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Sub $400 laptop for Mother

M

markrb38

Senior member
My Mom's old laptop died. It was about 6 or 7 years old and she was fine with the performance. I am not sure of the CPU, but I can assure you it wasn't anything spectacular at the time she got it.
It will be used for web surfing, email, MS Word and not much else. If it wasn't for wanting a small system she wouldn't even need a laptop as it will be on a desk plugged in all the time.
Her one request is as large a screen as she can get. I would think a 15" should be fine for her.
I did see the thread with the Microcenter ad and it looked great, but I can't travel that far to pick it up. I don't see anything in the Staples, Best Buy or Office Depot ads right now.
If you could suggest something that would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark
 
If mail order is OK, this Acer at Newegg is only $350:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215345

Just about any Pentium or Core i3 processor laptop should be fine. Stay away from intel "Atom" processor notebooks they are too slow.

Look for intel, Pentium or i3 (NOT ATOM), 4 GB of RAM.

Some AMD models will be OK too, but you need to know what not to buy -- E-xxx and C-xxx processor models will be much slower than an intel.
 
That's very nice on paper. A dual-core 2 GHz Sandy Bridge Pentium will be fast enough for anything she wants to use it for including HD videos, and it has plenty of RAM and disk space.
 
Picked up the newer version of the linked one that was $329. Same specs as the older one and I liked the pad better on this one.
However I was just setting it up for her and I can't stand the screen. The glare is awful. It's like looking at a mirror and the white is way too bright. If I lower the brightness the other colors wash out. I am most likely going to bring it back and try to find something else. It is very fast compared to her old one. Too bad the screen sucks.

Mark
 
So I am returning that Asus laptop today and I am going to look at 4 possible choices at Best Buy. Really wish I had an Office Depot near me so I can see that Lenovo they have, but I don't. The ones I am looking at are:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...egories&ks=960

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...egories&ks=960

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...egories&ks=960

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...egories&ks=960

All, but 1 are 15.6" 2 are i3 and two are Pentium. Considering she had a 6 year old Celeron with 1gb ram I don't think the CPU on any will be an issue.

Any that stick out as especially good or bad for the money?

Thanks,
Mark
 
markrb38 said:
Really wish I had an Office Depot near me so I can see that Lenovo they have, but I don't.
Click to expand...
My local Walmart has five 15" laptops under $400 on display too (variations of AMD E2-series and Pentium chips).

DaveSimmons said:
Look for intel, Pentium or i3 (NOT ATOM), 4 GB of RAM.

Some AMD models will be OK too, but you need to know what not to buy -- E-xxx and C-xxx processor models will be much slower than an intel.
Click to expand...
I had an AMD C-50 laptop (which has around half the power of an AMD E-300/350/450), and I never had any problems with it for what I do... it was smooth for surfing around the net / old games / word documents / etc.

markrb38 said:
However I was just setting it up for her and I can't stand the screen. The glare is awful. It's like looking at a mirror and the white is way too bright. If I lower the brightness the other colors wash out. I am most likely going to bring it back and try to find something else. It is very fast compared to her old one. Too bad the screen sucks.
Click to expand...
I noticed this with some newer laptop screens as well. Some newer "glossy" screens seem to handle brightness differently (Energy technology?). I was able to get my Windows 7 laptop to display more like my Windows XP one by going into it's Display Tutorial and adjusting the Gamma Settings, though I think a laptop with a Matte display might work better than basic LCD/LED (still doesn't work great in direct sunlight though apparently.)
 
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ninaholic37 said:
I noticed this with some newer laptop screens as well. Some newer "glossy" screens seem to handle brightness differently (Energy technology?). I was able to get my Windows 7 laptop to display more like my Windows XP one by going into it's Display Tutorial and adjusting the Gamma Settings, though I think a laptop with a Matte display might work better than basic LCD/LED (still doesn't work great in direct sunlight though apparently.)
Click to expand...

I tried that on the Asus and it had limited success. It was better, but still not very good at all.

I will look at Walmart too. What I saw online wasn't encouraging, but we shall see.
 
you're not gonna find a particularly good display at that price range. sucks, i know, but thems the breaks.
 
markrb38 said:
I tried that on the Asus and it had limited success. It was better, but still not very good at all.
Click to expand...
Yup. The glossy/brightness doesn't bother me as much anymore, as I started using High Contrast Mode almost exclusively on my laptop since last June - with my brightness setting all the way down / darkest. Seems easier on the eyes, sort of reminds me of MS-DOS. There are rare occasions when I turn it off to see certain colours/images in Firefox, then I'll just turn it back on again.
 
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Picked up the 17" Toshiba and while it is glossy I find it worlds better then the Asus.
If she needs it less glossy they do make screen covers for this exact one for under $20.
I think we have a winner.
 
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