What laptop should I get my wife from best buy under $500?

xDiVolatilX

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She is a very simple user. Mainly she'll use it for emailing for the daughters school work to teachers or principal, go through the twin 4tb my books for all her photos/videos media and social media basically. Does no gaming at all so I'm hoping I can get something from bestbuy for extremely cheap right? I just want it to be somewhat current with win 11 but low spec is more than fine right? Any suggestions? Crowd favorites?
 
I ordered her this. Had the highest specs for the lowest price plus I had 100 gift card so there's that
https://click.emailinfo2.bestbuy.co...4742cef2a33e3f02b32d03fd3183ef9a74935762c7c13
Had a thousand nearly 5 star reviews I guess It's "the one" lol
Can't complain for that price, even without the gift card. You're right that a basic laptop will do the trick here — the only way you could do better is to buy an open box or refurb, and not everyone is comfortable with that.
 
Can't complain for that price, even without the gift card. You're right that a basic laptop will do the trick here — the only way you could do better is to buy an open box or refurb, and not everyone is comfortable with that.

The only thing I worry about is the only 8GB of ram. Though it should be fine hopefully.

He can always upgrade the ram later on I hope.
 
Maybe a stupid question, but would a tablet or chromebook be considered versus a x86 windows machine ? For the workload at those price point it could be potentially a better experience. You pay (in $ and in "heavyness" for a lot of unused stuff) by running a full fledge windows machine, not the issue at that price point it was 7 years ago too, specially with SSD).

My parents doing something similar stopped used their Ubuntu PC completely over the years once they got their Ipads.
 
Can't complain for that price, even without the gift card. You're right that a basic laptop will do the trick here — the only way you could do better is to buy an open box or refurb, and not everyone is comfortable with that.
Alright I did good then! lol thanks! A thousand nearly 5-star reviews can't be wrong lol. The specs are so good for the sub 4 hundred dollar price point I'm still surprised lol
 
The only thing I worry about is the only 8GB of ram. Though it should be fine hopefully.

He can always upgrade the ram later on I hope.
Oh yeah, the 8GB of ram is more than enough for a non-gamer wife lol I am not going to insall anything like steam or battlenet or anything is %100 for her when I'm ready to get myself a gaming laptop It's not going to be sub 4 hundred dollars lol
It has the ability to be upgraded to 16gb even has the ability to install a stand-alone "graphics card", faster Wi-Fi (no need) up to 2tb NVMe or 2tb Sata SSD. The thing also has Bluetooth/wifi/ windows 11, an NVMe boot drive, touch screen, and a headphone jack lol
 
Maybe a stupid question, but would a tablet or chromebook be considered versus a x86 windows machine ? For the workload at those price point it could be potentially a better experience. You pay (in $ and in "heavyness" for a lot of unused stuff) by running a full fledge windows machine, not the issue at that price point it was 7 years ago too, specially with SSD).

My parents doing something similar stopped used their Ubuntu PC completely over the years once they got their Ipads.
Maybe It's just the power user in me that won't settle for a tablet or surface or pad or anything of that nature. I wanted actual real hardware that I am familiar with, like a real laptop. I know this thing is going to be very fast with a 10th gen i5 CPU and 256gb NVMe boot drive and 8GB or 2666 ddr4 ram along with a host of bells and whistles on a 1080p screen for 389.99 lol original price was supposedly 599.99 so I don't know I feel like I got a ton of laptop for my money for my wife she's prolly gonna flip and start going through all her media and take it with her. It's a nice Christmas gift. Can't wait till she unwraps it lol
 
I ended up returning the Dell - Inspiron 3511 lol
. I got her the Dell - Inspiron 2-in-1 14” FHD+ Touch Laptop – 12th Gen Intel Core i5 – 8GB Memory – 512GB SSD - Platinum Silver instead. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-i...b-ssd-platinum-silver/6504390.p?skuId=6504390
It is a "2 in 1" and it folds completely to be used as a touch screen tablet, or a normal full-blown laptop. It even comes with a 12th gen intel CPU and 512GB NVMe and the platinum silver color she will like much more than the business black. I think this laptop is ligher a bit also and has a backlit keyboard.
A nice few quality of life improvements for 200 more. With the 100 card I had i was able to get this for 500 plus tax which I'm very happy about. Gets great reviews and when I compare it to anything in this category this 2 in 1 laptop out specs them all. For a dell I'm actually surprised and impressed. It'll be delivered by the 12th of this month.
 
I got her this one
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6504390.p?skuId=6504390
She loves it. It folds complete into a tab it's fully touch screen and has a backlit keyboard. i5 a 512gb nvme 8gb ddr4 it's sleek and very fast.
I went over budget a couple bills it was on sale for like 679 or something last month but she is in love with it I'm glad I sprung for the better version.
 
IMHO, things open up quite a bit if you can go to $600. But, maybe if you also get away from BB. I bought (edit: actually, she paid for it, but with my suggestion) my daughter an awesome Lenovo Yoga 6 (direct) late last year, Ryzen 5500U, 16G, 512G SSD, 1920x1200 screen... out the door shipped with tax for <$600USD. It was a great deal (still is, IMHO).
 
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IMHO, things open up quite a bit if you can go to $600. But, maybe if you also get away from BB. I bought (edit: actually, she paid for it, but with my suggestion) my daughter an awesome Lenovo Yoga 6 (direct) late last year, Ryzen 5500U, 16G, 512G SSD, 1920x1200 screen... out the door shipped with tax for <$600USD. It was a great deal (still is, IMHO).
Those are good specs looks like a nice laptop. Yea the reason I went with the 2in1 is cause she's always on her phone, so I wanted to get her a device that served both purposes. It's a tablet & a laptop 2in1. The lid completely folds over, and it turns into a touchscreen tab for fast swiping and button pressing just like a phone while also primarily being a full blown all-purpose laptop for any type of general use. I wanted to impress her with the 2in1 feature and she really likes it. It sets it apart from a traditional laptop. I gotta admit, if i was in the market for a laptop, I wouldn't mind a 2in1. Although the specs would have to been amazing cause I'm a pretty hardcore casual gamer lmao
 
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