Laptop advice, please

[Mickey O'neil]

I'm looking to get my daughter a laptop for Christmas in the $250-$300 price range. What's my best option/s oh great tech savvy gurus? She'll be using it fir school work, surfing and streaming movies and other things like that.

TIA,

Mickey

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

How old is she?

[ccrow]

You can't go too far wrong with the consumer products but I'd recommend a Toshiba, I've been recommending them for years at the most mechanically durable of the consumer brands, and still do. They used to be a little clunky looking but the new ones look decent. If she would prefer something a little prettier, the Samsung Chromebooks are great, impossible to beat for $250. I love them. But they're not quite a full computer, do a little homework to make sure it's enough for what she wants to do.

Either way, I'd buy it at Walmart, especially for a kid, because they are selling an extended warranty that covers drops, spills, and surges dirt cheap (like $30 for two years). For years I told everyone to never buy an extended warranty except from the manufacturer, but for home use, this is one exception. You should be able to find a Toshiba at Walmart for under $350.

[Turdacious]

A little more than you were looking to spend but:
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/asus-tr ... 27544.html

I'm thinking about one for myself. Cramped keyboard shouldn't bother your daughter.

[Mickey O'neil]

ccrow, she is 14 y.o.

Appreciate the advice. I was looking at the Chromebooks but wasn't sure about them.

Turd, that is a little out of my price range but I'll take a closer look at it.

[Mickey O'neil]

How about this? It has a CD/DVD player/burner which she needs and already has Windows Office loaded. I had to look at refurbished laptops to find one that had a cd/dvd that wasn't extra.

http://secondipity.shop.rakuten.com/p/g ... 61220.html

[Dunn]

I use my chromebook for college courses a good deal. Not to mention for pure media consumption. The whole idea of needing wifi for a lot of it took some getting used to but in reality we are fairly well connected most of the time and you can always use jump drives and the like for storage offline. Great product.

[milosz]

Chromebooks are great because of their limitations - controlled 'app' spectrum (which is really just the Chrome browser with plug-ins) limits virus potential, I don't think the cheaper ones have webcams built in so no fear of naughty webcamming, built-in document/spreadsheet apps for school.
OTOH, Google's version of Word isn't perfectly compatible with MS Word.

I got one for each of my stores to use for social media because they're all but impossible for those chimpanzees to fuck up.

I'd be nervous about the Rakuten one you posted - if it 'comes with' Office, I'd assume piracy and while I don't care about that in and of itself, you're probably up shit creek if something goes wrong.

[ccrow]

The refurb has Windows but not Office, there would be something fishy at that price with anything but the trial version.

[Dunn]

I say fuck microsoft office. Open Office works great on my desktop. To be honest, I haven't had any issues with google docs either since it allows me to save it as .docx, .doc, or .odt.

[Mickey O'neil]

The refurb has Windows but not Office, there would be something fishy at that price with anything but the trial version.

I must've read it wrong. Makes sense though. Seems that I need to look a little more closely at the Chromebooks.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

I say fuck microsoft office. Open Office works great on my desktop. To be honest, I haven't had any issues with google docs either since it allows me to save it as .docx, .doc, or .odt.

Does open office have a spreadsheet program that doesn't suck dicks like google sheets or whatever it's called?

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Also remember that you'll be shelling out for a nice computer when she goes to college in a few years.

[Mickey O'neil]

Forgot that she needs a laptop that has dvd/cd player. And after reading these reviews I don't think it would be good for her anyway. She streams a lot through Netflix and does a lot of stuff with her ipod and droid phone with the laptop.

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/samsung-chr ... 00150.html

Looks like I may go with the one that I linked but am still going to look at some more from Walmart like was suggested and the Toshiba brand.

[j-cubed]

Staples has this Toshiba for $250 - Cyber Monday deal - AMD instead of Intel CPU, but otherwise, should be fine for several years.

http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-C55D-A53 ... =home_box1
http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-C55D-A53 ... =home_box1

[j-cubed]

Although, if you don't need the portability of the laptop you could go with something like this

Bigger screen and higher resolution (still not full HD but better)

http://www.staples.com/Gateway-One-ZX42 ... =home_box1
http://www.staples.com/Gateway-One-ZX42 ... =home_box1

[Mickey O'neil]

Staples has this Toshiba for $250 - Cyber Monday deal - AMD instead of Intel CPU, but otherwise, should be fine for several years.

http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-C55D-A53 ... =home_box1
http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-C55D-A53 ... =home_box1

Explain the drawback of the AMD processor? This looks good btw. I would seriously look at getting this if the AMD processor isn't a huge issue.

Ooops, currently out of stock. Damn.

[j-cubed]

I've used AMD processors in various computers through the years. Never had a compatibility problem. There were times the AMD chips were faster than the current Intel chips but currently, the Intel chips are faster than AMD, and usually draw less power from better miniaturization of the manufacturing process. The less power only is a big deal in laptops when considering running on the battery, but they are still good. My wife's Toshiba laptop with AMD chip is now over 3 years old and she still uses it daily, and has good battery life.

If the speed is good enough, and what you want is something speedy enough to decode a video stream so that it replays smoothly, then you should be fine. Office apps would not be any issue at all, unless you daughter gets into making really large Excel pivot tables. If you wanted to play high end 3D video games, this combination would probably not suffice, but then nothing in that price range would, those hard core gamers spend that much or more just on their video cards.

[Mickey O'neil]

I've used AMD processors in various computers through the years. Never had a compatibility problem. There were times the AMD chips were faster than the current Intel chips but currently, the Intel chips are faster than AMD, and usually draw less power from better miniaturization of the manufacturing process. The less power only is a big deal in laptops when considering running on the battery, but they are still good. My wife's Toshiba laptop with AMD chip is now over 3 years old and she still uses it daily, and has good battery life.

If the speed is good enough, and what you want is something speedy enough to decode a video stream so that it replays smoothly, then you should be fine. Office apps would not be any issue at all, unless you daughter gets into making really large Excel pivot tables. If you wanted to play high end 3D video games, this combination would probably not suffice, but then nothing in that price range would, those hard core gamers spend that much or more just on their video cards.

It sounds like it should work just fine. Thanks!

[ccrow]

I say fuck microsoft office. Open Office works great on my desktop. To be honest, I haven't had any issues with google docs either since it allows me to save it as .docx, .doc, or .odt.

Does open office have a spreadsheet program that doesn't suck dicks like google sheets or whatever it's called?

prob

Haha, the spreadsheet in openoffice / libreoffice is more powerful than Google Drive's but definitely not 100% formula compatible with excel, if you open ssheets made in excel with anything much past SUM formulas, they probably won't work. Once in a while I find something that openoffice does better than excel, importing weird stuff, etc.

For kids in school, I'd say Google Drive is the best bet. Since it's cloud based there is less chance of the-computer-ate-my-homework drama - no need to back up, etc., and they can get to their stuff from a friend's house, school computer lab, etc. I'd have to admit though that for now at least, MS office experience is an important check mark on a lot of entry level jobs.

[j-cubed]

some other cyber monday deals

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... puter.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/9 ... puter.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... puter.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/9 ... ebook.html

[Mickey O'neil]

Still trying to decide. I want to stick to around $250 so I am leaning towards the Gateway in the link I posted. Still looking though.

[buckethead]

My 14 yr old son got a chromebook for his birthday a couple months ago. Works great, sturdy. Well worth the price and better than a cheap ass full-windows laptop.

[tonkadtx]

I don't usually recommend a brand. I usually tell people to look in their price range and find a minimum set of specs and work up from there.

If you can wait until after Christmas (I know it's for Christmas) all the major places - Newegg, Tigerdirect, etc. will all have sales.

I would look for 2.0 Ghz Processor. 300 GB HDD, and 4GB of RAM with a 15 inch display. All of this may not be possible in a sub $300 laptop. I have seen a few that have a 1.5 processor with 320 HDD and 15, or 2.0 GHZ with 250 and 11 inch display.

I never compromise on the processor, but I am doing heavy duty IT work (data base tabulation, multitasking, etc). For movies display may be more important, etc. Compromise on Hard drive space first, you should not be storing your files on your internal hard drive anyway.

All the major names are making good cheap machines nowadays - Acer, Asus (I have one), Lenovo, Dell, HP (HP tends to charge more for the same specs but their machines are bulletproof). Do not buy a Gateway.

You might also think about a Laplet/TabBook. They are making some that have full laptop capabilities now. That might be a bit out of your range right now.

Windows 8 was shit. I really like 8.1, especially with Classic shell installed.

A Chromebook using open office is a fine solution for a non-power user however the prices spec'd out are the same as a full Win 8 machine.

[Mickey O'neil]

Bux, I like the Chromebook but she needs a dvd/cd and the Chromebooks don't come with one.

tonkadtx, I read over your recommendations and given my price range and my daughter's needs I think I am going to go with one of j-cubed's suggestions.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/9 ... puter.html

It is in my price range and has a dvd/cd. I was worried about it only having 2GB but after some quick research I don't think it is a big issue. Once again, she will be using it for school, streaming Netflix and playing music.

Any reservations?