Does Anyone Make Decent Budget Laptops?

psychopomp1

Nail on the head. But as said earlier, don't base your decision  on support as there's a possibility you may not need support at all. But at the same time I hope you realise that the more you pay, the better quality machine you will be getting, ie you get what you pay for, just like with most things in life

psychopomp1

Btw all laptops sold by John Lewis come with 2 year warranty/support and there's plenty under £500. I imagine the first year support would be covered by the manufacturer with year 2 by JL or a third party. However with JL you have the peace of mind knowing that should the manufacturer fail to resolve any issue, JL would almost certainly step in and either fully refund you or provide you with a alternative machine of your choice of the same cost or less. JL customer service is great, arguably the best out there

EndlessWaves

That's incorrect. Lenovo was an existing electronics company that bought IBM's personal computer division when they offered it up for sale in 2005. They'd been around a couple of decades at that point, although not as an international name.