What computer to buy for the RV?

Not sure who you get your phone service through but SOME provide the ability for your Droid to serve as a WIFI hot spot with no additional charges. T Mobile is one who does this but coverage is not as good as a couple of the big boys offer in rural areas. Probably no difference in most metropolitan areas.

Depending on what your wants/needs are a tablet might be your best choice. As for t ed thering. Which droid and what phone service? Tethering is a good alternative for many

Agree with donn0128 that depending on your needs a tablet might be best. If you need Microsoft type of applications then look at the new Surface tablets.

My wife and I are both PC people, but we purchased an Mac I-pad about a year ago and use the WiFi hotspot on our HTC (AT&T) phone. It works well. We have internet access on the phone, but I like using a bigger screen, so the I-pad works great. Now, granted, we don't do spreadsheets, uploading and stuff like that on either the phone or the I-pad, but for on-the-road, camping, this works very well for us.

I hate tablets in lieu of a laptop with keyboard. I paid about $400 for my HP a while back and it has everything that is needed. it would be $300-350 now.
bumpy

How old is your laptop? Is it wifi capable (i.e. with built-in wifi card)? If not you could buy a USB wifi adapter. They are not expensive.

I have a grandfathered plan with Verizon and pay $20 per month (only when I need it) to turn my phone into a wifi hotspot.

There are several decent and perfectly sufficient laptops now in the $300-400 price range. We bought a Samsung.

As Janss said, see if your laptop will or can be adapted for wi fi. If not, I suggest getting an inexpensive laptop. I own a android based tablet that really works pretty well, but for me, I wouldn't want it to be my only way of accessing the internet while traveling in my TT. I prefer to carry my laptop as well as the tablet. But, that's because I use the laptop for photo work as well as financial stuff.

If you only want to surf the internet and take care of email, then a tablet may be all you need.

Good luck!

We have Verizon and the phone is the original Droid. My laptop does NOT have WiFi. That's why I'm thinking of tethering. What kind of speed do I get with that? I pay Verizon $25/mo for unlimited access on the phone.

What I'm doing now is only archiving my photos while on the road but I want to do email and surf the internet for info, mostly this forum.

I do spreadsheets constantly but probably none while on the road.

You can find an HP laptop with wi-fi at Walmart for less than $350. I also prefer a laptop. I have a Samsung that I bought at Best Buy. Small, lightweight.

I'd take a look at Wally World, Fry's, and Best Buy. Sometimes you find a good deal at Staples or Office Depot/Office Max as well.

If I were looking for a RV-based laptop, it might be more expensive, I'd definitely change out whatever hard disk came with it for a SSD. Solid state disks are a lot more vibration resistant than spinning rust platters.