Recommend A Laptop For My 9 Year Old Daughter, Windows 10 Sucks, Please Prove Otherwise...

[Cletus Van Damme]

I was seeking advice on a laptop for my daughter. I personally think that Windows 10 is absolute garbage, be nice to be proven otherwise but that’s where I am with that one. I understand that I have no choice unless I get a Chromebook, I’m not into Apple products, too expensive, that’s off the table.

I bought a refurbished Lenovo Yoga 510 2 in 1 with an AMD A9 CPU AMD R5 GPU, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD. I think the slow hard disk hasn’t helped at all. This laptop is shocking, the keyboard just doesn’t work most of the time, took it best part of a minute to open up a program, the touch screen was unresponsive and useless. I understand that it was probably updating a plethora, of unnecessary complete turd/bloatware garbage, but even so… I’ve decided to return it, as its rubbish, I understand with Windows 10, I’m going to have to spend ages cleaning all the rubbish bloatware , I’m sure I’m going to have to get a laptop with a SSD. I’m also thinking of avoiding the 2 in 1 route. I don’t want to pay for a Surface Pro or a really expensive Yoga as my daughter is just turning 9. Maybe this PC was faulty that I bought from Argos, I’ve never had a problem with their refurbished goods before.

My 8 years old HTPC running Windows 7 on a basic AMD x2 270 I think, with 4GB RAM and an SSD is like a rocket compared to this piece of junk, as is my ageing HP Elitebook running Windows 7, with an Intel I5 CPU and Intel graphics and an SSD. I’m kind of thinking that the issue, probably isn’t a faulty laptop, but a really poor operating system full of crap, designed to work with both touch screens and keyboards, is the issue. Having said that I tried my HP laptop a couple of years ago with Windows 10, and it was ok, not as good as Windows 7, but certainly not like what I've experienced here. I took it off as I found it annoying, and completely annoying. they've added Cortana to it now, to annoy me even more though...

I was wondering can anybody recommend me a decent laptop up to £500, just a regular one, which is capable of running Windows 10, without me wanting to through it against a wall please? Unfortunately I think Windows 7 is not an option…

I'm really getting too old for technology that makes things harder/worse to do. My brain jut can't deal with the logic of it...

 

[Cycleops]

I think a Mac would bust your budget but an iPad with a keyboard would be a great solution IMHO.
Unless she is going to be writing long documents a windows laptop isn't going to be of much practical use and even if she is you can do that on an iPad. You could consider a Microsoft surface but I think they are 500+.

 

[mustang1]

Asus (or was it Acer) UX410 got recommended laptop of the year (or something like that) about 6 months ago. They are £500-600.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

[QUOTE 5274514, member: 259"]Does she really need Windows? Can you not just get her a Chromebook?[/QUOTE]

What are the limitations of a Chromebook? I'm thinking about Office applications? I can't believe how bad windows has got. I'm thinking of getting an I5 laptop with an SSD drive. I'm finally starting to see why people like Apple products, but its at a premium...

I could spend more, but seems excessive for a birthday for a 9 year old. When shes older I obviously would.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Asus (or was it Acer) UX410 got recommended laptop of the year (or something like that) about 6 months ago. They are £500-600.

Its an Asus thanks for that. I'll take a look.

 

[Dan B]

You say "unless I get a Chromebook" but I can't tell if that means you don't know if a Chromebook would do the job or that you already know it won't. If the former you could try Chromium OS on a USB stick and see if it does most or all of what your daughter needs before you fork out more cash.

See e.g. https://www.howtogeek.com/217659/how-to-get-a-chrome-os-like-operating-system-on-any-pc/

 

[smutchin]

What are the limitations of a Chromebook? I'm thinking about Office applications?

For the average user, Google Docs is more than adequate. In fact, it's a good choice for most users. Basically, what @User259 said - I'm a Mac user too, but I only really need a Mac for things like Indesign/Photoshop, the rest of my computer use is platform agnostic. I have MS Office but mainly because it comes with 1TB of cloud storage, which is useful for archiving work stuff, although I am slowly changing my mind on that and may not renew the subscription next year and might switch to Google Docs instead.

I can't think why a 9yo would need a 1TB hard drive. 8GB RAM is good though - should be plenty for any applications a 9yo might be using.

I have no idea about Windows - XP was the last version of Windows I used. Nothing I hear about Windows 10 makes me want to try it.

 

[Chris S]

Ask her friends' parents what they've got.

 

[Pale Rider]

At one time Chromebooks could not do Skype video although they could do Skype voice.

That may have changed.

Chromebooks are excellent in most other respects, cheap, long battery life, instant on/off.

Chrome operating system is snappy and vice free - the opposite of Windows.

It may lack some features, but most users barely scratch the surface of what their operating system can do.

 

[fossala]

You could always try Linux, it's what everyone in my household uses.

 

[Cycleops]

Chrome book might be a good cost effective solution but its primarliy WiFi based and many apps won't work when not connected and docs are saved to the cloud. Games are also more limited.
You need to take into consideration the difficulty of learning a new OS.
Chrome books tend to have smaller screen sizes unless you opt for the more premium models.

 

[smutchin]

primarliy WiFi based and many apps won't work when not connected

That is not as true as it once was - many apps will now work offline. You can certainly use Google Docs offline on a Chromebook. However...

and docs are saved to the cloud.

Good thing, especially if you work across different devices - it means you can access the latest version of a document from anywhere with an internet connection, and don't have the problem of multiple versions in different states on different hard drives that you can't access. So really, you don't want to be working offline unless you don't have a choice.

Games are also more limited.

If I were the parent of a 9yo, I would find it hard to see this as a negative.

You need to take into consideration the difficulty of learning a new OS.

I doubt this will be a problem for a 9yo.

Chrome books tend to have smaller screen sizes unless you opt for the more premium models.

Same is true of any laptop/tablet.

 

[swee'pea99]

I believe one other key feature of Chromebooks is they tend to be relatively small/slim and light, which I would have thought might be quite an important criterion for a youngster.

 

[Milkfloat]

I would suggest that the bloat issue is more with what the manufacturer/retailer put on rather than Windows 10 itself. I run Windows 10 on a very low powered media PC and it is fast as Windows 7 before it.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

I would suggest that the bloat issue is more with what the manufacturer/retailer put on rather than Windows 10 itself. I run Windows 10 on a very low powered media PC and it is fast as Windows 7 before it.

Possibly, I've been building computers for years and it was shocking, it possibly had a fault. I've used Widows 10 before on a pretty powerful laptop, I could tell it was slower, not significant, but it was slower. Now it has Cortana which is just complete nonsense (to me personally). I think I'm going to get a chromebook, I just think it makes more sense for such a young child. If she wants to play games I could get a cheap Andriod tablet too, for the price that I would pay for a decent"ish" Windows 10 laptop.

I haven't the time to spend ages taking crap off a computer. I'd assume that the refurbished laptop I bought was returned for exactly the same reason as I did, its complete crap. Whether other brands put less crap on than Lenovo I don't know. Taking over a minute to start Word is just totally unacceptable to me.

Maybe I should go to PC World and actually see if I can see these Windows machines in operation, I have no intentions of buying one blind again..