OT. Computer Purchase Advice

[Dean Hoffman]

A redhead has a laptop computer on her Christmas list. A PC, of all things. I think 13" is about right. $600 or less. Personal use. I imagine both WiFi and Bluetooth. Windows or Chrome? Any suggestions?

[Ed Pawlowski]

I have an HP Pavilion 14". Sits on my belly in the recliner just right. Easily portable, touch screen, Windows 10.

I had a similar one for 5 years and when it dies I bought the same thing as I really liked it. I do use a mouse instead of the touch pad

You want 8 MB of ram. This has a good sized hard drive too. Lighted keyboard.

[Hawk]

I would never purchase anything under a 15" screen and Windows, though Mac is better.

For me, there are many other variables to consider before a purchase such as processor spec, graphics card specs, memory size, harddrive size and type as the most important. Other features are just fill ins and add to the cost.

[Dan Espen]

That would be 8GB of ram.

Lots of storage is good, but hard drives aren't. A laptop would most likely come with an SSD, not a hard drive. 100GB is good for most users.

Not sure who this red head is. A PC is sort of personal, some people want big screens, some people want easy to carry.

I just got a Logitech G810 RGB keyboard, the LED color on every key is under software control. It's great but I wouldn't put lighted keyboard on a list of requirements.

As a Linux user, no way I'd ever recommend Windows. People with IPhones like the Apple stuff.

[rbowman]

I paid s little over $600 although there are refurbs available for around that.. Windows 10 Home, WiFi 6 which anticipates the next generation, USB 3, HDMI. It has one of the better laptop keyboards I've used and a Full HD screen. With a Ryzen 7 8-core and SSD it's no slouch.

The only problem I had probably wouldn't affect a redhead. Running Kali Linux in WSL2 which uses Hyper-V doesn't get along with the power management. As long as the power management doesn't kick in you're good.

Yeah, Bluetooth and a fingerprint reader. At home I have it set up for a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with a HDMI spitter so I can use the 24" monitor.

[Dean Hoffman]

5' tall, 42, with a nice wiggle in her walk. She wants it just for the normal things people at home do. Surf the net, write letters, store pictures, etc. She wants to use Zoom also if that matters much nowadays.

Everything I have is Apple so I'm ignorant about PCs. I get along fine with my MacBook Air. I've just never had any reason to look at PCs.

[Jim Joyce]

Correct.

Expressed as good, better, best, you'd have spinning hard drive, SSD, and NVMe. In the $600 category you're probably going to find a small SSD. If I were buying for someone else, I'd want to go to at least 256GB or better yet 512GB. I wouldn't know how much storage they really need but it sucks to run out. Maybe they shoot pix and video all day every day and offload it to the PC.

Totally agree.

A lighted keyboard is one of those things that you can live without, but only until you've used one. I wouldn't want to lose that feature. For me, it's very high on the list of must haves, but I don't know the redhead very well.

Much has been written on the pros and cons of each of the big 3 platforms, and depending on the redhead, you could possibly toss Chromebook into the mix.

[micky]

I thought a chrome book was only a partial computer. That it used the chrome browser to do everything, and couldn't accept other programs.

This is what one person told me, someone who bought a chrome book because someone recommended it, because it was cheaper. And she was very disappointed.

[micky]

I wanted one because I'll sit down here when it's light out, and after it gets dark, I can't find the keys.

So I bought one but didn't like it for some reason.

So now I have to get up and turn on the light. Life is hard.

[Ed Pawlowski]

That is pretty much my take too. People bitch about Windows but it does everything I need, programs are easy to find and you can get the 12 year old next door to help if you need tech support.

[Jim Joyce]

My wife has a Chromebook that she only uses when we go on vacation. Yes, it has the Chrome browser, but you can add other browsers and any of thousands of apps from the Google Play Store. We mostly use it to store a copy of any photos we take during the day and for general web browsing. It doesn't run Windows programs, but it does everything we need in a vacation scenario. It won't replace the various Windows systems around the house, though.

[Clare Snyder]

Forget Chrome. Get 15 or 17 inch i5, preferably one that comes with windows 10 Pro. They cost a bit more than ones that come with Win Home but generally they are higher quality units. I've been selling a few Acer Travelmates and am impressed.

Chromebooks can't run a lot of applications -and are usually the cheapest crap they can assemble. If you need to stay under $600 perhaps a good refurb

[AJL]

Modern Chromebooks can also run Android apps. Some can do Linux apps too.

Chromebooks can be bought for over $1000 so not all are cheaper. I have a cheap one. It's ok for lots of stuff but definitely not as capable as a Windows box.

[Clare Snyder]

If you get a lighted keyboard makesure it is white lettering on black keys. Coloured lights and light colored keys are gamer kitsch and are hard to read. SSD is nice but boosts the cost. a 256 SSD and a conventional 1 or 2 TB hhd for data is a good comprimize.

If it is ONLY going to be an internet browser and email machine you COULD go to the other extreme and get a "convertible" tablet like the

10inch smartab sw1800 I bought for my wife - Win 10. Cost me something like $99 at our local "factory direct" store. I think the US list was abput $129. Atom x5 Z8350 processor. SHe's had it 2 years now? - no problems A friend's chromebook the same age has been e-waste for some time

[rbowman]

I haven't used the lighted keyboard in the dark but I find it distracting and turn it off. No big deal, just one of the function keys.

[hubops]

Don't downsize from the display that she is used-to. Don't go up to 17 inch if it travels at all. SSD 256 is lots. I like the re-furb business class ThinkPads. T_??? but they run over $ 600. Canuck bucks. HP EliteBook refurbs ~ $ 550. Canuck. Some folks would miss the CD/DVD drive .. I haven't used mine in 2 years. John T.

[Dan Espen]

Get her the Mac then. Oh, right, $600 or less. I guess PC.

For Zoom, it needs a camera and microphone.

If it's not being moved around much, a larger screen is a plus.

Personally, if I had to suffer through using a laptop, I'd plug in a full sized keyboard, mouse, and large display, then close the lid on the laptop. But if she wiggles, and wants a laptop get her one. Good luck.

[Dan Espen]

I like the lights, but mechanical keys are my first requirement.

I did a lot of looking for the Logitech G815. There are lots of mechanical, lighted keyboards but all of them bleed light out from under the keys. You can barely see the light shining through the letter on the key because of all the leaking light. That's because a regular Cherry key doesn't allow the LED to be placed up inside the key.

The Logitech G815 doesn't use Cherry keys, they've designed a new key for this. It's really nice. The only light you see comes through the engraving on the keys, and the touch is probably the best I've used.

So, I ended up with RGB access to set the color of each individual key. At first I thought I'd just turn them all blue, that was nice. Now I've used about 6 shades of blue/purple. The numeric pad one shade, arrow key another, etc. The keyboard looks like an Xmas tree and makes me smile when I see it.

[micky]

Well that's good to know. When I'm out of town, I too don't do as much on the computer as I do at home.

But I still have a laptop and that's what I use.

[micky]

So why would anyone who knows what he's doing spend 1000 dollars?

You can run the chrome browswer on any windows laptop. Does that mean it will run the apps from the play store like Jim said?