BATTLE OF THE £100 LAPTOPS: CAN MACHINES THIS CHEAP REALLY BE ANY GOOD?

HAS YOUR EYE BEEN CAUGHT BY AN INFLUENCER ON FACEBOOK OR TIKTOK EXTOLLING THE VIRTUES OF ULTRA-CHEAP MACHINES? TIM DANTON PUTS THEM THROUGH THE SAME SUITE OF TESTS AS THE LAPTOPS WE NORMALLY REVIEW

It all started with an email from a reader. “Have you seen these Coda 1.1 laptops being advertised on TikTok and Facebook?” asked Michael Albin. “These are Windows 10 laptops with a Celeron processor and 11in screen. I found them on eBay, brand new for £64 including delivery.”

The gist of Michael’s email was simple: how would such cheap laptops fare when put through the PC Pro tests? He had taken the bait and been suitably impressed. “It isn’t the fastest in the world, but it is a very functional little laptop that runs everything I then tried on it.”

Nor was the Coda 1.1 alone. There were plenty of TikTok videos showing off sub-£100 laptops that appeared to do everyday jobs without any issue. Why pay more?

REAL-WORLD TROUBLES

It turns out that Michael had been fortunate with his timing. He had ordered his mini laptop shortly before Christmas, but by the time I dusted down the PC Pro credit card in early February the price of the Coda 1.1 had jumped to £99 on eBay.

Likewise for all the other similar laptops. Cursing my delay, I paid up for four of these promising-looking mini machines on Amazon and eBay. Browsing the latter soon raised another interesting question: should people buy one of these mini laptops or a better-known brand’s laptop that had been “pre-loved”? I found a likely candidate and pressed Buy.

One of the things that had impressed Michael was just how quickly his laptop had arrived. And I can only agree. Within three days of my transactions, all four new laptops had arrived. The second-hand machine arrived a couple of days later.