Has anyone bought a laptop computer recently?

[DarcyLongfellow]

I know tons of people were buying inexpensive laptops back in 2019 when the whole country suddenly went to distance learning. I was just wondering if anyone had bought one recently.

DD (12) is in her second year of virtual school. So far she's been sharing DH's Surface Pro, but he's ready to have his device back, so we need to buy DD her own computer.

I'd like to keep it under $500. It has to be able to run Microsoft Office, so I think it needs to be a regular laptop instead of a Chromebook. It needs to be portable (not a desktop). A touchscreen would be ideal, but not a necessity.

Thanks for any insight :-)

[picksthemusic]

I'd look at Costco. They tend to have really good deals on laptops, and their return policy is amazing.

[lucybrown]

Ditto Costco for the same reasons.

[bex1973]

We ordered some for my office & they're on about a 2 month back order We ordered Dell because we're a Dell campus.

[dochas]

I bought one before Covid, so not recent, but not in a mad rush either. I bought a lenovo. I had never had one before and it has turned out to be great. I didn't buy a top of the line model because I still like a desktop and had just upgraded that. The laptop was for my son to start using (and boy did that turn out well!). Anyway - it's still running great. We have not had any problems with it and we used it far more than I thought we would be. I did not get a touch screen and that hasn't been a problem at all for my now 11 year old. I guess we've had it close to 3 years and it performs as well as it did the day we got it. He had been using it every day for school and does light gaming on it. I don't know what brands Costco carries, but if they have lenovo I think their performance combined with Costco's return policy would be great. I got ours on sale at Walmart.

ETA: I paid about $330 for it. As I said, nowhere near top of the line but I can't deal with a slow computer AT ALL. I need multiple windows open and good speed. So with a higher budget I think you could definitely get one you'd be happy with.

[livinitup]

I have a Dell from work that is new and terrific. I also bought myself a new Lenovo for home and love that one, too.

Also, if you have a smart TV with a HDMI connection, you can buy a HDMI cable and connect the laptop to it as a second screen. I love doing that.

I am also a fan of a wireless mouse.

[Deleted]

Another vote for Costco. We got our most recent laptop from there. It is higher than your price range, but I know that they had plenty in the range of $500 as well. My only advice would be to not cheap out on the Processor and the RAM. I did that on my last laptop and it ended up being a total piece of crap.

[alicethellama]

We bought a Lenovo Thinkpad 3 from Costco last month for that same purpose, and have been happy with it. I think it was on sale for right around $500. It can’t run Windows.

[lucybrown]

Coming back to say I LOVE my Lenovo. It has consistently outperformed the Dell I had before. Highly recommend.