Need help advising teen PURCHASE laptop

[king of rock]

My daughter 15.5 yrs old wants to buy her OWN laptop. Obviously price is primary concern.

She is not going to be gaming, but may edit some video, edit/mix some music, communicate w/social media, and STREAM a lot of media. I understand that router is a key to adequate streaming wireless, but I imagine processor and ram would be factors as well.

She will hopefully get 4-5 years out of this device, and perfect world 7 years through college. (She is relatively conscientious) Expansion capacity a bonus

What recommendation do YOU have for specs I should be looking for, and maybe brands to seek or avoid too.

I think in this case a used laptop may be a bad idea for longevity sake, but I'm open to the concept.

Thanks so much for your input!

 

[Joeteoh99]

Firstly please provide a budget and I'll do my best to find a laptop. That will be useful for everybody who would help you.

 

[volcanoscout]

Budget? Also, will she need an internal optical drive for CD/DVD/BluRay? If she's not going to need to use CD/DVD very often or when away from a desk, she could get a slim and light unit w/out optical drive and get a cheap external to connect when she does need one.

 

[king of rock]

a) budget $500 (but if possible less on sale, no?!)

b) says she can live without disk drive (but I would prefer she have one for convenience / legacy media, etc) If it is a deal breaker, lose it I guess

Thanks

 

[Joeteoh99]

a) budget $500 (but if possible less on sale, no?!)

b) says she can live without disk drive (but I would prefer she have one for convenience / legacy media, etc) If it is a deal breaker, lose it I guess

Thanks

Try this and tell me your thoughts. It is the best I can find.
http/www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2d89nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Licorice/dp/B00HKF1I6S/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-2

 

[king of rock]

"Try this and tell me your thoughts. It is the best I can find.
http/www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2d89nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop-L..."

Joe,

that looks great. Hard drive is appropriate size, processor good. Probably suggest she spend a little and double her ram to 8gb. (I HATE Windows 8 from mucking around my other daughter's laptop. Will have to research advantages vs. disadvantages to Win 8 vs Win 7. Surely a ton of opinion elsewhere on Toms.) For kicks, curious what criteria led you to that specific computer? Under $500 obviously, but anything else? What recommendation do YOU have for specs I should be looking for, and maybe brands to seek or avoid too (if you have the time later).

appreciate your selection...

thanks!

 

[Guest]

"Try this and tell me your thoughts. It is the best I can find.
http/www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2d89nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop-L..."

Joe,

that looks great. Hard drive is appropriate size, processor good. Probably suggest she spend a little and double her ram to 8gb. (I HATE Windows 8 from mucking around my other daughter's laptop. Will have to research advantages vs. disadvantages to Win 8 vs Win 7. Surely a ton of opinion elsewhere on Toms.) For kicks, curious what criteria led you to that specific computer? Under $500 obviously, but anything else? What recommendation do YOU have for specs I should be looking for, and maybe brands to seek or avoid too (if you have the time later).

appreciate your selection...

thanks!

At a low requeriments there aren't really brands you should avoid, pretty much all known brands will do the job well. Pretty much everything will perform as expected.

try
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317203
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834257670
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314539
too

 

[king of rock]

what about this?

http/www.amazon.com/Acer-E1-572-6870-Processor-Windows-Clarinet/dp/B00DDFESKC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1409587524&sr=1-1&keywords=Acer+Aspire+E1-572-6870

 

[Joeteoh99]

what about this?

http/www.amazon.com/Acer-E1-572-6870-Processor-Windows-Clarinet/dp/B00DDFESKC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1409587524&sr=1-1&keywords=Acer+Aspire+E1-572-6870

Yes that's a great everyday laptop, any if you could add another 4GB RAM maybe about $40-$50 then you get an 8GB RAM.

And as you were asking what MAIN specs to look for:
CPU: at least 1.6GHz Base Clock
RAM: 8GB
Graphics card: *may go over budget
HDD/SSD: 500GB

Personally I would stay away from Acer and go with Asus, Lenovo, HP for casual or everyday laptops. But Acer is still great if you are on a budget.

 

[king of rock]

what about this?

http/www.amazon.com/Acer-E1-572-6870-Processor-Windows-Clarinet/dp/B00DDFESKC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1409587524&sr=1-1&keywords=Acer+Aspire+E1-572-6870

Personally I would stay away from Acer

Why would you stay away from Acer? I would like to know.

The HP 2000 looked good, but folks were complaining about the keys on kb and the touch pad.

This HP looked pretty good spec wise! (and for $400 clams...) http/www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/G1C89AV?HP-Pavilion-15z-Laptop

This Lenovo looked good for the price as well: http/www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-g50-15-6-laptop-amd-a6-series-4gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/7046195.p?id=1219248584104&skuId=7046195&sellerId=

 

[Joeteoh99]

This is mainly experiences. I have used many Acer laptops both at home at outside. The problem may be different from others. But mainly it is due to the facts that screens are really fragile. Don't take this the wrong way and think that laptops screens are as hard as rock.

Acer's sound isn't that good.

 

[king of rock]

Any feelings / comments / insight on these specs, etc:

1) http/www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/G1C89AV?HP-Pavilion-15z-Laptop

2) http/www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-g50-15-6-laptop-amd-a6-series-4gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/7046195.p?id=1219248584104&skuId=7046195&sellerId=

3) http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317203

4) http/www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2d89nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Licorice/dp/B00HKF1I6S/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-2

5) http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834257670

 

[Joeteoh99]

Good research there mate.

I have my eye on two laptops that are the best performance. The HP 2000 and the HP Pavilion 15z.

As you mentioned your daughter will be using it I guess she would like great sound quality which is what the HP Pvilion 15z has— Beats by Dr Dre.

Althought the HP 2000 has a higher clock speed which only increases it by a bit. The battery life is longer on the HP Pavilion 15z. You will also be able to mulitask faster on the 15z.