Laptop recommendation?

i5-6200U CPU was launched at the end of 2015, but yes, it is still a dinosaur.

I guess they kept the E-Series along for a while, it was definitely 2010. I remember when I got it, it was so much sleeker than the D630 it replaced.
 
We have 2 different Lenovo computers. Both have been perfect. One from Micro Center, the other (newest) from Staples who has a new sale starting every Sunday. Let us know which computer you buy. Thank you. Irishman
 
I have an Asus that has an i7-8750-H cpu with a 10,027 CPU mark. Its rank is 801 so apparently there are 800 better choices out of however many thousands available. Its CPU value, whatever that is, is 25.38.
 
People overlook the screen quality. When you buy any Apple laptop, you get a good display. Most Windows based laptops have a crappy display. I have a Asus with an OLED screen and it’s stunning. I will never buy a laptop with a crappy display. $630 @ Microcenter gets you a nice one. https://www.microcenter.com/product/650394/asus-vivobook-15-oled-156-laptop-computer-black
and 11th gen or newer Intel CPU is a good choice now, with YouTube wanting to push higher resolution videos from VP9 to AV1, I don't think any current AMD laptop chips support full hardware decoding of AV1.
 
Daughter really needs a new laptop, to say it's laggy is an understatement. Some very low cost machine that we bought 5 years ago? says 4GB of RAM and 500GB drive, I'm sure it's not SSD. 100GB is in use, so, while I think a 256GB SSD would work, maybe the extra coin for a 512 is worthwhile. ?

I found this Dell Latitude E5470 on Tigerdirect, with 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, seems ok to me for $309? but I don't know if it'll play video games? Minecraft, Team Fortress, and Crossout (I guess the latter two are not what she plays much of, but she mentioned them). 14" screen seems about the right size. But is it a good computer for her? Says integrated graphics, so, I'm thinking it might not have the firepower to play video games: but TBH, while I'd spend $20 for a better video card, she does indeed have better things to do than playing games...

I just want something she can use for school work, that might last 3 or more years, and maybe get her towards college. If she needs a better laptop for college, so be it, we'll buy another one (but I don't think she is planning on graphic arts nor engineering, nor is she much of a gamer). She has some interest in learning some basic programming, but her current computer is such a turd that it can barely run the Arduino tool (and I can't give her my worn out laptop).

As to budget, free is always the preferred number... but I'm willing to spend $300 or so, since, nothing's ever free.
Whatever you do stay away from Windows 11 just upgrade what you have, it's not that hard or expensive definitely in your price range,
Start here; https://www.crucial.com/ I have installed many SSD drives and added more memory from Crucial and the machines were much faster and more fun to use. Windows 11 is awful keep what you have or buy a refurb windows 10 machine. https://www.crucial.com/upgrades
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Jeffkeryk recommends the Chromebook and he seems to be a tech savvy guy with lots of computer choices. It might not be what the OP needs but I would look closely and think carefully about that decision.
 
and 11th gen or newer Intel CPU is a good choice now, with YouTube wanting to push higher resolution videos from VP9 to AV1, I don't think any current AMD laptop chips support full hardware decoding of AV1.
AMD 6000 CPU’s (or APU’s as they call them) have hardware AV1 decoding.

People overlook the screen quality. When you buy any Apple laptop, you get a good display. Most Windows based laptops have a crappy display. I have a Asus with an OLED screen and it’s stunning. I will never buy a laptop with a crappy display. $630 @ Microcenter gets you a nice one. https://www.microcenter.com/product/650394/asus-vivobook-15-oled-156-laptop-computer-black
This, I’d like it a million more times if I could.

That being said, you’d have to pry my 2017 MacBook Pro (non-touch bar) from my hands, and does just fine with some light gaming and a tab or 5 open in safari on its 8Gb of ram and dual core “Kaby Lake” Intel i5.
 
I have an Asus that has an i7-8750-H cpu with a 10,027 CPU mark. Its rank is 801 so apparently there are 800 better choices out of however many thousands available. Its CPU value, whatever that is, is 25.38.
Does this only matter when gaming? I have never pushed a CPU - even old dual core Pentiums (on one now)
If my ram is 4gig and background stuff shut down. I am responsive and cranking. Running Norton.
 
Daughter really needs a new laptop, to say it's laggy is an understatement. Some very low cost machine that we bought 5 years ago? says 4GB of RAM and 500GB drive, I'm sure it's not SSD. 100GB is in use, so, while I think a 256GB SSD would work, maybe the extra coin for a 512 is worthwhile. ?

As to budget, free is always the preferred number... but I'm willing to spend $300 or so, since, nothing's ever free.
Wife wants one since she is retiring and I am on the PC. I said we should set up another PC :)

Looking for a couple month the Lenovo has a great Flex 14" with a Pentium i5 SSD and 8 or 16g ram.
It was on sale for under $400 around January at STAPLES. But it has been back to a high retail discounted price lately of well over $500 on a $749 dollar retail tag. I should have grabbed in in January.

As far as laggy - most times it's piled up junk software and files slowing thing down.
2 year ago the W10 upgrade file was churning and killing me. I would try cleaning the thing up. I know Garmin GPS software always spying on our PC I got rid of that program Ter and dozens of other that had tro go. Now I need to perform a Win10 upgrade to support Chrome and I cant :( :)

Daughter should not be "gaming" she has more important stuff to do. But social media is likely worse!

 
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Does this only matter when gaming? I have never pushed a CPU - even old dual core Pentiums (on one now)
If my ram is 4gig and background stuff shut down. I am responsive and cranking. Running Norton.
I don't have any idea. I don't do any gaming other than the LA Times daily crossword and WordHurdle which aren't any power drain challenge at all. I got it for my proofreading/editing business as it is large enough to display two manuscripts side by side. Other than insane fan noise at times it is great.
 
I have a Acer Chromebook and love it. I have had it for about three years with no issues.. It does what I need it to do....
I have a 4 y.o. Acer Laptop with a i3 and it has been perfect so far. Is quiet, quick and has a great battery life. Like all day if the screen is set to shut off after 10 minute of non use. Get a memory upgrade and all is well.
 
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If you do a clean install which does wonders while also swapping the ssd it'll transform it, did that to my old hp laptop with a 500gb drive and 4gb of ram with a celeron. The hard drive was always at 100% for a good 10+ minutes after start up and tons of preinstalled junk programs were also hogging the ram and cpu. My old lenovo work computer also ran like new after an ssd upgrade alone. But ram was upgraded for work programs and a new cooler on the cpu but i think a cleaning and repaste would've fixed it as it had neither done before.
 
AMD 6000 CPU’s (or APU’s as they call them) have hardware AV1 decoding.
They do but I've only seen them used in desktop replacement class laptops with dedicated GPUs, I presume the OP wants a regular laptop not a power hungry gaming unit. They don't really seem to be very available in consumer laptops.
 
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