My hubby and I are looking to buy a refurbished or otherwise inexpensive laptop for our thirteen year old for Christmas. It needs to be usable for school, basic internet things like FB, email, Skype, research, watching movies and adding some software to suit her interests. Nothing major and she isn't a gamer. I'm not a huge tech person so I'd like to ask for some advice on what I should look for. Advice??
Go to BestBuy and talk to one of their saleskids. They employ a bunch of college age kids who are tech savy, and many who are studying computer related fields. Make a list of all the things your daughter will be using it for, and tell them how much you want to spend. They'll figure something out for you. Be careful about expense-vs-warranty. Unless you've got access to someone who can help when things go wrong...make sure your bargain includes some coverage. One way to pick up a used laptop dirt cheap is to watch for sales at libraries and community colleges when they replace whole computer labs. (I picked one up for $50 that my daughter used for two years before it died) You might want to talk to someone in the IT department of your local community college. Those kids always seem to know where the best bargains are, and always seem willing to help another kid...by guiding the parents. For $300-$400, you could easily find something decent at Best Buy with a warranty and technical assistance for a couple of years. Will come with virus protection, too. Good Luck!
I got my boys a $300 Toshiba from Best Buy last year. Came with virus protection, they use it for internet watching videos and math-u-see and just last week I installed their typing program on it. We've had it almost a year now, no problems. I'm a Toshiba laptop fan but was worried about buying one in that price range as hubby has always insisted on buying higher end laptops for my use (I do put it through a lot of use though-lots of photos, software and graphics) but I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice, fast and great the $300 laptop was compared to my $1400 laptop. Of course I can tell a difference, but for their needs, the $300 works GREAT! We did hook it up to some nicer computer speakers but their only complaint is when trying to play online games that require speed and the use of a mouse, their computer is harder to win the game My only complaint is Windows 8 (I hate it, but that has nothing to do with the price of the computer)
