Basic cheap laptop

June 10, 2023 12:02 AM

I need to buy a laptop on which I can write papers, run large Excel spreadsheets, and occasionally watch Netflix. And I’d prefer not to spend much money on it.

I will be attending my first year of what is basically grad school for my profession, and they recommend not bringing your work laptop because many institutions have security protocols that prevents students from doing things like running large spreadsheets with a lot of macros and plug-ins, or downloading a lot of documents from dropbox. I would prefer not to use my own personal laptop, and besides it’s a MacBook that doesn’t play well often with Microsoft office products.

My needs/uses are pretty basic:
1) Will last for three years.
2) Can run large complicated excel spreadsheets (and I’ll be writing papers, but presumably any machine I can do the former on I can also do the latter on).
3) I’ll be watching streaming video, but image quality is not super important – it will probably mostly be watching recorded lectures, or occasionally throwing on a few episodes of a sitcom I’ve seen half a dozen times before when I need to destress after class.
4) Not ludicrously heavy, but does have a decent screen size - wherever the sweet spot between those two requirements happens to be.

And I would also prefer to spend less than $500 on this, if that’s possible.

I’ll also need to buy Microsoft office, and it looks like that’s now a subscription service rather than just standard programs?? I see that Costco appears to still be selling the 2021 version of the software, so if anyone has opinions on buying the standalone programs versus the subscription, I would appreciate it. I use all these products at work but not at home, so I’ve never had to contemplate any of this. Thanks!

posted by skycrashesdown to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

If your 'grad school' is a registered education facility, should should be able to get a cheaper student licence of Office. But you could also look at the open source alternatives such as OpenOffice.

For what you describe, a second hand laptop (that was good ish specs when new) should be able to comfortably do all you want.
However laptops badly looked after tend to eat through batteries though, and you probably won't be able to replace the battery as well as buying a second hand machine, for less than $500. But if you're okay plugging it in wherever needed, and as long as the battery isn't completely shot, that should be fine for three years regular low demand 'student' use.

I'm still happily running software that does all you've listed, on a laptop that's 11 years old. It doesn't have multiple cores for the latest heavy multi demand applications, but it can edit video fine? and certainly watch videos, WiFi, spreadsheets, etc.
The former exponential growth of computing specs seems to have been levelling out for a few years now, from what I've seen (unless you're trying to run immersive VR of course).
posted by many-things at 1:31 AM on June 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just wanted to make sure that the instruction to buy Microsoft Office came directly from the school. YMMV of course, but some universities have programs where students can log into Microsoft Office with their institutional credentials for the low low price of tuition dollars.
posted by oceano at 2:55 AM on June 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

I recently bought a standalone version of Office for $30 on Stack Social. It seems legit.
posted by coldhotel at 4:30 AM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

After hitting a bunch of review sites, I recently went with an Acer Aspire 5 to replace my previous, smaller Acer (which lasted almost 6 years). I like the 15.6" screen; it has plenty of memory, is fairly light and so far feels great.
posted by mediareport at 5:08 AM on June 10, 2023

Oh, you do have to switch it out of the dumb Windows 11 S mode to Windows 11 Home, but that's a 2-second settings change, so very easy.
posted by mediareport at 5:10 AM on June 10, 2023

Does your school / program provide any minimum specifications for the computer?

Another approach is to get the best reviewed laptop in your budget from CostCo (because of their warranty policy).

If possible, you might want to check out potential options in person. New PC laptops are going to have some compromises to get to the sub $500 price point (typically build and screen quality at minimum). Especially if you are used to the excellent build quality of Apple laptops, you will probably want to make sure the trade offs are acceptable.

If you don't have one already, you might also want a second monitor.
posted by oceano at 7:01 AM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Typing on a Chromebook right now, and just want to say, even if you are tempted, don't get a Chromebook. I am a long time Mac user, but my Air succumbed to extreme humidity while in Costa Rica last year. I thought, I'm traveling, not computing much, don't need anything special, I'll just get a super cheap Chromebook and get by with it while I am on the road. On the one hand, it's fine for internet browsing, Google Suite, and occasional Netflix. On the other hand, it simply can't handle anything more complex. Like, Zoom. Or Office. Or really anything else that isn't Google Suite in browser. It drives me nuts because even though I Zoom rarely, it's enough that having my computer not be able to handle it is a real pain. So, just saying, definitely go one level up from a Chromebook for your scummer computer so as not to find yourself annoyed with your technology all the time!
posted by luzdeluna at 7:39 AM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I bought a Dell Inspiron 15 on Black Friday a few years ago for $199 new. It looks like the going rate for them these days is $350. This is my 3rd or 4th Dell in the last 20 years and besides one that just crapped out on me with no warning (which necessitated buying the $199 one), no complaints.
posted by jabes at 7:42 AM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Used higher-end Thinkpads are one way to get nice hardware for an affordable price. Here's an ebay search with a few filters (high RAM, P/T/X series, screen size above 14" and higher resolution so you can see more spreadsheet cells, not too old). There are other filters you can add, including price.

The caveat with old laptops, as mentioned above, is battery life; you should be able to get a few hours with machines from the last 5 years or so (and some models come with dual batteries) but it's something to consider.
posted by trig at 9:54 AM on June 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

I am on Team Used ThinkPad. Lots of companies lease ThinkPads because they're easily supported workhorses. Lots of ThinkPads get sent back at the end of the lease, sold in lots, refurbished. I use this T440 for streaming and having so many tabs open in Firefox. It will still happily run Office and complex spreadsheets, but the older one I use instead of a tv needed to be replaced. My main computer is a T470 that is faster. I also bought a lifetime license for Office 2021 from StackSocial, via BoingBoing, 29.99, plus tax. Both have more battery life than I anticipated. Laptop batteries are a consumable so I always budget for that, at least mentally. Trig's specs and link are on target.
posted by theora55 at 10:20 AM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you go the refurbished route, report any issues you get ASAP. I'm in the same boat (following this closely), but that's because a refurbished HP Elitebook I bought has some sort of weird thing where attempting to use the mouse trackpad "presses a lot of keys" (there's a "which key is being pressed" utility that I used to confirm this). Even though turning off the trackpad and getting an external mouse works, I wish I'd returned it at the first sign while the warranty was still available. Also don't dismiss this battery stuff as unimportant -- a big reason to get a laptop and not a desktop is for portability, and you don't want to be looking for a plug in every classroom, cafe, and library cubicle, so you might want to plan on replacing the battery eventually. Wish I had more suggestions but hopefully hearing from someone who went down the same pathway will help you avoid the pitfalls.
posted by slidell at 11:06 AM on June 10, 2023

Another voice on Team Reconditioned ThinkPad here. The build quality is likely to be significantly better than any new $500 laptop, for one thing. Be sure that the keyboard is correct for your country.
posted by Hogshead at 1:29 PM on June 10, 2023

Chromebooks is a dead or dying genre and there's a bunch on Woot.com right now for as low as $40. I have one, and they're okay for typing, and light media use, but I doubt they can handle a large spreadsheet (whatever the limit is in Google sheets, I guess). (And I also have a desktop, a laptop, and a couple tablets...)

Lots of refurb laptops and notebooks on Woot.com, business lease returns, that are well below your budget limit.
posted by kschang at 1:38 PM on June 10, 2023

If they want you to get Office, get Office. Other word processors might be acceptable substitutes for Word, but there is no spreadsheet as good as Excel for professional use.
posted by lhauser at 6:55 PM on June 10, 2023

And StackSocial usually have someone offering MS Office 2021 for like $30-40.
posted by kschang at 8:05 PM on June 10, 2023

I recently bought an off-lease Dell laptop on Dell Refurbished. The prices may not look spectacular at first glance but they regularly have coupons for 50% off on specific models, so sub-$300 is easily achievable with plenty of RAM and storage. Looks like most have 8th-gen Intel CPUs so they're going to be supported by Windows 11 (earlier laptops are stuck on Windows 10, and won't get patches/security updates after 2025). Many have Windows Professional which don't have all the included adware and game clutter like Windows Home.

Caveats as someone else mentions: battery life isn't going to be great, but many of these models had excellent battery life to start with. They have unstylish separate trackpad buttons, not the "integrated" ones. And the display is matte and a little dim, a common problem for business-oriented products. The first laptop I got was clearly defective (half the keyboard didn't work) but amazingly, Dell responded to my email within a day with a prepaid shipping label and I was quickly refunded.
posted by meowzilla at 12:36 PM on June 11, 2023

FWIW, there is some cheap really bad laptops on Woot.com right now, one of those Dell Latitude's, at UNDER $100. (that's not a typo, less than a Benjamin) but it's only got 4GB RAM, based on a Pentium, and it's not even full HD. But it is cheap. And it is NOT upgradable to Win11?!

However, I recommend you upgrade your budget and look at some of these instead...
posted by kschang at 8:26 AM on June 13, 2023