@laurajoy93 For £500 or less, you're only going to find laptops with integrated graphics, at least if you're looking to buy a new model from a reputable site. That's not necessarily a problem—some current integrated chips are reasonably capable—but the chip in the laptop you've linked is pretty slow even for Sims 4. You could definitely do better. These two have a chip that's almost twice as fast in gaming, on average:
https://ao.com/product/1e6z9eaabu-hp-laptop-silver-88607-251.aspx
https://www.box.co.uk/81YQ0015UK-Lenovo-ideaPad-5-AMD-Ryzen-5-8GB-RAM-256_2953868.html
The second one comes with Windows 10 S, so you'd need to "upgrade" to Home, but that's free and only takes a couple clicks. The two laptops have the same overall specs, so there's no reason to spend the extra £50 on the Lenovo unless you don't like the HP for some reason.
I didn't see anything else as good as these two, at least not for under £500, but if you're looking for something a bit different, just let me know. And feel free to ask more questions.
Thank you so so much!! These both look like good options. A friend linked this one to me which is a bit more but has a dedicated graphics card. I’ve not heard of the brand before but assume this might be a good alternative to for just a little bit more money?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08PMJ68VC/ref=pe_27063361_485629781_TE_item
@laurajoy93 Medion's laptops are okay, they're budget options but not any more likely to break than other budget options. Medion's support, however, is not great, both in terms of dealing with potential problems and and with respect to driver support. That's especially problematic for a laptop because manufacturers will tweak the drivers to better fit their models' configurations and settings.
If you're looking for a cheap gaming laptop, this one is a better option:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-10SC-059UK-IPS-Level-i5-10300H-GeForce/dp/B08ZT7MJW6
Its aggregate rating is pretty low, but looking at the negative reviews, it appears that all the angry customers ordered from a third-party seller and received a lower-tier laptop. (That's one of several excellent reasons to buy only from Amazon itself, not from other sellers hosted on Amazon.) The laptop itself is fine.
If that's still too sketchy for you, these are $600:
https://www.box.co.uk/1D5F9EAABU-HP-Pavilion-15-ec1008na-AMD-Ryzen-5-8GB-_3554471.html
https://www.box.co.uk/FX505DT-BQ051T-ASUS-TUF-GAMING-FX505DT-BQ051T-AMD-Ryzen_3627482.html
The HP has a significantly better processor, although the one in the Asus should still be perfectly fine for Sims 4; the Asus has twice the storage, although the HP has enough for Sims 4 and all your content. The HP also has a 1650 ti, which is a bit faster than the regular 1650.
This one is $567 and has a 1650 Max-Q, i.e. max efficiency, which makes the card a few percentage points slower than a regular 1650. It shouldn't matter much though.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8988784?clickPR=plp:13:107
I didn't see anything else at or under $600 worth mentioning, although you might find other similar deals on lesser-known sites.
