What to buy - portable of

lonestarfan

I need to help a friend who has been ill for a long time and whose eye sight is occasionally disturbed to get some experience in using a computer a keyboard and the Internet. They need to practice at home rather than the library. Needs to be portable so it can be put away as they have very little space in the accommodation but needs to be not too heavy to carry as they are a bit weak. I decided against iPad as they need to get skills for work and use a keyboard, they will learn to look at email and send replies, attach their new mobile phone to the pc to get the photos transfered to pc, maybe burn discs or USB of photos, maybe learn to do things with photo software, possibly do online banking and online shopping, a little bit of reading the newspaper maybe and using the Internet to find out information. They'll need to print. They'll need it to be wifi. Needs a decent size screen but not so large it makes the thing heavy. I don't know what a notebook or netbook is although I know what a laptop is. Could anyone give me some advice about what might be the spec I'm looking for & price range. I'm also not looking to buy from ebay/marketplaces. Clearly they haven't got a lot of money but they're requirements are reasonably basic. TIA.

TakeThis

Netbooks don't have optical disc burners, so you are looking at a laptop unless a USB drive or an external optical drive is ok.

Don't discount eBay, as you can get some good kit with a full warranty at bargain prices from major retailers.

Take this ASUS X101H Netbook for £153.98. You can also pick up a decent laptop for £220 or less if a bigger screen is necessary.

debitcardmayhem

TakeThis wrote: »

Netbooks don't have optical disc burners, so you are looking at a laptop unless a USB drive or an external optical drive is ok.

Don't discount eBay, as you can get some good kit with a full warranty at bargain prices from major retailers.

Take this ASUS X101H Netbook for £153.98. You can also pick up a decent laptop for £220 or less if a bigger screen is necessary.

TakeThis makes a good point and a netbook is usually fairly lightweight albeit with a small screen, however it is possible to hook one up with a TV(or monitor) for larger screen for when at home and attach a mouse too (I have a samsung N140 which has a reasonable keyboard). Just a thought really

robmar0se

The advantages of a netbook are its size and portability. The screen, typically 10-11 inches, on its own would probably not suit the eyesight issue; of course as suggested you could attach a separate larger screen/monitor, but this might take up too much space?

So probably a standard 15" laptop might be better, plus of course it has the dvd drive built in which the netbook doesn't. If in doubt have a look at the high street retailers to get an idea.

If you do buy a laptop, many of the major retailers do sell older stock, refurbished stock through ebay (Argos, Comet, etc), also worth having a look at Dell Outlet stores for good discounts.

The guys on here will give you more guidence as to where you can find them.

lonestarfan

Forgot to say yes I would want them to attach a mouse. They could do without a disc burner and just use USB. £150 sounds very good. I'll take a look. Can they attach a mouse to this netbook? I'll get them to have a look at a 10.1 screen. I'm a bit unsure as to whether it'll be too small but I'll take a look.

lonestarfan

robmar0se wrote: »

The advantages of a netbook are its size and portability. The screen, typically 10-11 inches, on its own would probably not suit the eyesight issue; of course as suggested you could attach a separate larger screen/monitor, but this might take up too much space?

So probably a standard 15" laptop might be better, plus of course it has the dvd drive built in which the netbook doesn't. If in doubt have a look at the high street retailers to get an idea.

If you do buy a laptop, many of the major retailers do sell older stock, refurbished stock through ebay (Argos, Comet, etc), also worth having a look at Dell Outlet stores for good discounts.

The guys on here will give you more guidence as to where you can find them.

What sort of price and spec would a 15 " laptop be? I can see me just going up and up in price if I don't stick closely to what it's going to be used for. Also how much memory as 1gb seems too small as I've just had to add 2gb extra memory to my dell pc which u all helped me with - I'm so plsd with my endeavours! Slightly off topic!

TakeThis

lonestarfan wrote: »

What sort of price and spec would a 15 " laptop be? I can see me just going up and up in price if I don't stick closely to what it's going to be used for.

£215 upwards.

lonestarfan

TakeThis wrote: »

£215 upwards.

Thanks for that. Whilst u were posting I was updating my post about memory so any thoughts you've got on that I'd be interested in your opinion. TIA

TakeThis

1GB is fine for Netbooks running Windows 7 Starter. Though you can usually upgraded to at least 2GB RAM.

For laptops, this Toshiba Satellite C660-2E1 together with this RAM upgrade would make a very good starter machine for under £220.

lonestarfan

TakeThis wrote: »

1GB is fine for Netbooks running Windows 7 Starter. Though you can usually upgraded to at least 2GB RAM.

For laptops, this Toshiba Satellite C660-2E1 together with this RAM upgrade would make a very good starter machine for under £220.

Brilliant thnx. But r u saying I need 5gb if I'm going to have a laptop? U also answered another Qu I forgot to pose. What's the up to date windows I should be looking for so I guess windows 7 is modern. I bought a toshiba satellite pro in jan 2008 for my nephew. Paid £399. We were so happy with it altho did have to go back to Toshiba twice in the first 2 momths but once it was ok its worked fab for 4 yrs now and he's happy to keep it even when I asked him should I be looking at getting you something more modern! Anyway, it's a very heavy machine. Too heavy now for my friend so I imagine tho that they've got lighter in 4 years? finally, what comes with windows 7 as I got vista home premium but not sure what modern is. I'm erring towards a laptop I think.

TakeThis

Expect 2.5kgs for a laptop.

If they want to spend a bit more, this Toshiba Satellite R850-13K is not unattractive at £293.98.
Likely more than your friend needs though.