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In need of a laptop for parents -- suggestions?

S

Schfifty Five

Lifer
I've been out of the laptop loop for quite some time now. My last laptop purchase was back in early 2007. This xmas, I'm looking to get my parents a new laptop to use. The one they are using is an old dell xps 10.7" laptop from 2005! lol.

I'm looking for a decent budget laptop that can handle the typical things like email, light web surfing, powerpoint, and some youtube type videos/sites. I'd like to pay no more than $500. A 1366x768 resolution would be fine as well and probably would like to get a laptop with an intel chip. It doesn't have to be super lightweight either. They don't really move or carry it around anywhere.

Do you guys have any suggestions? I've got all the major retail stores near me as well as anything online. I'll be doing some research myself but thought I might ask here for some pointers/direction.

Thanks!
 
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I've bought laptops off of lenovo's barns and noble website and the outlet portal. If you sign up for lenovo's website you auto get like 10% off coupon.
 
i have the same question. my parents have the following laptop

Dell inspiron 15"
core 2 duo
2gb ram

Are the new celeron's faster?

best buy has this on black friday? will it be a step up for them?
Best Buy: Dell Inspiron 15.6" Laptop w/ Intel Celeron 1017U, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD ($179)
 
Budget laptops all won't be blazers in terms of performance, but cloning the retail drive to an SSD(check warranty terms) is the way to go if your parents can't stand slowness.

Do they like big screens or small screens?
Type of keyboard they prefer?
Glossy or matte screens?
Need HDMI out?
Sensitivity with regards to color output on the display?
Keyboard quality sensitivity?
Touchpad quality sensitivity?
Need optical drive?
Does their current laptop feel slow?
Proneness to downloading malware, viruses, etc?
 
joejoe666 said:
i have the same question. my parents have the following laptop

Dell inspiron 15"
core 2 duo
2gb ram

Are the new celeron's faster?

best buy has this on black friday? will it be a step up for them?
Best Buy: Dell Inspiron 15.6" Laptop w/ Intel Celeron 1017U, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD ($179)
Click to expand...
The RAM is a step up. Other aspects will be similar. Battery life will be better most likely. It will have Windows 8, so they better be ready.
 
I got a HP at best buy for 350.00 this week with an i3 and 4 gb of ram for my wife. It is fairly cheaply made,of course, but the hardware is plenty powerful and it runs cool.

It is not updated to win 8.1 though, and win 8 is a bear for someone not very tech saavy or without a lot of patience. I am able to help her, but it is extremely frustrating even to me. There are no words strong enough to describe how much my wife hates it. I honestly don't understand those who defend win 8. From a usability standpoint for the average non tech saavy user, it is an absolute disaster, and it didn't need to be.
 
OP, your parents Powerpoint? Otherwise I'd seriously consider the 14" HP Chromebook (the new 4GB colorful one, not the old 2GB in black). Nothing to install, debloat, etc.

Otherwise pretty much any machine should be fine as long as you swap out the HD for a SSD... and install something like Start 8.

joejoe666 said:
i have the same question. my parents have the following laptop

Dell inspiron 15"
core 2 duo
2gb ram

Are the new celeron's faster?
Click to expand...
Yes, but the keys are RAM and SSD. You might be better off just putting $200 towards those. Only issue is that 32-bit Windows will limit effective RAM.
 
s44 said:
OP, your parents Powerpoint? Otherwise I'd seriously consider the 14" HP Chromebook (the new 4GB colorful one, not the old 2GB in black). Nothing to install, debloat, etc.

Otherwise pretty much any machine should be fine as long as you swap out the HD for a SSD... and install something like Start 8.

Yes, but the keys are RAM and SSD. You might be better off just putting $200 towards those. Only issue is that 32-bit Windows will limit effective RAM.
Click to expand...

They use powerpoint (dad does some presentations now and then, and mom views powerpoints from other ppl from time to time). I'll look in to the HP chromebook, thanks.
 
As others have said, the single biggest thing you can do to make the computer seem "faster" is get an SSD. Get a cheap Celeron/Pentium/Trinity/Richland laptop and replace the HD with a SSD. You can even get a cheap external enclosure for the HD, so they have a USB drive to go with their computer.
 
joejoe666 said:
i have the same question. my parents have the following laptop

Dell inspiron 15"
core 2 duo
2gb ram

Are the new celeron's faster?

best buy has this on black friday? will it be a step up for them?
Best Buy: Dell Inspiron 15.6" Laptop w/ Intel Celeron 1017U, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD ($179)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what your parents use their laptop for but if you upgrade that to 4gb of ram it'll be a huge improvement. Maybe a small ssd. I have too many computers and I've given my mom an i5, she still uses the core 2 duo. For youtube, and ms office it's the same as the i5.
 
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holden j caufield said:
I'm not sure what your parents use their laptop for but if you upgrade that to 4gb of ram it'll be a huge improvement. Maybe a small ssd. I have too many computers and I've give my mom an i5, she still uses the core 2 duo. For youtube, and ms office it's the same as the i5.
Click to expand...

this is their conditions and requirements. Their laptop battery is dead, so instead of spending $90 on a battery, i figured i could just upgrade them.

Current config...
Dell inspiron 15" / core 2 duo / 2gb ram

Use 95% of the time....
- Browser for movies, news, emails
- ms office for opening and viewing files from emails
- pdfs

Use 5% of the time....
- other (i can't even think of anything else they do)
- They will start to use skype if i get a laptop with camera (but its not a priority)

So i was thinking these are my options...
Option 1
- install SSD on the current comp (not sure if possible to do) (~$150)
- new battery (~$90)
- Ram (~$50?? guessing here)

Option 2
- black friday Best Buy: Dell Inspiron 15.6" Laptop w/ Intel Celeron 1017U, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD ($179)

Option 3
- black friday Dell Home & Office: Dell Inspiron 15 Laptop w/ 3rd Gen Core i3, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD ($299)

Option 4
- black friday Microsoft Store: Dell Inspiron 15z Touchscreen Laptop w/ Core i5 3337U, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD + 32GB SSD ($399)

Option 5
- newegg: Lenovo IdeaPad U510 - Intel Core i5 6GB RAM 1TB HDD+24GB SSD 15.6" Ultrabook Windows 8 (59359624) ($449)


to upgrade their existing laptop will take min $150...so i am leaning towards MS store Dell 15z for $399.
 
It sounds like your parents don't really need a fast laptop.

I'd skip the crowds at Best Buy and order that Dell Inspiron 15 from Dell directly on Black Friday for $200. Even that system will run rings around their existing Core 2 Duo system.
 
Most laptops only come with MS Office trial. So, be ready to install LibreOffice or procure a MS Office license somewhere if you find out there is only a trial version.
 
Torn Mind said:
Most laptops only come with MS Office trial. So, be ready to install LibreOffice or procure a MS Office license somewhere if you find out there is only a trial version.
Click to expand...
For his parents' needs - dealing with Office attachments - they don't even need an actual program. Google Drive is fine.
 
So I know this is a random google thread necro, but figured I'd chime in.

Just grabbed my dad a used Thinkpad T410 for $250 on ebay.

core i5 520m
4GB memory
250GB HDD
1440x900 screen
& the rest of the usual thinkpad stuff

Got it, installed windows, thing was dogging like crazy...find out it has a bad hard drive. Emailed the seller, they gave me $40 credit for a drive, grabbed a 120GB 840 EVO from amazon, threw that in there....the thing is a beast now for basically $290. My dad grabbed a few docking stations (since he brings it everywhere including our family business) on ebay for like $30 each and $20 for power adapters, and away he goes!
 
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