Laptop for my mother

jatyro91

Honorable
May 7, 2013
54
0
10,630
My mom's used to doing everything from her smart phone, but as she gets older its getting harder for her to use such a small screen. I'm looking to spend around $500 or less. She is looking to use the laptop in the same ways she used her phone. Download photo's, surf the web (particularly facebook, online shopping, and different calendar sites she uses for her business). She will also probably stream netflix from it, and use it to print.

I know speed to her is important because she's impatient, so I know to look for something with a higher ram but I haven't purchased a laptop in a long time so I'm looking for suggestions.

Please and thank you!
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
If she is used to smart phones you should probably look at tablets rather than laptops. Apple if she is used to iOS or Android if she is used to that. You might also look at Chrome books, kind of a laptop/tablet hybrid.

https://www.techbargains.com/category/359/computers/laptops

Not terrible, though it would be nicer if it had 8GB of memory, you can probably add some: Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Intel i7-7500U 15.6" Laptop w/ 4GB RAM + 16GB Optane + 1TB HDD $479

Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Intel Core i7-7500U 15.6" Laptop w/ 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD $500
 

sir_k

Commendable
Sep 17, 2018
20
0
1,520
I'd definitely go with a Chromebook, especially if she is already used to android! They are easy to use, very fast, super secure, and much cheaper than PC's; I prefer a Chromebook myself if I'm not needing to run any heavy-duty desktop programs.
 

al92

Reputable
Oct 29, 2017
176
0
4,710


Just want to echo the SSD comment - this will make more difference than upgrading from, say 4GB RAM to 8GB.

My current laptop is an HP Pavilion gaming laptop; it has 8GB RAM and an i7 processor but until I fitted an SSD, it was painfully slow.