Need suggestions for laptop around $500

[grendel0501]

Mom's old pc died on her this morning, and she insists on getting something local, today, instead of waiting for me to build her a new desktop.
For a change she wants a laptop.
Her needs are pretty basic; youtube, spreadsheet, excel and outlook express are about all I see her using it for. She has Wifi in her house so thats already setup. She also prefers a larger screen.

Can I get some suggestions for a decent laptop? (preferably from Best Buy's options)
Budget is around $500, but not set in stone.

 

[WoodenKiwi]

Something with an i5, no discrete gpu, and a long-life battery

Its not easy but they can be found for for around $500, look at like lenovo and asus

 

[Knufire]

At such basic tasks...any specs will suffice. You probably want good build quality over anything else, a laptop that will last. And for that, +1 to the above, ASUS or Lenovo.

Just a note that if she doesn't need much storage space (doesn't sound like she does), throwing in a SSD would make the laptop a lot smoother and give a nice boost to battery life.

 

[WoodenKiwi]

At such basic tasks...any specs will suffice. You probably want good build quality over anything else, a laptop that will last. And for that, +1 to the above, ASUS or Lenovo.

Just a note that if she doesn't need much storage space (doesn't sound like she does), throwing in a SSD would make the laptop a lot smoother and give a nice boost to battery life.

Knufire has a point, though I'd definitely go Intel over AMD with most modern low-end laptops, the AMD E-series is...well let's just say it doesn't match up to the Intel Core i's lol. I just mentioned the i5 as it's a good way to know if you are getting a good deal or not, a $500 laptop with an i3, run of the mill low-end laptop, a $500 laptop with an i5, probably a good deal.

 

[grendel0501]

The good news is, I talked her out of the laptop!!!
Now I have to put her a desktop together. I was going to get her a quad core at first, but now I'm thinking a dual core will be plenty for her needs.

 

[Knufire]

AMD APU or a Sandy Bridge Pentium.

 

[dfonda]

The good news is, I talked her out of the laptop!!!
Now I have to put her a desktop together. I was going to get her a quad core at first, but now I'm thinking a dual core will be plenty for her needs.

I don't think that's a good thing...a laptop use $6 of electricity a year, the desktop $6 a week. (Guesstomating)