Not advice as such, just my opinion -
I'm always behind the times when it comes to IT so I bought a PC about 12 years ago - just when laptops had started to appear and changed to a laptop just over a year ago - just as the laptop market had peaked and on the way down.
I thought I would miss having a PC - but I didn't - and find my laptop is just as good as the PC in every way, plus it is more flexible to move around the house.
I don't tend to take the laptop out of the house - my phone is good enough for what use I need.
Boggers is probably right that a phone is probably all most people need these days, so the only obvious advantage I can think about having a laptop is the screen size, if you do any amount of work and/or viewing on it.
Obviously it depends what you want from the laptop that defines the price, I've got loads of software stuff on mine, which I don't even know what they do, let alone ever use them - but I've no doubt the younger generation probably use every day and consider essential components for social media and such like.
I found that one add on that I didn't originally budget for was the Microsoft Home and Office package that I probably paid way to much for at the time but the shop did do whatever it is they had to do, to set it all up for me on the laptop.
I suggest that if you needed things like word and excel that you do your homework first and get a much better deal than what I did.
Are you intending your children to use the laptop? I ask because these days I see loads of children using/playing on the smaller version of laptops - tablets, which I think you can pick up these days quite cheaply.
I'm a bit old school and think that constant use for the little ones can't be doing their eyes any good nor is helping them to learn to communicate and react with others better but what does an old dinosaur like me know.
I tend to think - certainly among the people I'm involved with due to my work - that they tend to give their kids a pad simply to shut them up and is an easy way out of parenting, rather than interacting and building bonds through teaching and play and helping them to develop the lifelong social skills with they will need.
Perhaps I'm wrong though and maybe in thirty or forty years time everything is done over the internet rather than face to face.
Anyway back to the point, if you go the laptop route, I think you can get a good deal if you simply work out what you want it to do and find one that can do that but is not necessarily a brand new 'range'. What I mean by that is maybe you can pick one up in the sale because that particular model is being replaced by a more up to date all singing, dancing model - but which you probably don't need all the new 'fancy' upgraded stuff anyway.
Perhaps also is look to buy one in the coming sales - Black Friday being next Saturday I believe - or others around Christmas time.
Hope all this helps in some way.
Home
