<p>For some reason my husband’s family has decided I am the computer expert; let me make this perfectly clear, I am not!! What I do well is research something to death, and spend way more time than is needed looking for the right, best, cheapest, item.</p>
<p>What my sister in law wants is a lightweight laptop top; as lightweight as she can get. She currently carries a 15.6" Dell to her appointments, she sells long term care, and finds it to big and heavy. She would like a smaller laptop to use just for appointments as she will use her current laptop at home only. I believe a Netbook would be too small and maybe to slow, although I have not been able to get out of her exactly what she does on the computer at these appointment. She keeps telling me she goes into her program and shows information, and I think I have figured out that this is done online, not an installed program, but I am not 100% sure.</p>
<p>My first suggestion was for her to go to a computer store and look at the screen size and see how small she can really go and still be able to read the screen. I really know very little about Netbooks other than there is not an optical drive and I thought they ran slow. Any opinions on Netbooks or other small computers in the 14" and smaller range? She has not interest in an Macbook or an iPad, I already tried that route!</p>
<p>I knew this was going to be difficult when she called me to ask if I would go with her to shop and I asked what size screen she currently was using. When I told her to measure diagonally across the screen, she didn’t know how to do that! When I explained, she then wanted to know if she should measure the black part :0 Hopefully someone at the computer store will give her some advice that will help at just a bit.</p>
<p>Has a 12 inch screen, you can get it with an I5 (or an I7 if you don’t mind spending the extra, or an I3 if you are cheap), and weighs less than 3 pounds. Around $1000.</p>
<p>I have an ASUS EEE PC netbook…the most powerful they make. It has a 10 inch screen and a 10 hour battery life. I LOVE it. It’s small enough and light enough to easily tote around. I don’t do “gaming” but it certainly does everything else.</p>
<p>I think you need to find out more about what she really needs for this functon to be certain but a netbook sounds like it’d be pretty ideal - very lightweight, small size, low cost, can browse the internet fine, and can run almost all Windows programs. The 10" screen size s/b okay but if it seems too small to show a client something then she can just increase the font size to make it easier to read.</p>
<p>If that won’t cut it for some reason then she s/b able to get a laptop with about a 12" screen, under 4 pounds, for under $500.</p>
<p>We bought a netbook 10 months ago and today H broke down and bought another laptop. We used the netbook to internet surf. I am a person with small fingers and I am a fairly adept typist. I found the keybook difficult to navigate, even for something like typing on facebook.</p>
<p>We are late 40’s, early 50’s and also found the screen too small. For your SIL, if she is selling long-term care insurance, I would think many of her potential clients would be getting to the “my arms aren’t long enough” reading stage. I would be concerned about screen size. I don’t think just setting the font bigger will solve the problem, especially if the screen shot is also showing graphics etc. I think she would want it to be as easy to view and navigate as possible. YMMV</p>
<p>emerald-Believe me, I have pushed the Macs; it’s just not happening! I am thinking that is a good thing as she can barely handle her PC as it is; if I throw her into a Mac, she will be calling me day and night with questions!</p>
<p>I also have a concern with her using a Netbook due to the screen size and her clients. That is why I told her she needed to play with the computers at the store and see if she is really going to be happy with a 10" screen. My SIL is in her early 60’s herself, so she is well aware of the difficulties with reading. I think she shouldn’t get smaller than a 13", but while she wants my help, she will do what she wants in the end.</p>
<p>Going from her 15.6" to ‘not smaller than 13"’ likely isn’t going to be much of an improvement in weight and bulk so if the 10"-11" range isn’t adequate then maybe she should just continue using what she currently has unless she just wants to replace it regardless.</p>
<p>We have a 10" Acer One that we love. It is our only ‘laptop’.
It lives on our first floor, living room and tv room. The HP desktop with big flat screen monitor lives in our upstairs office.</p>
<p>The Acer is absolutely fine for web surfing, email, ebaying, netflix checking, reading CC, etc. The speed is fine for these activities.
I doubt I would use it for a professional presentation for older folks with possible vision issues. Maybe one of the newer 12" ones would work for her.</p>
<p>I bought a netbook last year. I loved it while traveling due to the size. Now that I have an IPhone I don’t feel the need to bring a computer along when I travel. I also thought I would use it downstairs in my house. I thought it would work well if I was following a recipe off the internet. What I have found is that for the most part I would prefer to walk upstairs and use the larger screened laptop. The netbook is just a tad small for my 50 yr old eyes. I think she would regret buying a netbook for everyday use.</p>
<p>I have a similar model that I got at a best buy. mine is black. it’s kind of a netbook/laptop hybrid. it’s bigger then a netbook, smaller then a normal laptop. runs a full version of window s7. It’s less then 4 lbs, has a great screen, and is relatively inexpensive. Mine has a 9 hour battery, so that would be great for someone who needs it for business appointments. One thing with that model as well as the netbooks is they don’t have cd/dvd drives - I don’t know if she uses that or not. If she needs that you have to attach an external drive which are pretty cheap also.</p>