Laptop for Grandma

[gommer]

My favorite person in the world wants me to pick out a laptop for her. I thought this was a pretty good buy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16834147935

What do you guys think?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Do yourself a favor and get an Intel based machine that isn't refurbed, get an extended warranty on it and show her the phone number to call for help.

 

[corkyg]

Agree with Jeffrey. I would also suggest taking her down to Best Buy or something similar, and let her touch and feel. You can often get in store deals as good as that, and that puts her into a relationship with something local.

 

[IlllI]

i third that suggestion. i'll never forget the day i spent EIGHT HOURS trying to help teach my aunt basic, simple stuff with her computer. needless to say i vowed never to do that again.

 

[corkyg]

I would just like to add this . . . if your grandmother lives in a city that has a SeniorNet Learning Center, she would be well advised to check it out. Here in Tucson, we have three.

I am a volunteer instructor, and starting next week, I will be teaching a 15 hour course - "Introduction to Computers - Basic Vista." We have a nice facility with 9 workstations and the instructor's machine is real time displayed on a large screen with a projector.

I have been doing this work for over 15 years now, and there are many courses that we offer.

SN

Here is a national list:

List

So, if that is convenient for granny - that would be a plus for her.

 

[wwswimming]

i think it depends a lot on her vision.

it might be a choice between seeing the laptop monitor with .20 mm pixels - and
wearing glasses to see it - and hooking up an external monitor, with bigger pixels.

e.g. a 21" 1600 x 1200, then using 800 x 600 resolution. i used this resolution
on a 21", as a primary monitor (not running off a laptop). huge slamming big
pixels, easy to see, big enough for email (actually, big enough for 3D Studio Max.)

she might also like an external keyboard and an external mouse, so it would be
good if the laptop had at least 3 USB ports.