Laptop for Wife: Need Reliabilty Without all the Bells and Whistles

[Route44]

I have done a lot of research and know the difference between consumer grade and the higher offerings, though some of the more recent lower offerings that have been reviewed have received good marks. I also know that I can get the same model at Staples or Best Buy as compared to building the same one (or close to it) online at the sights of HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. for less money.

This laptop will be for my wife who is a grade school teacher. She'll need it for taking back and forth to school when needed, but primarily for her home work space which is usually the kitchen table:

This is what she will use it for: Online access where she looks at her school website, school mailbox, emails, online research, school planning, Windows Office particularly Word, DVD/CD burning, and the occasional DVD viewing.

She doesn't game and no blue tooth needed, Basically she needs reliability and not bells and whistles.

There are a lot of manufactures to choose from and a boat load of models. I want at least a dual core chip.

What are the better manufactures? Toshiba a couple of years ago had difficulty fufilling parts. Is this true today? All manufactures have the basic offerings. I wouldn't get anywhere near a Dell Ispirion but they do have Latitudes that are way out of my range. Asus? HP?

Budget? My wife doesn't want to spend over $500 but I know better. If I can keep it around $700 I believe that is doable.

What do you guys think? Suggest?

 

[Archean]

I wouldn't bother looking at HPs (any time soon .... having own one 1125em Pavilion Series notebook) ..... the build quality is rubbish, although in general components were of good quality, but the chasis etc. is just not up to the mark. Dell's is a very good option but you have ruled that out, by the way I've used D600 for many many years, and have fond memories of it, it never failed me once

Asus is an interesting option, at which I've been looking at for a while, and may be if I have some spare money sometime in near future i'd trade off my HP with an roughly similar Asus notebook.

Here are some options for your consideration:

1. ASUS K42 Series K42F-A1 NoteBook
2. ASUS K50ID-X3 NoteBook
3. ASUS UL30 Series UL30A-X4 NoteBook

Hope that helps, regards.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Brand reliability will vary depending on who you ask. This is hardly conclusive evidence of HP being a crap brand, and I don't think their machines should be avoided per se, but: In mainstream reports by repair and warranty firms, HP regularly ranks toward the bottom of the top five PC manufacturers. So does Acer and its subsidiaries.

Meanwhile, Asus, Toshiba, Apple and Lenovo are usually somewhere toward the middle or top for reliability. Take that as you will.

We don't seem to have any decent sales in the Pricewatch section today (there usually isn't much on Sundays), but during the week there are often discounted Core i3 notebooks from Toshiba and others for well within your budget. I would keep an eye on that during the week: https://www.techspot.com/deals-hot.html