Recommendations for a mom laptop

[Creole Ned]

I'm getting me mom a laptop for Christmas so she can finally see the scary world of the Internet for herself and am mulling over the best combo of price/performance. Her needs will be fairly simple, mostly web surfing, e-mail and less Unreal Tournament 3 and other forms of virtual decapitation. I've decided on a laptop over a desktop because it'll be easier to setup a laptop in her place and just move it around. I could be persuaded to get her a desktop instead, though.

I'm shooting for a price range with an upper limit of about $700 or so CDN but can go a bit higher if needed. I'd really like to avoid getting something with Intel integrated graphics but if it provides decent performance while running Vista Home and surfing, it will probably do. Since mom has no frame of reference, what might seem less than snappy to me could be ducky to her.

Any thoughts on brands, features and what to look for/avoid? She'll be connecting over a DSL line and if it's with the laptop, it will likely be through a wireless connection. All tips and advice welcome!

[Kermit]

Go Dell, so if it breaks, she call call them and not use the family PC support network.

[Q]

I've had very good luck with Dell over the years. Really good prices and amazing support. If anything breaks during the warranty period, they will fix it very quicky.

[bridude]

Go Dell, so if it breaks, she call call them and not use the family PC support network.

amen

[Creole Ned]

Yeah, considering there's a 90 minute ferry ride between me and my mom's place, not to mention about another 90 minutes of driving on top of that, having good support will be, well, good.

The Canadian Dell site (http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/results.aspx/notebooks?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn) seems to have a more limited selection that the U.S. one.

[F7]

I recommend you talk to Shadowrat. His help in my laptop search has been invaluable.

[Shadowrat]

I say you get the inspiron 15. It's a good general purpose machine with a full size keyboard and reasonable resolution. My dad has been really happy with his inspiron for a long time.

get the warranty. Dell warranties do not disappoint.

Then go to crucial.com and buy some ram so you get the 3 gig you want. it's way cheaper there than choosing the dell upgrade.

[Creole Ned]

Any tips or pitfalls to avoid regarding a wireless setup? I've always been wired, myself.

[Kermit]

No, you will be fine. I think the ones that we talked about in IRC come with an internal G standard. You can probably upgrade to N, but she's not going to be doing any file transfers, so G is already faster than the intarweb pipe to the house. Make sure you set up her router though, so it's WPA encrypted.

[LogRoller]

we got my mom a macbook

it is super easy to use and she loves it to death

i totally recommend it even though it costs more just because of the user interface

edit: refirb for 850

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB402LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw

[Admiral]

Thank you LogRoller by starting the "GO MAC!" sentiment here. My mother uses Windows at work, but when I turned my old Powerbook G4 (Mac) over to her, she had no issues and was able to figure it all out.

Go for the MacBook. :)

[Creole Ned]

The cheapest Macbook is well outside of my budget ($900 CDN for a refurb). Blame Steve Jobs.

[Creole Ned]

The mom laptop has been ordered (Dell Inspiron), so now I'm looking for some mom software. Any decent puzzle game bundles or other apps one might recommend? She is a complete computer novice and ain't going to be playing a lot of Quake 4, I reckon.

[Tai]

peggle! :)

[Kermit]

I hate to say it and sound like a cheapskate, but for the little puzzle type games, I think you are better off just putting links in her favorites to good puzzle websites.

[Creole Ned]

Yeah, that's actually a good idea. Just a link to popcap.com would keep a lot of people entertained for a good long while.

[Reaver]

PopCap! Mumbo Jumbo has a few good ones too. Also, don't forget the indispensible add on peripheral every mother wants for this christmas! The Fu-Fme interactive hardware accessory! Now you don't have to log off to get off!

[Creole Ned]

ew

ew ew ew ew ew ew

Repeat 10 million billion times.

[Reaver]

Hey, Mister Selfish! Your mom is a sexual creature with wants and needs! Why should she be denied sheet ripping, gushing O's??

[Kermit]

I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

And now I'm positive I don't want to.

[Reaver]

Ask Log about it. He has one.

[Q]

I think Reaper needs to be banned for the images he's creating.

[Creole Ned]

As soon as Reaper registers, I will consider a ban!

[Q]

s/Reaper/Reaver