Posting this for a friend. She asks:
What's the best laptop value for one with wireless, usbs, word processing, decent sized screen - the basics - for a good price? Frankly I'm just looking to replace my mom's 5 year old suuuper slow and annoying Dell Inspiron with something a bit more up to date and faster (got it to go faster after a virus scan, etc. but it's just older now). She uses it daily to surf, word process, view photos, etc. but I don't want to drop a chunk of change if I don't need to is all.
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What is the best basic laptop for a mom?
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Although I do not use the Mac brand of computers in my day-to-day, I'd recommend just getting a MacBook Air and be done with it. Bonus: if she has problems she can go to the Mac geniuses and not to you every time she needs anything.
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installing something like Ubuntu studio on the old dell wiill considerably speed things up and its free cost:$0
Your only investment would be in teaching your mom how to use Linux (not as hard as it used to be)
Buying a tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Toshiba Thrive would be a good choice especially the Toshiba with all its ports Cost $399 and up
A net book I wont even consider as they are too small and dont come with CD/dvd drives however a decent Toshiba or Acer laptop can be had from Newegg or tigerdirect.com for $399 to $999 and up
Your only investment would be in teaching your mom how to use Linux (not as hard as it used to be)
Buying a tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Toshiba Thrive would be a good choice especially the Toshiba with all its ports Cost $399 and up
A net book I wont even consider as they are too small and dont come with CD/dvd drives however a decent Toshiba or Acer laptop can be had from Newegg or tigerdirect.com for $399 to $999 and up
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It really depends on what your mom is looking for and how much she actually wants to pay for a computer. If you're looking for something cheap and light, I'd recommend looking at the refurb 11" MacBook Air. It's a nice discount off the latest model, priced at $750 on Apple.com and you get the standard 1 year Apple warranty.
store.apple.com/us/product/FC505LL/A?mco=MjA2NTk3N...
store.apple.com/us/product/FC505LL/A?mco=MjA2NTk3N...
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It's probably the cheapest thing to try and re install windows first. Then give her only user right and she should have another few years of fun. Also consider installing Windows 7 for some speed increase.
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if you want a portable cheap and quality laptop I would go with the Acer Timeline X. My friend has it and she loves how easy it is to take around. It's also not $1k like some others.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ETOBOO/ref=pd_lpo_k2...
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ETOBOO/ref=pd_lpo_k2...
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I replaced my 8 year old laptop (256 Mb RAM, pentium III) with Ubuntu 10.x and it is 50% faster than the re-intalled XP OS (basic with no software added).
I have not installed SpyBot type software which normally slows thing down (because of scanning and checking) but it has AVG (for Linux).
I have not installed SpyBot type software which normally slows thing down (because of scanning and checking) but it has AVG (for Linux).
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I'd look into a few different computers with the AMD Fusion (or newer) processors; they seem to deliver the best value in the low end laptop realm. Make sure that you take her over to a big box retailer to see the different screen sizes (my folks couldn't use anything less than a 15" screen).
It might be worth it to consider the Ubuntu update to the old laptop and then also purchasing a tablet. Because of the ease of zooming and scaling text on tablets, the smaller screen is ironically easier to read on.
It might be worth it to consider the Ubuntu update to the old laptop and then also purchasing a tablet. Because of the ease of zooming and scaling text on tablets, the smaller screen is ironically easier to read on.
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I'd consider an 11" or 13" MacBook Air.
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