Poll of the Day > My nephew is looking to buy his first laptop. Any suggestions?

(+) Yeah! (+)

He is raking yards and plans to shovel driveways to earn enough money and is hoping to buy one after Christmas so he can use any Christmas money he gets. He has $120 so far. He is 12 and a half so too young to get a part time job.

These are the 2 he was looking at.
https://a.co/d/cgJ5EGk
https://a.co/d/4Mc6aiU

When I asked what he wants to do with the computer he told me gaming and videos. He likes playing with tiktok and doing video editing with the things his phone allows. Which worried me a bit as both hobbies usually require a high end computer, but when I asked him what kind of games he wanted to play he said roblox which appears to be a very low spec game and he is still young so I'm sure a basic editing program would do well enough for him to learn the basics.

I figure I can drop some cash on him for Christmas to bump his budget up a bit, but any suggestions on laptops to look at?

Why is that description filled with misdirects? Both only have an integrated Intel graphics card, but 1 also boast about being able to run graphics heavy pc games and video-editing programmes... The second one appears to be contradictory about its CPU in each location it is mentioned.

Nichtcrawler-X posted...

Why is that description filled with misdirects? Both only have an integrated Intel graphics card, but 1 also boast about being able to run graphics heavy pc games and video-editing programmes... The second one appears to be contradictory about its CPU in each location it is mentioned.

Yeah, I didn't like either of the ones he showed me, but I don't think I have ever dropped less than 500 on a computer and that was on a Chromebook, so I'm not sure what to look for in budget ones.

Does he need a laptop running Windows, or would a tablet be adequate for his needs?

Costco has the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite for $170, and the Galaxy Tab A8 for $230

https://www.costco.com/samsung-galaxy-8.7%22-tab-a7-lite-wi-fi-tablet-32gb----includes-book-cover.product.100782186.html
https://www.costco.com/samsung-galaxy-tab-a8-10.5%22-wi-fi-tablet-64gb---includes-book-cover.product.100830442.html

he's 12?

chromebook.

if he absolutely needs a windows laptop, you aren't going to get much worth of anything for his budget, even bumped a little.

i think you can get a refurbished hp elitebook 840 g5 for like $200 now? they're decently good laptops for what they are. aluminum body, spill through keyboard with drain hole at the bottom that shouldn't be trusted because my keyboard sure did get fucked

but the great thing about the hp business line is that every single thing inside them are replaceable aside from the cpu probably. i wouldn't trust it to run minecraft at the lowest of all options, or even roblox, but you can do extremely light video editing ig.

but yeah, for <$300 you aren't gonna get much, and even then a $300 new laptop isn't gonna do much either. certified refurbished hardware would be the key thing to do here.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hp+elitebook+840

i wouldn't get anything below an 840 g5, at the very least since it adds usb-c thunderbolt charging in addition to the weak as fuck barrel charger all hp laptops suffer from, but this is my recommendation.

I've never heard of either of those companies. The second one is far better than the first though. 4 GB of RAM is nothing.

captpackrat posted...

Does he need a laptop running Windows, or would a tablet be adequate for his needs?

I looked up the roblox system requirements and while I found sone conflicting information, it mentioned it needed windows. So I think he would need a windows one.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

if he absolutely needs a windows laptop, you aren't going to get much worth of anything for his budget, even bumped a little.

Yeah I did a little searching earlier and the cheapest one I would even consider for myself was $550 but I saw ones I liked better in the $700+ budgets. If he can get 200 by himself, I could give him 100 for Christmas and with the rest of his Christmas money he might be able to try a sub $500 one instead of a sub $300. A refurbished machine is a good idea though.

Revelation34 posted...

I've never heard of either of those companies. The second one is far better than the first though. 4 GB of RAM is nothing.

Neither have I. I'm not especially brand loyal, but buying from an unknown name off of Amazon wouldn't be my first choice.

https://www.costco.com/hp-14%22-touchscreen-laptop---amd-ryzen-3-5300u---hd-1366-x-768---windows-11-in-s-mode.product.4000176433.html

An HP with a 14" screen, Ryzen 3 CPU, 8GB RAM and 256 SSD, for $250.