Looking for advice on a new laptop

[aford]

Hi Folks,

Looking for a new laptop for a family member. He's a very light user, no games or anything like that. His last laptop just died, it was a 9 year old gateway so I'm sure anything will be an upgrade.

His budget is about 800 tax included. This is Canadian dollars by the way. Obviously, if it can be cheaper that would be preferred (this is RFD after all). I was looking at 3 different laptops and was looking for your opinions as I haven't been laptop shopping in quite a while.

1) IdeaPad S340 - $665 plus tax
https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptop...CqtgqjwyxnU45YnCHygvqZxfA-RPROs4L8M4E4lfppiUQ

2) Acer Aspire 5 15.6 - Open Box $550 plus tax
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/produc...6gb-ssd-12gb-ram-windows-10-open-box/14320990

3) Lenovo 15.6" - $500 plus tax
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/produc...3-8145u-512gb-ssd-8gb-ram-windows-10/13982603

What are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance

 

[extreme_noob]

I am partial towards aspire (I own an Aspire 3, and besides the strange texturing on the back, which doesnt actual exist on the 5, it's a solid laptop), but the lenovo ideapad looks pretty good.
options 1 and 2 have 256GB SSDs and option, and option 3 has a 512GB SSD but the worst processor out of the three.
Assuming you don't need more than 256GB of storage space:
Get the Lenovo ideapad S340, for the likely better customer service (Louis Rossmann spilled a water bottle full of water onto a Lenovo Laptop, took it apart, put it back together, and Lenovo was still willing to replace it and covered shipping).
If your family member is going to be doing anything graphically intensive, consider an Aspire 5 with Ryzen 5 3500U and Vega 8 graphics or Ryzen 7 3700U with Vega 10 graphics, which cost $600 and $650 US respectively, brand new. https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Display-Graphics-Keyboard-A515-43-R19L/dp/B07Z11X58J?th=1
The Ryzen 7 3700U option also has a 512GB SSD instead of 256GB.

 

[not you]

i would go with the ideapad

but screen resolution is pretty important for me
if you are fine with 1366x768 and no touchscreen
you can save some money with the acer

the cpu of the lenovo is like half as good... (compared to the other 2)
that might be a seback when trying to open programs and it can feel slower and less responsive when using it
that would anoy me A LOT
(i would like to make it clear im NOT talking about gaming performance here just general use)

 

[extreme_noob]

i would go with the ideapad

but screen resolution is pretty important for me
if you are fine with 1366x768 and no touchscreen
you can save some money with the acer

the cpu of the lenovo is like half as good... (compared to the other 2)
that might be a seback when trying to open programs and it can feel slower and less responsive when using it
that would anoy me A LOT
(i would like to make it clear im NOT talking about gaming performance here just general use)

The acer aspire 5s (Both the one in original post and the ones I suggested) have a 1080P IPS display as well. But I agree. I definitely wouldn't get a 768p laptop at this price.
The lenovo 5.6 inch has an 8th gen i3, which is indeed much worse, and the Lenovo S340 has a tenth gen i5, which the Acer also has.

 

[aford]

Thanks for your help folks, went with the IdeaPad S340