OracleofWuffing
2011-12-02, 01:50 AM
So, a friend of mine who did a favor for me has come around to ask if I could do a favor for him. He wants to find a portable computer for a family member, and he really only wants it to be good enough to surf the internet and take school notes. He doesn't care much about the size of the device, and would like "one of those small computers Verizon used to sell," so I presume a Netbook.
The catch is, he wants me to stay around a $225 price point. A couple of months ago, that wouldn't be too much of a problem, but it seems that pretty much everyone is either dropping out of the cheap netbook market for tablets or trying to out-power the existing tablets. I'm certain other disasters have also lead to a general price increase in technology, as well.
What I've been able to dig up is a Toshiba Mini NB505 (http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/mini-notebook/NB500/NB505-N508BL), for $269.99. I mean, I could find other computers elsewhere for maybe $20 less, but mostly from brands and areas that I personally don't like.
As a follow-up offer, I'm going to show him an IdeaPad A1 Tablet (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=243&Code=22282MU¤t-category-id=1D93DC696842DCD16814BD79634CB472&tab=1) for $249. Thing is, I'm just providing it to show that it's there (and there was a 10% off deal for new buyers, apparently). I really don't know anything about Android, but looking at things, it has support for making and editing Microsoft Word files, you can throw files around on an SD Card, and it's got Internet capability.
Sure, those two don't really compare well- it basically comes down to either "Do you want to use Windows or Android?" "Do you want a physical keyboard or an on-screen keyboard?" and "Do you want a bigger screen or a smaller price?" Frankly, though, I've mostly ignored the Netbook and Tablet market, and was wondering if anyone had any further suggestions or advice to toss around. Is Android any good for typing documents? Well, I'd better rephrase that... Would someone who's more used to Windows Vista adapt easily to typing documents in Android?
Because I'm hunting this down for someone else, I don't want to go aftermarket/refurbished on this sort of thing, which is normally my go-to.
The catch is, he wants me to stay around a $225 price point. A couple of months ago, that wouldn't be too much of a problem, but it seems that pretty much everyone is either dropping out of the cheap netbook market for tablets or trying to out-power the existing tablets. I'm certain other disasters have also lead to a general price increase in technology, as well.
What I've been able to dig up is a Toshiba Mini NB505 (http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/mini-notebook/NB500/NB505-N508BL), for $269.99. I mean, I could find other computers elsewhere for maybe $20 less, but mostly from brands and areas that I personally don't like.
As a follow-up offer, I'm going to show him an IdeaPad A1 Tablet (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=243&Code=22282MU¤t-category-id=1D93DC696842DCD16814BD79634CB472&tab=1) for $249. Thing is, I'm just providing it to show that it's there (and there was a 10% off deal for new buyers, apparently). I really don't know anything about Android, but looking at things, it has support for making and editing Microsoft Word files, you can throw files around on an SD Card, and it's got Internet capability.
Sure, those two don't really compare well- it basically comes down to either "Do you want to use Windows or Android?" "Do you want a physical keyboard or an on-screen keyboard?" and "Do you want a bigger screen or a smaller price?" Frankly, though, I've mostly ignored the Netbook and Tablet market, and was wondering if anyone had any further suggestions or advice to toss around. Is Android any good for typing documents? Well, I'd better rephrase that... Would someone who's more used to Windows Vista adapt easily to typing documents in Android?
Because I'm hunting this down for someone else, I don't want to go aftermarket/refurbished on this sort of thing, which is normally my go-to.