Need a laptop for my step mom. Hard to narrow down where I can find what she wants.

Tennis987

Estimable
Sep 9, 2015
4
0
4,510
She has some old HP laptop that she bought new a couple years ago but the USB ports are dead and i cleaned everything yet it is still slow. She then said she wanted a new laptop. Her wants are:

Budget is $500 or under.

Two or three USB ports

Built in camera (she uses Skype a lot)

Touch screen (i asked her if she REALLY needed it, said yes)

500 GB or more of storage

Windows 10

Needs an optical drive

In the US

She mostly watches shows or movies on it, Skype's, uses Word, and browses on the web with multiple tabs open (because what adult over 50 closes tabs). No gaming at all or video/photo editing. She will not travel with it but obviously the lighter the better. I mostly know about gaming PC's so I'm clueless what you need for laptops and processors for productivity. Would a dual core processor be enough for her needs or is it better to go for a quad core? Is speed more important or # of cores? Pentium or an i3? Maybe an i5? Basically what should i look out for when buying her laptop? Last question; Is there a certain brand that is more reliable?(Dell, HP, Acer)

 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
Within a certain price range, performance is all about the same.

One thing you neglected to tell us...where are you?
US?

Dell Outlet, BestBuy, Amazon, Newegg...look for something between $400-$475.
For the stated use case, anything will work.
Look for something with the features you want.

Oh, and be careful about your "because what adult over 50 closes tabs"....;)
Don't assume anyone 'over 50' is computer clueless.
 

Tennis987

Estimable
Sep 9, 2015
4
0
4,510


I was just joking.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


Yes, I know.
But you'd be surprised at the number of comments we see here like that...:kaola:

Anyway...find something with the featureset you're looking for.
Within that priceband, performance is pretty similar.