Trying to find a good laptop to gift my dad for Skype + Rosetta Stone use. (With laptop FAQ)

iLeo

Estimable
Sep 29, 2014
2
0
4,510
1. What is your budget?
$500 USD max.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
The bigger the better since he only uses it inside of the house

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1920x1080 standard is fine.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable laptop.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Doesn't matter since it's plugged in 99% of the time.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
This laptop will not be used for games.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Skype so that my dad can talk with family overseas (so an integrated webcam+mic would be nice) and the main reason I'm buying him this laptop is so that he can use Rosetta Stone in order to learn English.
His current laptop is a 2008 or so Toshiba that I put an SSD in but the CPU spikes to 100% just using Skype + Any web browser. It has an Intel dual core 2.1ghz CPU but it'd be nice to know if the new i5s with the same ghz are better.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I already have an SSD that will replace whatever HDD the laptop comes with.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Amazon, Walmart, Newegg, TigerDirect, etc.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
He uses things until they break.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
None really needed but we wouldn't mind a regular DVD ROM.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'm not really set on a specific brand because I haven't used many but I'd really like it to be reliable and Toshiba has so far treated us fairly.

13. What country do you live in?
United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
None needed
.

 
Solution

iLeo

Estimable
Sep 29, 2014
2
0
4,510


I don't wanna sound like an ahole but please read the post, I'm not looking to run games and that screen is pretty small for my dad's use.
 
You are not going to find a laptop with a 1920x1080 resolution for $500. Your budget is simply too low. In general, laptops with that resolution usually starts at about $750, unless it is on sale.

I recommend the following 17" HP laptop from Bestbuy for $449 with a 1600x900 resolution screen.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-17-3-laptop-amd-a10-series-6gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-natural-silver-ash-silver/7895036.p?id=1219300344794&skuId=7895036&st=categoryid$pcmcat247400050000&cp=1&lp=2

 
Solution