Forum Discussion

AlmostBoatless's avatar
Jul 04, 2015

Decision time for newbies on laptops/mifi/phones

Would appreciate any advice and suggestions. The sticky on 'Cell phones and internet access' has been educational but we have a couple of questions and would love your input.

We are spending the winter in warmer climates in our 32' fiver. Three questions we would appreciate your advice on.

We will be purchasing 2 laptops, one slightly more powerful and one for surfing the net and the weather. I will be working some on the internet. We have a WD passport for backup. I have CDs for Quicken and MS Office 10. I will be transferring all pics, shortcuts, Quicken, Excel and Word info from an HP tower (I know, old school). The other laptop will be used for surfing the net and the weather, no gaming or need for alot of memory. He will replace an old Toshiba notebook. Any advice on brand or what to watch out for?

Second question is about internet access. It sounds like Verizon and a mifi - or jetpack, is the way we should go. We will be banking, email, storing and sharing pics and some work related internet if I get lucky. Which jetpack or mifi for internet access and when I go to the Verizon store, which questions should I ask and what to be wary of?

Last question is about our phones. I have a Droid mini on PagePlus (a reseller of Verizon) and it works great. DH has a tracphone and it needs replacing. He is better with a flipphone. We will probably need to go with unlimited access for me but hubby is very rarely on the phone and does not need much.

Would love any advice and suggestions from the experienced people on this wonderful forum! Thank you!
  • Nice to hear you're almost there. Did you find the right TV yet?

    Wi-Fi: As for the Jetpack, make sure it is compatible with 4G AND 3G. I've read others post that if there's not 4G lte signal, they're out of luck, although I have no first-hand knowledge on this and wonder if that information is correct.

    BestBuy also sells Verizon JetPacks. Not sure if they're less expensive or not. The new ones supposedly have way better battery life.

    Computers: We recently picked up a HP Pavilion with an i7 processor to replace an older laptop with an AMD processor. Haven't had the opportunity to play with it so don't know if it is a good choice or not. One possible problem is that it's a plastic case (heat issues? durability? Who knows).

    Windows 10 comes out later this month, in case that makes a difference in your time table. I've read that it might or might not have Office built in.

    MS Office (if you need that) now has a buy once version and a subscription-based/pay yearly version (Windows 365). Everyone on earth probably knew about this except me since, like the cleaning ladies, I don't do Windows.

    Phones: TracFone has been good for us. We have one CDMA phone and one GSM. The GSM picks up old analog signals so once in awhile, in rural areas, it gets a signal when the other phone doesn't.

    G-half is also saying he wants a Jack-Bauer-style flip phone. (Go figure).

    Happy shopping!

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