need computor advice

Bella'sMom

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okay, the past couple days my laptop has not opened. I have to use Terri's work one (night only) So I am looking to get a laptop. Problem is, I have no idea was is good enough memory, what is fast etc....

I don't want anything expensive. My Sony Vaio is over 4 years old and at the price I could have bought a new cheap one every year.

I really just want a web brosing, some gaming, emails. I do want to upload photos and videos. But I don't need any fancy sound board or graphics board. I was hoping to stay under 400. Any suggestions?
 

Davidh

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Hmmmm noy going to get much with $400.00 maybe a tablet like I-pad?
 
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Bella'sMom

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Best Buy has a lot of deal right now, nothing fancy but priced decently. The notebooks (?) are nice and small, what is negative about them?
 

izstigspunks

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Notebooks or netbooks? Notebooks have a lot more memory than netbooks. So you can store a lot more pics and install/download more programs.

A must for me is for the keyboard to be comfortable. I need to be able to type with ease so some notebooks can be too small for my taste.

You can get a lot for $400, especially since you won't demand much from it. When I got my laptop 1.5 years ago, the standard ram was 4GB and hard disk was at least 20GB.
 

Mack-N-MatildasMommy

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Best Buy has the best deals on Toshiba laptops. You can get a 2gig for around $300 and a 4 gig for aorund $400. I have the Toshiba 4 gig and I :heart: it!!
 
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Lucy-licious

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I have a small notebook that Chris bought me this year as I was having too many gripes with my IPad when on the forum.
I must say I love it. the size is just right. I have it connected to home network so that I can access photos, videos etc on the main computer, although I do have a few on here. Its an Acer Aspire with 1 gig memory and 250GB hard drive.
I use it for internet, Word, and Photoshop.
but if you are thinking about the Ipad it is great easy to use, has loads of gaming...LOADS, doubles a digital photoframe, and does everything an Iphone can. Its only downfall was most videos on here are unaccessible and not being compatible with Flash. I would highly recomend the Ipad its brilliant. :)
 

izstigspunks

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Oh. I try to stay away from the HP brand as well. I know too many instances where the motherboard (both PCs and laptops) would just stop working a couple of years after purchase on average. Sorry HP lovers! :blush2:
 

BruceP

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You can't get APPLE for $400 so your absolute best bet is DELL.... they have great deals right now with back-to-school sales. The cheaper ones you see in the stores like Best Buy etc. are off brand and basically CHEAP. Dell makes a quality product. We always get the longest warranty available because then it will be covered for it's useful life which usually isnt over 4 years anyway. But I'd get the Apple personally for $1k.. ;)
 

izstigspunks

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I love Dell too! And I'll get an Apple one day ... maybe a mac mini.
 

anatess

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What kind of games do you like playing?

I like the iPad too. You can get a keyboard for it and download all kinds of games from the App store - a lot of which are free. You can upload/download photos, videos, full-length films from netflix, etc. And you can get Pages from the App store for 10 bucks for a word processor/publisher and create documents/flyers/scrapbooks/etc. using your photos and videos and save them in PDF to send to your friends or some such. Really easy to use with the drag/drop/resize with a finger swipe feature. And you can put the thing in your purse and go anywhere.

Anyway, the bad side is the Flash - they don't run it. And, for some reason, EBN doesn't recognize the enter key on the iPad. Still scratching my head on that one. And, it's just not a full-feature computer - it's not as versatile.

But, if you want something more robust than an iPad then you can go with the Sony Viao. They have the 4GHz/4Gb RAM/500Gb Harddrive with HDMI output which is suitable for your purposes for around $400 at Best Buy. Since you're familiar with that brand, then you'll be comfortable just sticking with it.
 

JAKEISGREAT

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What kind of games do you like playing?I like the iPad too. You can get a keyboard for it and download all kinds of games from the App store - a lot of which are free. You can upload/download photos, videos, full-length films from netflix, etc. And you can get Pages from the App store for 10 bucks for a word processor/publisher and create documents/flyers/scrapbooks/etc. using your photos and videos and save them in PDF to send to your friends or some such. Really easy to use with the drag/drop/resize with a finger swipe feature. And you can put the thing in your purse and go anywhere.Anyway, the bad side is the Flash - they don't run it. And, for some reason, EBN doesn't recognize the enter key on the iPad. Still scratching my head on that one. And, it's just not a full-feature computer - it's not as versatile.But, if you want something more robust than an iPad then you can go with the Sony Viao. They have the 4GHz/4Gb RAM/500Gb Harddrive with HDMI output which is suitable for your purposes for around $400 at Best Buy. Since you're familia
r with that brand, then you'll be comfortable just sticking with it.
AHA!! It
Wasnt JUST ME!! :hissy: [MENTION=2]desertskybulldogs[/MENTION] and
[MENTION=390]cali~jenn[/MENTION] ..SEE...the enter key on iPad doesn't work here!!
HALLELUJAH!! I'm not CRAZEEEE! (be nice now)...remember my "list issue" ??
Thanks anatess..I feel better now!

Except..I didn't have any idea my iPad could do ALL that stuff...:hmm:
 
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Bella'sMom

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Thanks for all the advice. I grabbed my compter geek son and took him to Best Buy. He swears by ASUS. After reviewing all the laptops, Toshiba was 374 but ASUS had a duo core with something-or-nother added which made it a quad core yadda yadda yadda for 399. So that is what I got.

I would have loved an Apple, my brother has worked for them from the beginning, needless to say he has a daughter named Lisa. Anyway, Apple limits some of the FB gaming I do with Flash etc... My Brother does understand. lol

My Sony Vaio cost well over 1000 years ago and this ASUS is amazingly faster, lighter etc.... you know how that is, technology goes far in a matter of just a couple years. So I am a happy camper again.
 

anatess

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Thanks for all the advice. I grabbed my compter geek son and took him to Best Buy. He swears by ASUS. After reviewing all the laptops, Toshiba was 374 but ASUS had a duo core with something-or-nother added which made it a quad core yadda yadda yadda for 399. So that is what I got.

I would have loved an Apple, my brother has worked for them from the beginning, needless to say he has a daughter named Lisa. Anyway, Apple limits some of the FB gaming I do with Flash etc... My Brother does understand. lol

My Sony Vaio cost well over 1000 years ago and this ASUS is amazingly faster, lighter etc.... you know how that is, technology goes far in a matter of just a couple years. So I am a happy camper again.

Yeah, ASUS is a good brand. But the dual processor thingee is for your son, not you. LOL. But yeah, can't beat that for 399. Good choice!

Flash works on any apple computer. It's only the ipad/iphone/itouch that it doesn't work on - and it's just on the mobile Safari version (browser that comes with ipad/iphone/itouch) that comes with it. You can always install a different browser or go on a streaming site to get flash to work but it's too much of a hassle.

And yeah, @JAKEISGREAT , there's tons of stuff you can do on the iPad. I've been mooning over the tiny projector that I can use with the iPad... and there's the credit card scanner that can also go on the iPad... last month I first used the airline thingee on my iPhone (can't remember what it was called) - where I just scan my boarding pass using my phone's camera and it tells me the status of the flight - like if it's delayed or something... really cool stuff. My friend has the one where he can scan barcodes with his iPhone and see if there's a coupon or some sale going on somewhere for that product - or at least that's what he told me it does.

Uhmm... can you tell I'm an apple fan? LOL.
 

JAKEISGREAT

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[MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION]..my hubby uses that barcode thing all the time! There's a new app I saw where you can scan a paint color you like from anywhere..on a house..or anywhere and it will give you the shades closest to it available at Behr paints. Amazing..we have a keyboard for iPad..never used it..:blush:
 

anatess

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@anatess ..my hubby uses that barcode thing all the time! There's a new app I saw where you can scan a paint color you like from anywhere..on a house..or anywhere and it will give you the shades closest to it available at Behr paints. Amazing..we have a keyboard for iPad..never used it..:blush:

Yeah, I have the keyboard too and used it like once or twice only. I took to the touch-keyboard on the iPhone pretty easily and the iPad even has bigger keys so I never had problems typing on it. And I make lots of documents on my iPad. I had to tweak the auto-spell-checker though because a lot of times, I'm typing away and not notice that it changed my words to something else!

Gotta go check out the Behr paint! I'm gonna love that!
 

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