laptop recommendation

[CableDude]

Primary use is email, social media, youtube and online banking. Not looking to spend more than $400 if possible.

Thanks.

[Philip]

Hello

If you are going to carry it around, I'd recommend some of the light ultrabooks in the 14" range, we have 4 Lenovos that we use in my family, mostly Yoga and IdeaPads. I do like Lenovo and Dell brands.

For a budget laptop, I'd still look for decent processor/ram/ssd, something like those specs:
Processor: Intel i5/i7, or AMD Ryzen 3/5/7 (7nm technology, great performance and power-efficient processors) with over 6k Passmark scode (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html)
RAM: 8GB
SSD: 256 or 512GB

Here is a decent one for $500, but not spectacular, and a bit large for my taste at 15.6" : https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-x5...?skuId=6420333

Walmart has some decently priced laptops sometimes, now there are a lot of "Back to School" sales going around. If not new, I've also bought slightly used/refurbished laptops from fleabay too. I will look around and post a link if I find something good.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Lenovo is my "go to" brand for our clients. However..business class models only, and..that takes it well out of your price range.
If I had to buy a laptop for myself and I had to keep the budget that low...I'd shop the Lenovo factory outlet and find a firesale on a refurb, quality Thinkpad T or X series.

[CableDude]

Walmart has some decently priced laptops sometimes, now there are a lot of "Back to School" sales going around.

That's what I did the last time (at least I could see what I was getting into). I suppose I could go to a walmart store, but they way things are now.....

[CableDude]

How much memory does Windows 10 need to run smoothly? I have no experience with the latest OS.

[CableDude]

Lenovo is my "go to" brand for our clients. However..business class models only, and..that takes it well out of your price range.
If I had to buy a laptop for myself and I had to keep the budget that low...I'd shop the Lenovo factory outlet and find a firesale on a refurb, quality Thinkpad T or X series.

Looking.

[Philip]

8 GB is enough for a laptop to run Windows 10 smoothly. I wouldn't buy 4 GB models. Oh, and when I mentioned Walmart I meant their online store.

[YARDofSTUF]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-x5...?skuId=6420333

Thats 100 bucks over your budget but its decent.

In the 400 dollar range everything is old CPUs or Celerons. Even for a little **** box for watching videos I'd want an ssd and like Philip said you want 8 GB of ram.

[CableDude]

8 GB is enough for a laptop to run Windows 10 smoothly.

As I thought.

[CableDude]

In the 400 dollar range everything is old CPUs or Celerons.

True.

[YeOldeStonecat]

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/outletu...L/p/20R9X001US

[YeOldeStonecat]

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/outletu...I/p/81NC0014US

[l1991]

I can really recommend you Lenovo as well. I have my laptop over 7 years and it still works absolutely fine. The only disadvantage is that it is a little bit big and heavy, so it’s not that comfortable to carry it around. But my next buy will be definitely a Lenovo, too.

[nightowl]

Lenovo, Dell, ASUS in that order

[l1991]

If you really want to invest properly I recommend MacBooks, they will serve you long enough. Here is an article which covers everything you need to know about them and which one will fit your expections perfectly. It is in German, however, it can be translated easily. [link removed by admin]