Laptop for my daughter, high-schooler?

[Pedrito]

My daughter (14 y.o. the next october) is going to high school this fall, and has asked for a laptop to use for study (different windows for word processing, PDFs, wiki, et al.) and leisure (mainly streaming of movies, and maybe some games).
I don't want to spend more than, say, 600 euros (less is best, if possible  )

I was thinking about something along these lines:
15" display, to keep it portable, although it won't be 1920*1080 (16" for HD is going over the €600 limit, and it becomes heavy)
Intel core I-5
8 gb RAM
1 tb storage, HDD

Your opinions, and some suggestions, please?

L.

[viper37]

Chromebook might be good, but they're not typical laptops.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebooks-vs-windows

Not terribly pricey, but limited as to what Android store can offer for apps.  It's closer to a tablet than a real computer, although Microsoft's new models using Windows S are quite similar.

If you find a laptop with the specs you posted at the price you want, imho it's very good.
Something like this:
http://www.dell.com/fr-fr/shop/ordinateurs-portables-dell/inspiron-15-5000/spd/inspiron-15-5567-laptop/cn55705
629 euros.  I'm guessing the price will be similar elsewhere in Europe.

I bought a Dell for my stepsisther and she really likes it.  I prefer Dell to HP, but Garbon&others reported having positive experience with HP, so it might have just been bad luck.

[mongers]

Chromebook might be good, but they're not typical laptops.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebooks-vs-windows

Not terribly pricey, but limited as to what Android store can offer for apps.  It's closer to a tablet than a real computer, although Microsoft's new models using Windows S are quite similar.
....

Chromebooks do seem a good idea for teenagers and also has the advantage of taking the buyer out of the software maintenance role.


edit:
I also agree with you about older Dells.

Oddly found one yesterday, forgotten about it, tried to get it working, something majorely broken inside, perhaps some of the i/o connectors to the MB. Probably due to having been left in a pile of junk for a couple of years.

Last time I'd used it the DVD drive was on the way out, barely running at X1 speed so dvds juddered on occasion and DVD/cd writing was a pain. Anyway decided to reinstall windows, found the original XP disk and got it running, low and behold the DVD drive has recovered to the point that it'll read/write at X8.

The Lan and Wi-Fi seem dead, as when I tried to enable them and load the drivers, they completely hung the Windows installation.

So the upshot is I have a working dell laptop that can play dvds and burn them, runs XP but has handily isolated itself from all network/internet connectivity, save sneaker's net. 

I may well stick a load of legacy software on it that I need from time to time and thus take the opportunity to re-organise myself/the other two/three computers, which are windows 10,7 and now that I don't need another XP perhaps some flavour of linux.

[Pedrito]

Thanks for the replies.

Do you think my proposal is overspecced for the use she will do? I'm a bit out of the loop regarding hardware specifications.

Chromebooks could be a good idea, and I was looking at something like the Surface hybrids, but they're way out of the budget.

L.

[Pedrito]

oh, and while I'm here:
I have a rather old laptop that I use mainly as backup or when I'm away for some days, that suddenly has stopped working.
I always use it connected to the power cord, because the battery doesn't keep up for more than half an hour, but the last time I tried to start it up, it simply gave no signs of life. Not a noise, not a single light on, except for the one on the battery charger.
Any idea about what happened?

L.

[viper37]

oh, and while I'm here:
I have a rather old laptop that I use mainly as backup or when I'm away for some days, that suddenly has stopped working.
I always use it connected to the power cord, because the battery doesn't keep up for more than half an hour, but the last time I tried to start it up, it simply gave no signs of life. Not a noise, not a single light on, except for the one on the battery charger.
Any idea about what happened?

L.

1) You're not over-speced, it's just allright.  Chromebooks should be cheaper than this though (1/2 the price) and for what she does, it will be enough.  If you absolutely need Microsoft Office, than Office Online is the way to go.

2) For some laptops, they simply will not work at all when the battery is totally drained, even if they're plugged in.  Try to find a cheap battery for your model.  In Canada, we have batdepot.ca, I'm sure there are equivalents in Europe.