What's a good entry-level laptop for my child?

[Michelle Haag]

My daughter is 14 and in need of a new computer. She loves art and digital art (big fan of Paint hahahaha) and of course browsing the web/Youtube. What are the best options out there right now? Bonus if I can order it online and if you have links to any good sales you've seen because I'm not rich haha.

 

[xandros9]

Alrighty, we got a LOT of choices.

I can't say what to get for sure but I would consider the following...

- Cost
Older computers go a lot farther than they used to these days, I could actually live with (and have, for a bit) a 2010 MacBook or 2008 ThinkPad T400 as a daily.

(except for gaming performance and you're gonna have to upgrade the RAM and add an SSD first, so that adds complexity and cost but an older high-end computer may be better built for not much of a performance hit. And like buying a used car, you're buying a computer that still has wear and tear to it)

- Features
Most any laptop from the last few years will handle what she wants to do. (save for bottom-of-the-bargain-bin PCs)

But I would consider a 2-in-1 with active pen support (I had a ThinkPad Yoga with this option, I know some others do like the Surface Book, but not off the top of my head)

Also maybe she would want a tablet, a la Surface Pro or Latitude 10?

- Longevity
I like the idea of an older or mid-range 2-in-1 for her, but it adds another point-of-failure and if she's the kind of person where phones jump off counters whenever she approaches, I'd just get an older ThinkPad or Dell Latitude because they tend to be more robust than their consumer counterparts and when things go wrong, repair is easier. (so no Surface Pro's)

Now that I got that out of the way, and its probably not the exact answer you wanted, I'll throw up some options of what I would get... although keep in mind they may or may not be taking what I just wrote into account.

Also, I would get a computer with minimum... 4 GB of RAM, 120 GB hard drive - SSD highly recommended. Figure out what kind of size she wants, there's a big gap between the small 12"-ers and the massive 17" desktop replacements.

USED:
Apple MacBook Pro (2011, 2012), maybe an Air
ThinkPad Yoga S1
...and there's countless more.

NEW:
HP Stream (although the 32 GB model is a short-sighted option storage-wise - still a great price though)
Acer Spin 1
Dell Inspiron 11 3000
ThinkPad E470
...same story here. I have no idea what price points we're playing with but yep.

Man how times have changed, when I was 14 I was saddled with this abomination!



And also apologies I kinda left this unfinished but I got to study now.