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I hope in the right place to get some advice on a purchase of a new laptop. Forgive me that I am not tech savvy and don't understand computer terminology/parts much.
I bought my 1st laptop, a refurbished Dell Latitude E5520 in 2012. I used primarily for web searching and school work at the time (MS Word for papers, Excel for spreadsheets, Abode for pdf files, etc). I replaced the battery in 2017 and now my computer seems to be on its way out. So it's time for a replacement. I want to buy new. What are your recommendations, guidance, input? I'll provide you some input as to how I use my computer now.
Stays primarily at home, continue to use MS Word and Excel not for school but for work related documents. My "morning newspaper" with coffee is searching the web, doing some work related tasks on the web like submitting billing. I use it for work where I save Word and Excel docs, pdf files. Not much with photos but do save on occasion.
I'm looking for a decent computer but with a budget of up to $500 (I'll consider a bit more if it's worth it). I don't know anything about processor, speed, RAM, etc so this where you come in. I'm open to another Dell and I am open to other makers that you think would be good and reliable. I get confused when I see computers for home and work on the Dell website.
If you can also speak about anything I should customize or install from the maker, that would be helpful. For example, should I buy MS office separate or have the maker like Dell install it? (I know they charge). What about a pdf application like Abode, Foxit, etc?
Any help, input, guidance, assistance, etc. is GREATLY appreciated and thanked in advance!
14" screen. At your price range a good laptop with a current get processor is going to have a smaller screen.
When you get it it will have an Office icon that you can click on and buy Office if you want to go that route through a subscription.
//Cue a bunch of people telling you not to waste money on MS OFfice and use one of the free alternatives.//
Foxit or Adobe are fine. Both are good as a basic reader. MS Edge browser will already be configured on your new laptop to open PDF's if all you really want is a simple reader, you can leave it like that out of the box.
Any more questions?
Last edited by Peregrine; 02-13-2020 at 07:39 AM..
14" screen. At your price range a good laptop with a current get processor is going to have a smaller screen.
When you get it it will have an Office icon that you can click on and buy Office if you want to go that route through a subscription.
//Cue a bunch of people telling you not to waste money on MS OFfice and use one of the free alternatives.//
Foxit or Adobe are fine. Both are good as a basic reader. MS Edge browser will already be configured on your new laptop to open PDF's if all you really want is a simple reader, you can leave it like that out of the box.
Any more questions?
Thank you! I have the MS Office 2010 disk that the school gave me in 2012. In your opinion, do you think it would work if I installed it on a new computer (say, the one you suggested above)? If I can save some money, that definitely helps my budget.
What are the 'free alternatives' to MS office?
There will be times where I create a word document and have to save it as a pdf.
Editing pdf files directly is cumbersome regardless of the app. An alternative method would be to import, edit and then export pdf files from a word processor. I doubt the OP is interested in editing pdf from the sound of it.
As for the laptop, minimum requirements IMO would be at least 8gb of RAM and 500gb hard drive, an SSD would make things run much smoother. Stay away from the slower, cheaper processors such as a Pentium or Celeron. As for screen size, I prefer either a 14" or a 15.6", 17" is too big and defeats the purpose of a laptop. Again, that is my opinion.
Not the OP but do you think a Ryzen 5 processor is significantly worse than i5. The benchmarks say so but I wasn't sure that would mean anything to me IRL. I tend to overthink and overbuy stuff like that. I could afford to spend more but then again why should I? I don't trade up often though.
Not the OP but do you think a Ryzen 5 processor is significantly worse than i5. The benchmarks say so but I wasn't sure that would mean anything to me IRL. I tend to overthink and overbuy stuff like that. I could afford to spend more but then again why should I? I don't trade up often though.
For what you're looking to do with it Ryzen should be fine. Also, depending on the chip it might have better integrated graphics than an i5.
Thanks, I kind of thought so. Everything I actually like is beyond my budget. . .
Report back which Ryzen - can tell you for sure but I believe all the laptop versions have Vega graphics. My son has a Ryzen 5 laptop and the graphics, while not gamer quality, is better than Intel integrated.
Thanks, I kind of thought so. Everything I actually like is beyond my budget. . .
This looks pretty capable and right at your budget. It's not for gaming but you did not ask for that. 256gb is adequate for most. If you are going to store a lot of music or photos, look into an external drive. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop...FZVRAQodpbAG_A
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