Need Advice For Senior Citizen On New Laptop

Whitediamond · Oct 1, 2020

Help Please

Have to get a new laptop but not very knowledgeable about what to get. I'm not a gamer, just do bills, play some jigsaw puzzles, YouTube and a it of FB. I also read a lot of books of online books.

I want a laptop that's 15.6 or 17 inch. Intel i5 or i7. Decent memory and storage. Decent speed, can't stand slow sluggish speed. Also back lit keyboard would be nice but can live without it. Windows 10 home, do not want to be stuck with windows 10 S. I like being able to use Fire Fox, can't stand edge and like being able to add apps that I want.

All advice will be greatly appreciated. Please help as I'm old and not very knowledgeable about what's out there. Think, what would you want your grandmother or mother to have if she couldn't get around much.

Thank you.

harmless · Oct 2, 2020

well, normally i would suggest finding a local computer store, not a big box franchise like best buy, but a small local computer store where you could walk in, talk to a friendly face, explain what it is you want, and actually touch and sample different laptop models. it's really the only way to get what you want and have a pleasant experience at the same time. it might be a bit more expensive than buying online, but for something that you will use everyday for many years, in my mind, it is worth the cost. i don't know what part of the world where you live and how the current situation has impacted it, but if it is at all possible, i would venture forth to a local store.
good luck with it.

Whitediamond · Oct 12, 2020

Thank you so much for trying to help me, your advice is very sound. Unfortunately I live in a very small town so will have to travel to find a store. I know already that choices will be limited because there are only three places to pick from as the town is not a big city. Wal-Mart, Best buy and Target are the only ones to go to and they are not large stores in our area. From past experience their help is not much more knowledgeable then me witch is sad indeed. I guess I will just have to bite the bullet, take extra pain med and go search. Any particular brands you might suggest checking out? Thanks again so very much, I'm adding you to my prayers.

plodr · Oct 13, 2020

I'm in my 70's and not a mother nor a grandmother but I'll offer some advice. I'm still using the 11" laptop I bought in 2013 at Target. I read reviews from several sites and especially look at the 1 and 2 star reviews before I decide what to buy. Do online looking at lists.
https://www.theverge.com/21250695/best-laptops
https://www.cnet.com/news/best-laptop-for-2020-dell-xps-hp-spectre-macbook-pro-more/
https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/best-laptops-1

They might not agree but you'll start to see some overlap. If the description sounds like what you need, then look specifically at 3 or 4 choices.
Come back with what you've narrowed it down to and we'll see if we can offer advice as to hard drive size, speed and if the hardware fits your need.
I never pick a particular brand. I've owned 16 computers so far both new and refurbed. I've owned brands that people posted to avoid and never had problems except for 3 computers. My first was an IBM and the hard drive died 3 times. From day 1 it sounded very loud. I should have known something wasn't right. Apparently IBM had a batch of bad hard drives - I must have gotten those. The next was a computer from Tiger Direct. I found out that the computer was overclocked so it ran at the advertised speed and kept crashing. I kept calling to complain and eventually got a level 2 or level 3 tech who walked me through fixing it over the phone. It ran fine after that. The last was a cheap eMachine desktop from Walmart. About the 2nd or 3rd day it would no longer turn on. I got my money back. I thought about it for 3 - 4 weeks then went back to Walmart and bought the same model. This was Oct. 2009 and I'm typing on it now.
Bottom line: if something doesn't seem right from day one, don't fool around. Take it back. That's the advantage of buying in a local store.

Also, why are you reading books on a computer? I have a 10.1" and an 8" Samsung android tablet. It is much more comfortable to read on those devices than on a laptop. If the print is too small, you can increase it and also spread your fingers to increase things on the fly. I do that on my phone all the time.

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Need Advice For Senior Citizen On New Laptop

Whitediamond Private E-2

harmless Staff Sergeant

Whitediamond Private E-2

plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member