Mother looking for a $300 or less Windows laptop

[steelo]

Hi, 

 

My mother mentioned to me the other day she needs a new laptop. Her current laptop is about 6-7 years old and on its last legs. She's 70 years old and will mainly be using it for writing stories, surfing the internet, facebook and emails. Do you have any suggestions? I believe she is wanting a Windows based system, as that's what she is familiar with.

 

I was thinking something along the lines of a Ryzen 3 CPU with integrated graphics, like a 3200u? I know now isn't the best time to find a computer, but do you have any suggestions on decent brands/models?

[jaslion]

Eh not possible to get a decent non crappy one. Basically it's look for a used business laptop with a 1080p ips screen and a ssd with 8gb of ram and call it done. Those can be found for that price and will last basically forever where a 300$ laptop will be slower and will most likely be dead in a couple years due to cheap parts. Some also last forever tho but most of the time they don't.

[Radium_Angel]

25 minutes ago, steelo said:

Hi, 

 

My mother mentioned to me the other day she needs a new laptop. Her current laptop is about 6-7 years old and on its last legs. She's 70 years old and will mainly be using it for writing stories, surfing the internet, facebook and emails. Do you have any suggestions? I believe she is wanting a Windows based system, as that's what she is familiar with.

 

I was thinking something along the lines of a Ryzen 3 CPU with integrated graphics, like a 3200u? I know now isn't the best time to find a computer, but do you have any suggestions on decent brands/models?

Motile Ryzen 14 laptop. I posted a review here:

 

[paddy-stone]

Would your mother be put off making use of her TV as the display, like would she or others want to use the TV at the same time she would want to?

If the answer is yes, then ignore the below.

 

I would suggest using a raspberry pi TBH with raspbian OS and the inbuilt office suite. Unless she uses a lot of hotkeys/shortcuts from the MS suite, mostly it's the same.

Along with a wireless keyb/mouse she should be good to go, and for a very cheap price.

 

 

I think people in her situation where most if not all of the usage is very basic, should have a look at the pi or similar as they are really quite good, and very cheap if they can re-use a display they already have.

Before that though, you could also try installing ubuntu/rasp OS on her current laptop, it might be the use of windows that is slowing it down to the point where it feels sluggish now... then it'll be free rather than paying out $300.

 

[steelo]

13 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Would your mother be put off making use of her TV as the display, like would she or others want to use the TV at the same time she would want to?

If the answer is yes, then ignore the below.

 

I would suggest using a raspberry pi TBH with raspbian OS and the inbuilt office suite. Unless she uses a lot of hotkeys/shortcuts from the MS suite, mostly it's the same.

Along with a wireless keyb/mouse she should be good to go, and for a very cheap price.

 

 

I think people in her situation where most if not all of the usage is very basic, should have a look at the pi or similar as they are really quite good, and very cheap if they can re-use a display they already have.

Before that though, you could also try installing ubuntu/rasp OS on her current laptop, it might be the use of windows that is slowing it down to the point where it feels sluggish now... then it'll be free rather than paying out $300.

 

She would be clueless on how to use Raspbian tbh, so i don't think a pi is an option. It also needs to be something she can use on her lap while watching TV. She won't be using it with a TV. This just needs be a very basic laptop that she can turn on, load facebook and MS Word and be happy...LOL. I think she also may make use of a web camera to talk to friends.

[paddy-stone]

42 minutes ago, steelo said:

She would be clueless on how to use Raspbian tbh, so i don't think a pi is an option. It also needs to be something she can use on her lap while watching TV. She won't be using it with a TV. This just needs be a very basic laptop that she can turn on, load facebook and MS Word and be happy...LOL. I think she also may make use of a web camera to talk to friends.

No worries, just wanted to throw the option in there. You don't really have to know how to use raspbian as such, not if only using basic stuff that's already a package on the OS and ready to go. 

 

Any way, good luck with finding something. Sorry I wasn't able to help.

[steelo]

2 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

No worries, just wanted to throw the option in there. You don't really have to know how to use raspbian as such, not if only using basic stuff that's already a package on the OS and ready to go. 

 

Any way, good luck with finding something. Sorry I wasn't able to help.

Appreciate the help. I've thought about something like a Chromebook, but she is very accustomed to MS Word...I'm sure there is a way to use a cloud version, but again that may be confusing to her. She is a retired English teacher who loves writing stories, but really needs something that's very simple and has everything she needs in front of her when she turns it on.

[The1Dickens]

58 minutes ago, steelo said:

Appreciate the help. I've thought about something like a Chromebook, but she is very accustomed to MS Word...I'm sure there is a way to use a cloud version, but again that may be confusing to her. She is a retired English teacher who loves writing stories, but really needs something that's very simple and has everything she needs in front of her when she turns it on.

How strict is the budget and form factor constraints? I threw together a PC for my mom for about 500 a short while ago (early pandemic) that is small form factor.

 

I had an old HP or Dell case floating around I threw everything in. But here is the parts list and you can adjust as needed: PARTS

[steelo]

1 hour ago, The1Dickens said:

How strict is the budget and form factor constraints? I threw together a PC for my mom for about 500 a short while ago (early pandemic) that is small form factor.

 

I had an old HP or Dell case floating around I threw everything in. But here is the parts list and you can adjust as needed: PARTS

Hey,

 

I think she really wants something portable, like a laptop. She doesn't have a desk to set up a pc and often travels with it. She is 70 years old, so I'd like to find something that is easy to tote around. Specs probably aren't too important as it will most likely be used for light tasks.

 

Now that I think about it, I believe she gave me a $300 price range but I don't think their budget is that strict. I don't see going $100 dollars or so over budget being a big deal.

[steelo]

6 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Motile Ryzen 14 laptop. I posted a review here:

 

Thanks, the only thing that concerns me is it only having 4gb of ram. I know Chrome will eat that up in no time. Also, it's running single rank ram, which really hampers ryzen cpu's.

 

Then again, I doubt she's going to be playing cyberpunk, so it may be fine. LOL

[Radium_Angel]

8 minutes ago, steelo said:

Thanks, the only thing that concerns me is it only having 4gb of ram. I know Chrome will eat that up in no time. Also, it's running single rank ram, which really hampers ryzen cpu's.

 

Then again, I doubt she's going to be playing cyberpunk, so it may be fine. LOL

They come in Ryzen 5/8GB versions.

The lower line one is only 4GB

[steelo]

5 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Would your mother be put off making use of her TV as the display, like would she or others want to use the TV at the same time she would want to?

If the answer is yes, then ignore the below.

 

I would suggest using a raspberry pi TBH with raspbian OS and the inbuilt office suite. Unless she uses a lot of hotkeys/shortcuts from the MS suite, mostly it's the same.

Along with a wireless keyb/mouse she should be good to go, and for a very cheap price.

 

 

I think people in her situation where most if not all of the usage is very basic, should have a look at the pi or similar as they are really quite good, and very cheap if they can re-use a display they already have.

Before that though, you could also try installing ubuntu/rasp OS on her current laptop, it might be the use of windows that is slowing it down to the point where it feels sluggish now... then it'll be free rather than paying out $300.

 

I believe she mentioned that her laptop is so outdated that windows won't even update anymore. I think it's a celeron m with 2gb of ram...

[Donut417]

Maybe look in to a Chromebook. ChromeOS is designed to run on lower end hardware. Windows 10, not so much. 

[steelo]

14 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Maybe look in to a Chromebook. ChromeOS is designed to run on lower end hardware. Windows 10, not so much. 

Do you know if they have a ms word version that runs on chrome os?

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, steelo said:

Do you know if they have a ms word version that runs on chrome os?

The web version of Office. But me myself, I use Google's software which is Free unlike MS Office. 

[steelo]

10 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

The web version of Office. But me myself, I use Google's software which is Free unlike MS Office. 

I can talk to her and see if she'd be willing to learn it. I've used open office and it's not at all bad either.

[Donut417]

Just now, steelo said:

I can talk to her and see if she'd be willing to learn it. I've used open office and it's not at all bad.

You cant install normal software like Open office on ChromeOS. Literally Chromebook do everything on the cloud. You either have to use the built in apps or web apps. 

 

My dad has a Chromebook, he's had it over 5 years. Hell its no longer supported by google at this point. He knows how to navigate it and use it. If he can learn it, any person can learn it. 

[steelo]

11 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

You cant install normal software like Open office on ChromeOS. Literally Chromebook do everything on the cloud. You either have to use the built in apps or web apps. 

 

My dad has a Chromebook, he's had it over 5 years. Hell its no longer supported by google at this point. He knows how to navigate it and use it. If he can learn it, any person can learn it. 

I can see what she says, they live out in the country and I believe they get like 10 mbps internet speeds, so it may not be the best option.

[paddy-stone]

15 hours ago, steelo said:

I believe she mentioned that her laptop is so outdated that windows won't even update anymore. I think it's a celeron m with 2gb of ram...

I seriously would try a light distro of linux on it, she has nothing to lose if it turns out it's not for her, as she would have thrown it out/recycled anyway right?

That way she can see if she can get by with using openoffice/libreoffice etc instead of word. Or use online word in the browser (she'll have to sign in using a MS account IIRC  https://office.live.com/start/Word.aspx

 

 

[steelo]

2 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

I seriously would try a light distro of linux on it, she has nothing to lose if it turns out it's not for her, as she would have thrown it out/recycled anyway right?

That way she can see if she can get by with using openoffice/libreoffice etc instead of word. Or use online word in the browser (she'll have to sign in using a MS account IIRC  https://office.live.com/start/Word.aspx

 

 

Thanks, I spoke with her last night and I think she's going with the laptop suggested earlier in the post in the Ryzen 5, 8GB variant. It's a bit more than the $300 one, but I feel it will age a lot better. I did not know this at the time, but the battery on her current laptop is shot (and it's almost 10 years old) so it's probably not even worth investing in. 

 

The reason why she loves the laptop I showed her is the rose gold color. Like I said, as long as it turns on and she can load up facebook in under 5 minutes, she's happy. LOL

[paddy-stone]

43 minutes ago, steelo said:

Thanks, I spoke with her last night and I think she's going with the laptop suggested earlier in the post in the Ryzen 5, 8GB variant. It's a bit more than the $300 one, but I feel it will age a lot better. I did not know this at the time, but the battery on her current laptop is shot (and it's almost 10 years old) so it's probably not even worth investing in. 

 

The reason why she loves the laptop I showed her is the rose gold color. Like I said, as long as it turns on and she can load up facebook in under 5 minutes, she's happy. LOL

Ahh, no worries, yeah that should be good to go for a long time for her usage case, basically barring the battery dying it should work for a long time.

 

My first laptop is now reaching 10 years old but still going strong as it has an i7 2700 4 core 8 thread in it... still works well in windows too. I don't actually like laptops, and use it much as I mostly  when I'm out from home and need computer access rather than phone. I dual boot it with a linux distro/windows, depending on what I need to do. Currently have ubuntu 20.04 IIRC in there... I also put a bd writer in there for the few occasions I need it nowadays, but at the time I used to use it loads. 10 years ago that was very good tech

My other laptop is absolute dog crap compared to the above, can't even remember what CPU it has, I only got it because one of my brothers didn't want it anymore, and was going to sell it for £40 - the SSD alone was worth more than that at the time, so I bought it off him instead. Just use that for very basic tasks, and for remoting into my servers when I need to as it boots up faster than the other laptop really... just use a lite linux build on there.

[Jaxmoto]

Just go to something like a used Lenovo Thinkpad.  Best keyboards in the industry.  Very reliable.  Sold in bulk on places like Ebay because businesses and schools use them, then when they upgrade they are sold off.

 

Something like a T450, T460, T480.  I have a T460 which has every imaginable connector on it (excluding Thunderbolt), about 7 hours of battery life, amazing keyboard to type on and by default were primarily sold with an SSD.  Easy enough to buy one on Ebay and get a Squaretrade warranty on it, but you would be in the vast minority if anything went wrong with one of them.

[steelo]

12 hours ago, Jaxmoto said:

Just go to something like a used Lenovo Thinkpad.  Best keyboards in the industry.  Very reliable.  Sold in bulk on places like Ebay because businesses and schools use them, then when they upgrade they are sold off.

 

Something like a T450, T460, T480.  I have a T460 which has every imaginable connector on it (excluding Thunderbolt), about 7 hours of battery life, amazing keyboard to type on and by default were primarily sold with an SSD.  Easy enough to buy one on Ebay and get a Squaretrade warranty on it, but you would be in the vast minority if anything went wrong with one of them.

Thanks, but I think she's found on. She really like the laptop mentioned earlier in the post and it should be more than enough for her needs.