Lenovo/IBM Ideapad S12 for a girl?

[nicki84]

My not so bright ex-girlfriend... When it comes to electronics... Needs a new laptop.
But she doesn't want to pay very much for it. And size wise, something like 12-15" is fine.

I thought about the Ideapad, but I have no exsperience with the Atom processor.
For word, random web browsing and maybe a movie, would it be fine for that kind of use?
And quality?

The one I was thinking about has these specs. I would most likely add one extra GB or memory.
Intel Atom Processor 1,6 GHz (N270)
1024 MB
5400RPM, 160 GB
12,1" TFT (1280x800) VibrantView LED m/Webcam
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
10/100 lan + Wireless (b,g)
3 x USB, 1 x VGA
Windows XP Home
http/www.pc.ibm.com/europe/ideapad/sseries.html?europe&cc=europe

 

[staggadee]

first off... ex-girlfriend?
But yeah atoms based machines are fine for basic office use, web browsing and occasional media use.
They do struggle when multitasking though and you have no chance if your attempting hidef playback

Generally i think she'd love it, theyre nice and portable but i wouldnt recommend one as a main computer

Hope This helps
Stagga

 

[nicki84]

Yes ex-girlfriend 😉
Basically, teaching her anything about computers is like trying to teach a fish how to use a hammer... All you get is a very "blank" look and maybe some mouth bobbing.
So I feel obligated to helping her out, so she doesn't buy something crappy.

I have never seen her holding a CD/DVD of any kind, so the external drive will most likely not be necessary.

But I will take a look at the MSI Wind

 

[deadlockedworld]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but want to make the counter argument:

Depending on how much you want to spend.. many low end core 2 duo systems are available for not a lot more than that. (around $500 US) They would be significantly more powerful for multitasking, video, itunes, etc, but would not have as good of battery life.

Netbooks are nice for internet browsing-but if she doesnt have another computer to use it will limit what she can do in terms of managing collections of photos, large powerpoints or large word docs, music, full screen video etc. Netbooks are also more likely to fail because of the cheap parts.