OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

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Eyeball
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OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

#1 Post by Eyeball » Mon Feb 17, 2014 8:47 pm

I see ACER has one @ $300.

My needs/uses-

Streaming movies and music from YouTube.

Reading mail and forums.

Looking at superior women pix on line.

That's about it.

I'd get a tablet, but I want the bigger screen for films and I don't really need to carry the tablet around.

Suggestions?

Thx!
Will big bands ever come back?

Surreal
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Re: OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

#2 Post by Surreal » Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:35 am

Just about anything will do really. You should be able to get a decent 14-15" last-gen machine in that price range, maybe even a touch screen on a refurb. Look for a minimum of 4gb ram. Your range of options may not be the greatest as there are no good sales this time of year, so just keep an eye out for flyers and deals. I'm partial to Lenovo and Toshiba laptops myself, but they're all kind of the same these days.

If you can push up to maybe $400, there are some 2-in-1 laptops (ones that can flip the screen over or the screen detaches into a tablet). Most are around 10-11", but there are a couple larger options (they'd be more expensive obviously).

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trev
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Re: OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

#3 Post by trev » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:49 pm

For your needs I'd strongly suggest getting a tablet.

An iPad will run movies and videos all day, has a better screen than a laptop, is simple to maintain and use.
The screen size request is perhaps not as important as you think because;
  • You view it closer to your face than a laptop
  • They often have higher resolution (more pixels) anyway
  • You can send it to your TV easily (with an Apple TV or equivalent)

Toon Town Dave
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Re: OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

#4 Post by Toon Town Dave » Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:33 pm

I'll second surreal on the idea of any last-generation laptop. Any hardware currently for sale by major vendors (Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, etc.) is way more than you or most people for that matter need.

I'm a happy Dell customer. I've been satisfied with their quality. I've only had to deal with their consumer grade support for warranty issues twice and I've been satisfied. A bit impatient because their technicians assume they are dealing with a non-technician and will walk you through all the troubleshooting steps. I also deal with their business/server tech support and I've been quite happy with their service. In both cases, they've always called me a few days later to confirm everything is resolved. I appreciate that. If you can afford it, extended warranty and accidental damage warranty can be worth it for laptops that get a bit more abuse than a desktop although maybe on the lower end it's easier to just budget to replace sooner rather than later.

Surreal
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Re: OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

#5 Post by Surreal » Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:20 am

I'm not a huge fan of extended warranties, BUT some places actually reimburse the cost of the warranty (for store credit) if you didn't use it during the allotted time, which can be quite worthwhile actually so it's worth asking about.

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Eyeball
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Re: OT - I need a laptop. $300.00 pricer range

#6 Post by Eyeball » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:32 pm

Gentlemen-

I never saw any of your posts until now. No message notifications received.

Reading you tips now. Thx!

jOhn
Will big bands ever come back?

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