Hardware & Technical Recommend Me A Laptop.... For My Mum

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Lol

It's her 71st birthday this weekend, and she's suprisingly tech savvy, but doesn't really like to use her Kindle fire for anything more than playing games. The Kindle doesn't really support a lot of the stuff she needs (without getting overly complex) so uses her PC for the rest.

She's got an android phone, which she does basic stuff on, and a really really really slow desktop PC (that's suprisingly not that old), that she spends more time moving around the house than actually using. (She likes to rearrange the furniture. Lol)
She doesn't really need a PC, we've recommended good tablets to completely replace her PC, because all she does on it, is Skype, and print off stuff. Lol
But, being 71 soon™ she's a bit stubborn and prefers a Windows environment.

So, to solve the issue of no home for her PC, and how slow it is...it literally takes 25-30 minutes to boot up, and can't do 1 thing at a time, despite my best efforts to fix it, and often just locks up from being overwhelmed... My girlfriend and I have decided to get her a laptop.

She's a bit skeptical of them, since her previous laptop (before the horrendous PC) was even worse. But things have changed.

Anyhoo, to the point, she needs a capable laptop, than can cope with basic life, and doesn't fall over if you so much as click the start button "too soon". Lol
But it also needs to be cheap.

I'm looking at this Lenovo, Ideapad 320s
Intel i3, 4Gb ram, full HD 14" screen, and 128gb SSD, for £329.

Seems good enough for her. SSD will ensure smooth operation, i3 isn't that slow. 4Gb of ram is plenty, and all her photos, videos, and junk combined only takes up about 5Gb of hdd space.. lol
But the 14" screen may prove to be to small.

But my challenge to you guys, is can you find better, for a similar price?
Ideally full HD 15.6" screen. Not fussed about intel Vs AMD, as long as it's not slow as hell. Lol I also don't mind if it's considerably cheaper, but doesn't have an SSD, because I can always put one in.

For reference, her current PC is some sort of celeron, single core. 2Gb ram, and a harddrive so slow, I'm not entirely sure if it's actually just a well disguised cassette from the 80s.
I could just give her PC a mini overhaul, for less, but it doesn't solve the problem of her moving it around constantly, trying to find a comfortable space for it.

Thanks!

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 
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Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
I'd generally rather look at bigger screens because old eyes don't get any better, so I'd rather check out 15 or even 17" offerings. For that reason, a backlit keyboard may be useful too, the current design fad where the inside of a laptop has a colour scheme only a New Zealand rugby team would be proud of is pure ****.

Look in the "business" category since those machines will usually be a little bit more rugged than the consumer peasant parts (better hinges on the monitor, better keyboards, etc.). Depending on what she's doing with the device, you may want to check out audio capabilities though, since speakers on business models are often optimised for voice.

And last, but definitely not least, don't buy anything with a TN display! Get a nice IPS screen that's viewable from a bit of an angle. I fell into that trap when getting a laptop for my mother, and the TN crap that HP are peddling for displays sucks harder than a black hole.

(I'm personally using a Dell Latitude E7440 and a 15" Latitude of which I forgot the exact model, and they're more than fine for everyday video consumption.)
 
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CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Thanks!

I'll look in to all that. :)

My dad actually brought me a Panasonic TV last Christmas with a flippin' TN display...!
It was horrible. The viewing angles were so poor, neither me or my girlfriend sat on either side of the sofa 10ft away had a good view of the screen. Lol
I felt bad, but I made my dad return it, because it was actually worse than our 7 year old TV!
TN= Shockingly Bad.
Not even sure why mid range stuff even uses it. Budget, yes, but mid range? Lol
 

starman

starman
[video=youtube;3S4BN9iP49A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=97&v=3S4BN9iP49A[/video]
 
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Hell Razor5543

H
I don't know if this helps, but when somebody asks me that sort of question I always reply "What do you need it to do?". If they are not sure I then make the following suggestion.

Make three lists of requirements. Make sure they are realistic. List 1 is "Must have". The laptop being checked must hit 100% of this list to be considered. List 2 is "Really useful". This is a 75% to get through list. List 3 is "Nice to have", and is 50%. Any laptop that gets through these filters is to be considered. The system being considered has to go through all three filter lists to be considered.

I am a member of another forum where a member wanted to buy a Chrome Laptop for his daughter (for university), but had no idea what she needed. I made this lists suggestion. They worked out her needs, and then visited PC World. Of all of the Chromebooks they had available only three made it through the filtering process (the sales rep said it was nice to meet customers so well prepared), and the machine they ended up with was not the most expensive, but has been heavily used and appreciated.
 
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starman

starman
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starman

starman
[video=youtube;8iHkLqHowcY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iHkLqHowcY[/video]

Necessity is the mother of all invention.
 
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