Hi, I'm Marcus Bell. I'm 41, I live in Manchester with my partner and an elderly cat, and I've been running this site full-time-ish since 2019.
Why this site exists
Before Cheaper Tech I worked in IT procurement for a logistics company up in Salford — basically buying laptops by the pallet-load. Two things I learned there: first, the gap between a £400 laptop and a £900 one is much smaller than the marketing suggests. Second, almost nobody writes about the cheap stuff with any seriousness. Reviews of budget laptops read like the reviewer was embarrassed to be seen with them.
So in early 2019 I started writing down what I knew. First few posts got about nine readers a week, most of them my mum. It grew from there — the ThinkPad refurb guide took off in 2021 and basically paid my rent for a year. These days the site gets a bit over 200,000 readers a month, which still baffles me a bit if I'm honest.
How I test things
Everything I review, I've used as my own machine for at least two weeks — no exceptions, no "48-hour review units". I buy most of it myself, return what I can, and keep what I can't (it gets handed to family, donated, or ends up in the cupboard of laptops my partner refers to as "the museum"). When a company does lend me something, I say so at the top of the post, and it goes back afterwards.
There's no lab. My battery test is a spreadsheet of real work over real days, not a looped video in a dark room. If a fan annoys me, I tell you it annoys me. This is not science, it's just honest.
How the site makes money
Affiliate links (mainly Amazon), and the occasional banner ad. That's it. No sponsored posts, no "partner content", no free laptops with strings attached. Affiliate income doesn't influence what I recommend — the stuff I tell people not to buy has affiliate links too, which is arguably me leaving money on the table, but there you go. Full details in the privacy & disclosure page.
Off duty
When I'm not writing I'm usually walking somewhere in the Peak District, losing at five-a-side on Thursdays, or repairing laptops for mates-of-friends who've heard "he's good with computers". I support City, which I mention only so that United fans in the comments can get it out of their systems early.
Want to get in touch? The contact page has the form — I read everything, even if I can't reply to all of it. Especially if it's a rant about a hinge.
Marcus Bell, Manchester, UK · October 2026