Buying a computer

[themadhippy]

by Apple or their appointed service agents, except at the most basic level (such as adding RAM or increasing storage

isnt  everything soldered in /locked in the "bios" now? mate recently  bought a mac book pro and was complaining about the upgradeabilaty due to the above issues.

Dell

or more commonly   called , Hell

[Paddy]

After a lifetime in IT there is only one brand of laptop I would recommend and that is ThinkPad.  My brother has just taken over one of my old (7 years) ThinkPad which is an Intel i3.  It is dead easy to upgrade the storage, memory and they are built like tanks.  They also have wonderful keyboards.

ThinkPads are not necessarily the best looking but they are designed to be rugged, expandable and have lots of connectivity. 

Paddy

P.S. Not the cheapest though - a wee bit less than a Mac.

[Dorsetmike]

Amazon have quite a few Panasonic Toughbook laptops many refurbs with Windows 7 pro installed  some new with Windows 10, prices from £150-£880.