500 usd budget for general purpose computer

[moijk]

My spouse can do most but not all on her tablet. She wants a computer for writing and the other stuff a woman without computer interest use them for. Quite light weight and good battery life is plus. Any ideas? new or old (used)

[ajkula66]

I'd say X220 would fit the bill...

[brchan]

An X220 tablet or X201 tablet would also be a good option (assuming her "tablet" is an ipad or android device)

[pianowizard]

An X220 tablet or X201 tablet would also be a good option (assuming her "tablet" is an ipad or android device)

These are super heavy and bulky. My recommendation is to get a hybrid tablet that runs Windows 8/8.1, as opposed to Windows RT. Many of them are also quite heavy, but a few are almost as light as the iPads or Android tablets. The lightest (and cheapest) that I know of is the Asus T100TA: 558 grams with the keyboard detached, 1089 grams with the keyboard attached.

[ZaZ]

The Dell Venue 11 Pro might worth a look as well. You could kill two birds with one stone if you get one of the keyboard docks. The Venue can be had quite inexpensively in the Dell Outlet if you can wait for coupons.

[mikemex]

X300. It's large enough to work comfortably on for extended periods of time. I've had X31, X60, X61, X200 and now an X220 and I can assure you that while portability is nice, you wouldn't like a small machine like this to be your main system. For writing, doing Internet stuff and the like, an X300 is more than enough and it's pretty portable still. It even has a DVD drive for movie watching. My sister has one and the only thing she complains about is large picture editing. Other than that, nothing but love for it.

And don't forget the administrative advantage: since it's so cheap, if it breaks you just get another!

[TTY]

Hallo,

here is a new Lenovo Flex 10.1" HD Touch with what they call Nordic keyboard:

https://www.mpx.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=817326

Its max. RAM capacity is only 4 GB, though.

Personally, i would prefer a screen larger than 12.5". If a 15.6" model isn't too large, here's a B590 with what they call a Nordic keyboard, it's a demo unit:

https://www.mpx.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=824945