Hi, If you don't include the 10 inch netbooks in your search, they are not really good enough for serious work, then almost any 15 inch laptop will be more than good enough for office and web work.
The
cache is an area in the processor where often used code is held, to use it more quickly.
4 way processing probably means a quad-core processor, this is really for the highest performance games pc's where high speeds and two and three screens are used, again not very relevant for what you mentioned.
Much more important to look out for Office software, which is generally not installed on new pc's, but some makers do 'give away' the starter edition of
Microsoft Office. That includes
Word & Excel.
It could be the most used software you would need, and the popular version of 'Office' is 'Home and student', the details are all on Microsoft's web site.
Many people do use the free Office package
Libre Office, which will do almost exactly the same, and can open and save files in the new Microsoft formats. ( ie, .docx and xlsx.) That one can be downloaded and used for free, but
Microsoft Office costs 'real' money, and for university students there is a discount on Microsoft Office software, I believe it used to be 66% or so.
The
Home premium reference is the normal version of Windows 7, the next version up is 'Professional', which gives a few more options, but costs much more. I don't consider it worth the extra outlay.
I use
Windows 7 Home Premium with
Office Home and student, and it does all I need.
It may be important to have
Microsoft Powerpoint installed, in which case it will be necessary to install
Office professional instead of
Home premium version.
For web surfing,
Windows includes Internet Explorer, and other browser's are free to download and use.
Any modern PC will be easily able to do all you need.
All laptops are ready to connect to the 'net, using wireless or direct cable connections.
In the UK a suitable laptop costs around £325, so that's just over $500.
This
Techspot site keeps very up to date details about laptops, good unbiased information which would be worth reading.
https://www.techspot.com/guides/536-buying-laptop/page6.html
