Cheap laptops - what to buy?
July 8, 2015 3:10 PM Subscribe
Macbook pro died, need a super cheap laptop stat.
So my laptop (macbook pro) died, I'm taking it to apple Saturday but realistically I won't be able to afford any repairs.
I'm a desperately poor grad student in a professional program. I have a year left. I was planning on using my laptop at least until I graduated and hopefully another year or two beyond that, so this really sucks. I don't have a job, living off of savings from working for several years.
I need the cheapest laptop possible. I will also consider tablet + external keyboard. Any money is too much, so I'm serious about the cheap part.
All I use it for is writing documents and surfing the web. Must have a usb (I walk or bike to school so I leave the computer at home and just take my usb). I'm going to have to give up netflix so watching videos isn't a concern. I use very little memory and store most stuff on a usb so even an 8 gb tablet I could make work.
I'm in financially desperate times so price is the most important. Apple is straight out. Haven't owned a windows computer in about a decade but use them at school.
No one I can ask for help. I have an older MBP but it's stuck on Tiger with its current specs and it has some other issues that make it a poor choice to upgrade. Current mac is 2010 MBP, old one is 2006.
Currently in the middle of my summer semester - it may be a lighter load for most but definitely not a light load for me. Renting a macbook air through computing center but 3 weeks is the limit.
Tl;dr: cheapest possible laptop/tablet with usb port for light but daily internet use. Usb is non-negotiable. Convince me either way on tablet vs laptop. I don't use any specialty programs.
So my laptop (macbook pro) died, I'm taking it to apple Saturday but realistically I won't be able to afford any repairs.
I'm a desperately poor grad student in a professional program. I have a year left. I was planning on using my laptop at least until I graduated and hopefully another year or two beyond that, so this really sucks. I don't have a job, living off of savings from working for several years.
I need the cheapest laptop possible. I will also consider tablet + external keyboard. Any money is too much, so I'm serious about the cheap part.
All I use it for is writing documents and surfing the web. Must have a usb (I walk or bike to school so I leave the computer at home and just take my usb). I'm going to have to give up netflix so watching videos isn't a concern. I use very little memory and store most stuff on a usb so even an 8 gb tablet I could make work.
I'm in financially desperate times so price is the most important. Apple is straight out. Haven't owned a windows computer in about a decade but use them at school.
No one I can ask for help. I have an older MBP but it's stuck on Tiger with its current specs and it has some other issues that make it a poor choice to upgrade. Current mac is 2010 MBP, old one is 2006.
Currently in the middle of my summer semester - it may be a lighter load for most but definitely not a light load for me. Renting a macbook air through computing center but 3 weeks is the limit.
Tl;dr: cheapest possible laptop/tablet with usb port for light but daily internet use. Usb is non-negotiable. Convince me either way on tablet vs laptop. I don't use any specialty programs.
Sent you a memail.
posted by deathpanels at 3:18 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by deathpanels at 3:18 PM on July 8, 2015
P.S. I don't think you can get a good enough tablet for working on for nearly as cheaply as an old laptop.
posted by General Malaise at 3:18 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by General Malaise at 3:18 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I use an Asus Chromebook and it must cost under US$200, with an Atom processor and 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD.
I also have a more powerful Asus Chromebox with 4GB RAM and an i3 chip. That would be more expensive since you would have to buy a monitor and a keyboard.
The Chromebook is pretty sweet, I must say. Google Docs is a great, basic productivity suite. The Chrome store even has a free Photoshop knockoff called Pixlr.
Getting a tablet and keyboard would probably cost more than a Chromebook.
posted by Nevin at 3:19 PM on July 8, 2015
I also have a more powerful Asus Chromebox with 4GB RAM and an i3 chip. That would be more expensive since you would have to buy a monitor and a keyboard.
The Chromebook is pretty sweet, I must say. Google Docs is a great, basic productivity suite. The Chrome store even has a free Photoshop knockoff called Pixlr.
Getting a tablet and keyboard would probably cost more than a Chromebook.
posted by Nevin at 3:19 PM on July 8, 2015
If it were my laptop that died I'd get a Stream 11 for something like this, just because I'd be trying to minimize changes to my "workflow" above and beyond my computer dying. Staying in the same form factor would do that for me, and staying with a "legacy" OS (as opposed to Chrome or Android) would help, too. The Stream is a nice mix of small/stripped-down enough that you won't try to do anything that's past its capabilities and able to do Real Computer things when you need it.
Chromebooks would probably work for this, too, but I haven't kept up with those.
posted by Polycarp at 3:19 PM on July 8, 2015
Chromebooks would probably work for this, too, but I haven't kept up with those.
posted by Polycarp at 3:19 PM on July 8, 2015
I've been happy with my Chromebook for the very light use requirements you describe. I have the small HP one. It's about a year and a half old at this point and is doing just fine.
posted by phunniemee at 3:24 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by phunniemee at 3:24 PM on July 8, 2015
Another vote for a Chromebook. I LOVE mine from Samsung. It's so efficient, so easy to work on, so light and easy to carry, and SO CHEAP.
posted by mostlymartha at 3:27 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mostlymartha at 3:27 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have one of these and with the addition of a microUSB to USB hub it could be serviceable for a year for web browsing and writing, assuming it doesn't break. In the ~$120 range, you can find low end refurb Chromebooks if you don't mind being limited to Google Docs for writing. ~$150 gets you a refurb Asus T100 tablet with keyboard. ~$200 gets you up to the cheap Asus/HP netbooks.
Check out thread as well. There's several of the used Lenovos that were recommended towards the bottom on Ebay now for around $100.
posted by Candleman at 3:31 PM on July 8, 2015
Check out thread as well. There's several of the used Lenovos that were recommended towards the bottom on Ebay now for around $100.
posted by Candleman at 3:31 PM on July 8, 2015
I'd also go Chromebook - I have this Asus one which I like quite a lot. But be aware that it's different as far as saving docs go - you'd probably be saving them all to the cloud/google drive and accessing them wherever you are. You can't use Microsoft Office or anything (though if you get emailed a word doc or something you can open it in google docs -- it sometimes messes up some formatting but is otherwise fine). So you'd dump the USB drive in favor of the cloud.
posted by brainmouse at 3:32 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by brainmouse at 3:32 PM on July 8, 2015
I'd go with a used/refurbished Thinkpad. They're sturdy.
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:58 PM on July 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:58 PM on July 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
I have a Chromebook that I got for 75 bucks used. It's good for light use, and you can jury rig it for linux. The decision to use Linux wasn't fanboy-dem, it's that I was a little spooked by having the chromebook entirely cloud based. With linux, it's not a brick if I can't get online.
posted by jpe at 4:19 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by jpe at 4:19 PM on July 8, 2015
Nthing Chromebook. I have the acer 15 inch one and I've been very happy with it.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:37 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:37 PM on July 8, 2015
Response by poster: Nickggully, It doesn't turn on at all, it just charges. I installed an update it had been nagging me about, turned it off and it doesn't turn on at all, doesn't make a sound. So I'd love to believe it would resurrect, but even if it can be saved it's probably going to cost me a lot.
To everyone, I do have reservations about only having access to cloud storage. I use and love google drive, but I make a lot of power points and the option to use powerpoint is important as slides can be limited at times. I'm liking the hp stream a lot - especially at it comes with a year of microsoft office which would get me through this year.
posted by Aranquis at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2015
To everyone, I do have reservations about only having access to cloud storage. I use and love google drive, but I make a lot of power points and the option to use powerpoint is important as slides can be limited at times. I'm liking the hp stream a lot - especially at it comes with a year of microsoft office which would get me through this year.
posted by Aranquis at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2015
One thing I'd warn you about is that low end windows machines can be veeeeeerrrry slow, and from stream reviews, it looks like that's the case. I got a low end windows AIO at the same time as my chromebook just so I could have a desktop/copy of office (I need to have a copy of Word for work) and it is painfully slow, whereas the chromebook boots instantly (sometimes I run out of memory and my tabs reload on the chromebook, but I can still get what I need to get done easily). Something to consider.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:51 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:51 PM on July 8, 2015
I got my mother a 12" samsung chromebook and it has been her primary machine for documents, photos, surfing, etc, and I think for those things it is on par with my macbook air.
posted by nickggully at 5:09 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by nickggully at 5:09 PM on July 8, 2015
Something nice you may not be aware of is that Office 365 is free to students attending qualifying schools.
posted by General Malaise at 5:53 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by General Malaise at 5:53 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Apple will diagnose the issue for free at the genius bar. I'd go there and find out what state the current machine is before i even tried to replace it.
posted by emptythought at 6:07 PM on July 8, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by emptythought at 6:07 PM on July 8, 2015 [6 favorites]
Do you have a backup drive that you could plug in and try booting your MacBook Pro off of? (instead of trying to boot off of the internal drive, which seems to have gotten hosed by the OS update)
posted by blueberry at 9:18 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by blueberry at 9:18 PM on July 8, 2015
To echo a few comments here:
- Don't get a tablet and keyboard. You need a work machine.
- Lenovo X2?? range are fantastic machines and you can get one on eBay for super cheap. I bought a brand new X220 on eBay 3 years ago for £400, still going strong. That same machine now can be bought for less than half that (refurbished with a warranty) and will last you 2 or 3 more years no problem.
posted by 0bvious at 12:32 AM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
- Don't get a tablet and keyboard. You need a work machine.
- Lenovo X2?? range are fantastic machines and you can get one on eBay for super cheap. I bought a brand new X220 on eBay 3 years ago for £400, still going strong. That same machine now can be bought for less than half that (refurbished with a warranty) and will last you 2 or 3 more years no problem.
posted by 0bvious at 12:32 AM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm on my second refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad and they are great machines. A bit heavy, but they have really nice keyboards and you can easily find them for about $200.00. My current one is a T420.
posted by Agave at 2:26 AM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Agave at 2:26 AM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another vote for a Chromebook. I got one for my wife, and I was so impressed, I bought another for myself. You can get a Windows laptop for a similar price, but unless you need something Windows specific, the Chromebook feels much much snappier. Add in insane battery life and no virus worries, and the Chromebook is perfect for your sort of usage. If you're worried about cloud storage, you can use flash drives, SD cards and external hard drives just like a WIndows laptop.
posted by salmacis at 8:17 AM on July 9, 2015
posted by salmacis at 8:17 AM on July 9, 2015
Response by poster: Just to update, the cost to repair my laptop is $800 so that's a no-go.
posted by Aranquis at 8:58 AM on July 11, 2015
posted by Aranquis at 8:58 AM on July 11, 2015
Did they say what the problem was? iFixit is a thoroughly excellent resource for the handy among us, and you might be able to fix it and get back to where you were for less than a bajillion dollars. Just an idea.
posted by sacramental excrementum at 10:47 PM on July 11, 2015
posted by sacramental excrementum at 10:47 PM on July 11, 2015
This was going to be my original suggestion, and hey, it's on sale again which is what i was going to say to wait a couple days for!
This is essentially the non detachable-into-tablet version with a slightly larger screen if that interests you more.
These are both hugely popular machines with tons of info online, and are generally the most well-liked budget machines that are under $200 on sale new regularly.
I checked lenovo outlet and a few other refurb gathering places or deal sites, and nothing is around for lower than that right now.
On preview, the very cheapest option might be one of these if you can find one listed with the keyboard dock. This is also a very decent laptop for the money, and has more storage than the asus models mentioned above. This is a solid option if you don't mind the size, and will be an all around upgrade in peformance with a larger display.
There's way nicer stuff out there for just a tiny bit more(like this, if you can find one listed with the keyboard and power brick), but if you're trying to go for the cheapest possible then everything i listed is a solid option.
posted by emptythought at 2:49 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is essentially the non detachable-into-tablet version with a slightly larger screen if that interests you more.
These are both hugely popular machines with tons of info online, and are generally the most well-liked budget machines that are under $200 on sale new regularly.
I checked lenovo outlet and a few other refurb gathering places or deal sites, and nothing is around for lower than that right now.
On preview, the very cheapest option might be one of these if you can find one listed with the keyboard dock. This is also a very decent laptop for the money, and has more storage than the asus models mentioned above. This is a solid option if you don't mind the size, and will be an all around upgrade in peformance with a larger display.
There's way nicer stuff out there for just a tiny bit more(like this, if you can find one listed with the keyboard and power brick), but if you're trying to go for the cheapest possible then everything i listed is a solid option.
posted by emptythought at 2:49 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
I've got a Dell Insprion with a Core2Duo, 4GB RAM and 160 GB regular hard drive* in my living room running Windows 10 that does its job pretty well (Internet and file serving), and I got it for under $50 not long ago.
* those are the lowest specs I can in conscience recommend
posted by General Malaise at 3:17 PM on July 8, 2015 [2 favorites]