Need to Buy a Basic Laptop for 60 Year Old Dad

Fliedlice on 03/09/2019 - 11:36

Can anyone please recommend a laptop for my dad? I know there is a dell special at 20% off, but there's just SO many laptops to choose from that i'm basically looking for suggestions as i'm not very tech-savvy myself.

Requirements

  • Budget: under $600
  • Weight, something not too heavy. Under about 1.5kg
  • HD Storage: Happy with something under 250gb
  • Ram: 4gb
  • Screen size: 11-13inch is okay
  • Port: Preferably 2 usb ports at least. Not concerned with HDMI. Optical drive would be nice (as he's old school) but not necessary
  • Purpose: He likes to watch movies and use it for microsoft word (he doesn't watch HD movies, very pixelated 480p graphics).

He was using a 10 year old laptop before this.
Any help from any expert ozbargain hunters would be very much appreciated guys!!

Find Me A Bargain Computer Laptop

Comments

  • bangzzz on 03/09/2019 - 11:44

    Chromebook for sure,

    no need to save with google docs, long battery life, can log in from anywhere and move stuff around or put it in folders for him.

    • Fliedlice on 03/09/2019 - 15:41

      I was actually looking at the chrome books and liked how lighter (and affordable) some of them were. The thing is, he lives separately from me and he doesn’t have much internet, but sometimes he comes over and downloads 20gb of foreign movies which he stores on his laptop to watch. Does the chrome book store movies and videos as well (or is it cloud-based mainly)?

      • bangzzz on 04/09/2019 - 09:21

        Many models you can upgrade the storage. I bought a Dell 7310 and upgraded to 256gb SSD. 13 inch, 4gb ram, 1080p display,

        If you can find one a toshiba would be ideal,

  • GangGang on 03/09/2019 - 12:05
    +1

    Don't go for HDD. My mum has a basic spec laptop. After 1 year it feels like she needed a new one. I put in an SSD, it feels brand new.

    No matter what he's doing on the laptop. Just go for SSD. Everything just loads quicker.

    • Fliedlice on 03/09/2019 - 15:42

      Any recommendation for a laptop with SSD? Or one that he can get someone to install. Just a 128gb one will be okay.

    • juzza87 on 03/09/2019 - 15:47

      To add to this eMMC is not an SSD and performance may only be slightly higher than a mechanical hard drive, you want a proper SSD. Even SATA based SSDs will give you better performance than a mechanical hard drive or eMMC.

  • boomramada on 03/09/2019 - 12:17

    Base model surface Pro?

    • Fliedlice on 03/09/2019 - 15:43

      They look expensive, are there any in my budget range?

      • boomramada on 03/09/2019 - 16:07

        Yes, Microsoft Surface Go - Intel 4415Y / 4GB / 64GB eMMC match all your needs, for extra storage you can use a micro sd card.
        Not a recommendation, but a suggestion. Although I got the higher end model which I would recommend but over your budget/needs.

        edit: you need to pay extra for keyboard

  • Densor on 03/09/2019 - 12:20

    The Dell Ebay store has 20% off. For $599 you can get a Dell New Inspiron 15 3585 Laptop AMD Ryzen 5 2500U 8GB RAM 256GB SSD WIN10.

    Could be worth a browse to see what they have on offer.

  • thatonethere on 03/09/2019 - 12:57
    -1

    Get an iPad I reckon with a keyboard.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join