Thinking of getting a laptop that starts up really quick with no lag during day to day use. Will be using it for web browsing 90% of the time potentially up to 10 tabs open at once. The other 10% of time will be used to VPN into work computer.
My question is will an Intel i5 6200u with 8gb ram and 256gb sdd be good enough? Will there be much incremental improvement from the kaby lake equivalent processor?
I have a MacBook Pro 13inch mid 2012 with 16gb ram and 128gb SSD and that handles all my web browsing. plus using a VPN for t-o-r-r-e-n-t-i-n-g at the same time.
I got a m3-7y30 4gb ram & 128gb ssd. for a portable device and it works well. Dell inspiron 11 3179. I got it refurb from the dell outlet for $390. for the times I dont use it, I have it hooked up to my tv running kodi and as a web browser. I'm quite happy with it. screen is pretty bad quality though. starts in around 10 seconds.
Any lag when opening applications such as Microsoft word or Google Chrome with these specs? Don't want any waiting.
No, it's mostly to do with the ssd these days.
If you look at a similar specced machine you'll find the build quality much better but getting close to twice the price.
So you reckon an Intel M3 with say 4gb ram and 256gb ssd will be just as good for my purposes assuming the SSD is the same?
There are a lot more boxes to tick when you are considering getting a laptop.
CPU performance is not super-important for a web browsing machine. Something like a Core m3 or i-series will give you enough compute performance for web.
RAM is upgradable. Wouldn't worry too much about that, unless you're buying a machine that has soldered-on memory.
SSD is important, but not a huge deal if a laptop doesn't ship with one. Upgrade it yourself.
Display / Panel tech is one of the most important aspects. Most cheap laptops have 1366 x 768 TN displays, the worst offenders being the laptops sold in brick/mortar shops which are both expensive yet pack lousy displays.
1080p and preferably, IPS is the way to go, but it's not the end of the world if the screen is a TN panel.
Build quality, battery capacity and keyboard is also important for those who use their laptops as portable devices as opposed to being just a desktop replacement.
10 tabs at once? LOL my partner constantly keeps 45+ open at once then complains about lag. it enrages me.
realistically, for what you're after i think you could get away with a 2gb chromebook with a custom Linux installation.
8gb just for browsing would be underutilising your machine.
That sounds fine. The ssd will have the biggest impact on what you do.