Simple Laptop for my Parents

[Svenparty]

Hi Escapist, I've been tasked with finding a simple laptop for my parents. I've looked online and found it just made things more complicated. The basic features she wants are:

1. Windows 7
2. Non Touch Screen
3. Simply a laptop to Shop, Go on the Internet/Porn(?) and type up Word Documents.
4 Decent charge

I was wondering if anybody could point me to a reliable brand within the price range of £300-600. Thanks it would be a great help

 

[AWAR]

According to reliability reports, Asus and Toshiba are the most reliable brands. Avoid HP. I don't think you can find a laptop with win 7 on the market right now, but Windows 8 can look just like 7 by disabling metro e.t.c.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

Hey man, haven't seen you around for a while.

OP: When you say 'Word', is it that your parents actually prefer Microsoft Word? I've messed around with Open Office for quite some time now. It's free of course, but I have to admit that I'm just so used to Microsoft Office that the free alternatives, especially spreadsheets, are too strange to get used to in comparison to Excel. That's due mostly to the different syntax of course.

You may want to consider incorporating the cost of Office into your price unless you can find a bundle--or unless you plan on going the free route [http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/] like Open Office. Currently, a single-user "license" is almost impossible to figure out on Amazon. Hint: I bought Office for home, 3-user license, with everything minus Outlook and Access, for just $100, downloaded. It seems that Microsoft is steadily removing the ability to purchase Office 2010 as well. I personally would never go for Office 365 as it's a subscription service, but I worry about just how much longer they're going to support 2010.

 

[Barbas]

I can recommend ASUS as well, they're way up there in terms of quality. However, you may find some confusing spelling errors and slight lack of clarity with the included ASUS programs and/or documentation. Toshiba and Acer are solid brands. They'll be wanting 2GB of memory minimum, 4GB will be more than enough. I understand Windows 8 is being updated to include the old-style menu system (Pre-'Metro'), so that shouldn't be an issue.

Microsoft Word is overpriced and unnecessary, I use OpenOffice instead. It's free and compatible with Microsoft Word, so you can transfer over your documents freely between the two. The change of layout may be confusing at first, but if you give your parents a few pointers they should have it down in no time. Besides, every new version of Word looks different anyway.

Whether you go for a dedicated or integrated graphics card shouldn't matter for that sort of light activity. Just make sure to get something downloaded like AVG Free to do regular virus scans and get something for any malware that might be downloaded in whatever internet activities are going on. Things like cookies will build up over time and slow down the laptop, so they must be scanned and the more suspicious ones purged regularly.

Ah, also, any preference for screen resolution?

 

[Svenparty]

I can recommend ASUS as well, they're way up there in terms of quality. However, you may find some confusing spelling errors and slight lack of clarity with the included ASUS programs and/or documentation. Toshiba and Acer are solid brands. They'll be wanting 2GB of memory minimum, 4GB will be more than enough. I understand Windows 8 is being updated to include the old-style menu system (Pre-'Metro'), so that shouldn't be an issue.

Microsoft Word is overpriced and unnecessary, I use OpenOffice instead. It's free and compatible with Microsoft Word, so you can transfer over your documents freely between the two. The change of layout may be confusing at first, but if you give your parents a few pointers they should have it down in no time. Besides, every new version of Word looks different anyway.

Whether you go for a dedicated or integrated graphics card shouldn't matter for that sort of light activity. Just make sure to get something downloaded like AVG Free to do regular virus scans and get something for any malware that might be downloaded in whatever internet activities are going on. Things like cookies will build up over time and slow down the laptop, so they must be scanned and the more suspicious ones purged regularly.

Ah, also, any preference for screen resolution?

Thank you,all your responses were particularly helpful but with this i've forwarded some ACER brands to my parents. I'm currently trying to find a short term internet contract for around 4 months in the UK which is clearly proving a lot more difficult. Thanks again yall.

 

[Reed Spacer]

I can recommend ASUS as well, they're way up there in terms of quality. However, you may find some confusing spelling errors and slight lack of clarity with the included ASUS programs and/or documentation. Toshiba and Acer are solid brands. They'll be wanting 2GB of memory minimum, 4GB will be more than enough. I understand Windows 8 is being updated to include the old-style menu system (Pre-'Metro'), so that shouldn't be an issue.

Microsoft Word is overpriced and unnecessary, I use OpenOffice instead. It's free and compatible with Microsoft Word, so you can transfer over your documents freely between the two. The change of layout may be confusing at first, but if you give your parents a few pointers they should have it down in no time. Besides, every new version of Word looks different anyway.

Whether you go for a dedicated or integrated graphics card shouldn't matter for that sort of light activity. Just make sure to get something downloaded like AVG Free to do regular virus scans and get something for any malware that might be downloaded in whatever internet activities are going on. Things like cookies will build up over time and slow down the laptop, so they must be scanned and the more suspicious ones purged regularly.

Ah, also, any preference for screen resolution?

Thank you,all your responses were particularly helpful but with this i've forwarded some ACER brands to my parents. I'm currently trying to find a short term internet contract for around 4 months in the UK which is clearly proving a lot more difficult. Thanks again yall.

Acer's good; I have one myself . Good solid laptop, does what I need it to do and the one I bought even has Windows 7. Of course I use it pretty much exclusively for net access, so the OS is basically moot for me.

 

[antidonkey]

I'll toss in a good word for Acer. They seem to be top tier in the bang for buck category. My last 3 laptops have been Acers and they've done me well. The increase in quality across all three is pretty vast. The first one I had felt flimsy. It never broke but always felt like it was about to. My current one, which is about 3 or 4 years old, feels very solid. They do tend to come with bloatware installed but it's easy to remove.