simple laptop solution for RV travel

[obie311]

I hope this is the right forum. I looked at Tech Issues but that seemed to concern more mechanical problems. I looked at Workamping but it didn't seem to have any traffic.

We're planning on staying away from home for at least three months this winter while our son house sits for us.

I have a powerful PC at home and my wife has a 5 y/o Macbook Air. I would prefer not to use her Macbook on the road and I'm looking for a simple 13"-15" laptop to use with a phone hotspot to pay bills and check emails and some simple browsing like trip planning, RV forums and craigslist.

I don't want to take photos, watch videos, post social media, or play games. Strictly admin type functions.

What's available out there without a lot of bloatware that meets this kind of specs? I've heard of Chromebooks but I don't know anything about them. I don't think I want a tablet as my eyes for reading aren't that great. I usually enlarge the font on the Macbook a Command + or two.

Thanks in advance for any sage advice you may supply.

[dedmiston]

Grit dog wrote:
Costco, get a cheap laptop. Brand new, in your budget, no issues, warranty, easy return if it has issues.

I was thinking the same thing. Costco is my personal IT dept.

[Grit_dog]

Costco, get a cheap laptop. Brand new, in your budget, no issues, warranty, easy return if it has issues.

[wa8yxm]

If all you want to do is surf the web, E-mail via WEB mail interfact. pay bills and such.. CHROMEBOOKS rule

If you need to run software "locally" like for exampal navigations software.. Or writing the great american novel. Chromebooks not the best choice.

But if all you do is world wide wait (WWW) stuf, they rule.

Advantage.
I have both a windows device and multile chromebooks... I use the Chromebooks fairly often on "Public"wi-fi... I've had attempts to infect them.. They attempt did not go well since it was directed at windows.. Units whent into constant restart loops.. Imanaged to get into Settings,,, advanced, POWER WASH and suddenly (well under 2 minutes) the unit was Brand new, no longer infected.. I logged into a protected wi-fi and all my installed apps. bookmarks and such started reloading.

Any files stored on the tiny memory were lost (I now do long term storage on removable media (Micro SD card) but due to the word "Tiny"not much was lost and all of that was backed up... via a different method. (Mostly some boilerplate responses for some facebook/forum posts asking for help with products I have figured out how to help with)

Re- Boilerlates.. Did one of those yesterday only had to talk the poor person through it since we were NOT on line but on radio... I "Store" solutions to common issues.. This one was not common.. but I once had it and recalled the "fix" (Cure)

[ktmrfs]

If you want basic look at a Chromebook. Many schools use them. Our grandkids had chromebooks during online classes last year and they did everything they needed to do including wifi/word processing/ email/ zoom video/ spreadsheets and lots of other apps. They are pretty affordable, come with most apps you need.

[MRC54]

I love my Chromebook. It has 100g internal storage, although I normally use the cloud (Google drive). Boots up instantly, no bloatware, no viruses.

This might be a good excuse to join Costco for a year ($60, I think). They offer 90 day full returns on electronics, allows you to try for an extended time. They also double the mfg warranty.

[obie311]

Thanks to all that have made on point suggestions so far.

My budget is <$400 hopefully if the machine hits my specs.

Just to reiterate the initial post:
I have a powerful PC at home and my wife has a 5 y/o Macbook Air. I would prefer not to use her Macbook on the road and I'm looking for a simple 13"-15" laptop to use with a phone hotspot to pay bills and check emails and some simple browsing like trip planning, RV forums and craigslist.

I don't want to take photos, watch videos, post social media, or play games. Strictly admin type functions.


I have a 128gb micro SD card in my phone so I've got the need for the occasional vacation snapshot or reference pics covered as well as my CD collection ripped down into 320 kbps MP3's for music.

[rexlion]

Chromebooks (and the other brands who offer similar) have no hard drive and use online "cloud" storage of all files. If that's ok for you, fine. I prefer having a hard drive to store my photos, documents and such on my own computer. Last November (around Nov. 10) I spotted an early black friday deal at Walmart for a Lenovo Ideapad 3 laptop for $149, so I grabbed one. It's basic with not a lot of memory, but it does fine for me.

I even challenged myself by making it a dual boot system with Linux Mint on a USB thumb drive, just to see if I could.

[valhalla360]

PartyOf Five wrote:
Agreed with above. If your budget is more than $400 I would look at a tablet or iPad for convenience based on the usage you described.

Any cheap laptop will do the trick.

Tablet versions of websites are often awkward. If there are forms to enter or other more complicated actions, the laptop is easier.

[spoon059]

obie311 wrote:
This sounds much like what I'm looking for. Silly question but do both models have 802 wifi? And if you can give me the actual model #'s or links I would appreciate it. How are the battery lives?

This is the 15.6". This model appears to be a refurb, mine was new from Target for the same price. It has IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wifi. Battery life is fantastic. I use it for a couple hours each evening for web browsing, forums, email, etc. It'll go several days without needing to be charged. Battery is full and says about 5 hours of use left. I prefer this for the full size keyboard for typing.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Chromebook-Resolution-Processor-CB315-3HT-C16B/dp/B091BGPL17

The smaller one has the same internet and basic features, just a smaller physical package. Its convenient for taking camping and we want to check email, search for restaurants or watch Netflix at night or something.

[fj12ryder]

FWIW I just bought a 17.3" screen HP laptop. It came with a 512 gig SSD, 12 gig of RAM for less than $530. I want the larger screen, I hate to have to squint to see details on a 10-12" screen. I do a lot of mapping and the large screen makes life a lot easier. It boots up and shuts down in seconds. 1920x1080 resolution. Minimum bloatware. Love it.

[theoldwizard1]

obie311 wrote:
... I'm looking for a simple 13"-15" laptop to use with a phone hotspot to pay bills and check emails and some simple browsing like trip planning, RV forums and craigslist.

A couple of items

Make sure it has Full HD resolution (1920x1080) and IPS
16GB of memory
SSD is worth the money

Your big problem will be bloatware. The last 4 or 5 laptops I have set up for myself and friends, the first thing I did was record the MicroSoft License Key, scrape the disk (including factory recovery partitions) and install the MicroSoft Retail version of Windows 10.

Huge performance difference.

(Not for everyone, but I did my own 8GB - 16GB and SSD upgrades. I saved a lot of money and used the old hard drive as an external HD for backup !)

[Cummins12V98]

dieseltruckdriver wrote:

bgum wrote:
Once you get into laptops you also become vulnerable to viruses.

Not any more than a desktop if you take the same precautions. Also not with Chromebooks.

Never added an anti virus to a Mac product and never had a virus.

[agesilaus]

bgum wrote:
Once you get into laptops you also become vulnerable to viruses.

Not any more true than a desktop, they use processors from the same famly after all. Just use an antivirus and practice safe computing. Do not open unexpected emails, don't click on unknown links,stay off dangerous sites. Neither your bank nor Microsoft will not send you emails asking for private data. And if it seems to be too good to be true, it almost always is.

[dieseltruckdriv]

bgum wrote:
Once you get into laptops you also become vulnerable to viruses.

Not any more than a desktop if you take the same precautions. Also not with Chromebooks.