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Laptop for mom......

redgtxdi

redgtxdi

Diamond Member
OK, so here's one where I'm almost at a loss. I almost want to get her one of those bazillion dollar, military-grade, tank-books....LOL. My mom's had 2 laptops either fail or easily break on her in the last 2 years. I'd like to get her one that's maybe a little tougher than the latest $299 lappy.

I haven't bought a laptop in a while and I know that one brand may suck one year & redeem themselves the next. FWIW, I'm not a fan of HP but I'm open to suggestions.

It's mom so you can imagine.........web & e-mail. Not much else, but can't be a netbook.

Suggestions?

TIA!!!
 
redgtxdi said:
OK, so here's one where I'm almost at a loss. I almost want to get her one of those bazillion dollar, military-grade, tank-books....LOL. My mom's had 2 laptops either fail or easily break on her in the last 2 years. I'd like to get her one that's maybe a little tougher than the latest $299 lappy.

I haven't bought a laptop in a while and I know that one brand may suck one year & redeem themselves the next. FWIW, I'm not a fan of HP but I'm open to suggestions.

It's mom so you can imagine.........web & e-mail. Not much else, but can't be a netbook.

Suggestions?


TIA!!!
Click to expand...

An ultra-portable is the best choice, IMO. Get her a Lenovo ThinkPad X120e. It has a decently fast 320GB 7200RPM HDD, 4GB of RAM, an AMD E-350 dual-core, a Radeon HD 6310, 11.6" matte screen at 1366x768, Bluetooth, a battery that lasts around 6:30 hours of web browsing and productivity, a very understated design, and a durable chassis. Lenovo is rated one of the best when it comes to customer service and reliability, too. It can handle YouTube (Flash) and other types of video at 1080p (if you output at external monitor), if she's interested in that. This one goes for only $485, so it's definitely good bang-for-buck.

I convinced my mom to buy one. She's been using it for four months, and she loves it.
 
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I always did love Thinkpads. I had an A22 and a T23 for a while. If Lenovo's still got a good rep after the takeover, I'd definitely consider.

As for ultra-portable I think it's probably a good idea except my mom needs at least 14" and 15" is probably more what the doctor ordered.
 
redgtxdi said:
I always did love Thinkpads. I had an A22 and a T23 for a while. If Lenovo's still got a good rep after the takeover, I'd definitely consider.

As for ultra-portable I think it's probably a good idea except my mom needs at least 14" and 15" is probably more what the doctor ordered.
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Oh, I see. What's your price range?

There's many options for 14"-15" chassis laptops, so it would definitely help to know.
 
I'd like to keep it closer to $300 but willing to go $400 or if there's something reeeeeeeally special about it, even $500.
 
They're not as durable as the other Thinkpads, but Office Depot has a sell on the Thinkpad Edge E420 (14in, i5 cpu, 4gb) for $450. I have an older one w/ and Phenom p520; I've dropped it, carried it in book bag with other heavy books, and its holding up just fine.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
 
redgtxdi said:
I'd like to keep it closer to $300 but willing to go $400 or if there's something reeeeeeeally special about it, even $500.
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I think $400 is the sweet spot on your price range given what your mom needs. The best two I could find at that price are the Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 and the Lenovo G560. Both have their advantages, but I think the G650 is the best choice. While the Core i3 380M in the Z560 will be faster than the Pentium P6200 due to the higher clock speeds and HyperThreading, the P6200 is already 2x faster than the AMD E-350 and that's a CPU the average consumer would consider fast enough. Aside from that, the differences lie mostly in things like build quality where the G560 is better, the battery life which should be higher on the G560 (4 hours vs 3:30 hours or so), and the fact it has more reviews. Both have 4GB of RAM, both will be able to play HD video at 1080p, both have 320GB HDDs, and both will be able to handle multitasking well.

I thing the only real difference that your mom is gonna notice is the higher battery life (to that I want to add that while both have the same batteries but since the Pentium has lower power consumption it'll be better) and the better build quality of the G560.
 
Thinkpads and Ideapads are amazing
my dad works at IBM and has one of the new Laptops that has i7SB which retails for about 2000Dollars. 😀
 
You're not going to get anything really "tough" for $400. The two Ideapads that Axel recommended look decent though.
 
Thanks Axel. I'm hoping to find one at one of a couple of Office Depots that have "limited availability". If not, I might break down & still get an HP. Though I'm not thrilled that 2 HP DV2000's in our family broke quite easily recently, I will say that it might be good for the fact that she would have a (possibly compatible) extra charger, maybe extra drive, etc. (or not)

But I'll check out the Lenovos first.
 
redgtxdi said:
Thanks Axel. I'm hoping to find one at one of a couple of Office Depots that have "limited availability". If not, I might break down & still get an HP. Though I'm not thrilled that 2 HP DV2000's in our family broke quite easily recently, I will say that it might be good for the fact that she would have a (possibly compatible) extra charger, maybe extra drive, etc. (or not)

But I'll check out the Lenovos first.
Click to expand...

I'll be completely honest: at this price range about the only decent options are Lenovo and ASUS, and perhaps an HP ProBook. Most of the 15" chassis HPs under $500 are crap when it comes to reliability. I know my experience isn't based on a large enough sample size, but last year I repaired more than 20 HP laptops, all of them G Series. Most of them had dead motherboards, and the funny thing is it always happened 10 months to a year-and-a-half into their life. Next ones into the list were six Acers. 15" HPs are decent once you get into the over $500 price range models like the DV series. Be wary of their G series laptops. All of their consumer level laptops have lousy track pads and keyboards, too, so that's something to think about.
 
i think lenovos have the best touchpads and buttons. i was looking for a cheap laptop recently and most of the hp's had those crummy unibuttons or padbuttons
 
Stretch for an Air? (or 13" MBP)

One thing Apple does oh so well is to flatter the egos of the technologically ignorant with the way they design and approach their products. They also tend to address the wants of people who don't know what they're buying in terms of the average layman's default assumptions.

Durability wise, no Crapbook could be considered durable. But since e.g. blemishes are very visible, what happens in terms of the psychology of the typical user is that they automatically start using the Mac like a glass slipper - it's the single biggest thing I admire Apple for: the sheer amount of thought put into manipulating the user of the product into behaving as they want them to through the way the product is designed and in their choice of materials.

Lenovo, etc approach it from the other way around, that the machine is built for a degree of abuse because the the savvy user expects it. Apple subtly punishes you for abusing the product without the average user realising it.

And believe me, it works. It largely stops the technologically unaware (or just generally dumb) user from unintentionally abusing their machines, because the vector of abuse is in line with their normal expectations and assumptions. The less capable the user, the longer an Apple will last in their possession in comparison to whatever else they might have gotten.

And although in terms of core hardware reliability Apples are significantly lower than e.g. your similarly priced Thinkpad, the service you get out of a typical Apple Store is something that a typical mom can deal with, and moreover feel welcomed instead of alienated. Sign her up for One To One sessions on purchase and she might end up getting more out of the computer than you might have been able to get her to.

And designwise, a Thinkpad won't delight the mom. An Air will.
 
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Blue Shift said:
What? I think thinkpads are the raw incarnation of beautiful efficiency. Emphasis on the "beautiful." Then again, I've also contemplated gluing random chunks of beige computer cases onto mine.
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Oh no!!!! LOL

OK, I'll definitely make Lenovo the priority!
 
Blue Shift said:
What? I think thinkpads are the raw incarnation of beautiful efficiency. Emphasis on the "beautiful." Then again, I've also contemplated gluing random chunks of beige computer cases onto mine.
Click to expand...

I'm typing this from an X201T and I agree with dpodblood 😛
 
mfenn said:
Unfortunately the OP's budget precludes a Thinkpad unless he wants to buy used.
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And I honestly would consider it if my mother was closer, but she's not, so I couldn't "fix" her laptop if something happened. Plus it's her birthday so I figure go new.

Saw a G570 today. Looks like I can get the G560 or G570 for the same price. G570 looks a little more outfitted but anything else to consider? (I'm not up on chipsets these days)

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...ptop-Computer/

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...ptop-Computer/
 
The P6100 is Arrandale whereas the B940 is Sandy Bridge. Sandy Bridge is newer and faster, so you should go with that.
 
redgtxdi said:
And I honestly would consider it if my mother was closer, but she's not, so I couldn't "fix" her laptop if something happened. Plus it's her birthday so I figure go new.

Saw a G570 today. Looks like I can get the G560 or G570 for the same price. G570 looks a little more outfitted but anything else to consider? (I'm not up on chipsets these days)

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...ptop-Computer/

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...ptop-Computer/
Click to expand...

Like mfenn said, go for the G570. Sandy Bridge has around 15% higher performance at the same clock speed than Nehalem and also consumes less power, so it's a lot more power efficient. Battery life should be higher than the G560. Another thing I noticed is that it has a 500GB HDD instead of 320GB, so she could store tons of media there. The G570 has the same chassis and all, so build quality is the same. It's also $20 cheaper.

Jump on the G570 before the deal ends.
 
Hope she doesnt break this one. but atleast youll be able to salvage some parts, like the HDD and sell it or something to get ur money back
 
OK, so picked up the G570......however. I wasn't aware of Office Depot's policy on laptops.

14 day return only if unopened

14 day exhchange if opened

So basically mom likes it or she gets a $400 credit & either hopes she likes something else or buys $400 worth of paperclips over the next 200 years of her life.(sigh)

So I've got the G570 in the closet to make sure I nabbed one but may have to check out Costco tomorrow to see if they've got anything there I like as I'm just not thrilled with that O.D. policy. (Obviously Costco's is much better)
 
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redgtxdi said:
OK, so picked up the G570......however. I wasn't aware of Office Depot's policy on laptops.

14 day return only if unopened

14 day exhchange if opened

So basically mom likes it or she gets a $400 credit & either hopes she likes something else or buys $400 worth of paperclips over the next 200 years of her life.(sigh)

So I've got the G570 in the closet to make sure I nabbed one but may have to check out Costco tomorrow to see if they've got anything there I like as I'm just not thrilled with that O.D. policy. (Obviously Costco's is much better)
Click to expand...

That's true on paper, though I'm really doubtful you're gonna find something better for $400.
 
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