What to do? Light computer user (G/F), but has iPhone

Mobile Tech Laptops & Netbooks
1

Hey all,

So I’m just looking for some opinions, other than my own and the end user!

She is a very light computer user and seems to do everything on her phone…even if it takes 4x as long :face_with_raised_eyebrow: That might be in part because her current laptop is some POS dirt cheap terrible horrible thing (Advent or something), which I noticed the other day is actually falling apart, properly. The case has opened up so much, you can probably replace internal components without using a screwdriver! :tired_face: I upgraded it about 2 years ago to an SSD, has more than enough memory so it’s really as good as it gets…has an awful CPU.

She does have an iPhone (a 5S I think) and while I don’t necessarily like them, I appreciate that it doesn’t matter what it is, she is used to it and it would be a pain to switch. It would be like forcing someone to drive a manual car or automatic, and then demanding they use the other.

She does want some storage space for pics (100GB would do it for next 3-5 years), but that’s it. I’m only thinking about the cheapest Apple Laptop (Macbook, whatever you call it lol) because it should make her Apple life easier to deal with…in theory.

One option is she has my business laptop, which would be well OTT performance-wise, but she does like using it. She actually used it this morning and said, “so nice to use working laptop, it just works!”. It’s 2 years old and still has plenty of life in it…I also paid for another 2 year on-site repair. I kinda like the idea of getting a new one, but that’s a noticeable cost, then I’ve got to configure it, etc.

She uses Windows at work, so is more familiar…ummm, I may have answered my own question here, but what the hell!

I know she’s not going to get herself one, so it might be a pressie I get her this year. She’s just so silly and spends the money on rent and food…honestly. :smile:

Thanks for any comments in advanced!

  • Cheap laptop (Cheapest option)
  • Apple product (middle ground)
  • My high spec laptop (I get a new one, least cheap option)

0 voters

2

My not a middle of the road thinkpad?

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3

Get the regular macbook

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4

Cheap Windows computers tend have a terrible user experience. However Windows apps are getting better and a light user could probably live within that ecosystem. I have a great fondness for Chromebooks. I have an Asus Flip and I’m very happy with it. My wife that is also a light user has an Asus Chromebox and is also very happy with it. What I’m not sure about is how well Apple iPhone and Chromebooks get on, both the wife and I have Android phones.

I know little to nothing about Apple stuff so my input is less important but I’m sure as she is an iPhone user a Apple laptop of some type would please her the most. After all is it this what this is about?!?

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5

She already likes your laptop, is comfortable using it and you get a new laptop out of the deal. That would be the way I would go. Plus the integration between iPhone and a windows laptop is fairly good, I have set a couple of people up with mixed environments. Apple phone and tablet with a windows laptop or desktop, and things were smooth after the initial setup.

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6

Sounds like a typical person for mid-tier business notebooks (Thinkpads, ZBooks, Latitudes).

Cheap laptops typically are just that, cheap. For the user who do not care or are willing to upgrade RAM, Wifi and Storage themself. Would not recommend that.

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7

You want proper video playback with current codecs to keep a laptop usable as long as possible for casuals. So a mobile raven ridge might be nice. That would be my windows recommendation. If she likes the macbook idea, I would look after a used 13" macbook air. The 2015 model has the same HD6000 iGPU as the latest model. So look for one of those with 8GB RAM.

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8

Why not get a Huawei P20/Galaxy S8/S9, a USB C hub with HDMI and a 128GB micro SD card? That way she would be getting a new phone + desktop experience to do all the things she does. Also no worries about syncing data and so on.

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P.S. I added a certified refurbished by accident but doesen’t change what I wanted to say. Also the P20 is 576$ brand new so would drag down the cost even more.

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9

Because then you still end up with one thing that holds all of your stuff and no backup.

10

Whenever my parents ask what laptop to shop for, I always guide them toward business-tier Lenovos, Dells, etc. There’s really no point in buying consumer grade stuff anymore, unless you are physically unable to buy things online.

11

I don’t consider a valid backup copy of my phone something that’s on my laptop. A better way of doing backups is external drives that are plugged in once in a while to refresh the sectors and add files. Or do online backups on different services like Mega or similar.
I think this new kind of tech can replace the general purpose machine to read news, social media and youtube.

12

Thanks again for all your comments, really appreciate it and I will try to follow up with what I finally do when the time comes. It’s just polite :smiley:

Very fair point, her current one is awful, but mainly due to obvious culprits (CPU). :+1:

I didn’t know that, thank you very much! I’ve helped a few people with iPhone’s and Win PC’s in the past, it was a pain but not ‘quite’ impossible.

Thanks, you reminded me how awful cheap laptops really are from a maintenance / upgrade point of view. My current laptop’s SSD/RAM is accessible via 1, perhaps 2 screws at most, and as I’m normally the one doing it, it saves me time! Nice one fella :+1:

Thank you mate, I’ll look into the cost of a second hand jobbie as a second alternative :+1:

Clever stuff long user name :slight_smile: I like your out the box thinking, like you said in your later post, I reckon that’ll be the way it goes one day. As wireless power over a short distance is possible, may be compute work can be done that way as well. You could have a phone connected to the power of a Threadripper when need be!