Recommend me a laptop for old fogeys

[Joey Shabadoo]

My parent's laptop has died - again. No idea why but it's their third in as many years - my young niece using it has caused problems with malware in the past. Anyway they need a new laptop. It'll be used for their banking, looking for holidays, booking flights, messenger that kind of thing. Were money no object I'd say get a Mac as they're fairly bomb-proof but their budget is firmly at the budget end. Any recommendations? Anyone seen any Christmas bargains?

 

[welsh dragon]

Does it have to be a laptop? Maybe a decent tablet would do the job, and less likely of having malware/viruses.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I thought a tablet would be good but after I recommended an iPad in the past, someone sold them a crap Android tablet so they've gone off them altogether.

 

[welsh dragon]

. Got you. Pity as it sounds like one would be ideal for them.

 

[Dave7]

Amstrad ?,

 

[vickster]

Wait until the sales, John Lewis usually have good deals with free extended warranty

Few bargains just before Xmas. However, If you buy now from JL and they reduce the price in the sale, you can get a refund of the difference (ditto if Curry's, Argos, Tesco etc do, again you can ask JL for a retrospective price match, albeit noting that the specs are rarely the same on laptops at different retailers)

 

[vickster]

If they want cheap but aren't fussed about performance or capacity..? £130, 2 year warranty, includes MS office even which is normally £50 or so

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-id...-1-year-subscription-included-silver/p3356610

Or for £330 with more performance and capacity, proper sized screen

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-310-15isk-laptop-intel-core-i3-4gb-1tb-15-6-silver/p3356842

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Oh that looks like a good shout, thankyou.

 

[vickster]

Oh that looks like a good shout, thankyou.

the comments aren't great, but what do you expect for a computer the price of a meal out

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-id...tion-included-silver/p3356610#tabinfo-ratings

 

[Pale Rider]

A Chromebook is worth a look.

Instant on/off, quick in use because the Chrome OS is light on resources, battery life usually 10+ hours, and no need to worry about viruses because the great god Google looks after that.

Downside is there's not a tradtional desktop, everything is done via apps/in the cloud.

There's very little most users would want to do that can't be done inside the Chrome web browser.

Prices start at around £200, which I reckon is good value.

Some dearer - and cheaper - Chromebooks in this top 10.

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...romebooks-top-5-chromebooks-in-the-us-1233696

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

A Chromebook is worth a look.

Instant on/off, quick in use because the Chrome OS is light on resources, battery life usually 10+ hours, and no need to worry about viruses because the great god Google looks after that.

Downside is there's not a tradtional desktop, everything is done via apps/in the cloud.

There's very little most users would want to do that can't be done inside the Chrome web browser.

Prices start at around £200, which I reckon is good value.

Some dearer - and cheaper - Chromebooks in this top 10.

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...romebooks-top-5-chromebooks-in-the-us-1233696

Sonething I'd probably use, but not sure I could explain Cloud computing to them

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Amazon Fire jobbie?

 

[Pale Rider]

Sonething I'd probably use, but not sure I could explain Cloud computing to them

Depends what they want to do.

I use mine for work and play and am not really conscious of being 'in the cloud'.

Stuff like processing images has to be done using Google Pics, or whatever it's called.

I've not tried it, so can't comenton how easy it is to use.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Amazon Fire jobbie?

Isn't the OS on the Fire just a stripped down Android?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Isn't the OS on the Fire just a stripped down Android?

Yeah, you have to use the Amazon store instead of the Google one. Cheap. Works well on wifi. so simple to use even tlh understands it.