The shitty old one I've been hauling with me when I go home finally died, after dragging around its mummified corpse for like 15 years.

No need for anything actually POWERFUL or high end or anything specs-wise, since I'll just be using it for work. My main concerns are just that it isn't fragile enough to explode from a car trip, and has a decent sized screen.

I got my current from HP for about $450-ish, tho tbh, it's been idk maybe 3 years now and I'm not sure if there's better or better rates now

When I got mine, research suggested that Lenovo was a brand that made a pretty reliable product

My Lenovo has worked pretty good ever since

Hmmmm, $450 isn't BAD for a lappy

I haven't used HP in a while, but I don't remember any major issues with it. Never tried Lenovo before.

Mine was around $450 too, yeah

had it about...2 years?

do you need a full pc or is a chromebook something that would work for you? those tend to be very budget friendly

the suggest a laptop subreddit has always been a good resource for me when I'm in the market for something new. I just look for threads that are within my budget. This is one example from today that might have some recs but I'm sure there's others:r/SuggestALaptop on Reddit: Looking for a programmin...

Specs wise a Chromebook would prooooobably be fine? But they tend to be really small, and I'm legally blind so I suspect I'd struggle with the screen.

I'm not SUPER pressed about the price, I can pay a little more if I need to. But I figure a budget model is fine since I'd only really need it for like, internet, word processing, spreadsheets, stuff like that.

are you looking for a standard 15 or even bigger than that? I have definitely seen them come in that size but I think much bigger than that is getting to be rare among all laptops

I remember having that issue when shopping for my mom a couple years back but that's just anecdotal on my part too

15 is probably fine, last time I saw a Chromebook I feel like it was probably closer to like 12 or 13 inches? Those things are teeny tiny

Hmmmm some of the ones in that link might work well

oh yeah you definitely CAN get them that small but 14-15 exists

pretty sure my fiance has a 14inch

it's like the same size as my regular laptop

Ahaaaaa they must be newer than the model I saw

personally, I'd shy away from Chromebooks if you want to run literally anything that isn't web based

^

like for me it's not a problem but

like, hardware specs-wise they're Fine, but the OS doesn't let you install most software, with some exceptions for apps you can get in the Google Play store, you have to get a Linux OS running on it to install more general software

my chromebook is 15-17 inches, cost me like $200, and runs Android apps as well as Chrome

like I can't do gaming or art on it, it doesn't even support tablet pen pressure for pixlr, but I can do literally anything browser based

I consistently have 15+ tabs running on it fine

so if you're just looking for something to be a smartphone but bigger, it'll do that

it's an acer, it's over 7 years old, and the only problem I have is sometimes the screen flickers and I have to close and reopen it

if the work you're doing isn't browser-based, like if you need to install literally anything including Microsoft Office, you'd have to partition it, which is doable but a pain. but like, with a range around $200 on Amazon... yeah, budget af

yeah this one's still under $250
https://a.co/...

it's refurbished but for a chromebook that's fine

^ I have a similar sort of chromebook and it's 15.6" per the specs on the site. from walmart it was about $200 before tax and it's basically a nice big "smartphone" ... runs youtube and spotify and pinterest and I can do tags and check email and whatever else I want a keyboard and regular screen for because I hate doing those things on the phone.

So yeah, depending on yoru needs a Chromebook is a lightweight option

If it is going to be your primary computer, however, and you may want to game, I'd look at spending a bit more and doing a laptop

Not a primary computer, I stay tethered to a desk for that

It'd be nice to have the option for games when I go, but not necessary TBH.

Granted, my primary computer is ALSO pretty old, I'm still running Windows 8 I think

Nod nod. I didn’t want to pay to have the ram and drive space on a laptop for gaming, hence the chrome book as a secondary computer but I haven’t like... actually priced that out. In this day and age it might be reasonable

I do sometimes play mobile games on it

I guess that WOULD be feasible, given the app store is probably on there. Huh.

yeah I used to leave it open overnight autoplaying Merge Magic events

LMAO nice

yeah like you definitely gotta consider your use case to know whether or not a chromebook is right for you.

if we're talking linux thought and you want to get your hands a little dirty that absolute dirt cheapest option is to find a device that's on it's last legs due to being too old/slow for windows and slap a lightweight linux distro on it

I'm currently working off of a 10ish year old HP with that option and is faster than my 3ish year old $300 acer

it does come with it's own bit of quirks though even if you stick to a popular version.

I'm not REMOTELY smart enough or tech savvy enough for Linux unfortunately

Honestly unless you need Bash for something, which I would think usually occurs in a tech job, I don't think a casual user has any real reason to need Linux/Ubuntu over Windows. But correct me if I am mistaken about this.

I'm currently working with Linux VMs and learning them, but it's for an IT Automation job, not casual use.

LMAO definitely not a techie proper, I just did a bit of tech support

I don't really work in tech either I'm just also extremely stubborn about spending money on an web browser machine lol which is how I landed on this solution

Oh shit, Walmart's got a Lenovo for $230. I think I can go for a real ass laptop for the price of a Chromebook.

oh snap. what're the specs on it?

Robot or human? It's this one

it looks pretty solid; only question is, is 14" gonna be big enough?

that looks really good for the price.

Right?

It should hopefully be big enough, AFAIK EVERY windows computer comes with a built in magnifier function.

So I can just blow up the screen to compensate for small text and whatnot