What laptop should I get my wife from best buy under $500?

xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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She is a very simple user. Mainly she'll use it for emailing for the daughters school work to teachers or principal, go through the twin 4tb my books for all her photos/videos media and social media basically. Does no gaming at all so I'm hoping I can get something from bestbuy for extremely cheap right? I just want it to be somewhat current with win 11 but low spec is more than fine right? Any suggestions? Crowd favorites?
 
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Aurelius

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xDiVolatilX said:
I ordered her this. Had the highest specs for the lowest price plus I had 100 gift card so there's that
https://click.emailinfo2.bestbuy.co...4742cef2a33e3f02b32d03fd3183ef9a74935762c7c13
Had a thousand nearly 5 star reviews I guess It's "the one" lol
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Can't complain for that price, even without the gift card. You're right that a basic laptop will do the trick here — the only way you could do better is to buy an open box or refurb, and not everyone is comfortable with that.
 
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ng4ever

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Aurelius said:
Can't complain for that price, even without the gift card. You're right that a basic laptop will do the trick here — the only way you could do better is to buy an open box or refurb, and not everyone is comfortable with that.
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The only thing I worry about is the only 8GB of ram. Though it should be fine hopefully.

He can always upgrade the ram later on I hope.
 
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LukeTbk

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Maybe a stupid question, but would a tablet or chromebook be considered versus a x86 windows machine ? For the workload at those price point it could be potentially a better experience. You pay (in $ and in "heavyness" for a lot of unused stuff) by running a full fledge windows machine, not the issue at that price point it was 7 years ago too, specially with SSD).

My parents doing something similar stopped used their Ubuntu PC completely over the years once they got their Ipads.
 
xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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Aurelius said:
Can't complain for that price, even without the gift card. You're right that a basic laptop will do the trick here — the only way you could do better is to buy an open box or refurb, and not everyone is comfortable with that.
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Alright I did good then! lol thanks! A thousand nearly 5-star reviews can't be wrong lol. The specs are so good for the sub 4 hundred dollar price point I'm still surprised lol
 
xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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ng4ever said:
The only thing I worry about is the only 8GB of ram. Though it should be fine hopefully.

He can always upgrade the ram later on I hope.
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Oh yeah, the 8GB of ram is more than enough for a non-gamer wife lol I am not going to insall anything like steam or battlenet or anything is %100 for her when I'm ready to get myself a gaming laptop It's not going to be sub 4 hundred dollars lol
It has the ability to be upgraded to 16gb even has the ability to install a stand-alone "graphics card", faster Wi-Fi (no need) up to 2tb NVMe or 2tb Sata SSD. The thing also has Bluetooth/wifi/ windows 11, an NVMe boot drive, touch screen, and a headphone jack lol
 
xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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LukeTbk said:
Maybe a stupid question, but would a tablet or chromebook be considered versus a x86 windows machine ? For the workload at those price point it could be potentially a better experience. You pay (in $ and in "heavyness" for a lot of unused stuff) by running a full fledge windows machine, not the issue at that price point it was 7 years ago too, specially with SSD).

My parents doing something similar stopped used their Ubuntu PC completely over the years once they got their Ipads.
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Maybe It's just the power user in me that won't settle for a tablet or surface or pad or anything of that nature. I wanted actual real hardware that I am familiar with, like a real laptop. I know this thing is going to be very fast with a 10th gen i5 CPU and 256gb NVMe boot drive and 8GB or 2666 ddr4 ram along with a host of bells and whistles on a 1080p screen for 389.99 lol original price was supposedly 599.99 so I don't know I feel like I got a ton of laptop for my money for my wife she's prolly gonna flip and start going through all her media and take it with her. It's a nice Christmas gift. Can't wait till she unwraps it lol
 
xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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I ended up returning the Dell - Inspiron 3511 lol
. I got her the Dell - Inspiron 2-in-1 14” FHD+ Touch Laptop – 12th Gen Intel Core i5 – 8GB Memory – 512GB SSD - Platinum Silver instead. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-i...b-ssd-platinum-silver/6504390.p?skuId=6504390
It is a "2 in 1" and it folds completely to be used as a touch screen tablet, or a normal full-blown laptop. It even comes with a 12th gen intel CPU and 512GB NVMe and the platinum silver color she will like much more than the business black. I think this laptop is ligher a bit also and has a backlit keyboard.
A nice few quality of life improvements for 200 more. With the 100 card I had i was able to get this for 500 plus tax which I'm very happy about. Gets great reviews and when I compare it to anything in this category this 2 in 1 laptop out specs them all. For a dell I'm actually surprised and impressed. It'll be delivered by the 12th of this month.
 
xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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Gomar said:
Did the OP say $500?! That one costs $600.

Run for this one:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-...gb-ssd-natural-silver/6510527.p?skuId=6510527
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I got her this one
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6504390.p?skuId=6504390
She loves it. It folds complete into a tab it's fully touch screen and has a backlit keyboard. i5 a 512gb nvme 8gb ddr4 it's sleek and very fast.
I went over budget a couple bills it was on sale for like 679 or something last month but she is in love with it I'm glad I sprung for the better version.
 
cjcox

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IMHO, things open up quite a bit if you can go to $600. But, maybe if you also get away from BB. I bought (edit: actually, she paid for it, but with my suggestion) my daughter an awesome Lenovo Yoga 6 (direct) late last year, Ryzen 5500U, 16G, 512G SSD, 1920x1200 screen... out the door shipped with tax for <$600USD. It was a great deal (still is, IMHO).
 
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xDiVolatilX

xDiVolatilX

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cjcox said:
IMHO, things open up quite a bit if you can go to $600. But, maybe if you also get away from BB. I bought (edit: actually, she paid for it, but with my suggestion) my daughter an awesome Lenovo Yoga 6 (direct) late last year, Ryzen 5500U, 16G, 512G SSD, 1920x1200 screen... out the door shipped with tax for <$600USD. It was a great deal (still is, IMHO).
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Those are good specs looks like a nice laptop. Yea the reason I went with the 2in1 is cause she's always on her phone, so I wanted to get her a device that served both purposes. It's a tablet & a laptop 2in1. The lid completely folds over, and it turns into a touchscreen tab for fast swiping and button pressing just like a phone while also primarily being a full blown all-purpose laptop for any type of general use. I wanted to impress her with the 2in1 feature and she really likes it. It sets it apart from a traditional laptop. I gotta admit, if i was in the market for a laptop, I wouldn't mind a 2in1. Although the specs would have to been amazing cause I'm a pretty hardcore casual gamer lmao
 
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