, as it will be slower than your ssd.

Alternately you could just use it for media, and if you did, you could also run onedrive as 'download everything' (opposite of above), and autosync every photo from your phone, as well as have a cloud backup of any other media (music, movies etc)

64gb and 128gb SD are both cheap.

I've got a windows tablet with 64gb of internal space, and that's enough, because I have a 128gb microSD - and I have some media on it, loads of apps, even some games (and contrary to what was said, you should be able to play some very light games on your laptop. Like some 2d games, some light emulation (psp), and some low power 3d stuff - I find for example trine 2 works on a atom processor at lowest settings)

I just make sure I put as much stuff as I can, onto the SD. You generally however can only put media on your SD, unless you do this little process to make it recognize as a permenant drive. So if you are installing a lot of apps, that might be an issue because it's slightly technical (you have to run a script)

But because you have a 128gb main drive, are a light user, probably a 64gb SD just for data would do the trick.

 

[Jamie Brahm]

Welcome to the forum, and also you should enjoy windows 10. It has a lot of new things for people used to older windows versions, easier access to things via the notification area, way more options on right click of start, gestures for windows etc.

As with any desktop operating system it's good to be able to do backups, so that you don't lose anything or if anything goes pear shaped - it might be worth getting some kind of external drive twice the size of your data/system, and downloading 'macrium reflect free'. It's a free backup system that backs up your whole system, so you can just literally revert to an older state.

With fixed systems like laptops, you tend to get lots of driver updates too, so make sure you have installed whatever HP software might come with it.

 

[shoaib shah]

Welcome to the forum, and also you should enjoy windows 10. It has a lot of new things for people used to older windows versions, easier access to things via the notification area, way more options on right click of start, gestures for windows etc.

As with any desktop operating system it's good to be able to do backups, so that you don't lose anything or if anything goes pear shaped - it might be worth getting some kind of external drive twice the size of your data/system, and downloading 'macrium reflect free'. It's a free backup system that backs up your whole system, so you can just literally revert to an older state.

With fixed systems like laptops, you tend to get lots of driver updates too, so make sure you have installed whatever HP software might come with it.

Thanks for all that advice. Much appreciated.

I already have many backup accounts like Google Drive and Onedrive from the past for my media that's not a issue.

I usually use my Android as my daily driver. The laptop will be used occasionally for writing up reports some casual browsing and a bit of Netflix binging.

 

[Jamie Brahm]

Thanks for all that advice. Much appreciated.

I already have many backup accounts like Google Drive and Onedrive from the past for my media that's not a issue.

I usually use my Android as my daily driver. The laptop will be used occasionally for writing up reports some casual browsing and a bit of Netflix binging.

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Fair enough

I'm the opposite, I do almost everything on my PC, and barely touch my phone except when I am out or using chat apps that aren't on windows.

If you're the other way around, cloud storage should do you fine.

Amazon prime has a cheap 3 month introductory price btw, and they have a few inhouse shows that are really great. Worth it, if only to blow through those cheap three months. We live in a great era for TV shows