Any decent lap tops for $200.00 or less?

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THORROMIG

THORROMIG

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My tenant asked me what he could buy new for $200.00 or less on a lap top. I personally know nothing about lap tops. Never owned one and no interest in one for myself. Any help would be appreciated please.


Dale
 
Look at Chromebooks. Regardless, any new laptop at that price point will have a crappy dim display with crummy resolution. A real joy to use - NOT!
 
$200 buys a junk Microsoft PC and a dead Apple Mac.
For surfing, email and everyday stuff, Chromebooks are king.

Costco has great prices and guarantees; their selection changes all the time.
I think $299 is the best they have on line right now.

Here is a nice Asus from Amazon. Asus is the best quality per price of any computers. Refurbs are generally even cheaper.
Asus Chromebook

Remember, an ultra-cheap computer will be nothing but trouble. It won't perform, the screen will be terrible and it won't last.
Good luck.
 
For $200, you really have to know your laptops and pick up a used one on eBay. It's surprising how some of them hold their value. I'm going to dump my Surface Pro 5 when the Surface Pro 8 comes out. I don't think it will cost me that much to move up once I factor in getting rid of the old one. I just bumped into a guy who has an old laptop running Windows 95! It's over 20 years old. It's like those old Novell servers you'd find running in a closet that's been up for years but everyone forgot about it.
 
My advice is not to give laptop buying advice to your tenant, since you admit you know nothing about laptops.

What will you say when they come back to you for advice for what YOU recommended?
 
I had to spend around $525 to get a pretty decent Windows laptop. As others have said, a Chromebook is in the $200 range. Did your neighbor say what he was going to use this laptop for?
 
$200 refurbished laptops have always treated me well for general web browsing, email, etc. It's been two years or so since I've bought one. I'd probably go chromebook now.
 
For that price, buy a used HP Elitebook. They were generally treated well, and came off lease in good shape. I paid $150 for my 8440p, in great shape. Throw a cheap SSD in it, minimum 4gb of ram, and you'll be off to the races.

I use an 8730W at home that I think I paid $250 for, and it's treated me amazingly well over the years.
 
https://brickseek.com/walmart-inventory-checker?sku=295012351


HP 14" Laptop, AMD Ryzen 3 3200U, 4GB SDRAM, 128GB SSD, Whisper Silver, 14-dk0028wm

$184

Your welcome
thumbsup2.gif



Dave
 
Not new, but I am sure you can find a quality used one.

Cheap Chromebooks suck, Celeron processors, 2 GB ram and 1366x768 displays make for a miserable computing experience.
 
Originally Posted by BAJA_05
I personally know nothing about lap tops. Never owned one and no interest in one for myself. Any help would be appreciated please.


Dale


What do you want to do with a "laptop"? Do you have any software or particular use in mind? Are you ok with it not storing any excessive amount of files like photos or video? Are you planning to keep another desktop around in addition to the laptop?

Without knowing this we can't really recommend anything for you.
 
Originally Posted by Oildudeny
You may find a halfway decent chromebook at $200.. Check out the new kindle fire hd10. A lot of machine for the price.

FIRE HD 10


Stay away from the Kindle Fire anything. This is an advice from someone who knows their quality vs a real tablet, and a firmware engineer on wireless device. Stay far away unless it is free.

During Black Friday you might be able to score a decently cheap laptop from Lenovo Ideapad 300 series, nothing fancy but good enough for my mom to browse web on. I got lucky 2 years ago and got her an i3 with 4GB DDR and 512GB HDD and a 17" display (no longer available) for around $330 or so. These days you can probably get a 15" display similar spec one for $330, it is not the best but it is heck of a deal for something usable for a few years.

$200 means used lease return with very short warranty, or something with design problem like the Walmart one (single channel DDR, cooling issue that throttle your machine, questionable plastic hinges or display quality).
 
Last edited:
My fire tablet works flawlessly, to check email.. Skype.. Go on few websites surf the web. I don't need a $5,6,700 machine.
 
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