Gadgets & Technology
WA1215
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Laptop for 16 yr old recs?
DH & I would like to get our niece a laptop for her 16th birthday- next month. She could use it for school, but is starting to think about colleges and we would like to get her something she can use to do research, HW, papers and do those college applications. Just something basic at a good price. Please recommend a brand that is good, and I could search from there.
Re: Laptop for 16 yr old recs?
Well, what do you consider a good price? $300? $600? $1000?
What is your top of the line budget? That way you can weed out stuff automatically. There are plenty of good basic models, but I don't want to suggest a basic Macbook if all you want is a basic Asus for hundreds and hundreds less. (everybodies idea of basic varies. DH's idea of a basic and mine idea of basic are vastly different . . . so many options and varaibles)
That being said, my sis just got a Asus UL50 laptop from Best Buy. Less than $700 and it uber thin and light. The other option was a Macbook, but it would have been almost double.
This was my thought exactly- she will get a new one when she goes off to college in 2.5 years. I have no idea how much DH wants to spend, but knowing she will get a new one when she goes off to college, and she is pretty hard on things (breaks or loses them) we dont want to spend a lot for right now.
Well, Asus has a netbook that is under $300. (Eee PC) And Dell netbooks are usually right around $300 or a tad over . . . I am sure thee are some deals still going on.
Since you just want something basic, you could ask her what her prefs are and see if she has a preference of keyboard feel, etc. (I know lots of people that like or don't like layouts and that can be a deal breaker) Then again, if it is a present, then suck it up! LOL!
Netbooks are certainly smaller than laptops, so if she has trouble with her eyes, you might want to upgrade to a laptop b/c of the larger screen. (I couldn't do lots of homework or research on a smaller screen . . . call me spoiled!)
That used to be very true, but not so much anymore. Unless you're gaming on your laptop, you do not need the top of the line. This is mostly because most people use their computers mostly for browsing, e-mail, and MS Office type tasks, and even the most basic computers sold today can do that, and will still be able to do that a few years down the line.
I still have my first laptop from over 6 years ago, and even though I don't use it often it still works perfectly for all of the above tasks.
That is true for some people, but most people I know replace their laptops frequently. The storage space is small and within a year or two, the speed jumps and technology advances by lepas and bounds. A six year old laptop would be declared almost useless to a teenager. (sad but true) Heck, I know some people that just have a netbook or laptop just for their music and pictures. (and these aren't uber rice people) Plus a lot of older laptops can't run certain progrmas either b/c of video card or chip speed. (and I am not talking about just games that cause this problem)
My desktop is a few years old, and I can get by because I have upgraded memory and storage space. You normally can't do that with a laptop and it is better just to buy a new one. (sometimes it cost more to upgrade than it would to buy a new one outright)
I am not saying this is the best way to deal with technology, but that is just the way things are now. It isn't like a car. most cars will get you from A to B no matter how old it is. Sometimes an older computer can't get to point B at all.
Just because people do replace their laptops frequently does not mean that it is necessary. Like I said before, for what most people consider the "basics" - browsing the internet, typing up papers, chatting - laptops like my 6-year-old Dell Inspiron can do the trick. For anything more intensive, you're right, you probably need something higher end. I didn't argue that point. I also agree that a teenager probably would not like something that old, but it's better than nothing, right?
Out of curiosity, what programs can older laptops not run that I talked about above? It doesn't take a strong computer to do the "basics" or play music or look at pictures.
As a final thought, it's important to keep in mind that the memory/RAM and the storage space/hard drive are the simplest things on a laptop to replace. Nearly every manufacturer places them in easy-to-access parts of the laptop and it's easy to find instructions to do so online. I recently upgraded the RAM in a Macbook and other than actually buying the RAM, the whole process took less than five minutes and only required a small screwdriver. If you're suggesting that it's easier to just buy a new laptop than do this, you're probably right. But it's also probably a waste of money, depending on what you actually use your laptop for.
I have vowed not to spend a lot on laptops in the future so I can replace them more often. First of all, find out what kind of computers they use in her high school. Many students save documents on a thumb drive and take them back and forth from home to school and back and it helps if the computers are compatible.
I wouldn't worry about the hard drive space, since external drives are very reasonable and a good idea anyway for backup. Just make sure the RAM is enough--at least 2, but preferable 4 GB. I like the fact that with Dell you can customize what you get--high RAM but not the big hard drive.
"They say with time it gets better. Not true. With time you only get used to it."